Quite a few times recently, we’ve been asked one of life’s trickier questions, “You two have the whole world to choose from but you picked … Hemel Hempstead. Why?”.
The answer is simple. Gerry comes from an island where more than 5,000 towns and villages begin with “Bally-”. It’s not very imaginative and British place names are much more fun. For instance, there’s a signpost on the A9 to Perth pointing to Findo Gask, who was surely one of the rebels from Star Wars. Gerry particularly enjoys the hundreds of Agatha Christie victims – Leighton Buzzard; Bishop Auckland; Norton Fitzwarren; Kirkpatrick Fleming; Brympton d’Evercy. Bucketloads of them on road signs wherever you go. Hemel Hempstead simply sounded unusual enough for us to pick it.
“But surely that can’t be the real reason?” You’re right, of course – that would be daft – but the strange name is a bonus. It’s all about the location as the main draw of our Englandshire trip was the opportunity to catch up with friends and family.
We both lived in London a thousand years ago and had been back often, but always for work and always a very quick in-and-out trip. Mhairi took this opportunity to meet up with her old friend and flatmate, Kirsty. Apparently it had been 10 years since they had met up in person, and even that had been a fleeting catch-up at a funeral. They had a blast! It was as if the years in between didn’t exist as they caught up on each other’s gossip. Although Facebook had ensured that they had kept in touch over the years, there is nothing quite like a full on proper girlie face-to-face. They had a delicious brunch and cocktails near Covent Garden and then spent the afternoon on the terrace of The Punch and Judy at the Garden. Although they had a brilliant view of the many street entertainers below, they saw none of that, as they barely paused to draw breath. Gerry met up with the girls late on in the afternoon and we all went for a lovely meal at Browns. All in all, a lovely day out, and hopefully it won’t be as long until the next catch-up.
Another huge bonus was the chance to spend a weekend with Mhairi’s sister Maggie and her wife Beth. We hadn’t seen them since they visited us in Krakow last August. Maggie had just had major shoulder surgery resulting from a fall while training for an off-road half marathon and we were desperate to see her and make sure she was OK. Thankfully she was on the mend, in no small part due to Beth’s fabulous physiotherapy aunt and uncle, and was in great spirits.
Beth produced the usual 5 star dinner, with home baked cakes, of course on the first night and we went out for tea in Holmfirth on the Saturday night. Holmfirth is a bit of a wonder in today’s modern times. It still retains a lovely feeling of community, the shops in the main streets are all open and at night all the pubs and restaurants are bustling. We do love a visit there.
On the Saturday, we went for a lovely walk at Hade Edge and grabbed an ice cream at The Oul Can Cafe. Although we prefer the grittiness of a city, it was lovely to get out and enjoy the tranquility of the countryside for a wee while. We are meeting up with the girls again in Hamburg and Copenhagen/Malmo in August and can’t wait for that.
We mentioned that Maggie was training for an off-road half marathon, which sounds impressive (and is!), but Beth was in training for the Epona100 2025. This involves running/walking/crawling/ sliding 100 miles over the Brecon Beacons in Wales. Our only knowledge of the Brecon Beacons prior to this is that it is used for advanced Marines and SAS training, and they struggle with it. Still, Beth was undaunted by all this and we are very proud to share that she only went and completed it over the weekend of 20th and 21st of June when temperatures were in the very high 20s! Although we weren’t with her for the race (we were in Paris by then), we were there in spirit and wanted to take this chance to give her a big shout out for her incredible achievement.
We have been retired for a year now and we don’t miss the work, but we do miss the people. Now, some people have a work wife, or a work husband. Mhairi had Mike, her work son – she was even known to have done his ironing on work trips!! We hadn’t seen Mike or his real life wife, Rach, since our retirement party last year so it was lovely to head up to Grantham to catch up.
There was much talk of football since Mike and Rach had just returned from an excruciating 27 hour, each way, trip to Bilbao to watch Tottenham win the Europa League Cup. They were, of course, led in this endeavour by the legend that is Ange Postecoglu, formerly manager of the Mighty Celtic. In true Spurs fashion though, the board had just sacked him. Let’s just say Mike and Rach were none too happy with that decision, but they were still on a high from the win.
We went out for a typical Englandshire Sunday roast and had such a great laugh. It was a real tonic to see them and we’re hoping to meet them again in January/February in Buenos Aires. Those that know Mhairi and Mike well will be surprised to learn that there was very little talk of work. However Mike did pass on the great news that their fellow teammate Suzanne had just been promoted. Big shout out to Suzanne, well deserved!
Our pal Lesley was in London overnight for work, so we naturally took the opportunity to catch up for some food and drink. We see Lesley regularly when we’re back in Scotland but it was nice to meet up somewhere different for a change. We visited Kings Cross Coal Drops Yard, and what a surprise that was. Back in the day when we lived in London this was definitely not an area for the fainthearted, especially at night. It is now a vibrant shopping and dining hotspot and we had a fabulous time catching up with old news and planning possible joint trips for the future. Lesley shares our love of travel and we’re sure she’ll be joining us on many of our trips over the years. At least we hope so.
We returned to the Coal Drop Yards a few days later to have lunch with Shauna, Gerry’s eldest cousin on his mum’s side. Shauna shared the fantastic news that she is a grandmother for the second time after her daughter just had a baby girl. We had a lovely catch up and Gerry and Shauna found it rather ironic that the two least sociable of the cousins managed to arrange a get together. It just shows that anything is possible!
We visited another of Gerry’s cousins, Jonathan, and his wife Sharon at their beautiful new house next to the beach in St Leonards on Sea. The weather was glorious, the drink was flowing, the dinner was delicious and the craic was ninety! Their new home is reminiscent of a New England or Pensacola beach house, and the proximity to the sea gives them boundless opportunities for bracing strolls along the beach. Let’s just say that just such a walk was required by all four of us the following morning and leave it at that.
One of Gerry’s Christmas dinner mates, Niall Lynch, had been good enough to arrange front row seats for the second day of the ICG test final between South Africa and Australia. As well as the chance to watch an incredible day’s cricket , we also got to meet up the night before with our old mate Jim Kelly. (No photos of Jim, too busy talking). Our front row seat experience was enhanced by the fact that Lord’s is the only cricket ground that allows one to bring in one’s own alcohol. It would have been rude not to!
That covers the people. Our next post will be all about the places.
It's a wanderful life, so it is 
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