I have just completed my last week of travel for a while.
I was able to catch up with family and friends. My sister Mags and I along with her grand daughter Ellie went to Chartwell House, which was Winston Churchill’s home.
Beautiful gardens and a house that has a superb view of the Weald of Kent. Some parts date back to the 1500s, and a large addition from the 1920s.
Back home for a final visit from the latest addition to their family, a daughter Erin for my lovely nephew Piers, and his lovely wife Marion. I have been to Ireland with them twice on vacation and love them dearly. Erin is a wonderful addition.
I actually broke down and rented a car for a few days and saw my cousin Barbara and also some other friends. Cleone, who spent a couple of summers with us when the kids were little. She is approaching her 40th with a 16 year old and a 14 year old, and her Mom Jackie who I have known since she was 8 and I was 10! It is funny that we basically could not stand each other at that time but of all of her siblings we have remained closest over the years. Cleone lives in Market Harborough a nice small market town.
I wandered around town on Saturday morning and saw a building that is now the town Council offices but used to be Symingtons factory. One of my best pals when I was small was Robert Symington, and they lived at the big house in the village. Robert and I got into all sorts of trouble as kids. His Dad owned the factory, which I think he had inherited from the family. They made ladies corsets and other mysterious garments!. It closed in the 70s, but I discovered on this trip that during WW2 they made parachutes and apparently made over a million of them during the course of the war. The current building houses a museum, which I did not have time to visit.
I then spent the weekend with Andy and Chris Corner, and our mutual friend Barbara (with whom I did the narrow boat trip).
We have all been friends for 46 years, and manage to get together every couple of years at least for lunch or dinner.
It is both gratifying and very satisfying having friends like this, where the relationships have been sustained over that length of time and where you can essentially pick it up and put it down at short notice. There is no doubt that we have all had our challenges in life and that those challenges have been different for each of us, but we all have kids who are successful in their own professions and are good role models for their kids or others around them.
That is a huge accomplishment. I am very proud of all the friends I have and in particular these ones, and my long time buddy in Scotland Geoff.
We had lunch at the pub next to their house and I also saw the recently opened “Village shop” which is actually owned by the villagers and manned by volunteers. Quite an interesting little venture. It is located in the pub car park.
I am going to do one more post with some overall thoughts about the last 5 months and what I have seen and learned. I would not have missed it for the world, and can only think of two days on the whole trip when I was a little down.
