Forum menu
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.
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.