Small world?

The Dr in Oxford who operated on my hand when I ran myself over on a wooden go cart I built as a kid was the nephew of the Dr who delivered my sister.

My sister was born in a villager in Uganda and this only came to light because my mother recognised his name and asked.

I used to see a band who played a cover of Father's Name Is Dad by Fire.
Searching the record shops in Sydney I managed to find a compilation with the original on it.
Having purchased the record I hot trotted over to my friend's house to play it on his record player as being a backpacker all I had was a walkman.
Later on someone else turns up who turns out to be the lead singer of The Lime Spiders .(fairly big news down under) He was saying how they had been rehearsing a new song in the studio.
Yep, Father's Name Is Dad by Fire.
That's a pretty big coincidence. They always dedicated that song to me when they played it.

*Thread Closed*

WCA wins

And the injury was only the initiator of the story this time.

Sat in a hotel in San Diego. Kiwi girl walks in and we get talking.
Asks where I was from, “England”.
Where in England? “Near Birmingham”.
Where near Birmingham? “Rather small town”
Oh, so you’d drink in The Rose and Crown? “Err, yeah”
She lived there for a few years.

The other one was walking through London and literally walking into my Mom and Dad. They didn’t know I was there (I was away at uni in a different city at the time) and I certainly my didn’t know they would there. Very strange indeed.

not this then

Another one. I went to Medicine Hat in Canada in 2000 & stayed for 3 weeks with my (then) gf's friend, again from Durham, who was manageress of the Medicine Hat branch of the Alberta Motoring Association. She'd lived there for over 20 years by now.
Cue 2 months hence & I'm visiting my Dad in hospital in Durham & noticed a guy wearing an Edmonton Oilers jersey. I ask him if he's an Oilers fan & he say he is cos he's lived out there since he left the British army, now lives in Medicine Hat. I mention I've just been there, we get on talking, I mention Moira from Durham & he tells me that his Mrs back in Med Hat has been talking to a Moira, from Durham UK about motor insurance with the Alberta Motoring association.
I never got my head round that.

Sat on the train into London several years ago and was working on a document with WorldClassAccident prominent in the text. The guy in the row of seat behind me leans around the seat and asks in a think French accent "Are you THE WorldClassAccident".
Without looking around I reply "Yes French Juan"

It was a total guess on my part as I had never previously met French Juan but he used to post on here a bit and was the only person I could think of who fitted the accent. Turned out he also lived in Southampton and we knew a few mutual riding acquaintances.

I went to Snowdonia with a mate from uni. Camped in the layby by the Gromlech boulders. Did the Crib Goch ridge next day under winter conditions and got to Snowdon summit after lunch. Popped head up on the trig point only to come face to face with a girl I had been in school with, with whom I used to climb together a bit but hadn't really seen for several years.

Another time we went travelled London to Symonds Yat for some rock climbing. It was really late when we got there and we had planned to bivi in the caves which involved a very hazardous walk along a narrow ledge to get to them. We were a bit disappointed on arrival at said caves to find someone already sleeping there. On quietly voicing the fact we were not alone, a voice came from a sleeping bag called out my my name and asking if it was me. Turned out to be my mate who used to live just up the road from me back in Wales, but who was now at college in Essex and had come back to do some climbing too. We had never been to those caves together before!

A friend of mine did a gap year at 18, spent six months or so in a small non-touristy town in Nepal teaching English. Left there, did more backpacking, went back to the UK and started uni. Third year of the degree was a placement year, she ended up in Toulouse, France (which is where I met her). One day in our local bar a young Asian guy comes up and says hi - cue much hugging and amazement. Turns out he was one of her pupils from the school she taught in, he'd done well and got on some sort of exchange/scholarship to go to uni in Europe, chose Toulouse, happened to be there at the same time as she was there.

At my wedding, my dad got chatting to one of my wife's uncles (who'd married into her family) and they worked out they were at school together forty years previously.

