Just now an almost identical event happened to me as the one from my previous blog. Like last time, I went out carrying six things with me and when I came back I discovered that I had a parcel delivery, which made me feel somewhat anxious and uneasy. As explained before, the numbers seven 7 and nine 9 are vulgar and disfavourable in our Chinese (Cantonese) numerical superstition, whereas eight 8 denotes prosperity and is hence highly propitious, which yields a very fine line in terms of numerical fortune-telling. Last time I was thrilled to discover that I had two parcels waiting for me, which not only made me avoid the number seven 7 but also gave me an eight 8. Good fortune does not get better than this. This time I thought to myself that this could not happen again, as lady luck hardly smiles at you twice in a row. However, to my complete surprise and absolute dismay, I discovered that there were indeed two parcels waiting for me to collect. Furthermore, my landlord had left three pens for me to collect (as a gesture of good will), which made it eleven 11 things for me to bring home, another highly positive number. Eight 8 and eleven 11 are both fantastic numbers in our culture, and today’s experience could be summarised thus: 6 + 2 + 3 = 11, which is absolutely beautiful, since not only did I avoid all the bad numbers (seven 7, nine 9), I also managed to hit all the good ones (six 6, eight 8, eleven 11). This is a magical formula. I have no idea what is going on, but this is an amazing stroke of fortune. I mentioned last time that this blog would be my thirteenth 13 blog about numbers and would hence be an ill-omened one, given the Christian/Western superstition regarding the number thirteen 13. Perhaps this stroke of fortune has given me some protection against this bad number. The next one (fourteen 14) is no better either. Let’s hope that I can have another piece of luck that can ride me through this rough patch, after which I should be fine, at least for a little while. See you on the other side.