Saturday, 11 June 2022

Lovely Linda

Today I had the absolute privilege to meet up with an old school friend - amazingly we realised that we have known each other for 51 years!!!!  When I look at numbers like that I start to feel old and I realise to the younger generation I am old but in my head I feel in my 20s!

I went to the (soon to be closed) Bruton School for Girls in 1971 as a day girl, Linda (nee Thorogood) was a boarder as her parents were in the RAF in fact she had lived in Cyprus in the 60s so it is a very different island now to what she would have experienced then.  Anyway when we attended our 40th Anniversary school reunion we reconnected and then the following year Linda visited Cyprus with her husband John and stayed down in Peyia.  I seem to think that they might have owned a holiday home there at some point or at least had access to one.

Linda had text to say she was over briefly as her brother and partner and family were renting a house, she didn't think we would have a chance to catch up as they had a busy programme and the villa was in the middle of nowhere.  As it turns out it was in Kallepia which is only about 20 minutes or so away from us so we arranged to meet for a quick coffee today.  I managed to find the villa quite easily as it happens as it is just off the main road and it has the most amazing view down across the valley below.

There is a newish coffee bar in Kallepia, Coffee and Crafts, which is run by a friendly Welsh couple and which I have been planning to visit for some time but not got there thus far so it seemed a good place for us to go and catch up on the last few years since we saw one another.

It took us about 3 minutes to find so even though I didn't know quite where it was located we happened to select the right little narrow cobbled street to happen upon it and parked safely by the church which was a short walk away.

I had booked a table just in case so we sat out on the little terrace and grabbed ourselves a snack and a drink and talked, and talked and talked and would still have been talking had Linda not got to get back as they were all off for dinner later in Paphos.

Linda is keen to get some concrete plans put together regarding our 45th reunion.  Sadly the school will be closed (and probably turned into a housing estate) so we wont have that as a focal point but we have thought about getting people here to Cyprus - certainly a fair few have expressed genuine interest but just at the moment the unreliability of air travel might be putting people off - still I agree we need to nail down a date at least if we are not to let the occasion pass.

I had a really lovely time with Linda - there was something very special about the friendships forged at 'Sunny Hill' (Bruton School for Girls) and bonds which have literally lasted a lifetime.  Priceless moments - I am so glad I got to see her.


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