I was sitting at the Whaleway station at Kaikoura, South Island New Zealand, waiting to be picked up to see some Sperm whales when someone casually said ‘hi Jim’. Turned round and it was an ex-student of mine from five or six years before. She was also on a backpacking trip with her boyfriend. ( I was on sabbatical and halfway through a round the world trip)

After I retired we took a tour of Rajastan. One of the places we visited was the Mehrangarh Fort at Jodhpur. An amazing place. Whilst looking at one of the museum exhibits I caught sight of someone out of the corner of my eye. I moved closer and waited until one of the guides finished talking to this man and woman.

The man was who I thought it was. Before my retirement he was my opposite number for Asia and Pacific (me for EMEA). He lived and was based in Sydney Australia (although originally an Indian citizen). We used to meet up for meetings mainly in the USA and sometimes Europe.

He was on holiday, I was on holiday in a country of over a Billion people. What are the odds?

A really nice moment as we had always got on well.

When I was in secondary school (in the UK in the 90's) we went on a family holiday to France. Stayed in a few locations, and meandered our way down to somewhere near Bordeaux.

Noticed there was a funfair on and nagged my dad to take me. So after a couple of days of successful nagging off we went and I randomly bumped into two guys that were in my form from school. Very odd.

And another one... Fifteen years ago my wife and I decided to move to new Zealand, pretty much on a whim, having never been here before. Looked at places to live, applied for jobs, got jobs, got visas, booked flights, sold house & car, flew over, started work about a week later. First day in the new job, getting shown around the office and introduced to everyone (only about 15 people), one of them was a guy I used to work with about three years previously.

On the same day my wife was starting her new job at a different company down the road, the guy at the desk next to her was a former colleague from back in the UK...

The odds of these things happening must be a million to one*

My mum died recently. She was born in India and went to a small convent school in the foothills of the Himalayas. She was lapsed Catholic (lapsed after my big brother died) but still a believer. We couldn't get a Catholic priest but my brother found a high church Anglican. The vicar's mum went to the same school as my mum at overlapping times.

My wife & I got Married a few years ago, the song we had as our first dance was Sileas by Hoogie - not a local band to us. My nana was in a nursing home and not in a condition to join us for our big day (alzheimer's).

A few days after our wedding, my wife an I donned our wedding outfits and called in to the nursing home and we had a small pretend reception with the nursing home residents there so my nana felt she took part in the day. After we recreated our first dance, a woman who happened to be visiting her dad in the home pulled me aside; turned out her brother was in the band and wrote the song which was based on their old family holidays in the North of Scotland.

Not only did we get our nana involved in our big day, but we also her dad “woke up” from his alzheimer's and he recounted his family holidays for 10 mins or so.

Back in 94 got dropped of in Victoria Falls and was meant to meet a mate but he was flying folk to a safari lodge and wouldn’t be back for 6 hours so naturally I went to the pub called Explorers bar as I’d been told it was the best in town. Had a few drinks and whilst sat at the bar my accent was commented on by the barman, asked if I was from Scotland yadda yadda as his boss/the guy who owned/ran the bar was Scottish, I replied yeah and yadda yadda. His boss came in a few hours later and we got talking bout where we’re from, names etc etc, I mentioned growing up in a wee village achnamara, as well as Crinan and Castle Sween in Argyll, turned out he knew it well as his older brother married a girl from the village, I asked who and he said my mums wee sisters name……..shocked n’ stunned!.

He was at their wedding 14 years earlier and remembers my mum/dad and me as well due to the fact I insisted on taking my fishing rod so I could fish in the Crinan canal which was only 50ft from the reception held in Cairnbann hotel, I eventually remembered him with a bit of prompting as he was the older boy who brought me out cake and juice as we sat on the edge of the canal and fished all afternoon.

Needless to say we got very………very……..very drunk indeed.

