General Chat

or just a million in 1 coincidence

Today some very kind member from here phoned me about probate. No we have never chatted before, infact we really haven´t had much to do with each other, but as we chatted today I mentioned about the lad that Mum has left money to in a Mombasa orphanage (part of the will).

Now here is the strange bit ..The lady who phoned me, not only knows about the orphanage in Keyna but knows the Lady in charge (Mums friend) as she lives next door to her son.

Weird conversations and even weirder twists of life ---

To the lady in question I thank you and if you wish to make yourself known that is okay

Wow, that is a coincidence.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

It is a small world Uzzi :-)

We went to Lanzarote and met a family at our apartments who we spent some time with as our children were of similar age..had dinner etc.

We said our goodbyes and agreed a good time was had by all. 2 years later we went to Florida....in the car hire office...yes the same family....we were all GOBSMACKED to say the least.....then we found out they were staying next door to us. :-D

My ex husband and I worked part time in a small pub for some years. One year we went to Bali and went for a walk one afternoon (which was difficult as cab drivers wanted to take us every where) . During this walk along what I would call a backstreet, we came across one man, who happened to be a regular customer in the pub we worked in.

On another holiday to Florida, we were entering a restuarant in Orlando just as someone who also worked in this pub was walking out.....There couldn't have been anymore than 8 people that worked in this pub, strange no one told us she was away to the same place as us at the same time

I was on holiday in Crete one year and was sitting in the hotel bar with the family having a pre dinner drink.

I had my back to the entrance but heard this voice from behind me and thought, I recognise that !

Was my GP and his family, he was smoking and had only the week before told my husband he really should give it up !!

small worlds are stranger than fiction, I am still reeling to work out that the person who gave me so much help actually knows the people closest to my Mums heart..

I have met people out here ie last week I went to an English market and mentioned that I lived on Caravanning La Manga ...now think this is a campsite of 2000 pitches ..they asked did I know B + A ..lol went I not only do I know them but they were my neighbours on the site ..Then it turned out that R knew me as I did her because she used to empty my machines in the pub I had near Brighton.

Now that is strange but an aids orphanage in Mombasa well what is the chance that 2 people could chat from a dedicated website about a total different subject ......
small world

I have been on the rounds with a friend emptying fruit machines in and near Brighton her name wasn't R though :-D

Jax I sold my pub 9years ago but I used to have Capital coin for my machines. My pub was The Windmill, Old Shoreham Rd, Southwick

This was 2004 so nine years ago....don't know the name of the fruit machine company just that the office was in East Grinstead (I think?)

I was an assistant manager of a pub in Shoreham from 2003/04

incidentally as a one off .one of my friends since I moved to Spain knows my best friend from The Windmill and what was my next door neighour who has now moved to Canada.

Looking at the map I would think where I worked and lived was very near you....Royal George, I must have driven past you on a regular basis to get to the M23

Yes Mombasa is a step rather far. We were once walking along the coast path in Guernsey, along a narrow cliff path and had to stand aside to let somebody pass. He played at the same golf club as my OH.

And we were in Walmarts in Orlando and bumped into four people from the same golf club.

Jax I sold my pub in APRIL 2004, I know the George well better than I should as a competing landlady . you couldn´t miss my pub it was huge and is now sadly a block of flats.

Thats the way pubs are going because of inflation

Ann I think the USA counts as a distance. and betters mine, not that I was trying, I am still trying to believe that somebody who phoned me om her own time to help me. actually knows all about the orphanage in Mombassa and lives next door to the family ...

I also left in April 2004 after a row with my manager over the way I was treated on mothers day....shame really found she also left not long after me...I could of stayed and taken her job :-D

I do remember your place, but didn't really go out much in my six months there, my days off would be spent in my old pub I ran with my husband in Cambridge or with friends from Crawley...or in the bar area of the George which needed doing up.

You may have known my manager she had been there a few years?

Im originally from Brighton and have been to The Windmill Pub!! :-D

Well I am the member who phoned Uzzi, still can't quite believe that our conversation about probate led us to me knowing the person who founded the orphanage.
What is even stranger that when I phoned Uzzi, my husband was with the son of this lady.
Another odd thing is , that Uzzi's was the first and only post I read on GR last night, and it was a subject I have had to deal with recently.

It was meant to be that I saw it and replied, very strange though :-D

the world is indeed small!


we married in August 1967, and spent 3 days at Expo 67 in Montreal

Day 1 ................... I came out of the British Pavilion, walked across an open area to join OH. There, leaning against the wall next to him, was a girl I had been teaching less than 1 month earlier.

Day 2 ................... walking across the huge plaza inside the main gates, and OH stopped suddenly. Coming towards us was another young couple ................. OH had played school rugby in Wales against the other man. But not only that ............. their fathers had been at the same school in Westmorland back in the 1920s.

D and his wife were emigrating to another part of Canada, their ship had docked in Montreal early that day, and they had a few hours to spend before catching the train. So, they had decided to go to the Expo.


Day 3 .................. go into the British Pub, just had to have a last "British" beer. Joked and talked with a blonde Canadian barmaid, along with the man sitting beside me at the bar .................... turned out he had attended the brother school of the one where I taught.

BUT .................... that blonde Canadian re-entered our life just over a year later. Now in Vancouver, OH interviewed and hired an Australian man to be his assistant. T was by then engaged to the Canadian .................... she had gone down to Australia after Expo, met T, and they were seeing where they would like to live.

We recognised her ................. she didn't, of course, recognize us out of the thousands of people who had visited that bar!!

Thank you Lynda for all your help on the phone and I am glad that you have come forward (they probably thought I was nuts otherwise lol ) I still can´t believe that I mentioned as part of the will an orphanage in Mombasa and you took it up from there.I am still waiting for J to phone me about the trust fund that needs to be set up but when she does I will tell her about talking to you ...with a smile on my face.

Jax and Jules I was in the Windmill from 1999 to 2004. Originally a manager for Bass then as an owner when we bought the place in 2001 ish. I was well know at other pubs who had either bar billiards or pool teams as we traveled to away games with all of them ..I had 4 + barbilliard teams and 2 pool teams plus 2 dart teams. I was actually well know as I was voted as the best pub who put on food for teams, and it used to be a joke when we played away that the teams would say yes we are getting good food tonight because we are playing the Windmill. I didn´t do sarnies as such for them I used to do chillie, curry and endless things, I used to have teams phone me up saying we are playing there this week can we have a chilli/curry/shepherds pie ..and food has stopped play . They also used to phone me to say how many veggies they had in their team. :-D