Coincidence?

I was thinking about the recent few posts I wrote about nice people and was trying to think of another theme that I can write about. I think there are a couple of things that have happened either to me or to people around me that have been the most amazing coincidences that they're worth writing about. So here goes.....

....it was the winter of 1992-1993 and I was on a skiing holiday with a select group of close friends (actually there were 54 of us, but at the time, we heaved around in a mob!) It was Val Thorens in France, an excellent resort for pre-ski, durant-ski, and apres-ski!!!! There was alot of social activity. It was a great holiday. I may have some pictures which I'll scan for facebook at some point. yeah, just to embarrass you all!

Anyway, back to the story....so I was in the queue for a chair lift, and because it was peak season, the lift operators weren't having any of the 'I want to sit with my friends' lark which normally goes on. No empty seats. They made everyone fill every seat on the lift. So, I ended up on a 3 seater lift with 2 chaps who I didn't know. It was a loooooooong chair lift. 15 or 20 minutes up to the top. So when I realised they were English, we got chatting and exchanged pleasantries.

"Where are you from?" they said
"I'm from Portsmouth, where are you guys from?"
"Wirral"
"Oh really? I live in Portsmouth now but the Wirral is where I grew up"
they smiled (I don't think my accent gives me away as a Wirralian)
"Whereabouts on the Wirral?" I asked.
"Heswall" they replied (** for the non Wirral people reading this, Heswall is a village about 7 or 8 miles from Bromborough)
I explained that I knew people from school who had lived in Heswall coz I'd gone to Upton Convent - but that actually I was from Bromborough.
"Oh we know Brombrorough" they said.
In fact, they went on to tell me that they were solicitors acting for a business in Bromborough, hence why they knew it so well.

Cue the point were I say "Oh my Mum and Dad have a business in Bromborough - it's the Italian restaurant. Do you know it?"

"Do we know it?" they looked at each other and laughed. "We had lunch there 2 days ago!"
"You are kidding?" I said. "It's the one on the precinct. Used to be a SPAR. Right opposite the British Legion?"

"Oh yes, they said, that's definitely the one. Roberto's?"

"Well my Dad is Roberto, and everyone calls it that, but it's actually called Romagna" I said, and they went on to tell me that they were acting on behalf of the shop next door to the restauraunt, which was a sewing shop called 'The Stitchery' during the dispute that all the tennants of the precinct were having with the landlord in relation to the recent rent increases. Mum and Dad were having the same dispute.

It was a major coincidence!

I couldn't wait to tell the crowd! So, that evening I was holding court at the bar. As everyone was coming down ready for dinner, I was telling them all about the fact that I'd shared a chair lift with 2 guys who'd had dinner in our restaurant, 2 days before. Mega coincidence.

As I was telling the story, I noticed a gentleman sitting at the bar. He was listening intently to my story and as I told it a couple of times to different groups of friends, he seemed to get more interested. Eventually, as I filled in the end of the story again, telling the 2 solicitors that the restaurant wasn't called Roberto's, but that was Dad's name....the guy leant forward and shouted across the bar....."Are you Robbie's girl?"
"Pardon?"
"I said, are you Robbie's girl?"
"errrm, well I think I could be described as that....my Dad's name is Roberto"

He looked me up and down and said "Italian, Roberto, Dibbinsdale Hotel. How many Italians called Roberto can there be in Bromborough?"

Turns out that many years before, in the late 60's, when Mum and Dad worked in the Dibbinsdale Hotel, this chap had been a regular resident at the hotel, in fact had virtually lived there Monday to Friday for a couple of years! He'd heard me telling the story to the guys at the bar (several times!), and had put 2 & 2 together, and realised he knew Mum and Dad. It was hilarious.

You should have seen the incredulous looks on the faces of all my friends. I think that they thought I'd bribed this guy to pretend to know me after the story of meeting the solicitors on the ski-lift.

What can I say?

It's not my fault that I'm the centre of the universe, is it? :-)