South China Sea...

In 1983 I stayed with friends of friends who were working in Singapore. One weekend, on my own, I went across the border to Malaysia and got a taxi to the port of Mersing on the East coast to then passenger on a supply boat to the resort island of Rawa. The boat trip lasted, I think, about an hour. There were other passengers and, while sitting on boxes of bottled water, I got chatting to a woman who's husband was on a short contract in Singapore and they were weekending on a neighbouring island to Rawa. I was living in Richmond, Surrey, at the time of this holiday. We both asked where in England we were from and she said they were living in Dorset. It is not a county I know well but I said I had a good friend fom Dorset, although she no longer lived there but her parents still did. When I asked where she lived, she said the name of a town. I replied that was near where the friend's parents had lived, and I'd stayed with them for a long weekend, and asked her if it was near Chideock. The woman said it was, but in fact they lived in a tiny hamlet with only a couple of houses and a farm. I said, yes, that's the sort of location near Chideock where I'd stayed. She described the small country lane that ended in a farmyard and I asked, do you live in Brighthay Farm? She was amazed. I said you must have bought the Farm off the Somerset-Paddons.... she said she had. I said, I've stayed in your farmhouse... We were on a supply boat in the South China Sea, never having met before..... what are the chances?? Mark W