I live in CA which has about half the population of the UK but in about twice the area. Im surprised here how often I run into people I know up and down the state, or people who know someone I know.
Im wondering if this happens a lot living in the UK since there are so many people compressed in a small area. Does it sometimes feel like it is hard to get away from the usual crowd?
23 comments
Nope. I have avoided people for years in London!
I live near a pretty small city and occasionally see people I know but not often at all
Depends. Pretty much all towns and cities other than London, are small enough that running into people you know or have a connection with in some way is a common occurrence. London’s probably the only place big enough that it’d be easier to miss people. Even then, with public transport being the easiest way to get around, you’ll bump into people more often than you expect.
Overall though, once you leave the areas where you’ve lived and a know a lot of people, I find it fairly uncommon to be bumping into people.
On a side note, I’ve managed to bump into people I know at Disney World Florida, in Egypt, a small rural town in France and even on a short domestic flight in Poland, despite being from a town that has less than 30 thousand people.
I think the world overall is just becoming a smaller place with us all traveling all the time.
Edit: I think it’s important to point out that obviously the more you travel, the more likely you are to run into people you know. I travel fairly frequently, so my odds of running into people up and down the country is likely much higher than most people’s average.
I run into Bonny King Charlie all the time and I see everyone else down t’pit while we’re waiting to see if the canary croaks it.
I visited London once for work (200 miles away) and bumped into a friend from my home town on the tube.
So yes its impossible to avoid people you know on this large island with almost 70 million people here.
Not really
The area is not particularly relevant, since almost everyone in the UK lives in roughly a 100 mile radius of London, Birmingham or Manchester or along the central belt of Scotland plus a handful of relatively more isolated populous cities, and the rest of the UK is empty.
Assuming CA means California, it’s the same where everyone lives within 100 miles of San Francisco Bay or the stretch of LA to San Diego and the rest is mostly empty.
Yes, absolutely I do.
Though the most bizarre ones have been in London where I have found myself next to friends at the traffic lights, or walked past someone I know in the street randomly, or in a restaurant.
Now I live in a small town (45k people). I live a mile from the centre. If I go in (not that often), I am guaranteed to see at least one person I know, and Ive only lived here 9 yrs.
Then there are types of places specific to sorts of people- I lived in West London for a while and though I was just in an ordinary area, it was not far from the TV / media places, so you recognised people from TV and films in the street, in the cafes and in restaurants all the time. Where I live now is fairly near where they film one of our soaps, and we see cast members fairly often when we go to the nearby city and towns.
Mind you, many years ago I went on holidaay in Peru and ran into someone randomly, but ofc that was an actual tourist location (the train going to the Inca bit).
The reason you run into people you know in strange places is that the world is a lot smaller than you think and there’s only 200 real people in it. Everything else is a figment of your imagination!
I wouldn’t say I frequently run into people. The only thing is that where I live, there’s basically one big employer and nearly everyone I meet has some connection through that. Whether they work there, worked there in the past or are in a relationship with someone who works there, it then makes it very quick to establish a connection. For example, I joined a sports club and half the members work at this employer (and most of the other half are married to people who are!).
I was working away in London a few months ago and on 2 separate occasions I met someone from my home village, which is about 150 miles away (which is far in England). I also got chatting to a dog walker recently who was also from that village (I now live 60 miles from there).
Yes, because I spend most of my time in and around the small town where I live. Astonishing, I know.
If I go somewhere else in the UK, then no, I don’t
Not really. The UK is small compared to America, but it’s still not *that* small. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve bumped into people I know completely at random.
But, I grew up in a city, and then moved to London. If you’re in a smaller town it’s different. My wife comes from a small town and if we go there she will see at least 2 or 3 people she knows, guaranteed. But I’d imagine that’s not different from small towns in the US.
I live in a very small town. Less than 10k population. I see someone I know pretty much every time I leave the house.
If we go further afield, to the next town over etc it’s not unusual for me to see someone there either.
Weirdest one I had was when I was on a long car journey with the kids and decided to break it up by stopping at a tiny wildlife reserve for a walk / picnic. About 150 miles from home. Bumped into someone from my town that I knew.
I live in a town of about 50,000 people. I can easily walk around town without seeing anyone I know. Maybe one visit into town in ten I’ll bump into someone I know. On the other hand, I bumped into someone from my church in St Pancras’ Station in London once.
Depends where you go. If I went to a goth pub or a science fiction convention in any UK city, I would be unsurprised to meet someone I know.
Random small town, not so much. But twice I’ve been in America and run into someone I’ve known from the UK – one in a museum in NYC, one in an international airport.
You can do, I rarely see people I went to school with just out-and-about and I still live in the same borough.
If I’d moved to a different part of the city, I’d dare say I would never see anyone, ever.
When I was in college, we had a trip to Disneyland Paris for some inexplicable reason. During the somewhat stormy crossing from Dover, I ran into some people I’d gone to primary school with, some 300+ miles from said school;
In London you could go for years without bumping into people you knew.
Me: I live in the Westcountry.
Stranger: Oh, my cousin/grandma/aunt/dog’s friend, etc. lives in Devon! They’re called [×]. Do you know them?
Me: Uh, you know there’s several million people who live in the Westcountry, right?
Stranger: OK, but do you know my them?
Me: *sighing* Yes.
I run into people I know occasionally. I think it’s more that the UK requires you to do a lot more walking and requires us to congregate in specific places.
For example I live in a big-ish city. Like all cities in the UK there is a city centre where all the shops and restaurants are. If I want to do shopping or goto the cinema, my options are limited. The same applies to other people. So we all have to goto the same place.
But I wouldn’t say you’re constantly in the same crowd of people. I might see someone I know every few weeks
No
Lived and Worked in London for 20 years and “bumped into” work colleagues outside of work twice in all that time
A long time ago i was trying to avoid a woman who was really clingy and wanted to to be friends with me, boyfriend and i went on holiday to the other side of the country, went to a tourist spot, i’m looking over a balcony and there she is on the ground floor waving up at me.