Reminiscing...

Friday was Paula’s birthday, so we all went out for lunch to celebrate.  The girls were pretty patient with the whole restaurant thing and a lovely meal was had by all.

We went our separate ways after lunch though, as we were driving up to Bishop Stortford to visit our old university friend Megan Stuart.  This meant taking the M25 which everyone keeps telling us to avoid.  It actually wasn’t too bad a drive; although the bit around the Heathrow on and off ramps was pretty slow, we reached our destination in just over an hour and a half.

Megan has been living in the UK for many years now, and her daughter Issy has just turned seven.  It was just great to see Megan, who has hardly changed at all, and to meet Issy who is a very grown-up seven-year-old!  While Issy went to ballet, Megan took us on a tiki-tour around her home town, including a drive by Issy’s school and a stop at the outside of the Rhodes Centre, which includes a museum about Cecil Rhodes.  That has gone on our list of fascinating places to visit when we have more time.  Bishop Stortford is a very pretty little town, and we had a lovely evening reminiscing and catching up.  Issy kept us entertained in any lulls in the conversation.

This morning Megan took us over to Cambridge; this was where she first lived when she came to England, and she shares my uncle and aunt’s opinion that it is a superior town to Oxford.  It is certainly very lovely, and we had a great time.  We started off with brunch in a great Italian café, and then Megan gave a very good informal tour.  We had a beautiful walk around admiring both the gorgeous old buildings and the lovely open spaces in the rare spring sunshine.  Megan and I particularly admired the punt driver sunning himself with his shirt off!  I don’t think Grant noticed him, although there were plenty of sights he did make the most of.

We had to get back on the road once we returned to Megan’s home, as we had told Mark and Paula we would be back by 4.30-ish to help with childcare issues.  Again we had a very smooth run on the M25 – beginners luck maybe?

Tomorrow we are going to Twickenham for the second day of the final Rugby Seven’s tournament.  Thanks Troy for sorting tickets for us!