What a small world that is...

or "about improbable probabilities".

One particularly amazing thing happened to me in Vancouver. I was just queuing up to get into an Irish Pub, as someone called my name. The next person I could think of who knew my name was 250km further south, in Seattle, and I was naturally surprised. However, that surprise was nothing compared to what I felt when I realised who was actually calling me.

Chatai is a fellow PhD student of my at Monash University. He works in the office right below my. Also, we sometimes play football together (my American friends, it's what you call soccer). Also, he was standing right in front of me. I must have looked quite baffled, but he did not yield an inch in looking just as confused. It turned out that he had been to a conference somewhere in eastern Canada and was on a one-day layover in Vancouver before catching a plane back to Oz. He came to the town to meet some friends and was just walking back to the hotel. This event made me think about faith and probability and how they relate to each other. What were the odds of ending up in the same city on the same day? And what were the odds of running into each other?? I remembered how 5 minutes earlier, I was reckoning whether I should queue up for that Irish pub, or for another one around the next corner. I also remembered how I was working out whether to go to Vancouver on that weekend or on the previous one. And I also remembered how I decided not to play lottery that day...

We spent a few merry hours over a couple of beers and Chatai brought me up to date on the latest gossip news from Monash. As I staggered home that night I was thinking about the Heart Of Gold and her infinite improbability drive.

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