Not superbly impressive, but went to Dorset from Derbyshire, got randomly chatting to a couple outside a pub, where are you from etc - turned out she was from Bakewell and we had loads of mutual friends

Spent a couple of nights in a brilliant B&B in Herefordshire 20+ years ago for my then girlfriend’s 21st birthday. There were only two rooms and in the other was my best mate’s dad’s best mate from school. As we discovered over some fancy single malt.

Picked up a hitchhiker once on my way to Glastonbury, turned out he’d been at school with a good friend of mine.

Browsing social media one lunchtime in Melbourne in 2008 I saw one of my childhood friends from Lincolnshire had just had his first child. I messaged him to congratulate him and asked where he was living now. Turned out he was on the next road along. I rode to his place that night and began playing five aside every week with him.

Walked into a cafe in Geraldton Western Australia and saw one of my wife’s colleagues from the job she’d left in Canberra. They’d paid out a year’s salary and we were travelling on the proceeds.

I’m sure I’ll think of many more…

A colleague of mine has a great one. He is a cop and was awarded by our force after intervening with a violent passenger during a flight home from the states on a south American airline (I forget which one).

He and another guy ended up restraining the passenger for hours during the flight and the captain thanked them over the flight radio but due the to the fuss with the passenger on landing he never got to personally meet the crew.

A year or so later he was over in Spain where he played at a local golf course in a four ball game with three strangers. He got talking to them as you do and one of them dropped into conversation that he was a pilot. He was one of the flight crew on that flight.

At the old forge in knoydart i was talking to this woman from canada. Turns out she knew a school pal of mine that ended up in the yukon

Glastonbury in the 90's. Some arse pitched a tent (not a vile euphemism) right across the entrance to mine. It was a lad that I hadn't seen since school 15 years prior.

I sat down at the Hurtwood pub on Sunday with 2 mates...

While chatting, the bloke next to me goes "alright Steve..."

It was Stevextc from here 🙂

Second post down,

"My sister was born in a VILLAGER in Uganda and this only came to light because my mother recognised his name and asked."

She was born in a villager? The mind boggles!

Got badly run over by a car on my road bike. visit to resus then into ward in a bit of a mes (broken spine and 4 ribs). Senior Nurse (red top - more senior thn matron) wanders over. Hello 'fossy' - just happened to be a girl I'd been through primary and high school with. I culdn't get away with anything, as her husband just so happened to be one of the guys in the local road club so she knew what us cyclists are like, so she brought over the laptop with my scans on and said 'YOU aren't going anywhere soon, look at this mess, I know what you lot are like'.

Avout 4 years later, I was in work 'Hello Fossy', eh. One of the Nursing Assistants was now training to be a Nurse and was on our course at Uni - I was just passing in the reception area. She'd remembered me - 'How I said', we tend to remember those that had been with us a long time !

Was skiing in the French alps many years ago. It was a grim day, nearly white out so I had hat, goggles, face mask, mountain jacket on, hood up. Popped into a restaurant for a wee and whilst clumping down the steps got a “Hiya”. Was a mates ex-girlfriend who was in the same resort as us. How the hell she worked out it was me under all that clobber I don’t know.

Also, my wife got a job in Oxford. We drove up on the Sunday (she started the following day) without her having any accommodation fixed, only some possible places to check out. We checked out a few places and ended up at a house. Place was good, owner renting a room and agreed to take it. When do you want to start? Errrrr now! So my wife rented from a lovely lady called Fiona. A year later we buy a house, and I also move to Oxford, find some mountain bikers to ride with, some of whom lurk on here. Not only does one of them end up being the company finance officer when my wife changes jobs, turns out he also dated Fiona.

And finally. Whilst travelling south in New Zealand, on some road between Christchurch and Dunedin. We pass one of the few other cars we see on the road that day heading north. We both stand on the brakes and back up to meet each other. It’s a good mate and his girlfriend. We sort of knew they were travelling in the Southern Hemisphere but that was about a vague as it got in terms of knowing where they were.

