Six degrees of seperation

It’s a small world after all . . .

Everybody knows this song, in fact your probably singing it in your head right now! If you don’t know the song then continue reading and this will just reinforce my belief that ever since Christopher Columbus discovered New Zealand in 1769 the world had been getting smaller and smaller, for example I believe in the concept of six degrees of separation, but always thought it was a little unrealistic at the same time.

Anyway, a few months ago we where sitting in an Irish bar in Luxembourg called the Pyg with some Italian friends having a few beers – sounds like the start of a joke doesn’t it. What you must understand is that when your in a county and you cant speak the local language its an incredibly good feeling to hear your language spoken and understand what’s happening around you (even if it is with an Irish accent) so as you can imagine we frequent the Pyg a lot. However on this day it had been rather uneventful and was about 11 o’clock at night. We where finishing our beers so we could catch the last bus of the night. I quickly went into the toilet (there is not a lot worse than having a full bladder on a bouncy bus ride home.)
While I was standing at the urinal a guy came in, I glanced over and casually said hello, with that came a quick retort as he replied in an English accent, ‘oh s#@t another Ozzie’. Now there are two things annoyed me about this comment. First of all a lot of countries especially the smaller ones have a country they don’t like to be associated with. In Canada its America, in Belgium its France, in New Zealand its Australia - maybe it’s the big brother syndrome, no body wants to be compared with bigger siblings but at the same time desperately wants to ‘kick their ass’) Secondly in over eight months living in Luxembourg I had only met a total of 5 Ozzies and Kiwis here. So I looked over at him with the intention to politely tell him to ‘bugger off’ when I realised he was joking and knew perfectly well I was a Kiwi and just wanted to see my reaction.

So standing at the urinal we began to chat (don’t ask it’s a guy thing) he explained that he knew a lot about New Zealand and in fact was even in New Zealand two weeks ago for a wedding. Suddenly incredibly keen to hear anything about home I asked him where the wedding was, ‘Russell – in Northland’ he replied. Something was a bit weird here so I dug further and asked him the names of the couple that got married, he looked at me strangely as he replied . . . after a lengthy pause it sunk in, we would have been at the same wedding if we hadn’t been living in Luxembourg.
Now take a second to think about that . . . What are the chances of meeting (in a bathroom in Luxembourg ) one of the guests of a wedding that had only 100 people attend and was performed 11,276km away - and yes, I did look it up.

Now seeing as we where officially best friends we wandered back to the table keen to tell everyone what had happened. If you don’t think this story can get much stranger then keen reading. It turns out that Mike was in Luxembourg to see some friends and had flown over from London just for the weekend; he didn’t even live in this country and was here for a grand total of 60hours. We sat down at the table and began regailing the story of our ‘bathroom meeting’ when a manager from my work arrived. That’s not strange he is one of the few people I know in Luxembourg and I see him everywhere. What is strange is that he was here to meet Mike - the guy that I just met in the bathroom, not only did they know each other my manager also knew our friends in New Zealand, it turns out they all worked together in Germany a few years ago.

So after a few tequila shots to celebrate the newly weds and a few more just because we couldn’t quite believe what had happened someone had the great idea to call New Zealand and explain what was going on. Out came the company phones and a rather lengthy and expensive call occurred to explain how the four of us came to be sitting in the same tiny Irish pub in Luxembourg talking about them. The night went on like this nobody could quite believe what had happened, we talked and laughed about it for hours. Finally when it was all over we had to endure a lengthy, cold and sobering walk home because our night was only just beginning when the last bus for the night was leaving.

Now I ask you the question again, do you believe the world is getting smaller?