Fancy seeing you here...
Way back when I wasn’t repulsive to the opposite sex, I had a jolly nice boyfriend who I met at uni. His family were from one end of the country, mine from t’other. And his family were well off, catholic and a little uptight. But very friendly and welcoming all the same.

After a couple of years of going out with him, my mum and I were invited to his traditional family Xmas get together, where all the branches of the extended family in the country would descend on one household for a good old fashioned knees up. We drove down to his parent’s place, anticipating a really fun do.

Approaching the (enormous) house, my mum looks slightly apprehensive and says to me “they’re quite posh, aren’t they?” I reassured her that, yes they were, but as long as we didn’t get on to any taboo topics of conversation (such as abortion, divorce, the fact I was sleeping with their son) that it would be fine.

We wander up the driveway and I’m about to ring the bell when the door swings open and I hear my mother utter the words “Jesus Christ!”. Loudly. Which is a GREAT start. I turned to give her a “shut the fuck up” look and see that she’s staring at the woman who’s standing at the door, who she clearly recognises. Which is odd, as I’ve never seen her before in my life. The woman is looking back with equal horror.
“Hi, I’m Dave’s girlfriend, Rakky, “ I interjected, “Can we come in?”
“Sure,” says the woman at the door, nervously. As we go in, a bloke walks through from the kitchen to the living room, catches sight of my mum and stops dead. At which point I grab my mother firmly by the elbow and drag her into the downstairs cloakroom.

“What the fuck is going on? How do you know these people?” I shouted...

Turns out a few years back this couple had been having “family and relationship issues” and had gone to MY MOTHER (who is a psychologist) for therapy. During which time they’d had to go into some fairly juicy detail about their family dynamics and interpersonal relationships.

“Is this true?” I asked her.

She nodded.

So by pure chance, my mother knew the intimate details of my boyfriend’s aunty and uncle’s relationship 7 years before I’d met him in a random flat though a friend of a friend at a university 250 odd miles from where either of us lived.

Spoooky? Nah. Coincidence? Surely. Embarrassing conversations over the quiche later that day.? You betcha.

If there’d been any length, they wouldn’t have needed counselling.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Thu 8 Feb 2007, 16:28, Reply)