We were on holiday in the Auverene where you don’t get that many Brits. I was taking my young kids out for a ride and drove to a remote tiny village where a little green route started. I parked up but I wasn’t happy with the space so I drove 1km out of the village and pulled into one of those spaces where they have the shared bins in France. There was only three houses there. I started unloading the bikes and getting the kids ready, when i hear someone call out my name. It was the one of my friends who’s a parent of one of the kids in my sons football team and she’d recognised my voice which is quiet distinctive from their chalet garden. We had no idea we’d both gone to the same area which they’d picked at random in addition they were staying in the absolute middle of nowhere and we would have never seen them if I’d not moved the car.

I wouldn’t want to paint it, though.

I got married in the Church of Scotland in Arisaig. It was a small affair, The Mrs, me, my mate, her pal, the minister, his wife and a friend. Our friends took some photos. A few weeks later, they were ready and we invited them both round to our house in Edinburgh so we could see the photos and have a wee drink. We'd only just put the house on the market. It wasn't listed yet but we had the sign at the door. We opened the prosecco and then the doorbell rang. It was the minister and his wife, who had been looking at flats in the area, saw the sign and rang the doorbell on the off-chance the owners were in for viewing. They had no idea it was our house and were just as amazed as I was to be standing at the door with them. Inevitably, we brought them in to see the photos and have a drink too. Coincidence enough that they should ring our doorbell, let alone it was the night we had our friends round to look at the photos.

Taken to hospital (in police dog van, that's another story) covered in blood after bike accident had to stay overnight for surgery in am. Nurse booking me into ward was an ex pupil!!

A few years ago I was in a band. One of the band members sadly passed away a couple of years ago. At his funeral wake his wife had displayed some photos of Jan from various times in his life. One was of Jan and some mates at a Neil Young concert at Finsbury Park in the early nineties. Anyway spookily in the background of the photo was me. We had both been to the same gig but never knew it.

Lived in Sydney for a couple of years. Commuting to work one morning on the Manly ferry eyes meet with a pretty girl sat opposite. She looks familiar, and can tell she's thinking the same. Pluck up courage to go over and chat and she's another Brit doing the working holiday trip. Go through all the usual suspects of school/work/pubs that we may have met in. Finally the penny drops and remember we "met" drunkenly on the Greek island of Paros 5 years previously. Probably not that surprising as guess in the 90s everyone did the Greek island backpacking thing then Oz.

Also was just about to go into theatre in Brighton after breaking my spine and the anaesthetist used to drink in my old local in Essex. Was strangely reassuring.

Back in 94 got dropped of in Victoria Falls and was meant to meet a mate but he was flying folk to a safari lodge and wouldn’t be back for 6 hours so naturally I went to the pub called Explorers bar as I’d been told it was the best in town.

Been in there, talking to a Scottish guy behind the bar. Would have been 1991 though.

Went to see a moonbow at the falls that evening.

About 10 years after leaving uni in Edinburgh, i got invited to an engagement do for a friend from Uni, who i hadn't seen for a few years. Walked into their flat to be met by one of my best mates from school (from yorkshire, with no known connection to Scotland) who i'd lost contact with who was now my friends fiancé.

Another one, where we were driving through a very remote northern Norway fiord, and saw a vehicle. So as it had UK plates we approached for a chat. Turns out that they were in the same mountaineering club as my brother in Aberdeen.

And the last one, when doing the Pedal for Scotland with my daughter, i took a selfie a the start of her and me. After putting it up on FB later that day it turns out that one of my mountain bike mates from our meet up/fb group was stood next to us and smiled at the camera as i did a the selfie, neither of us had noticed a the time as we weren't in mtb kit.

The world of ex-military pilots is a small one but...

Dad was flying across the US a few years back for his job and he recognises the voice on the intercom, as a ex-US Navy pilot friend of his; intercepts a stewardess who confirms the name and my father's invited up and they have a chat, dad gets off the airplane, they say cheerio and go their separate ways. Next day my dads flying to Houston, who should sit next to him? but the same pilot as yesterday, (hopping on the flight to collect a plane and take it someplace else). They are amazed etc etc, but then hearing the pilot speak over the intercom, both of them realise they also recognise the voice - as their ex boss from the Navy squadron that they flew with (my father on exchange) call over a stewed...get invited to the cockpit again.

