It's a small world...

[Dayvo]

I know two people who live in Denmark (population just over 5.5 million):

Simon from Essex, an old mate from uni in the mid 90s, and Henrik, my sister-in-law's Swedish husband, whom I've known five years.

Both are good mates of mine.

Both live in Copenhagen (population just under two million) about two miles from each other.

Both work for the same company. And in the same department.

And now they know they have a 'common' denominator: moi!

You got any stories?

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I bumped into an old school friend on a railway platform in Sydney in 1990; turned out we were both heading to the same small town in Victoria to meet the same person who was known to both our parents.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

A few weeks after that I was working on a farm in Renmark in South Australia and the mayor of a nearby town pulled up in her car and asked for me by name; she had heard from the local pub that there was a Scotsman in town and she wanted to say hello - turned out that she originally lived 12 miles from the town I come from and her brother and I played football together from when we were 12 til we were 18.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

And today, whilst en route to our holiday destination, I popped into a café 2 hours hours drive away from my home and met 8 people I knew, none of whom knew each other.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Do I win?

 

[glenn forger]

It was a snowy day in Krakow, I wandered around the largest medieval square in Europe and then entered the maze of narrow streets to the north till I found a second-hand bookshop. I looked through the old maps and prints then picked up a copy of Spenser's Faerie Queen. I looked inside the front cover and the nameplate dated 1920 gave an address on Leytonstone High Road, fifty feet from my house.

 

[vernon]

And today, whilst en route to our holiday destination, I popped into a café 2 hours hours drive away from my home and met 8 people I knew, none of whom knew each other.

How many prison sentences have you served?

 

[CopperBrompton]

Best I can manage is bumping into an old friend I hadn't seen for several years in an airline lounge in San Francisco (we were both from London).

 

[Crackle]

I'd delete that. Rocky. Not quoted so you still can....

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Standing outside the tourist information office in Tallinn, Estonia I got talking to someone interested in bikes, as you do when touring (especially with Thorn Nomads). Explaining our tour, he commented that he used to work in Farnborough, not far from where we set out from (we used to live in Surrey). More talking established that not only had he worked for the same company as my OH, but they worked in the same building and on the same floor... didn't know each other though. It turned out he had taken voluntary redundancy in the round of redundancies prior to my OH taking it....

 

[stephec]

Did I ever mention that I was related to Margaret Thatcher and John Major?

Love child?

 

[vernon]

I needed to replace my rear tyre on my Decathlon Triban Riverside 7 (Triban was used for hybrids before it was applied to road bikes) so I called into a Decathlon branch in Tours to have the tyre replaced by the service department. - it cost a coupkle of Euros extra. Ahead of me was a fellow Brit also with a Decathlon bike.

I said to him, 'You don't see many Brits riding Decathlon bikes'

He replied, 'I wouldn't have considered the brand but I read a glowing review of the Triban by a bloke called Vernon on the CTC message board.'

 

[hoopdriver]

Many years ago when I was living in Melbourne and working for the Sunday Age, I skipped out one afternoon 'to see a contact' and headed over the the MCG instead to watch the cricket. I was sitting there in the sunshine, smug in having gotten away when I glanced to my right and only a few seats away sat my section editor - who had also skipped out for the afternoon. Our eyes met, our faces reddened, then we just laughed, moved seats to sit next to each other and ordered up a couple of beers

 

[Archie_tect]

I needed to replace my rear tyre on my Decathlon Triban Riverside 7 (Triban was used for hybrids before it was applied to road bikes) so I called into a Decathlon branch in Tours to have the tyre replaced by the service department. - it cost a coupkle of Euros extra. Ahead of me was a fellow Brit also with a Decathlon bike.

I said to him, 'You don't see many Brits riding Decathlon bikes'

He replied, 'I wouldn't have considered the brand but I read a glowing review of the Triban by a bloke called Vernon on the CTC message board.'

.... and, one day if I ever get to meet him, I'll punch his lights out.

 

[Bollo]

A month or two back I was returning on the Cowes-Scum ferry from a quick ride around the Isle of Wight and got chatting to a chap who'd also boarded a ferry on a bike. We nattered on for most of the journey, slowly realising that we had fewer and fewer degrees of separation. The reveal was when I mentioned Boletta's (real) name - it's relatively unusual around these parts - and he realised Bolletta and his grand-daughter have been friends since they were about a year old.