I am very grateful to Roland White who writes the Atticus column in the Sunday Times. Roland has featured this blog two or three times over the past two years, including two weeks ago when he reproduced my tale of the local member who returned his raffle tickets with the family crest "embossed" on the stubs. See HERE
A few days later I received a blast from the past. An email from Richard Lazenby; a very good friend who I had lost touch with over 15 years ago.
Richard knew more than was healthy to know about wine and I had an equally detailed knowledge about eating lobster - so we pooled our skills and opened a wine bar and restaurant. Sadly neither of us knew anything about running a business, but it was fun whilst it lasted.
A amazing amount of water has passed under the bridge since we last met. I went to sea, settled in Australia, returned to the UK, met Steve and am now living on our boat in Kent. Richard met Julie, they had two children (the eldest of whom 14!) they moved to Knowle and he became MD of his company.
Today, after a few exchanges of email and a brief catch-up by phone, we met for lunch at Rules in Covent Garden. And like all good friends, we picked-up where we left off, as if the last 15 years was just 15 days.
This is the second time Roland White's column has rekindled an old friendship - as I reported on my blog last year. So thank you to Atticus for bringing old friends back together - and thank you to Richard (and Stephanie) for making the effort to get in touch after all this time.
I am sure many of us have old friends who we have allowed to drift out of our lives but often think about with fond memories. I certainly have. Perhaps we should all make a bit more effort to get back in touch!
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