Just thought I'd share an interesting experience I had a few days ago...

I was in Sydney in between two 14 day cruises, our ship heading back out to sea for a circumnavigation of New Zealand. My father and I had decided to take the Sydney Exploerer bus to get a good feel of the city. As we came to MacQuarry point, and Mrs. MacQuarry's chair (the best place in Sydney to get a view of both the opera house and the harbor bridge) we noticed a number of barricades and some people waiting for someone. We asked the driver, and he said that Prince William was in town and going to be there at some point.

We disembarked and walked around the point, deciding to wait at the end of the point to see if we could see him. An hour passed, with police boats and helicopters sailing and flying around the whole time. At this point we decided to move on since there was no way of knowing when he was coming, and doubtful that he would come all the way down to where we were4 as there were no barricades or people there.

We walked back to the crowds which by this time had swelled from a few dozen to a few thousand. Right as we approached the barricades and motorcade pulled up and out hopped Prince William and began shaking hands with people in the crowd. First one side of the street, then the next. I got a lot of pictures of his profile and the back of his head. He then turned from the other side of the street and walked right toward me, and I got a good picture of his face.

He begans shaking hands with people in front of me, the crowd 3 people deep when I suddenly got the urge to stick my hand out. I thrust it over people's shoulders and he grasped it firmly and gave a firm handshake, looking me in the face. I smiled.

An Australian news reporter was standing next to me and looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked, "Do you know him?"
I laughed and said, "No"
"Well he looked at you and shook your hand as if you two were old friends," she replied.

That just made me smile further...

If you were one who did not believe in coincidences, what would you make of this encounter?

Nice
Bodylanguage? Movement? Facial expression? Perhaps these drew his (unconscious) attention to you when he zoomed in on the crowd. Then recognition and mutual respect. Always nice thing to make real contact with people, whoever they are.
You about same age as William?

Tis true, to make real contact with people. It was one of the things that amazed me about this encounter. I expected aloofness, instead he was warm and genuine. Quite amazing for someone with his history I think.

I am about 10 years older than he is.

Interesting encounter. I hope you enjoyed Australia.