Obviously, the term small is relative. Compared with, say, an orange the world is massive whereas against the planet Jupiter it’s tiny.
None the less, this post is about a couple of instances where I have encountered someone from home when I have been far from it.
In reverse order, going from ‘yeh, I can see that’ to ‘no way!’ I’ll start with, whilst not what I’d describe as an encounter, it was something that I wasn’t expecting.
As I mentioned in an earlier post we visited the Severn Valley Railway a few days ago. We, obviously, had a great day and as we waited on our DMU for the final departure of the day a train pulled in to the adjacent platform.
Seating facing backwards, we watched a steady stream of passengers walk past us towards the exit. At some point, a couple of this contingent passed who looked vaguely familiar. As they were walking away from us I tried to articulate to Sue that they were, who we refer to as, The Walker and his other half.
Who? Years ago, when frequenting The Griffin, we would often notice a woman sat in a car who would be joined by a man who had run, or in later years walked to the pub. Sue and I often do similar with me walking and she driving to meet me. Chatting to the couple revealed that the pair would drive to the pub, she would read in the car whilst he went off for a run / walk and on his return would nip in for a couple of jars.
I wasn’t able to attract their attention on the day but did bump into them in The Griffin the following evening. “Did you enjoy that Severn Valley Railway yesterday?” I enquired. Somewhat taken aback, I explained that I had seen them and he went on to tell me that they had taken the train to Hampton Loade then he’d walk to Arley and back.
Kidderminster, to be honest, is not too far from home but my other “small world” experience was a few hundred miles distant.
A few years ago, we were travelling over to the Isle of Arran on the CalMac ferry from Ardrossan when I had that feeling that I was being watched. A guy across the bar was waving, presumably to someone behind me – so I ignored him. “That guy’s waving at you” stated Sue. “Can’t be”. He continued then came over. “You’re from The Griffin!” he announced.
It seems that the guy and his two companions were cycling LeJog (Lands End to John-o-Groats) and for some reason were going via Arran. We chatted about the island and discovered that they would be cycling from Brodick up to Lochranza for the ferry over to Kintyre.