Friends and Memories

I was 27 when I traded teaching jobs with Helen Martin Peters. In retrospect we know we were both in over our heads in our “foreign” classrooms, but with support from a few key friends on each continent we got through the experience much richer for it. One of my most daunting experiences was catering a tea for 200 guests for the Board of Governors and the community….tea and all British fare! Today that might be easier for me as I've practiced at home with Mary. I was also teaching cookery here, and an American instructing on Toad in the Hole, Scotch Eggs and Fairy cakes was a stretch. 

Coming back to East Anglia as a friend and visitor is a much different pace than a year of teaching abroad. I have time now to enjoy friends I made then. Email and social media have definitely allowed these friendships to grow and continue. I feel fortunate to have this time to revisit and visit places in East Anglia and to meet and visit with these special friends. That is due to the hospitality of Janice and her husband Peter. Age lends a greater appreciation for these moments in time.

So far I've visited with the charming Gwen and Gerald. Gerald is a Suffolk farmer; wheat, barley and pigs on 60 acres. He has a twinkle in his eye and just enough of the dickens to get laughs and smiles and forgiveness for small liberties. Gwen is a lovely lady recently retired, and charting her own destiny which does not include weeding but does include cycling in the Channel Islands. Good for Gwen!

My “Mighty Women” are just that. Janice, Diana, Margaret and Helen have all stayed in touch and walk and visit regularly. All smiles and inner beauty, like many of my women friends across the United States their smiles mask some of life's greatest challenges. I admire them, and I enjoyed the stories, conversations and laughs. It's always hard to have a lunch over…..the moments pass. P.S. I did miss seeing Diana’s husband Malcolm, but we keep up with politics and the Norwich Canary football on Facebook!

Last night pizza with Lady Jane. She was Janice’s college friend. I lived with Janice when I taught here. Janice has always shared her friends with me. Jane, she is an absolute hoot, so every minute is full of fun and wit. After pizza we stopped at a pub near her home. Her husband John happened to be there with his cricket friends and local men. These local East Anglia pubs are just great; stopping places for a fizzy water, juice or local libation and a fun place to visit. Jane and John were the first people I was introduced to when I arrived to teach. At that time we watched John play cricket and he was selected as the “Man of the Match”, now he's wondering how long his knees will hold up to support his continued passion for playing the game. He and Jane talked to me all evening that first night  in a crowded pub and I didn't understand one word they said in their Yorkshire accents. They now say they didn't understand me either. Smiles and nods go a long way. Now we laugh because we understand one another pretty well. We like to reminisce about our boating experience on the “Lady Nancy” on the Norwich Broads…which was a bit like Richard and Hyacinth’s experience on an episode of Keeping Up Appearances.

Today I am off to walk ten miles by the sea with Janice, Helen, Barbara (new friend) and the lovely and engaging Alyson Ballantine. Lucky me!