Memorandum Monday ~ April Fool's Day

AKA The One With the Left Phalange*

Friday dawned bright and fair. I jumped out of bed and promptly broke my little toe. So that was new. In all my 47 years, despite abseiling, D of E expeditioning, parachuting and a nasty bike accident, I've managed to keep tibia, fibula and phalanges intact. I'll spare you a photo of my injury and give you this instead.....

A new Sunday Social, photo a week challenge over on Instagram #dressmakers52
One prompt per week and there's a whole week to join in. That's very doable.

Week 1: On the Shelf ~ If you know me already, you'll no doubt be familiar with my set of Lemony Snicket books, used as a backdrop for my handmade cards. Pan to the left and you'll find a small, but growing, collection of sewing books.

Waving to Sian and the Mondayers, from the sofa, on this very wet afternoon.

*For the non Friends fans among you, here's a link.

Me on Monday ~ The School Friends Edition

It was a wet weekend but we refused to let it dampen our spirits. Yesterday I met up with the Class of '87. We've done it before, you might remember. This year our little band had grown and yet again I had the pleasure of seeing people that I hadn't crossed paths with since the day we left school, 28 years ago. Surely not?

Here we are at the top of Gold Hill, on our way to meet the rest of our friends already in the pub at the bottom. Yes, it really is August and I'm wearing boots and a waterproof! I didn't take a single photo all day and had to pinch this one from Facebook. I was doped up on codeine and far too busy catching up.

Me on Monday? Playing board games with my children on another rainy afternoon and wishing it was Wednesday. I've aggravated an old back injury and that's the day I get to see the chiropractor. It can't come soon enough.

In other news my girl got the results she needs to begin her college course in September. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief now. Happy days. Waving to Sian and hoping there is sunshine wherever you are.

One Photo in Twenty Words ~ Old Friends

A little late to the party this month, I’m joining Abi’s lovely meme.

Old friends. The best kind. The kind where the distance of twenty seven years falls away in about ten seconds.

Storytelling Sunday 3 ~ 26 Years Later….

I had a completely different story in mind for the June edition of Storytelling Sunday, hosted by Sian at From High in the Sky, but I wanted to tell this one instead.

I didn’t share my story last Sunday, because I was meeting up with these lovely boys. Thanks to a friendly stranger, enjoying a coffee and the view, I have this great shot of us all standing at the top of Gold Hill. I’m sure they were never this tall!

26 years ago we all left school and went our separate ways. The story goes back further than that though. Some of us first met in 3rd Year Latin lessons. I went to the High School in town and we had our own Latin teacher. The boys from the local Grammar weren’t so lucky and they had to come to lessons at our school. I can’t imagine why we were all so keen to be allowed to study a second language.

Fast forward a couple more years and after taking our O Levels, we all went parachuting together on a school trip. Yes, really. I don’t suppose it would happen now. After that it was hiking and camping on Dartmoor for our Duke of Edinburgh Awards. I was never a girly girl and my poor Mum despaired of my tomboy ways.

Four of us were also very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to India for 5 weeks. Another school trip. Two other friends joined us for that experience, but couldn’t make it to the reunion. One of them lives in Australia now and the other was flying as part of his work with the Aerobility charity so we’ll let them off.

I feel very lucky to have been part of this group of friends at school and to have had the chance to meet up again after all these years. We had coffee at one old haunt and lunch at another, then spent the sunny afternoon in the beer garden reminiscing. It was as if no time had passed. What could be more precious than that?

Scraping in under the wire, although it seems a shame to mess up the nice neat rows in Mr. Linky!