Being Canberran, running into your ex around town is a rite of passage. But picture this randomly happening far, far away from Canberra, in the small Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu, with none other than a Canberra ex.
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Recently on Reddit, one user cast the net wide on the r/AskReddit thread, a community forum where users ask "thought-provoking questions". They put one simple question to the forum's 19.7 million subscribers: "What's the biggest plot twist you've seen in real life?"
The comments section went berserk with the post attracting over 15,000 responses. One of the most upvoted comments turned out to be a gut-wrenching Canberra tale.
User "larriedbutmooking" wrote:
I graduated law, and got engaged to the girl I had been with through university. We both applied for the same graduate program and ended up working in the same office in Canberra.
Three months before our wedding I found out she was cheating on me with our mutual boss, and I broke it off with her. Long story short, it got really, really ugly and the two of us ended up in a very bitter court case over property.
Canberra is a pretty small city and the legal world is pretty bloody small there, too, and everywhere I went I bumped into my ex.
It was beginning to seriously get me down (her too, as it transpired), and I applied for an Australian government overseas development job in Tuvalu, a pacific island with about 11,000 population.
It's quite a prestigious job to get, with only two positions offered for a two year contract on a rotating basis.
I was successful in the application and moved on-island to start my posting. To discover that my ex was the other successful applicant.
I spent the next two years sharing a tiny office on a tiny island with the person that I quite honestly loathe more than any other in the world.
It gets wilder. In peak Canberra form, one of the commenters turned out to have a close connection to the original poster. User twobynight wrote:
You left in 2006. I was one of the guys who replaced you on this program.
Your story was told to me at the bar at the Funafuti about 100 times in the first month I was there. I cannot believe that I am now seeing this on Reddit.
Redditors went on to speculate about the identity of "larriedbutmooking", with commenters delivering such Canberra-isms as "You've probably driven next to him along Northbourne, or dated his sibling."
The popular thread eventually delivered a happy ending of sorts.
This obscure post, buried deep in the trenches of Reddit, led users to declare their love for Canberra amidst the usual hecklers from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, what have you.
"Since having my sons, I've found some absolutely incredible places around this little place of ours. I've re-discovered some as well, and I wouldn't trade it in for anything," said one Redditor.
"The food here is amazing, the lifestyle is wonderful, the people are friendly and attitudes progressive. The cultural institutions are worth visiting," said another.
The marvels of the web.
Do you have any crazy plot twists IRL? Tweet @CanberraTimes.
