On a Sidewalk in Melbourne

I run into people.

I know it happens to everyone, that there are millions of small-world stories, that travellers are particularly prone to bump into each other again and again. Sally ran into a friend she hadn't seen in years in a square in Berlin; they now work together. That kind of thing.
All this I know.

And yet, it still seems to happen to me a lot. There are the what-are-the-chances fun ones.
Twice over three days in L.A.
Or in Toronto: with the exception of this past November, every single time I've been to Toronto since moving away (at least twice a year over the past 4), at some point I run into Serena and Antonio [separately, mind you -- as far as I know, they've never met].
My last night in the city on one such visit, I was slightly disappointed that I hadn't had a chance encounter with Antonio (having bumped into Serena on Queen West), only to get on the packed subway at 2am and sit directly across from him.
Come to think of it, though, that sort of fits: we first met in New Brunswick when I was 12, through mutual friends his family was visiting. About 10 years later, I'm living in Toronto and having a pint with some friends. Antonio is the server and he puts it together.
I'm the first to admit I'm completely baby-faced and haven't changed all that much, but still, it was a dark patio. And I was a decade older. What are the chances, right?
[Side note: I end up getting a job at the same bar not a month later.]

But I digress.

Then there are the serendipitous, perfect-timing ones. Like biking past Dan in Nepean almost a year after the first and (until that point) only time we'd met, only to learn that one of his housemates had recently moved out, while I was having a hideous time trying to find a room.

[For the a more detailed account, please consult entries from September-October 2007.]

***
February 18th

Wednesday afternoon, I'm walking down Chapel Street in St. Kilda and who should be coming toward me but Dianne and Jacqueline, the two Scottish girls from Fiji.
I thought they were in New Zealand for 6 weeks and then heading to Queensland. They didn't know I was in Melbourne.
We make plans to meet in the evening. Their intention is to stay in the city and they're on the hunt for work. I have mini-reveries the rest of the day about how great it would be to get a place all together.

When we meet up later, that's the very first thing they suggest.
What are the chances?

Guess Melbourne wants me to stick around a bit longer.