I visited my oldest friends – not the oldest in years – not the oldest in spirit but friends I have known for about 60 years.
Ken, I have known since we were at Hornchurch Grammar school at age 11, Denise joined a couple of years later when her family moved into that area.
We have kept in touch, some years just with a Christmas Card or occasional phone calls or brief visits. However I invited myself down for a week and hoped I would not be imposing on them. It was wonderful – we were totally relaxed together and I enjoyed every aspect of the visit. Plenty of nostalgia because as a foursome, we would spend bank holidays together, visiting great places – Kew gardens came to mind for all of us.
Their house has the most splendid view of the River Teign (pronounced teen or tain), not far from Teignmouth (pronounced tinm’th).. They took it in turn to cook great meals with good Italian wine, preceded by gin and tonic on the terrace admiring the view. I think the main reason to move from the London area to Devon was to be near their daughter and her family, especially the two wonderful grand children.
We had some great trips – the Round Robin, bus from Totnes to Paignton, steam train to Kingswear, ferry to Dartmouth and boat up the river back to our starting point.
Another day to Dartmoor and a walk up Haytor. Marvellous scenery and I really fancy the coast-to-coast north-south traverse.
We had a splendid lunch at a local winery and a longer walk where at the start we had to dodge some runners on an annual 2-peak run.
Overall a great visit that left me warm inside and a longing to see them again soon.
