The 'P' part, chance encounter ?

Chance encounter ?

So there we were heading out for a day in London. We walk to the train station in Horley, the short way that we know now, as we've done it a time or two at this point.

We leave time to pick up our pre-booked and paid for tickets via V. Trains as we've also learned that can get tricky sometimes too.

As we get close to the station we notice a couple rolling up the hill with a large red suitcase.  We bump into them a few minutes later at the ticket machine as the four of us jockey back and forth in the tight corner with the suitcase, our lattes and confirmation numbers.  Tickets are dispensed and each of us become absorbed in our own worlds as we tuck return tickets away and prepare for the trains arrival.

Now standing in the middle of the station there's a rail employee letting passengers know the 9.41 to Victoria station will be delayed about 10 minutes. No problem, it won't make much of a difference. This will now give us a few minutes breathing space. We make our way down the stairs and out to the platform.  There is a young lady out there wearing way too much perfume, so I quickly lead us down the platform a ways.  Yep, you guessed it, the couple with the red suitcase arrive at the same time and we're just about shoulder to shoulder.  In my usual outgoing manner I ask the woman where they are off to and a whole conversation follows.

They are on a one year sabbatical!  He's from Australia and she's Canadian. Their home is rented out to a family of recent Russian immigrants to 'down under'. Their belongings are spread out amongst family, a storage unit and supportive friends.  He's in IT, she's a nurse.  Just on their way to store the camping equipment they have been using for the past 90 days all around Europe, with another friend in Redhill, then off to Canada where they'll stay through Christmas.

They have been going on faith for much of this journey, not knowing where or how they are going next. Monique gave an example of them disembarking a ship with the question where now God? Harry and I couldn't help but smile.

So until the train arrived and for the one stop down the line until they got off we went back and forth with bits of our stories, managed to share each other's email addresses and were both encouraged to meet another couple on a similar adventure.

If the train had not been delayed we probably wouldn't have had such the depth of conversation and the chance to hear about their journey.  Sorry to the rest of the train load of passengers who had to wait for us!  Life is like that sometimes, chance encounters that are really not random at all, but for us, preordained.

Harry will share his thoughts on our day in the city, so stay tuned for that.