Camping in SW France in the summer before my daughter transferred to the school I was teaching at. She got friendly with a girl the same age and they'd gone off down the beach. I set off out to go for a surf and apparently the conversation went: 'oh my God, that's my teacher' and 'Really? That's my dad.'

My parents flew to Sydney to visit family. They hired a car at the airport, and whilst waiting for it to appear got chatting to the lady behind the counter, who had an Aussie accent, about where they were from. They dropped into conversation me, living in small village in Bucks.

Her parents also live in a small village in Bucks, and lo and behold are my direct neighbours, our back doors face each other over the fence - I've never met this lady as she has lived in Aus for the last twenty years with her husband.

These connections must exist all the time and we just only very rarely find them.

Aaaand one more - I left my first job in tech to go freelance, in the exit interview to my boss I gave the main reason as too much travel (I had been to several R&D conferences in Europe in the preceeding weeks). Clearly the real reason was better pay.

Two weeks into my new contract I was required to go to Germany. In my full professional suit I flopped down into the seat on the airport transfer bus, directly opposite by old boss.

I didn't know a single eye brow could be raised that far.

These connections must exist all the time and we just only very rarely find them.

I think the same, how many times do we walk in a shop and your best friend from way back or someone similar walks out the other door etc?

It's just proof that the Matrix has a limited storage capacity so keeps using the same avatars/NPC's repeatedly.

At Uni in Manchester in the 90s, got randomly assigned to a lab group of 3 people. One of them was a mate, I did not know the other.

Next week he asked me if I have lived in Sri-Lanka about 16 years ago, which I had. He then tells me that his mum was the mid-wife that delivered my youngest brother in Colombo. It was compeltely true, my parents still remember her.

A few of these.

When I was in uni in Kent, got chatting to my then GF's flatmate, who was from FOD. talking about how I loved riding there etc and he tells me he met someone from my home town once, when he was backpacking in Australia. just got chatting to this fellow Englishman. he used to MTB too. I jokingly asked him his name, it turned out to be one of the brothers I used to go riding and racing with a few years prior.

Another time, my then GF and a few of us were riding round a loop in the Scottish hills. Came across mountain rescue doing some training. One of the guys had a welsh accent, so being from the valleys herself, my GF asked where he was from and we got chatting. turned out he was from nearby where she grew up and used to work with her dad.

One of the guys who works with me in Glasgow did his postgrad in the same uni in Kent I did my undergrad. He lived in the house that I helped renovate for my Gf's landlord, a couple of doors down from where she used to live.

The same guy also started chatting to a couple of women travelling from glasgow to bristol, helmets on their hand luggage, so obvious bikers. Turns out they were a couple I used to go riding with wales frequently. maybe not so much of a stretch that one.

My wife and I met one of her very old friends biking along the canal path where we live outside Glasgow. This is someone she used to know as one of the social gang she used to hang about with back in the 80's and has kept in touch over social media on and off, so quite a surprise to see him near us. got chatting, he asked where I was from, I said town in worcestershire. he said he knew it and lived there for a short while and we spoke about some of the pubs we used to go to there. it turns out that I'd probably met him, when I was about 17 or 18 and a regular in one of the more alternative pubs that was his local. We were in there every weekend back then, That was odd.

My daughter while at uni went to dinner with one of her flatmates at her parents house.  They were chatting about surnames and it turned out I shared a flat with her father while at uni.  Different city, very different subjects

good thread, few of these in my time.....

Walking down KohSan Road in Bangkok pre social media etc bumped into some fellow uni pals who made the same trip, completely independently

Same trip, on a train in north Vietnam, only other traveller folk on the train were from the next town along from my home town and went to school with a good friend from uni

On the ferry to the south island in New Zealand, which had been delayed 6 hours, bumped into a customer I had taken to hospital whilst working as a cycling guide in the french alps.

