Flashback

Hell. Why does your brain throw random information at you when you least expect it?

Has anyone ever had one of those 'light bulb' moments, where your brain, for absolutely no apparent reason, retrieves some previously insignificant piece of information from your on board recycle bin and not only restores the item to the location it used to be at without you requesting it, but whilst it's on a roll, it digs around in the recycle bin and retrieves a few more items which it deems have some sort of link to the newly recycled information and stores them right at the front of your brain. Just in that part which comes to the foreground of your involuntary thought processes at the most inconvenient of times?

The reason my on board computer decided it was calling the shots - it thinks it's found a link with the present.

Let me explain.

I was visiting the little girls room at work, minding my own business. I don't recall having been thinking of anything in particular at the time, when all of a sudden I was bombarded with names and memories and information from my past. My brain had this little flurry of nostalgic moments and continued to overload on them.

The motherboard must have had a power surge or something, the information came thick and fast...

"Steve W..., - Stephen W..."

"Of course. Holy Shite. Stephen W..."

"Thought he looked familiar"

"Went to primary school with a Stephen W..., I wonder if it's the same person"

"Steve W... the landlord of football teams pub, of course"

"That's why he looked so familiar"

"Michelle C..., Amanda S..., Stephen W.... holy cow."

"Of course, it makes sense, I can see it in his mannerisms"

"Stephen W..., damn, why didn't I spot it before"

"What are the chances of that? It must be him"

"I can see it now. Hell, wait till I see him at the weekend!"

That was the gist of my brain function. There was a few more similar thoughts and they came at such a rate of knots I felt almost dizzy.

I wrote about the footy team last week and of having gained back some of that 'family' feeling I used to have years ago when I played darts for a pub team.

Well, Steve W... is the landlord of this current pub. I have been a regular in the pub and at the footy games now for over a month. At first I thought he looked familiar, then I thought he just had one of those faces and personalities. Some people get you like that, they are so cheerful, and so at ease with people that you feel like you have known them for ages.

The landlord and landlady are both like this. On one of the walls of the pub is painted the phrase

"There are no strangers here - only friends that haven't met yet"

And that is exactly how they are with all of their customers, whether it's the first time they have seen you or the 100th time they have seen you.

The more I have thought about it, and believe me my brain has been thrusting this info at me constantly for the last 24 hours now, the more I am 100% certain. He has the same looks, the same smile, the same mannerisms.

It is 28 years since I saw him regularly at primary school, although I think in the 5 years following that I saw him a handful of times around the estate that I lived on at the time.

It truly is a small world.

Fancy making a 'new' good friend, only too find out he was an 'old' friend of sorts.