Toby and Pippa

A couple of weeks ago I was heading to Castleford to go shopping, and was then immediately driving over to Manchester to stay with some friends prior to the Chester Marathon.  As I was driving over I realised that there were two ways I could go; either by Garforth or directly down the A1.  I suddenly thought that if I went via Garforth I could call in on some old friends, and assuming that they still lived there, catch up with them.  I'd not seen these people for about seven years so considered it likely that they may well not still be living in the same place, or even if they were, unlikely that they'd be at home or that it would be convenient to see me.

Having umm'd and ahh'd about it for a few minutes I decided not to call in, but resolved to try and go and see them in the near future.  The main reason for this was that I was already late in departing for Manchester, and I didn't want to delay this further.  I proceeded to Castleford and got on with my shopping, which was predominantly for warmer running clothes as the winter evenings are making running in my short shorts quite a 'bracing' experience. 

In one of the shops there was a horrendous queue due to one of the tills not accepting card payments.  I nearly didn't bother staying in the queue, but the thought of having to either go to other shops to find a similar top or to come back on another day seemed excessive so I decided to bear the queue out.  As I'd just paid, I turned around only to find Pippa (one of the old friends) standing there, and Toby (her husband and the other old friend) waiting at the back of the queue.

It was great to catch up with them, and although we only spent 10 minutes or so talking it was really good.  Again, as with a few other blog posts that I've made recently, I don't think that this can be purely coincidence.