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Original poster

What are your, "What a small world!" moments?

113 replies

Chanel05 · 17/08/2023 10:58

I moved a 130 miles away from my home town 10 years ago. I walked into my new teaching job on 1st September. I was introduced to all the staff and one of the staff members said I had an unusual surname but one he had heard before. It turns out, my new colleague had been in my brother's year at our secondary school all those miles away! We chatted about teachers we'd had ourselves and what a coincidence it was.

What are your moments?

OP posts:
Rockbird · 17/08/2023 11:28

I was on the QM2 crossing the Atlantic and took my baby to the little play area. Got chatting to a woman with a baby and ended up talking about the country in the Middle East that she lived in. Happened to be the same country that my sister in law lived in at that time. Turned out she was her neighbour.

GigiAnnna · 17/08/2023 11:29

I had a school friend who sadly died of cancer at 15. A few years ago I got chatting to a guy on online dating and I was talking about her to him, never mentioned her name. And he was telling me about his cousin who also died of cancer at the same age. After a half hour conversation he asked me her name and it turned out she was his cousin. I couldn't believe it. He sent me some pics of her and it was nice to see her face again.

Iloveanicegarden · 17/08/2023 11:31

We met a couple whilst on a holiday in NZ. Didn't keep in touch, but 10yrs later we met them again on a boutique cruise.

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PrincessHoneysuckle · 17/08/2023 11:32

In a pub at the seaside couple hrs away and we sat next to a couple.Got chatting and turns out the woman was our next door neighbours sister and also a friend of mil.

resipsa · 17/08/2023 11:34

Check in at the airport in Phuket. In front of us were family friends whom we had last seen at our wedding 9 years previously.

resipsa · 17/08/2023 11:36

Oh and the woman we met at an estancia 2 hours south of Buenos Aries who lives around the corner from us at home. Can't recall having ever seen her before but now we bump into her all the time!

NatMoz · 17/08/2023 11:40

My husband as a child camped in the same location in Devon every year for 10 years plus during the school holidays. There were 2 boys around his and his brother's age who did the same and his parents were friends with their parents. They were his 'holiday friends'.

We went on holiday in Greece this year in June, we were sat down eating our evening meal at the resort and holiday friend and his family sat at the table next to us by absolute chance!

Turns out holiday friend meet ups is now an international phenomena! They literally don't see each other outside of holidays🤣

thecatsthecats · 17/08/2023 11:42

I bumped into a neighbour in Pompeii.

Pompeii is huge! Even if you're there at the same time, it's remarkable to cross paths.

Dinosauratemydaffodils · 17/08/2023 11:42

One of my maternal uncles (who lived in the UK) met one of my dad's Maltese cousins in a bar in Rome. They didn't know each other, just worked it out through the conversation.

One of the many schools I went to was a small RAF specific British Forces Schools abroad. Had a new colleague at work...a long long way from said school which no longer exists. She was a few years behind me there.

Tdcp · 17/08/2023 11:47

I moved from a tower block in London to a small village in the arse end of nowhere in Yorkshire. No one has heard of this village. I met someone years later that used to live in the same tower block who moved to the same village. That was odd 😅

LadyPenelope68 · 17/08/2023 11:51

My “what a small world” moment is also one of my most embarrassing moments 🤣

Passionate, steamy 2 night stand in my early 20’s on holiday in Zante. Fast forward 25 years and I’m a teacher in a Primary School and it’s Parent’s Evening. Dad sits down at the table for the next child in my class, it’s Mr Zante 🤣. Not sure who was most embarrassed, me or him! 🤣

ICouldHaveCheckedFirst · 17/08/2023 11:52

Went on holiday, about 500 miles from home, to a holiday resort with 7 beaches (all busy). Walked onto one beach, and met our neighbour from across the road!

Bbq1 · 17/08/2023 11:53

We live in Liverpool, visited London one summer. We were walking up the monument as ds's teacher at the time passed us as she was coming down.

