Talking of late lamented Blue Letters, I was a student on the Chartered Management Accountants Course at Worthy Down in the late 80s when as I passed the Chief instructor's office he called out that he had had a letter in his desk drawer for me for over a week. handed it to me and as my fevered fingers tore open the envelope asked if it was important. I explained that it told me of impending promotion to wg cdr. He apologised for not having given it to me earlier but had assumed my desk officer would have told me, as happened in the Army.
28 years later we had a family in one of our gites, who hailed from Winchester. Conversation covered this and that, until he said that his Dad had been Royal Army Pay Corps. Penny dropped, the CI of years before was his Dad. Small world. Mind you a month ago two families arrived for the gites on Saturday afternoon. On arrival the second dad had an OMG moment, the first guy here was his (fairly senior) boss in the Cabinet Office, neither was aware they had booked into the same place. Like "In the Thick of It" all week, but good fun