now THIS is freaky

so, when i was a little tyke of erm, say 5 years or so, my mom and i went along with our family friends luang-yi (actually my grandma's friend) and her granddaughter vanessa mae to switzerland for a ski trip. this was when we were living in the UK when my dad was getting his degree. for those of you who recognise the name, yes, it's THAT vanessa mae - the child violinist prodigy. yup, that one.

anyhow, my mom had taken some video of our vacation... but due to the changes in technology, she had no way to get it off the original film reel used back then onto a playable medium in this time and age. she finally managed to get some film place to transfer the film and so we were able to watch it last night.

this is where it gets freaky. there was all this footage of us taking ski lessons (man, i was a round short thing at the time!) and sledding..and there was some footage of us going through this little swiss town. kale and i were watching the video and it dawned on us that the town that we were skiing and sledding in some 22 years ago is the EXACT SAME town that we went sledding in this past xmas break. and the best part? the buildings are EXACTLY the same.. the same hotel with the curling rink next to it, and the little church by the road. what are the odds? i think i even took pictures of the same fountains that were caught in the video!

my mom had always referred to the town as bergen.. pronounced that way... and she had said it was a 2-hour train ride from st moritz.. so even though we sledded through the town bergun this time around, i didn't think it was possibly the same place cos it wasn't that far from st moritz. but i guess when you factor in 22 years of locomotive technology, i guess it makes sense.

so yes, that's pretty neat. 22 years later, through no design of our own, we end up in the same little swiss town in the middle of the engadin valley... who would have thunk? even the sleds haven't changed over the years!!! the sled in the video was exactly like the ones we used for the 7km sled run from preda to bergun. wow.

how's that for coincidence?