In the summer of 2010 I walked the length of Scotland from Jedburgh to John O'Groats. While walking along a quiet roadside one day I fell into pace with a sprightly elderly gentleman. We got chatting and he asked where I was from and it turned out that many years ago he had lived in Leyton and drank in The Baker's Arms Pub. We had a good old blether and I mentioned that the pub had recently become a betting shop. Three years on I thought of our meeting while passing the old pub building on the bus, wondering about the coincidence that me and him should meet that day, walk together for a while and find common ground. I do enjoy these unexpected and random connections between the past and the present, myself and another.
