Hands across the ocean

An old friend from my stay in Vermont a number of years ago, recently contacted me to ask if I'd be host to a friend of his and his family who are visiting Scotland at the end of this month. I loved my Vermont trip and a number of years later it was to provide me with the best 'small world' experience ever.

I was guiding on an open top bus and asking the passengers where they were from so I could make connections for them. I asked this young American woman and she said Vermont. I asked where in Vermont and she said it was a place I would never have heard of called Shelburne. I said that not only did I know it, I had cooked a seven course Indian banquet in the up-market Shelburne Inn. She asked how I had come to do this and I said a friend of mine had been the chef there and was a fan of my Indian food, so he had invited me for a holiday at the Inn if I would do an Indian theme night. She asked me what his name was and I said David Taylor. At this she squealed and said she had spent 2 weeks searching for David as she had been a little girl living at the Inn when he was there. I took out my mobile phone, said I had his number in it and gave it tu her.

She asked me if I had met her Dad and her uncle and I said that they would be the Webb brothers. She said yes and I said not only had I met them, but they had taught me to water ski on Lake Champlain.

The world doesn't get much smaller than that does it? Come on over Sandy et al, I'm looking forward to meeting you. Slainthe!