Imagine you're on holiday abroad - let's say it's Turkey, cos Turkey is a lovely country.

[benjamincox@writing.exchange]

@davidnjoku This literally happened to me - I crossed paths with a school friend years ago as I was in the airport in Detroit.

Fucking Detroit, of all places! 🤷🏻‍♂️

[afewbugs@social.coop]

@davidnjoku I've kind of had the opposite happen to me, recognising the person but not the context. I used to work at a botanical garden during the week, at a grocery store at weekends. And one day a colleague from the botanic garden walked in to the grocery store and I asked him to help me stacking this shelf, because my subconscious clearly recognised this person and categorised him as someone I work with, but didn't make the distinction that he wasn't someone I worked with _here_.

So basically I'm now worried that if I went to Turkey and bumped into a neighbour I'd think I was back on my street and had wasted all that money on a holiday.

[pete@social.coop]

@davidnjoku Oh we had a nice chat. We got on very well, they were just quite private. (Until their kid befriended us and then all barriers were down.)

[atlefren@snabelen.no]

@davidnjoku you are missing the option "recognize them but don't acknowledge them because why do I have to deal with them now??"

[grumpydad@infosec.exchange]

@davidnjoku Hide and avoid them like the plague

[davidnjoku@mastodon.world]

@afewbugs That's so brilliant. I didn't even think of that as something that might happen.

[bazbt3@appdot.net]

@pete @davidnjoku *Years* ago we went to Newquay (Cornwall, a long way from here in north Manchester) and saw a guy I worked with. And his older brother who I didn't work with but who did some decorating for us. And older older brother, who I worked with.

Yeah, all at once, I could have said entire family couldn't I. :)

[gdinwiddie@mastodon.social]

@davidnjoku We were in Switzerland once when our son was between grades in junior high school. A kid walking the other way on a street in Luzerne said "Hi, Jon." Jon said "Hi, Mike." Both just kept walking. It turned out that they were in the same class in school.

[davidnjoku@mastodon.world]

@gdinwiddie Kids are weird. They'd be totally unfazed by the craziest of coincidences, but then they'll lose their mind over something quite ordinary like an odd-shaped cereal or whatever.

[ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us]

@gdinwiddie @davidnjoku
I ran into one of my former high school classmates in the Musée d'Orsay (Paris).
I said "'Hi Meg."
She said "Hi" back.
And we continued past each other.
We had been in maybe two or three classes together. One of my friends was one of her friends.
I haven't seen her since.