serendipity

200 word challenge - part I

serendipity - i love the word (there is a house in hout bay with the name).  i have read it often but never been able to use it much (actually hardly ever but now i can)

oxford dictionary definition  “the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident”.

have you ever wondered about the past and how often your path may have crossed with someone that may end up being important in your life in the future?  those first teenage discos st thomas’s church, when you danced with (and sometimes kissed) boys you never knew?  how many teenagers in that hall on one particular friday night would end up in the same pta meeting on a tuesday night, 15 years in the future only a few hundred metres from your first “encounter”.   how your first “boss” mrs holloway who taught you so much about work and life and who, in later years, you would meet at stuttafords for coffee once a month to catch up on life in general, see photographs of her grandchildren far away and then years down the line you find out that her “little gabrielle in an easter bonnet” is in fact the lovely bielle.
(206 words – sorry a fail but i blame the definition)

i am cheating a bit but a little background before 2nd challenge

this is an encounter with serendipity that needs to be shared.  it happened about 2 years ago with my friends “the cullens” (and thanks to barry’s passion for filming we have a real recording of it).  i had what was a fairly odd call from wendy one morning “jen, when matt was a baby what colour pram did you have?”  was this a “check your mate" competition?  i had to think a bit but remembered that I had been given a candy striped yellow pram when matthew was born.  i remembered and told her, to be advised that "barry had a surprise for me".  “the cullens” came over to dinner one night and i was presented with this dvd:-

200 word challenge - part II

how awesome is that?  brief synopsis for those of you who don't recognise anyone. simon cullen is the very blonde, barefooted toddler waiting patiently for a yellow-sweatshirted 4-year-old gareth to come down the slide (not his best heights and still a no-no).  please note gareth's hands hanging on for dear life and wendy thinking "hurry up, my son wants a turn".  and how proud does gareth look when he hits the ground? nic is seen briefly trying to climb the steps to the slide. i am there doing a quick skip to stop him climbing.  simon makes his way to matthew in the striped yellow pram. wendy (yes, it was the 80's and we all had a perm at sometime, didn't we?) is following close on simon's heels (note wendy's beautiful hands and nails - still the same) and how cute is that baby, sucking desperately on this dummy?  two nice polite exchanges between wendy and myself and ending off with barry's beautiful baritone* voice thanking me and complimenting me on my baby.

barry then takes his film-making up a notch by adding footage of matthew's rugby (same boy, same nostrils, gum guard instead of dummy)

(197 words - howzat!!) 
the world is small and i suppose in our little southern suburbs comfort zone this is not that unusual. where the serendipity probably comes into it is 21 years later, with barry sitting in his study in betty's bay putting his old cine movies onto dvd, about to cut out all the "arb" people in his movie, thinking "i know that giggle" and asking wendy to give me a call. 

so basically barry ** "accidentally discovered something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated" - which is serendipity (whatuthink?)


ps. 
thank goodness there were no cameras at the st thomas's socials or serendipity may not hold the same meaning for me!!

*awesome alliteration

**accidental alliteration