When the Past Boards the Same Ship

We got back from our cruise on the P&O Britannia in May, and honestly, life still has better plot twists than any soap opera. There I was, zoning out in the check-in line (as one does), when we ran smack into Pete Dagnall - a blast from the past we hadn’t seen since dinosaurs roamed the earth. He had his wife, Jennifer, with him, and catching up was hilariously seamless.

But the surprises didn’t stop there. A few days in, we discovered that two more friends from our regiment, Dave Mason and Sylvia, were also on board. At this point, I started wondering if the Britannia was secretly hosting a reunion I’d forgotten to RSVP to. Before long, our holiday turned into a floating get-together.

It’s funny how travel has a way of shrinking the world. You set off looking for new horizons, and somehow, you end up finding pieces of your past floating right beside you.

Who knew the open sea could double as a reunion venue? Drop your best “ran-into-someone-I-know” travel tales in a reply to this post!

PS: I know John Lewis 04 bumped into Al Poole in Gibraltar some years ago.

Pete is well known in cruise circles - anyway, where's the photos?!

We bumped in to a couple of customers of ours who lived across the road from our shop, same as you, at the check in for a cruise, Southampton (about an hours drive away from where we live) I forget which ship that was but it was a fairly large one and we didn't see them again - maybe they were avoiding us!

On another cruise we bumped in to the lady we bought our first shop from, and that's about it travel-wise.

One day a young guy walked in to our shop (picture framing and crafts) with his grandmother's MBE certificate for framing. It was wrong way up to me as we were choosng a mount and frane for it, so I didn't read the name. Once all decided I started on the order form .....

"What mame is it"?

"Goad, Piers Goad"

I thought - yeah, right .. but I'll ask anyway.

"Do you know a J.G.I.D. Boileau-Goad"?

Jaw drops "That's my father"!

"So you're Blot then"?

Jaw drops even more.


He said his dad (who lives on the isle of Whight, Piers lives locally) would be collecting and paying for it on his next visit to him anyway and gave me his mobile No. He visited us twice after. I was his sigs rep in Ballykinler.

Another customer who we'd known for years, Ann Lloyd, got chatting one day, asking about how I ended up down here etc - long story short, her cousin is Bob Lloyd and she brought him in one day. I'd met him a few times between at the LOFs reunions. My 1st Pl Comd and my last CO.

That’s a cracking story, John, and it’s always a small world when you start making those connections!

Travel has a wonderful way of weaving people together. Pete’s the perfect example: a true cruising enthusiast who seems to spend more time at sea than on land!

Speaking of cruising, Barbara’s got a milestone birthday coming up next year, and we’ve decided to mark the occasion in style. In April, we’ll be jetting off to Valletta to board the Azura for a Mediterranean voyage.

Even better, we’ve heard that Dave and Sylvia Mason will be on the same cruise; it’s shaping up to be quite the reunion. Between the company, the itinerary, and the celebration itself, it promises to be a grand trip all round.