1 month ago
17
Even more odd meetings. Jim Pollitt of Wahroonga says, “Last year, I met, by arrangement in Martin Place, a friend visiting from England who I hadn’t seen for over fifty years. She had not been to Australia since then. While we were chatting a young woman approached and said to my friend ‘Are you Laura’s mother?’ Indeed, she was, the young woman had recognised her from a photograph she had seen of Laura with mother when visiting the UK some time before.”
Albert Lim of Marsfield adds, “At a small lakeside hamlet (population about 1000) on the shores of Lake Como, northern Italy, I went for lunch at a deserted roadside cafe. The waiter spoke rather good English and I enquired, as this was not a thriving tourist city. For the last six Italian winters he had worked as a waiter in an Italian restaurant in Gladesville, Sydney. My office was literally a few doors away on the same street in Gladesville, but I had never met him there. He gave me a small present for the Sydney owner as he would no longer be coming over after his upcoming wedding. The restaurant owner was full of praise for the popular gentleman as he took every opportunity he had to speak in English to the diners.”
Then, from Carol Bailey of Point Frederick, “Driving home I stopped to talk to a friend nearby. Next minute his wife appears and hands me her phone saying my daughter Sue in Sydney needs to speak to me. I had unknowingly left my mobile at an op shop. They had rung Sue as the emergency number on the phone, and Sue had contacted my friend.”
Also, Janet Griffin of Willoughby, who says, “Many years ago I was climbing down the steps inside the great pyramid in Cairo when I met my neighbour climbing back up. We hadn’t known each other was overseas.”
Still, not every chance meeting is quite so welcome. Liza Rybak of Bellevue Hill relates, “In 1978, I participated in a high school exchange to the former USSR. While visiting an ancient mosque in Samarkand I heard a voice call, ‘Open up wide!’ It was my dentist, Dr Rogozynski. A few years later I was on a hot date at the Melbourne film festival trying to act arty and cool. That distinctive voice again: ‘Keep flossing, Liza!’ Yes, it was my eccentric Polish dentist.”
Moving to a different subject, Antoinette Riley of Marrickville asks, “What can I do with 133 resilient, powerful, unused fridge magnets? I have been saving them for some essential recycling project. Any ideas?” The first questions are, why so many and why are they “unused”?
No attachments, please. Include
name, suburb and daytime phone
