linking people

I was living near Dundee, Scotland with my husband. We had a phone call from Tim, who'd been our best man some ten years earlier. We'd all met at university in Dundee. He did not get in touch often, but was calling from his Nottingham home to tell us he was shortly due to go to Australia for a year, swopping jobs and homes with a fellow geologist there whom he'd not met, and would never meet due to the travel arrangements. I worked in Dundee public library's local history department. A few days after this call from Tim I was asked to work on a Wednesday morning to show round a group of 30 genealogists who were coming. I always worked from 1pm-9pm on a Wednesday, and in 8 years in the job this was the only time I was asked to swop hours. I duly showed the 30 genealogists, from Australia, the treasures of the local history department. Afterwards, and again, this was the only time this ever happened, they were shown into a separate room and given tea and refreshments. To be sociable I mingled with them a while, but only spoke to one person, completely at random. This man told me he was in Scotland prior to starting a year working in Nottingham, where he was swopping jobs with someone. He was a geologist. I casually said, "Yes, that would be Dr Tim Pharaoh then", and of course he was astonished I knew this. He must have thought the UK a very small place. That evening I phoned Tim, still in Nottingham and about to leave for Australia, and gave him a description of the man who'd be living in his house for a year, but whom he was destined never to meet.