Have you ever been in a situation where you bump into a work acquaintance or even an old friend in, say, a supermarket, and after the perfunctory greetings, you say your goodbyes but because both of you are shopping in the same place, you keep walking into each other? And then you either find something to talk about each time or you just smile awkwardly or worse, even try to avoid the other person so as not to make it even more uncomfortable? And then u end up like saying goodbye like a thousand times - once in the sauce aisle, once in the fresh produce department, once in the checkout . It can seem just plain stupid.

I recently bumped into an old school friend of mine whom I keep in touch with on a relatively regular basis. We were at a hotel I was staying in with my hubby along with another couple, just a Valentine’s day get-together, and after exhanging loud, surprised exclamations, we just went our separate ways. However, because we were staying in the same place, we kept bumping into each other. Not wanting to encroach on each other’s privacy because it was a sort of ‘dirty’ weekend where we were supposed to ONLY be with our spouses, we ended up walking around like total strangers even though I might be having makan with this friend in a week’s time or so.

Weird, huh?