AIBU to ask for your small world stories?

[Weston14]

Shamelessly posting for traffic

I'm a long, long way from home atm on business and met someone over here who is friends with one of my old friends I've not seen in about 15 years! For context neither me nor the lady are from the same city (opposite ends of the country in fact.)

Anyone got any similar stories about it being a small world?

Went for a night out in London with one of my best mates. He worked in the MOD and subsequently, he was able to drink in the Civil Service Club in Whitehall, which is a subsidised / cheap bar, where he can sign in guests.

We had a fun evening getting merry with his colleagues and when time was called, his colleague Richard insisted we all go to a member's club and he could sign us in. The night carried on, Richard although at least 30 years older than me, was a total hoot, so we added each other on FB in our drunken haze.

Fast forward two years, my friend at work asks how I know Richard X. Richard isn't really on FB often and I'd clean forgotten him to be honest. I said I don't know a Richard X. Friend said I must do, as I'm friend's with him.

I looked him up. Remembered him, told friend he lives and works in London and about how I met him.

Friend said that she's FB friends with him and noticed I was friend in common. Turns out both Richard and my friend own property in Turkey and are next door neighbours on the complex!

Oh forgot important fact.. He recognised my dad's English accent as where he grew up

Not me, but my brother was visiting his girlfriends family in a very untouristy part of Italy last summer.
Driving along, a small child ran out of a restaurant and into the road in front of the car he was travelling in, quickly followed by a very apologetic father who turned out to be my brothers new boss (my bro been working at the firm only a few weeks) , also there visiting inlaws!

Went skiing with my family and another family when I was about 15. First time for us but they went a lot so had suggested places, flights, company we booked through etc. Got to Geneva airport and collected luggage, decided we all needed to go to the loo before heading out for the hour or two’s drive to the hotel. The men went off, as did the other mum, and her dds while we guarded the luggage. She came back saying the loos has a really long queue so suggested trying the others in case they were better, which we did. Mum was in front of me but I was beginning to really really need to go so she let me go before her. As the next cubicle opened ready for mum to go in, heard a big commotion and thought oh mum, what’s up now...

Turns out the lady who walked out of her cubicle-to-be was her cousin who she didn’t get to see very often as they lived a long way away.

If she hadn’t let me go first, she would have just missed her and as I very rarely saw her cousin there’s a good chance she would have walked straight past me without recognising me.

Obviously we all caught up outside - turned out she was with her family and they had all been on the same plane as us but in a different part so we hadn’t seen them. They were staying at a different resort but flying back on the same plane as us so we were all able to meet up with them while waiting for the flight which was nice.

Another one - dh had a good friend through work. Went on a training / msc course he did as part of switching careers a couple of years later and one of his best mates on the course had a really good school friend he still spent a lot of time hanging out with - was this same friend. I worked in same field as dh’s original job and ended up getting froend’s job when he left. He went to a new company wher he switched fields sideways and took over the job of somebody who I knew completely independently through an organisation I belonged to. And then when friend moved jobs again it was taken over but somebody else that I knew but that friend didn’t. Met up with friend and his new girlfriend, who worked in an incredibly niche area and I asked if she had ever come across xxx who was a good friend of one of my friends from college days as I’d been out with them both the week before and she had been saying about her job. Turns out that my friend’s friend was her boss. Dh and I still reckon that there are good chances that there are still people that we both know but haven’t figured out yet or that we will meet on holiday etc that will know him. And my cousin has recently moved to his area so really wouldn’t be surprised to discover they link soon too 🙄😂 but unfortunately as friend doesn’t do Facebook it’s not so easy to see!

No specifics to mention but when I was a child, wherever we went to on holiday my dad always bumped into someone he knew.

I had thought it may have been me misunderstanding, but my dad recently passed away and when chatting with a friend of his, his reminiscences of my dad were the same - they used to travel to different parts of country in connection with sporting organisation and he said that wherever they went, there was always someone my dad knew.