Throughout my friend’s visit to Cape Town this past week we referred to Adele’s “Someone Like You”, as it was part of an awkward scene in a series we follow. We kept singing it a cappella while driving and at one stage we went through CDs in my car on the off chance we’d find it, but to no avail.

We were heading to the airport this evening and having a great chat. As we were approaching the drop off area I spontaneously changed the radio station.

And there it was.

The opening chords to the epic Adele ballad.

Naturally, we lost our minds.

We sung it at the top of our lungs and voice noted our friend group. Even after we parked we continued to belt it out, to the horror of the security guards.

It was an odd bit of serendipity. A chance occurrence that was magnified by the fact that we hadn’t heard the song all week, despite consistently bringing it up.

In reality, it was probably some form of confirmation bias or Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, where we ignore all the other possible times this could have occurred in favour of a single confirmatory data point. It may even have its own specific term to describe it.

However, despite my academic mind’s attempt to recognize this as nothing more than a psychological phenomenon, I still find it meaningful. It was a chance happening that capped off a joyous few days.

It was our own odd little moment of serendipity.

Image was taken on our visit to Kalk Bay on Sunday afternoon