A close brush with death

I was standing at the hotel foyer waiting for the bus and minding my own business when I heard a sound next to me like someone hitting the ground with a 10 pound hammer.  It turned out to be a coconut that had fallen from the tree above me, nearly hitting me on the head. Now if you've ever been in a conversation where shark attacks were under discussion, then you will know that some bright spark in the conversation will mentions that you are more likely to be killed by a falling coconut than by a shark. I have never really looked into the truth behind this because I always assumed that there are probably more lazy people sleeping under coconut trees than people surfing or swimming in shark infested waters. After this morning's incident I decided to look on the Internet, seeing that I had nearly become one of the statistics myself. It turns out according to one source that this is not really fact, and that no-one has ever died from falling coconuts, or at least not enough to claim that they are more dangerous than shark attacks. I don't want to argue whether his information is to be believed or to be questioned, but what I do know is that after nearly 27 years of surfing I have never really had a close encounter with a shark, at least not as close as my encounter this morning with a coconut....

So I still want to believe the coconut comparison...