"Good afternoon, good evening and good night"

I have often blogged about the phenomenon of eerier coincidences, but today I was convinced that, for the last two days, I've been squarely trapped in "The Truman Show".

Not only is Sydney's CBD, and many suburbs, almost littered with giant posters of a leering Jim Carrey (promoting his new movie "The Yes Man"), but I'm now convinced I'm being followed by a small Truman-esque group of professional actors and extras - or perhaps spies and Internet stalkers?

Yesterday, my housemate and I had some time to kill while waiting for his car to be returned from its regular wheel alignment. We had intended to travel into the city by train but, when we arrived at the station, the next fast country service to Central wasn't for another 48 minutes. We realised that, with travelling time in both directions, our window of opportunity for, umm, window shopping (not to mention the important stuff, like collecting two weeks' worth of my new comics, books and magazines) would be minimal, and we went to Blacktown instead.

On our train was a rather portly, visually-impaired man in his early 40s. He had long dreadlocks - and a guide dog (a typically diligent and contented labrador). Now, I did think at the time that the guy's hairstyle was distinctive. It's certainly not a common style to see on anyone over the age of about 30 in Penrith, but this guy didn't fit the mould for any number of reasons. Vive la difference, and IDIC*, and all that.

However, we passed this guy several times in the Westfield shopping centre at Blacktown, again when he was eating lunch in a restaurant and, sure enough, later that afternoon, he was on our train back home again.

But today: I went into the CBD for my second attempt to collect my standing order of comics, etc, from Kings Comics. Firstly, I had exactly 48 minutes to wait for the train. Spooky enough. When I arrived at Central station, who was coming up the ramp, presumably to catch a train? The guy with the dreadlocks and the guide dog!

Surrounded by Jim Carrey posters at every turn, I ended up passing two other people, in separate sidewalk cafes, who'd been on my train that morning. With comics in hand, I quickly hurried back to the station, where the next train wasn't due for... 48 minutes.

I think I'm going to start checking the sky over Penrith for signs of a secret entrance.

* IDIC - "Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations" - Spock of Vulcan, "Star Trek".