Is there anything more awkward than this?

[Reddini]

Food shopping. Bump into someone you know, or someone you knew. Have a long chat with them, discuss the DC, the house, holiday in the Summer, close relatives. Say it was lovely to see them and you really must catch up for that 3 year overdue coffee. Send your best wishes to their family and off you go with your trolley.

THEN.......seeing them again around the shop moments later trying desperately to avoid eye contact.

Or getting into a lift with someone you only vaguely know. Shudder.

Oh god yes. Especially after the initial head nod of hello. Cringe.

I’m with you OP.
It’s excruciating.

The only worse thing is when you keep running into them in Boots by the foot product aisle.

If you meet someone "out of context" and know that you know them, but can't remember who they are or why you know them.

That has caused me a few awkward conversations.

Oh God yes to all of these examples. I'm glad it's not just me!

For this reason, I end every conversation I have while shopping with the line 'See you in two minutes down the next aisle'!

I think I know something that is worse. (Aggressive) MIL bumping into exDIL while shopping and hurling insults, even following her down the aisle 😳 and then when someone drags her away... seeing them again around the shop. 😩

It’s like the OP but with the added threat of violence!

Ugh, yes. I once bumped into the local MP, who I know through my own involvement with politics, as I wandered towards the self service machine in Tesco having made no effort at looking presentable, as I'd only gone in for a packet of tampons. He decided to start a 10 minute conversation about his wife, my DD, and politics. Me still standing there looking like Oscar the Grouch, clutching my Tampax. Mortifying.

I work in a pharmacy... when I bump into people it is usually ones I know from work

a. I can't just say hello really unless they do first - especially if they are with someone. Patient confidentiality.
When I last went to the chippy there were 7 others sat on the ledge inside - I knew them all through work, as I looked down the line the penny dropped with each in turn about where they knew me from and they all said "oooo hello" and started quizzing each other on why they had been in...

and b. they know that I know what their embarrassing condition is, but I would never ever, ever say anything to anybody - it is bad enough - for them - that I know.

I saw my mum in a supermarket, trying to reach something on a top shelf. I went up behind her and said ‘you needing a hand there short arse’. Wasn’t my mum.

Oh no •BeyondThePage• that sounds like my idea of a nightmare!

Oops bold fail!

jammiebammie hahahahahahaha - that is so funny, the sort of foot in mouth I'd do!! Must have felt mortified!

Saying a big goodbye to someone outside a coffee shop or whatever, then realising your both walking the same way down the street.

Bumping into your MIL in the GUM clinic ...(hasn't happened to me but someone else I know).

I bumped into my female boss at a GUM clinic when I was young. I found it hilarious but she found it excruciatingly embarrassing.... which was a bit ridiculous as you can be in a GUM clinic for all sorts of reasons.

At work people say oh hello. Your boys must be getting big? 9 out of 10 times I have no idea who they are

I can't deal with seeing people I know, unless I know them very well, and I tend to have the awkward chit chat then leave the shop so there is no chance of further awkwardness

I once said hello, how are you, haven't seen you for ages to someone I met in the street.

It was only later I realised I didn't know her from Adam, or Eve. She was a fairly well known soap actress, who does ,in my defence ,bare a superficial passing resemblance to a friend of a friend..

I was once in the supermarket and I bumped into one of my old teachers from sixth form. Had the how are you's, how's so and so, lovely to see yous. Nice little conversation. Not that awkward?

1. I was standing with a 12 pack of condoms in one hand and a tube of 'Tingle' lube in the other. For the entire conversation. I didn't want to put them back, or in my basket, and draw attention to them.
2. My DMum was a teacher in the same place and a collegue of chatty teacher for 20 odd years.

I was about 26 at the time but i left that shop sharpish (and went somewhere else to make my purchases)

I changed my regular Saturday morning shopping time after bumping into a couple I vaguely know two weeks in a row

I went through a patch of aphasia and it got embarrassing having to keep asking people their name. Some people got upset and offended about it.
So I had an arrangement with the DC's that if I didn't introduce them to someone it was because I had forgotten their name, and they could bail me out by saying 'I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name'' in return for a fabulous prize.

Bastards dropped me in it by saying 'Mummy has forgotten your name'' and she hasn't spoken to me since

Going to my GP to discuss pregnancy options (accidental pregnancy) sent into see a doctor I’d never heard of. Walked in and it was one of DDs friends mums who had just switched from surgery to GP and used her maiden name for Work.

I had to stutter it was a bit personal and if she didn’t mind I’d see someone else, then I legged it!

This shows how old I am (59), but some older folk here might know who this celeb was.

When I was 18 I met the singer Lynsey de Paul. She chatted to me for ages, because she thought she knew me. She was embarrassed beyond belief when I told her we'd never, ever met before.

Dropping off a stool sample at the hospital on the way to work. They have a ‘sample collection box’ where you deposit your sample. And the turn round and realize the person right behind you is the person you have a 9am meeting with, who also has a carrier bag in hand to put into the box.