Standing in work talking to the boss when a load of suits come in for a meeting – from the govt agency that this company is working with. One of them is one of my mates from uni who I've only seen once in the last 12 years!

So, let's year your small world stories…

I was walking thru Syndey city centre when I bumped into a lad I played football with at Uni. (8 years previously, in Leicester)

I was riding in southern France (not the main riding areas) and the only person i bumped into in 5 hrs lived up the road from my mum.

I was watching telly about obsessive collecting, and the bloke in one of the moron couples who'd collected thousands of my little ponies was someone who I knew, and had gone out with my ex gf. The woman I also knew.

Last month I was on Pistonheads forum discussing the ceiling falling through from the toilet upstairs in Jesters nightclub Southampton in 1996. A fellow Pistonhead'er was stood next to me on the dancefloor as it fell in! 😆

Coincidences eh?

I lived in Germany for 6 months while doing a uni work placement. I was living in a small town, and even the nearest 'big town' was pretty small.
We went to a bierfest there & on a funfair ride I was screaming my head off. The bloke next to me, said 'oh, you're from England then?', blah blah blah. We got chatting and it turned out that he was from Harrow, and I grew up in Wembley about 3 miles down the road. Seemed like quite a coincidence.

We also went to Munich for the day & was stood in the Tiergarten looking at some kind of pagoda wondering what it was, when this bloke pipes up from a nearby bench to explain what it was. He explained he was an English teacher teaching at the uni there. Again, we got chatting and it turns out he used to live in Wembley, and used to go to all the pubs that I knew well.

Woman at work grew up near where I did and went to the primary school about 200m from my house…..work is ~40 miles from there.

'small world' conincidences seem to crop up quite often.

Chatted to a bloke on Twitter. Never met, just mtb stuff. Went to Llandegla, rode the blue, died at the top, clocked a bloke sort of staring. Too knackered to care.
Got home, posted on Twitter where I'd been, bloke staring was bloke I'd been chatting to on Twitter but never met – wasn't sure if it was me so didn't say anything.

in hong kong in 07, bumped into someone i went to school with years before, in the middle of one of the really busy shopping areas. same trip i randomly arrived the same day as my best friend from my childhood, ended up spending the next few days with him and his mate – he was coming back from NZ, i was going to japan (via china).

sam from bikevillage is randomly friends with 2 people who are also friends with my Ex's sister. she is from taiwan, and has absolutely no connection to bikevillage/cycling/sam (found out via facebook).

Jesters nightclub Southampton

That is where I woke up on my second day at university.

Wandered into a bar in Airlie Beach, Oz and walked straight into my mates sister.

An old girlfriend went to Leicester Uni, and after 6 months or so, one of the girls she lived with met a new chap who turned out to be someone I went to junior school with.

I've sh*gged your mum…..

🙂

I have a double small world story.

Got chatting to a chap on my commute home in the evenings. He works up at the uni as a Lab technician. Was talking about a mate of his and how he's been fcuked over by this girl he's been seeing for a few years and how he'd like a bike to get him out of his depression etc etc. Turns out his mate is the bloke who started knocking off the girl I was seeing a long time ago (messy times, so to speak). To cut a long story short I end up selling him a frame to give to this guy and ha ha ha, its the frame that i orginally bought to build up for his now ex-girlfriend when I was seeing her.

thats part one, now for part two

the chappy tells me that he qualified in Bio-chemistry at Oxford and as thats my home city we have a good old chat about the place and he mentions that his best mate was also a biochemist at the college he was at. He mentions his name was Keith…and a slightly weird feeling starts to take over me. Its my cousin Keith that was his friend and he ended up renting a room off him in the house that my parents used to own in Headington. At this point it all goes wrong when I ask him whether or not they are still mates and he says no, because Keith got him pissed one evening and tried to rape him 😯

I still see him occasionally on the commute but just nod these days, too flippin weird

Stumpy, yes they do, but they are still fun 🙂

Here's another one for you. A long time ago my cousin's husband's (or boyfriend's or something) mum was showing my cousin some photos that his mum had taken of their trip somewhere – she'd tried to take a picture of someone on a merry go round at the seaside but timed it wrong and got a couple of other people full frame – me and my mum!

Was in Mumbai a few years ago and changed my flight to get back earlier. Got the last seat on the plane… and the bloke I was sat next to lived in my village and gave me a lift home.

I lived in the same room in halls of residence as some bloke who was on the same course as me, but a year in advance. When I moved out of halls into a house, the same bloke had occupied the same room in the same house the previous year.

I came to London as a student, summer of '89 for a few months to work. I was in the Ealing DHSS office filling out the forms to get a NI number. There was another chap sitting across from me at the table filling out the same form. We got chatting and were going through the same boxes working out what to write when I noticed his surname was Darcy too! We thought that was a bit of a coincidence.

In those days, you didn't have a number to be called, you were called by your surname. When the lady behind the counter called "Darcy", we both stood up….along with another person in the room. Must have only been around 20 people in the room at the time. Three Darcys!

Walked into a customer meeting, to present to the project board only to find one of the people was a guy I went to high school with and haven't seen for 12 years. SLightly more of a small world moment when we went to school together in a foreign country and went off into different industries but now both work in the same one.

Jesters nightclub Southampton

remember trying to argue for a 10% student discount in there in the cloakroom once (think it was Jesters – might have been another one – escape maybe?)