Never met my dad - was told he was dead. Anyway, 50 years old, put myself and him into an ancestor tracing site. Got bored, stopped.

2 years later a woman emails me to angrily ask what I am up to, using her dad's name!

Turns out that she is my 49 year old half sister.

Normal so far.

I grew up in Wolves, moved to Wales and eventually ended up in Croydon. Turns out my dad is buried in Croydon, in the cemetery down the road from where I was living. Not only that, but my new sister grew up in Croydon. Where? Turns out she lived next door to my wife's best friend at college, and is still friends with her.

So, my wife's best friend grew up with my new, 49 year old sister, and knew my dad who I didn't even knew existed.

And how did I end up in Croydon from Wales? Well, on a motorcycle ride the mate I was with, died after a crash. He had no life insurance, so in the estate sale I bought his share of the family holiday in Yugoslavia that summer. First night on holiday, sat next to a girl from London, got chatting. This was 1986 and I am still with her.

The end? My sister grew up in Croydon, met a guy from Wolves, so moved there. The same year that I left Wolves, to eventually end up in Croydon.

muddyground wins the internet today

A poignant one. A few years ago, I was talking to a young, new colleague. She lived in a street where I lived when I was young. Turned out she lived in the same house as I'd lived in, and her grandparents had owned the house, sold it to my parents and then she'd bought it again fairly recently. I mentioned something about remembering her grandparents when we went to view the house, and their daughter - I was about 13, she was older than me by 2 or 3 years. That was her mother, she said. She had no memories of her because her mum had died when she was a toddler.

Riding in Morzine with a group of mates from Uni a while back, staying at the Jolly Good Tours place. Some other chaps, a bit older, also there - over dinner, we got talking and not only had they been to the same Uni, they'd also stayed in the same manky student house I had.

A friend of mine had just starting seeing his now wife. He came across a keyring of hers, made from a ride photo at Alton Towers. He asked "Why have you got a keyring with a picture of my sister on it!?". Turns out both his sister and future wife had been on the ride together and both were in the photo. It pre-dated them meeting by quite a while.

I'm going with something far more sinister there @dmorts 🤣

Solo munro bagging in Glencoe - Sugar na h-Ulaidh - very dreich day, chatted to someone on way up to summit (hoods up). Dawned on me / him that it was a cousin (2nd cousin to be precise). c. Jul 1990/1.

Fast forward to Oct 1993 - my stag weekend in Glencoe, climbing Bidean with some of my mates - heading out to the final top, snow covered ridge made going slow - figure coming towards us - yes, same cousin David again.

If he's still on the forum, @donald has the small world to top all small world tale..

.. started my first full-time job in Edinburgh in 1984 with 2/3 other recent recruits.
Chatted to one of the others - aforementioned Donald. Background - NE Scotland. check. Interests - skiing. check. School ski trips. check. Same county wide school ski trip, 1977. He was then, and remained so, a much better skier than me.

I’m going with something far more sinister there @dmorts 🤣

For complete clarity, his sister and wife are different people 😀

Camping by Loch Morlich, could see the light of another camper on the far side.
Next day driving down to London, stopped to pick up a hitchhiker near Edinburgh.
Turns out he was someone I was at Uni with 10 years before. He was on his way to Oxford so just dropped him off on the way passed. He had been camping at Loch Morlich the night before too, probably his light I had seen

I finished high school in 1995, and every one scatters off to uni and college. In 1998 me and a few mates who had kept in contact end up at Reading festival, just mooching around as you do and bump in to a girl that was in our year, not seen or heard of since the last day of school 3 years before, the chance of that happening in a croud of 100,000 people are quite slim, but then it happened again in 1999 and 2000.

mert : Been in there, talking to a Scottish guy behind the bar. Would have been 1991 though.

Went to see a moonbow at the falls that evening.