Noshowlomo · 17/08/2023 11:54

Honeymoon in LA, having a drink in the Viper Room and got talking to a few men, who happened to live about 2 miles from us in Cardiff! Crazy

NotMyDayJob · 17/08/2023 11:54

Went to view a house, where we now live which is 250 miles from where I am from. Got chatting and it turned out their son had just bought a house in the next door street to the one I grew up on back in London.

Went to view another house, owner was from very near where I am from and turned out owner had gone to my secondary school, albeit many years before me.

HectorPlasm · 17/08/2023 12:16

Sitting in the business lounge at Hong Kong airport, I was tapped on the shoulder by a lady who said 'You're XXXX aren't you? Turns out it was my sisters best friend who I had never met but recognised me from photographs in her house.

OhWhatFuckeryIsThisNow · 17/08/2023 12:23

My dad’s and I’ve told before. 1980s.We lived in Yorkshire, but my mum had to go to Edinburgh for an operation (common now, but rare then). Dad went out for a fag and this man said “Alright Bob” It was someone he’d been in the RAF with in the war 40 years before and hadn’t seen since.

ItsFreeOnFriday · 17/08/2023 12:26

When I have birth 14 years ago to DS1 I was in the bed next to a woman who stood out for all the wrong reasons (aggressive partner).

11 years later I worked with her in my role helping women escape from domestic abuse.

Just 2 weeks ago we were on holiday in greece. The owner was chatting to us and it turned out that his wife came from our super small rural village and they had honeymooned in our very own house when it used to be a B&B.

hygieneversusplanet · 17/08/2023 12:30

When I was travelling in Singapore, I met a fellow traveller who turned out to be from the same city as me. We had a lot of fun exploring Singapore together and sharing our experiences. We even discovered that we had some mutual friends back home!

hygieneversusplanet · 17/08/2023 12:31

LadyPenelope68 · 17/08/2023 11:51

My “what a small world” moment is also one of my most embarrassing moments 🤣

Passionate, steamy 2 night stand in my early 20’s on holiday in Zante. Fast forward 25 years and I’m a teacher in a Primary School and it’s Parent’s Evening. Dad sits down at the table for the next child in my class, it’s Mr Zante 🤣. Not sure who was most embarrassed, me or him! 🤣

😅

PuttingDownRoots · 17/08/2023 12:34

At university my brother had a double room in halls. Random allocation
His roommates family had lived next door to our grandmother as a child... and they used to play together when they were about 4yo!
They discovered this when roommate asked my brother why he was visiting a small Scottish town for the weekend when he's from London.

rowantree1997 · 17/08/2023 12:36

Friend moved to USA and became best friends with a girl from my class at school.

Scarlettwaffle · 17/08/2023 12:44

my DH and I worked next door to each other in our Saturday jobs while at the same school (different years) He also worked in the same pub as my best friend a bit later on, although we still didn’t meet for another couple of years.

We got married in Cyprus. 1 year later we went on holiday to Mexico, took a day trip to Tulum and someone tapped us on the shoulder and said they recognised us as they were at the hotel in Cyprus the year before and had seen us getting married!

I love these moments!

LegalAdviceNeededPlease123 · 17/08/2023 12:51

I moved from London to a very small village in the North of Scotland. I occasionally helped my friend out in her shop. Over the course of two years I met:

  • a couple who lived a mile from where I grew up
  • the younger brother of my first form tutor (who then suggested I spent the night with him!)
  • neighbours but one of very good friends of mine. They didn't actually know my friends but I was sure they would if I pushed it, despite their road being about 2 miles long.

I told friends who visited this, and they didn't believe all this, until we sat on a train shared a table with people from their wee area of London. My friends were gobsmacked!

Caledoniadreaming · 17/08/2023 13:20

Neighbours 4 doors along from us worked in Dubai - used UK as a base; we were on holiday in Oman and had gone shopping in one of the many souks in Muscat. They had "nipped" across to Muscat (as you do) for a day's shopping. What are the chances you'd be in the same shop, in the same souk, at the same time?!

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