Having just returned from the East coast and having experienced 3 chance meetings whilst there and also in the past met people unexpectedly on holiday I wondered how common this is.....

First I met my old clarinet teacher a number of years back (about7) at a peri concert he was involved in. I was attending with my class/school (as a teacher). Unexpected yes but not that unusual since it was on the Leeds circuit and I was taught in Leeds. However, we arrived at Sewerby Hall last week and found that a band was due to play that afternoon. Then I caught sight of a man disappearing into the cafe and thought instinctively that it was my old teacher. Not being one to let things lie I followed him in to find out and sure enough it was him. He was guesting with the band !!!!

Then we met my daughter's ballet teacher's assistant in Filey!!! They have a caravan there.


And..... Walking along the front at Brid, just leaving the beach we met an old friend from uni who we've not seen in years!!!!


Does this happen to anyone else???? .
It happens to me quite a lot .

Was not sure about whether or not to post this in the coincidences thread as it is rather a coincidence that we were in precisiely the same place at the same time when neither were in their usual stopming grounds...


In the past I met the parents one of my my best friend's in a tiny place in Greece!!! They gave me my friend's new phone number.

When I was at uni our college had a theological training college tacked on the end and we always joked that there were trainee vicars more-or-less wherever one went in the North East, as we bumped into them everywhere!

I've also bumped into people I know in both Paris and in St Peterburg - on neither occassion was either party expecting the other one to be there!

In Paris I was on a school art trip in 6th form and, in the Musee D'Orsay, saw someone who I was in the county Youth Orchestra with. We didn't go to the same school and had no contact outside county music, so being there at the same time was total coincidence.

In St Pete, when I was on the beginning of my year abroad, I bumped into a girl in the year above who was at the end of her year abroad. We were only in the city at the same time for a few weeks. Despite that, we bumped into each other twice, both being so surprised the first time that we did not think to exchange contact details, and then meeting again on the Metro! (Anyone who has been on the St Pete Metro will realise that while meeting on the Metro was pretty unlikely, being in a position to talk and exchange contact info was even more unusual... )

I keep meeting people unexpected whilst holidaying abroad as well. Several years ago we went to Florida and were in a crowd of thousands waiting for one of the water parks to open and my five year old son asked if he could go and stand next to James. I looked up and there was his best friend from school, from a class of twelve children in a small country school.

Also met my brother in law at the airport, their flight home took off just after we landed at the start of the holiday, met another schoolfriend of my son on the same flight as us, and a school friend of mine was in the next coach waiting to board a ferry at Dover parked alongside.

It must be a much smaller world than we think.

Yes I think that too. It also kind of feel's "meant to be" and before anyone criticises me for saying that let me just say that quite often these meetings would not happen if one or other party had undergone their movements just minutes or seconds earlier/later.

e.g. if we hadn't left the beach exactly when we did we wouldn't have met our friends at that point as we'd still have been on the path from the beach or we'd have crossed the road.

Maybe observancy plays a part too as neither my hubby or our friend saw each other. They would have passed each other unawares had I not reacted quickly, saying S**** (his name) and catching his attention. Wonder how many people we walk past in this way too...

Must admit, I was very surprised on walking into a Methodist church in Durham just over a week ago to discover someone from my home Circuit already in a pew there. The funny thing was that we hadn't even intended to go to that church, but our first choice didn't have a service that morning, so we moved on.

I know what you mean about feeling it was "meant to be", Dawn!

It happened to me on Monday this week!

I was in a coffee shop when in walked one of my oldest friends.

Not particularly remarkable but I didn't know she had just arrived home from Australia 48hours previously where she has lived for ten years!!! I haven't seen her for several years so it was such a wonderful surprise and lovely to see her - she's home to stay.. with hub and wee toddler who spoke with the most outrageous Australian accent when talking about her lollipop