What a bizarre coincidence. I just searched Flickr for the word “restaurant”. Could there be a more common word? In fact, I have a theory, from my limited European travels, that it’s the word that’s most similar across many languages. Anyway, the second picture returned was this one:

© Copyright Peter Barker.

It struck me as odd, because I immediately recognized the “Old Square” sign, but I couldn’t quite place it. I figured that it must be in some commonly photographed place where a television program is shot or something. Curious as to where I knew it from, I clicked on the image, and I was blown away when I saw the tags on the photo.

This is a photograph of a place in the center of Walsall, the little, completely unfamous town that I lived in for four years in England. I’ve walked by this place hundreds of times.

Of all the photos of restaurants in Flickr, and of all the words I could have searched for, somehow this link between Walsall and me showed up. That’s a coincidence with three capital C’s.

I can’t even remember why I was searching Flickr…