Saturday, September 13, 2008
13th Sept. Old friends together.
This has been a day of chat and laughter.
We went to Libby's for lunch.
There were 4 of us "girls" together again almost exactly 46 years to the day since we met.
The other 6 either had other commitments or spread all around the world.
We reminisced, put the world of education to rights, knew for sure that we we could manage the country better than those that do and generally had a good time over a very fine Indian meal and for a lovely afternoon.
Libby was married to Shyamal, an Indian for far too short a time before becoming a widow - but she certainly learned good authentic Indian food.
The other three of us had our husbands with us.
It never ceases to amaze me how different were each of the members of our crowd and yet how well we gelled together with a strong feeling of loyalty to each other.
The latest news from one of our number, Kate - who was not able to be with us today is that her husband was knighted in the most recent birthday honours list. So now I can include Sir Andrew and Lady McMichael amongst my friends.
Professor Andrew McMichael, Professor of Molecular Medicine has been knighted. The Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and Fellow of Corpus Christi College has been honoured for services to medical science.
Andrew has worked on T cell responses to HIV and influenza, and I know has advanced knowledge quite considerably.
Sandra and Barry were there - Barry has always been a big shot in the world of big business. I guess he might be one of the "fat cats". He was once chairman of the Welsh Development Agency and was the director of the Millennium Dome plans - until he got out, realising that the politicians would be unable to let things go ahead as he would have wanted.
Mavis and Richard now live most of the time in rural France. Richard was a chemical biologist (probably wrong title) but he understood well about too much potassium.
All of us girls had been teachers. Libby had been head of a small school in the West London suburbs.
And here we are - left to right, Mavis, Libby, Sandra and me.
We might have taken more pictures but we left it until late and people were ready to leave. And when I stood up I realised I had a problem.
Why, oh why did it have to be today that I get a leaking bag?
It has taught us something anyway. I have spare bags with me at all times, but because the leaks away from home are exceedingly rare (this was only the second time), the spare bags stay folded inside another bag for too long.
We knew that the sticky flange was damaged.
It failed immediately. The next attempt proved a little more long lasting and it got me home again, wrapped in towels and wondering all the time what was going on.
But as soon as I stood up to come indoors from the car I knew we had another failure.
So - bother bother bother!
These things make me feel so vulnerable and just a little less willing to make plans to be away from my nest.
But bags and problems have to be part of my life and - and "life" is the important word.
So, feeling a bit fragile, I think it is time to bid you a goodnight.
We went to Libby's for lunch.
There were 4 of us "girls" together again almost exactly 46 years to the day since we met.
The other 6 either had other commitments or spread all around the world.
We reminisced, put the world of education to rights, knew for sure that we we could manage the country better than those that do and generally had a good time over a very fine Indian meal and for a lovely afternoon.
Libby was married to Shyamal, an Indian for far too short a time before becoming a widow - but she certainly learned good authentic Indian food.
The other three of us had our husbands with us.
It never ceases to amaze me how different were each of the members of our crowd and yet how well we gelled together with a strong feeling of loyalty to each other.
The latest news from one of our number, Kate - who was not able to be with us today is that her husband was knighted in the most recent birthday honours list. So now I can include Sir Andrew and Lady McMichael amongst my friends.
Professor Andrew McMichael, Professor of Molecular Medicine has been knighted. The Director of the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and Fellow of Corpus Christi College has been honoured for services to medical science.
Andrew has worked on T cell responses to HIV and influenza, and I know has advanced knowledge quite considerably.
Sandra and Barry were there - Barry has always been a big shot in the world of big business. I guess he might be one of the "fat cats". He was once chairman of the Welsh Development Agency and was the director of the Millennium Dome plans - until he got out, realising that the politicians would be unable to let things go ahead as he would have wanted.
Mavis and Richard now live most of the time in rural France. Richard was a chemical biologist (probably wrong title) but he understood well about too much potassium.
All of us girls had been teachers. Libby had been head of a small school in the West London suburbs.
And here we are - left to right, Mavis, Libby, Sandra and me.
We might have taken more pictures but we left it until late and people were ready to leave. And when I stood up I realised I had a problem.
Why, oh why did it have to be today that I get a leaking bag?
It has taught us something anyway. I have spare bags with me at all times, but because the leaks away from home are exceedingly rare (this was only the second time), the spare bags stay folded inside another bag for too long.
We knew that the sticky flange was damaged.
It failed immediately. The next attempt proved a little more long lasting and it got me home again, wrapped in towels and wondering all the time what was going on.
But as soon as I stood up to come indoors from the car I knew we had another failure.
So - bother bother bother!
These things make me feel so vulnerable and just a little less willing to make plans to be away from my nest.
But bags and problems have to be part of my life and - and "life" is the important word.
So, feeling a bit fragile, I think it is time to bid you a goodnight.
