Small world

 

OK the saying that it's a small world is a cliché.

Rick and I had gone to breakfast in our B&B in Scotland, a country we love to visit. For me it's the seventh time, but only the second in Inverness. 

For Rick, Inverness is the first time. He is scheduled for a four-day hickory golf tournament and no way, was I going to stay home and think of him in Scotland without me.

I've been fascinated with the country since I read about Mary Queen of Scots as a child and over the years, I've visited places in the country that meant something to her. I've seen her wig and a piece of fabric from the dress she was wearing when she was beheaded by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. I stood on the spot where she was crowned as a baby. It was as if I have met her personally.

Our waitress was wearing a t-shirt that said Missouri. I told her that was where Rick and I had met.

The woman at the next table said that she was from Missouri (Not the same way my father would say, "And I'm from Missouri" to mean he didn't believe whatever he was told.) We mentioned Tan Tara where Rick and I met in the seventies. She talked about being in Tan Tara as a child.

Inverness has a population of about 48,000. It is steeped in Scottish culture and history. Tan Tara was a resort in Missouri and in 2017 became a housing development. 

The chances of four people having breakfast in a small Scottish B&B in Inverness who had been in Tan Tara the same year as we discovered in our subsequent conversation was probably less than winning the Euromillion Lottery.

But the more we chatted the more we discovered we had in common such as being in journalism, sharing political points of view, the men sharing golf as a sport, etc.

A totally serendipity moment in what is indeed, a small world.