Take-Away

We’ve had a lovely couple of days. John’s University friends came over for the evening last night, staying overnight at local hotels, before breakfasting with us this morning at Oakes’s and travelling back whence they came.

They had come to see us, naturally, having suggested a surprise visit to John a few weeks ago to cheer him up, but then combining the visit with bringing birthday wishes to us both. They were, however, also hoping to catch up with whichever of our ‘boys’ might be around, too. In the end, only Michael was available and he came to say ‘hello’ to everyone at tea-time yesterday, which was great, and they were delighted to see him and two of his boys.

After the ‘surprise’ had been sprung a couple of weeks ago, John had set about making all the arrangements. He did brilliantly well, organising the food and drink and checking on who could, or couldn’t come.

Having done lots of catering in the last week or two, we decided to have an Indian Take-Away, much to everyone’s delight. It was delicious – and there was masses of it, too. Far too much food for us all to eat in one sitting, so there is now some spare sitting in the freezer for another day – and there were some very full bellies last night.

The evening went with a great swing. The boys had indicated that the football might be on the agenda. Was that OK? Well, yes, as it turned out. Several of the girls also fancied watching the footie, too! Champagne and beer were the order of the evening to help us all cope with the vision of England creeping to a 0-0 draw and enabling a very knowledgeable flow of football conversation. Hehe.

Our guests left just after eleven o’clock and had a bracing walk back to their respective hotels, all hoping that they’d be up and about at the appointed breakfast hour of 9.30 the following day.

And yes, we were all there at Oakes’s right on time for a hearty breakfast. And, although the memory of the night before still lingered……. we all did well and enjoyed the fare on offer.

We hugged our farewells at the café to Kelv and Ren, George and Val and Fran, sending our best wishes with Fran to invalid Pete, who was/is languishing in bed with bad knees/ankles/shins.

And the Take-Away from the weekend? That would be…..not the food, or the drink, but the friendship. 50 years on…..

John texted the group to say ‘thank you for coming: ‘It was great to see you all, a great morale booster. Thank you all.’ And George texted back: ‘The pleasure is all ours. You have been close friends for a long time and will continue for a long time to come.’ Boom! I’ll second that. Smashing, eh?

Take care everyone. God bless.

Here we are 50 years ago…… mostly all still present, but not necessarily in the same order!