I've borrowed the title of this post from one of my favourite bloggers, Iota at 'Not Wrong, Just Different'. She posted today about discovering that one of her favourite bloggers went to the same primary school, and it put me in mind of something that happened to me at the weekend.
A bit of background; before Christmas I was speaking to the mum of one of Boy #2's classmates. I mentioned our forthcoming move, and she told me that her brother lived and worked in Moscow. She told me a little bit about him and his family - it turned out that Boy #1 would be going to the same school as his children - and sent me his details on e-mail. Which of course, in the frantic rush to move, I forgot all about.
Cut to last weekend. We were out for dinner to celebrate a friend's birthday (yes, I know, out for dinner again. Apparantly you have to move to Moscow to get a social life...), and I found myself sitting next to a very charming Russian lady. We chatted, she told me a bit about herself, we found some common ground. Then she mentioned her husband. He was British. She told me a little bit about him and what he did. And all of a sudden, bells started to ring.
You guessed it. I was sitting next to the sister-in-law of Boy #2's classmate's mum. Really, what are the chances of that? Not only that we would meet in the first place, but that we would actually get on before we even realised the connection?
Iota, you're right, it IS a small world.
What about you? What freaky coincidence story do you have to tell?
No coincidences here.
ReplyDeleteGlad the network is growing for you though ;-)
That *is* pretty strange isn't it!
ReplyDeleteIt is a small world! And look at you and that high flying social life in Moscow!
ReplyDeleteI bumped into someone here in the middle of Tuzla that I was at university with. No one in their right mind comes to Tuzla, not even the Bosnians. We were gobsmacked to see each other, to say the least. Hadn't seen him for some 15 years. Bizarre.
I 'found' my old schoolfriend (and neighbour) from primary school days after not seeing him for some 12-odd years. Not only were we suddenly both in the same city again (having both moved round the world with our respective families), but we were also living only 400m-odd from each other.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say we have stayed good friends and shared many holidays and other events in the 19 years since the re-encounter.
LCM x
I bumped into my best friend from primary school (who had lived with us for two terms while her mum was caring for her gran) while buying toothpaste in Kathmandu. It was awful. She shrieked "PlanB!!" and I had absolutely no idea who she was... That was about 1995 and I haven't seen her since then.
ReplyDeleteI was forever bumping into old schoolfriends in London, but I guess that in itself is not surprising. The funniest one I heard was from my brother in law, who bumped into an old schoolmate on top of a remote volcano in Indonesia, having not seen anyone else the whole day!
ReplyDeletesorry I havent visited in a while. I am going to restrict my blog access for a while, you are welcome to come and visit as an invited guest. If you email me on silika2007-silika@yahoo.co.uk then I can add you to the list. I would hate to lose touch. hulla xx
ReplyDeleteI once studied for a summer in Jerusalem. It was at the school for International students, so I didn't really expect to see anyone again - unless I was deliberately keeping in touch with them (and this was in the days before Facebook and smiliar).
ReplyDeleteA few weeks later, I walked past a Dutch guy who'd been in my class, at Victoria Station. He was living in the Netherlands, but was visiting London for the week-end.
There should be some significant story here, but we just went out for a drink, and that was it.
Hey, we should try and find out whether he was related in some way to your husband. Then that would provide the signifiance to the story that it lacks.
ReplyDeleteHis name was Jacob, and he was Dutch. There. That gives you plenty to go on.
Scarily a blogger friend was bez mates with the headmaster's wife at The Boy's school - soon put paid to me saying anything awful about the place while they were in charge!
ReplyDeleteand further to my previous, B's reading over my shoulder and has just pointed out that it's slightly random that his mum is my best friend from university's godmother (something we discovered on our first date). I guess I should have thought of that one too...!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first moved here (married) I met a guy with whom I had chatted rather seriously (if you get my drift) at a party about ten years before in London. I knew I had met him before but when I remembered how, I blushed to my feet. I don't think he remembered it in quite the same way, thank god.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that great that its a small world ! Glad you got on
ReplyDeleteIt is a small world. This story isn't mine, but I heard once of someone from a very, very small town near me who was in Germany on military business and while waiting in the airport he sat next to a French woman who asked where he was from. WHen he told her the name of the town, he said she'd never know where it was but it turned out she'd had dinner the night before with a man from that same time -- in Italy. The man in Italy was the brother of a friend of the man she was talking to and is a local artist who was there studying art. And it all happened in a airport in Berlin. Weird.
ReplyDeleteI taught English in a small market town outside Oxford. I sat next to a girl who had just done her PGCE. She was there for 5 yrs. I left in 2006 to move to Sri Lanka. She left later in 2006 to travel & work abroad. In 2008 we moved to Albania. Turns out she did too. We met in Tirana a wk after I arrived.
ReplyDeleteI have bumped into uni friends in Pisa (on the inter-rail circuit of course)& once an acquaintance from Oxford at the top of the Empire State building at 5 pm on a wk day.
I also met (in South Africa at the place I was volunteering), the best friend of a guy I had gone out with in Lancashire.