Brillant bar aint it?, ive still got my explorers bar t-shirt, 2nd day I was there I did the vic falls bungee jump from the bridge into the Zambezi which cleared my hangover and the third day I did the full rafting and paddling run down the Zambezi with Shearwater, on the 4th day my mate took me up in his plane for a few hours and we flew through the gorge which was terrifying but very cool. Spent a total of 6 months in the country and planned to go back but never did, one of the best experiences in my life and totally unforgettable.

There's been a few of bumping into old friends/friends of friends in random places, but the most poignant was a couple of years ago, just pre-pandemic.

On the Oban-Lochboisdale ferry to the Hebrides: me, my other half, my sister and her little 'un. The crossing got pretty rough, my other half slinked off to the loos, my young niece got carried the same way by my sister, and I got talking to an older gent who was sat across from me. We chatted a while about the rough crossing and the drive up to Oban, and obviously came to that point of trying to suss out each other's accents - both, evidently to each other, Cumbrian.
"So where are you from then?" he asks.
"Little village in the north Lakes originally, Leeds now"
"Whereabouts in the North Lakes?"
"Between Carlisle and Cockermouth. Little village called Torpenhow"
"Torpenhow? You wouldn't happen to know <name> then?
"I should do - he's my Dad"

Turns out the gent in question was my Dad's best mate in their school/University days, and while they'd stayed in touch, they hadn't seen each other in 30-odd years. Gent seemed confused when I asked him how long he was on the islands and where he was staying.
"Why?"
"Well, my folks and a friend came out here a few days ago, and we're all staying on South Uist for a week. If I pass a message to my Dad, would you be up for meeting up with him for a pint one evening?"

Off the back of that small world coincidence, I got to sit with my Dad and one of his oldest friends for a reunion beer in the Lochboisdale Hotel a few days later. That was pretty touching.

Hiked into Mt Robinson in Canada, 3 couples at an overnight camp, midweek, off season.

Talked the normal chat on where we were from etc and eventually got onto the subject of ill prepared people in the outdoors who should know better, was telling a tale about one of my undergraduate lecturers and his habit of wandering around glaciers in wellies and a ripped pair of cycling overtrousers, guy opposite looks up in surprise, asked if they were green overtrousers. He had been his safety guide in Antarctica for 3 months.

Spent a total of 6 months in the country and planned to go back but never did, one of the best experiences in my life and totally unforgettable.

We were doing the touristy thing, so only there 4 weeks. Harare, Bulawayo, Victoria falls, then down to the Kariba dam. Then a flight home from Harare.

nothing like some of the stories here but one I remember is about four and a half years ago, I somehow managed to sprain the ligaments in my pelvis/SI joint and was in terrible pain. Made an appointement to see the first available doctor and when I went in I thought she looked slightly familiar. She asked me what activities/sports I do and I mentioned mountain biking, then said I go to Wales several times a year and ride round the Elan as I'm friends with Clive Powell and Neil the bike shop manager. She said, oh I used to ride up there on the group weekend rides with Clive years ago. Turns out we were both on the same weekend group ride back in October 2002!

Going back to around 1960, my mum's family lived in Lincolnshire. Her brother was working as a mechanic, and one of his colleagues was seeing a girl called Jean, who became one of my mum's best friends.

Mum met my dad who was in the RAF, married him and they got posted around various UK bases, and she lost touch with Jean.

Get to 1967, mum and dad are stationed in Kenya, and go plane spotting at Nairobi Airport. Mum looks around the other people there and sees Jean - her husband is now lecturing in engineering in Nairobi. They have a great couple of years together in Kenya, before Dad is posted back to the UK.

They lose touch.

Forward to 1988ish - we are living near Peterborough, mum is walking down the road in the village where we live and bumps into Jean - after 20 years working in various bits of Africa they've returned to the UK and moved into our village. Friendship picks up where they left off.

All in their 80s now and my parents live near me in Derbyshire, but she speaks to Jean at least once a week still.