2 Small Worlds to report:

1. When I left previous job, mentioned where I was going to our IT support guy, he said "oh – look out for some short guy with curly hair". Turned up on day 1, secretary said the guy I'd be working with was late, sat in reception for 20 mins. In walks some short guy with curly hair. They had been colleagues in previous job.

2. Turned up in Turin for new project (Monday before 9-11). Recognised some guy there (name+face). Took me days to work out where I'd seen him before. He'd recognised me too, but couldn't work out where from either. Eventually turned out we were both on same uni course (at Soton), but only in the final year (he'd taken year out in industry).

met a bloke in a cafe in harrogate who regularly came to my house for sunday dinner 35 years previously in northern ireland. he was a boarder at the local grammar school and my parents often provided sunday lunch for boarders who had no families to go to.

Ah Jesters. Where the girls used to come up and introduce themselves to you. One particular one held out her hand and said 'hi I'm xx, what is your name'? 🙂

Thrashing about near the front of a G'n'R gig at Milton Keynes Bowl, among umpteen thousand other people. Bumped into someone I went to school with 8years before back in Yorkshire.

Reminds me- West Hampstead in some dump of a night club- in the toilet talking very loudly (as I do) and a lad suddenly said 'did you go to x school in Hudds'? 😆

I went to America as a student to meet some people I'd chatted to on the net – this was mind 90s. One woman (older, platonic) I stayed with had had a relationship with this other guy who was in fact the ex of the sister of one of my gfs. The lass who was my gf turns out to be some kind of super-node in the 6 degrees type people knowing other people network.

When I was 13 I went to Toronto and bumped in to my uncle that I'd never met before 😀

I signed up for a holiday in Peru and the joining instructions involved getting to Lima under your own arrangements and then meeting up at breakfast in a certain hotel at 08:30. Turned up at breakfast and found that one of the others on the trip worked in the same building as me back in the UK for the same company.

My Grandad had a close family friend that we used to call Auntie, on the night before my wedding we worked out that this Auntie was married to my wife's grandma's cousin.

Having written that down it doesn't sound so odd.

I found out that a work colleague was at the same GnR gig back in 92

I used to have a German woman working for me who married a guy who turned out to be the brother of a girl I'd gone out with in 1988.
Walking through Covent Garden bumped into someone I'd been at junior school with (not seen him since 1979).
Sitting at Leith Hill tower about 5 years ago and a bloke wanders up to me and asked if I'd studied in Plymouth, then the course, then my name… he'd been an undergrad who used to come out mtb-ing when I was finishing my postgrad.

1990 – I was working at an ad agency and used to go into the local art shop for supplies. I told the girl there I was leaving to go travelling around Europe and she thought it was a wonderful idea.

I went on my travels and bumped into her in Zurich outside a bus station – her and her boyfriend had been inspired by me and decided to do it themselves.

Then, about 3 weeks later we bumped into her a second time on a river taxi in Venice.

Someone stopped me in New Mills looking for the (now closed) garden center. It was someone off my uni course that I'd not seen in about 7 years

A few years ago, I shared a bivi spot in the Alps with two lads who went on to have an epic few days doing their planned routes. We then randomly came across them in a small cafe a few days later. On returning to the UK, I went to a small esoteric crag to climb, and one of the lads was there climbing with his girlfriend.

I used to think people who went to Jesters were sad. Then I started posting on here and… hora 🙂

Escape, now that was much better!

andytherocketeer, what did you study at Southampton? (assuming you were a student there…)

People from the Isle of Man crop up everywhere… bet there are a few lurking manxies on here..

🙂

I walked past Jeremy Beadle in the street twice in one week…first in the south of France and then later the same week in Manchester. 😕

When I was 13 I went to Toronto and bumped in to my uncle that I'd never met before

How did you know it was him?

My own small world story. I bumped into my sister's best mate on a business trip to New Jersey.

mogrim – Member

andytherocketeer, what did you study at Southampton? (assuming you were a student there…)
Electronic Eng. (when Zepler building was the one near Admin block, and they just built/opened the Airfix building that some years later got torched).

went to see the doves at the g-mex last december – guy stood next to me recognised me, he was staying at the same hotel in greece in August.

I bumped into my sister's best mate on a business trip to New Jersey

…. 😈

I walked past Jeremy Beadle in the street twice in one week…first in the south of France and then later the same week in Manchester.

Be afraid…

I was skiing at a local resort here and jumped onto a t-bar lift with the guy ahead of me in the queue. We chatted a bit and at the top when he looked at me he said "I'm sure I've seen you before". Turned out he was an Erasmus student (from Austria) at Bangor 5 years previously where I had then been studying and we had a couple of friends in common, so had probably been at the same parties.

Once in Singapore on holiday with my Dad we were walking through a shopping centre when we heard someone shouting his name. We waited for the guy and it turned out he had worked with my dad about 30 years ago and recognised my dad's walk (odd since he doesn't limp or anything obvious).

I walked past Jeremy Beadle in the street twice in one week…first in the south of France and then later the same week in Manchester.

You know why that is don't you? It's because…
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Beadle's About..

IGMC

I used to work with member 'thebikechain' off've here about 10 years ago.

he recognised me at the outdoor show a few years ago then a few months later realised it was me on here as well.

cyclenaut off've here (and from back in the gofar days) is now living with a mate who i met through cycling. she also turned out to be best mates with a mate of mine from uni, she was living in the states at the time as well so even more of a coincidence.