An Extraordinary Coincidence...

A truly weird and amazing thing happened to me, while I was in Chicago...

I was out and about one afternoon, with fellow instructors Liz Steel (from Sydney) and Rob Sketcherman (from Hong Kong). We had just stopped to do a quick sketch of three street musicians who took our fancy:

I was sitting on the pavement, engrossed in my work, when a Chinese woman bent down to speak to me. I assumed she was just going to comment on my sketch, but instead she asked, 'Are you a children's author and illustrator? Were you in Beijing?'

To be honest, this was so out of context, I was a bit taken aback and, for a spilt second, thought one of my friends was setting me up in some way. And then I registered the little boy, standing shy and silent a little way off.

Incredibly, I visited her son's school last autumn, as part of my Beijing tour of international schools. I recognised him too! I remember doing a workshop with his class and that he was really keen. I remember signing books for him after school. 

To make things even better, he was actually clutching a sketchbook under his arm too. Wonderful.

I was flabbergasted for the rest of the day. I just couldn't get over the incredible odds against such an encounter - both of us thousands of miles away from home, wandering in a city the size of Chicago, just happening to find ourselves on the same corner, at the same time, on the same day. Bonkers but brilliant.