Went on a mystery tour dowm Cornish unmarked roads, its something i like to do. Anyway, end up on a road somewhete near St. Brewards,barely big enough for the car I was in. Hedge walls must have been 15' high either side. Car comes round a blind corner amd meets us head on, private plate. The car was from the next street over from me, 240 miles away.
No idea whst I was doing there , let alone them as well.

Another one I've just remembered....

Was brought up mainly in Lincolnshire, moved down south for work, then relocated to Derbyshire.

Was running a fundraiser with our Scout group a few years ago and one of the new Beaver parents was helping out, about 10 years younger than me. She mentioned they'd moved over from Lincolnshire, I asked whereabouts, she told me, I said I was brought up near there in X she said that's where she was brought up, asked for my full name, so I told her.

Are you related to Ken MoreCash? Yes, I said he's my dad.

Her dad had taken over as Group Scout Leader from my Dad, about 25 years before. Surprisingly most of my Scout leaders from the 80s are still alive!

Also got into a train carriage on a family holiday in Wales a few years ago, had an awkward journey sat opposite my sons primary school teacher and her family....

Backpacking through China in 2000, went into a bar in Chengdu. Which wasn't really on the tourist trail. The barman sits us at a table - and placed me next to a girl who grew up 100yards from my parents house.

And then it turned out that another guy in the bar (there were only about 8people there) was from 10 miles up the road.

Lad I went to first & primary school with, bumped into him on posting to a new unit 8 years into my career (didn't know he'd joined up), served there together for a few years (different cap badges). I was posted then elsewhere, we lot touch. I then bump back into him again 8 years later in Afghanistan while he's working for the FCO as a close protection bod.

My friends and I once abducted someone in Thailand and then (having cast him loose) three months later I met him on the street in Japan. He was standoffish but didn't actually hit me, which I count as a success. Can't really say much more than that but there may have been mushrooms involved.

👀

I have some fun ones from when I lived in Tasmania - very apt as the Australian stereotype of Taswegians is that they're inbred. The island is about the size of Ireland and the population was around 600,000 at the time IIRC.

First day in Tasmania since i'd been down for a job interview and offered a job in Hobart (southern end of the Island). My new boss been recommended that i was arriving and driving from the north of the island to Hobart, I should drop into one of the company's northern offices to introduce myself to a team member. At this point i knew approximately six people in Tasmania, all based 2.5 hours drive away in Hobart.

As i'm bumbling around trying to find my way to the office I managed to walk into one of these six people midway through crossing the road. He was as surprised as I was.

A year or so later i'm walking home from work and I see a wheelbarrow full of gorgeous greengages with a sign saying 'take a carrier bag full for $2'. I don't have any money on me so I take them anyway and put my business card with an IOU on through a letterbox. Next day at work I get a call from a woman saying thanks so much and that their fruit trees were fit to burst so come and take as much as we like. I call the wife and we meet up ready to raid that afternoon. On the driveway is a beautiful green 60s Alfa GTV...

Wife turns up and it turns out the woman that had called me had the office next to her at the University. Small world. We all laugh.

A few weeks' later we're in another part of the state at a classic car rally (Triumphs) and get talking to an older couple with a spot on red TR4. For some reason during the conversation I mention the greengage story to illustrate the nature of Tasmania. I happen to mention the GTV because we're all into cars. The guy responds with. "Oh, that's my brother's house!"

Ooh, I've got one.

Years ago at Leeds Festival. Hot sunny day, I sat on a grassy knoll to watch a band and took my phone out of my pocket as it was uncomfortable. (Nokia 6510, which should date this anecdote.)

Band finished, we left. Then - oh shit! - I'd left my phone on the grass next to where I was sitting. I borrowed a mate's phone to call it.

It rang, a woman answered it, with some relief I started babbling about how to go about getting it back. Then she asked, "... is that Alan?"

"Claire?"

The phone had been found by an old friend from forever ago, I hadn't seen her in several years and had no idea that she was going to the concert.