Day 1717 - Small World

The world is a small town ...

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Whenever we go overseas Derek runs into someone he knows. It never ceases to amaze me that we can be walking through a mall in Pennsylvania, or a Walgreen's in Vegas, or along a beach in Hawaii and I will hear Derek say "g'day mate"and it turns out to be a basketball coach he used to know, or a bar tender from one of his old haunts, or a football player he recognises on sabbatical from the NRL.  As we got off the plane on US soil last week I said to Derek "how long do you think it will be before you bump into someone you know?"  He smiled knowing it would happen.

But this time it wasn't Derek that ran into an "old friend" - it was me.



Yesterday at Licensing University I found myself a seat in a session next to another woman.  Derek was off at a different seminar so I wanted to be sure I was near a friendly face with plenty of space around us so I could spread out. I'm one of these annoying types who brings her notebook, highlighters, coloured pens and reference sheets ... so I take up a bit of room.

I had my Cheer Chick Charlie doll with me.

The lady next to me made a comment about the doll, then asked if it was my concept.

"Yes", I said,  I went on to explain that I am an author and Charlie was the main character.

Of course my accent prompted her to ask where I was from.  "Australia", I said.  I had already noticed she too was Australian.

"Where in Australia?"

"Canberra. What about you?"

"Bowral," she laughs, "I'm just down the road!"

Then I started to really look at her. Gee she looked familiar.  I checked her name tag and the name was also familiar.  But from where?

"Where did you grow up?" I asked.

"Goulburn", she said.

"So did I!"

"No way", she said

"Where did you go to school?" I asked.

"Marian College", she said.

"So did I!"

"When did you graduate?" I asked.

She gave me the year which turns out to be the year after me.

"Wow", she said.  "We must have seen each other around school. What sports did you do?"

"Netball", I said.

"I played softball", she replied.

Then it hit me."  I also went to pony club", I said.

BINGO!

We realised we had moved in the same horsey circles.

From there we chatted about why we were at the Expo, where we lived now, what our plans were etc etc and we didn't leave each others' side for the rest of the day or night.  I introduced her to Derek and from there on in we became three.

There were a couple of hundred people in that room yesterday and I chose to sit next to her.

The world is a small town ...

A small country town ...

It's Goulburn!