Reunion

A few weeks ago I had a reunion of the people I was in Africa with ten years ago. Ten years. It seems hard to believe. In many ways it seems like yesterday that I signed out of school with a nonchalant  "Got to go, I'm off to Africa!" (yes, I was that much of a knob but in my defence I was only 16). I still remember a lot of the details almost forensically; the in jokes, the silly sayings, the things we did and most of all the people involved.

I must admit I was a little apprehensive about meeting everyone again. For the most part, and despite conscious effort, I have lost touch with a lot of them. People drift apart especially when they are fairly spread out and following their own lives, career paths  and such like. Perhaps the age we were at made it worse; we were going off to uni or travelling and generally spreading out and going through a lot of changes. Facebook also has a lot to answer for. It makes it easy to keep in touch with people passively so one sees what's happening in people's lives without having to make an effort. In short, I only properly kept in touch with one of them.

What surprised me most about the reunion is how little everybody had changed. Yes we have all grown up, (mostly) got jobs, degrees and several have even gotten married in the interim but looking round the table during the night out, everyone looked (and by and large was acting) exactly the same. Apart from slight changes in sartorial tastes (mostly for the better) nobody looked any different. Furthermore it was incredible how we all picked up pretty much as we left off. Apart from a tiny wee bit of awkwardness at the very start, it was as if we had only met up a few weeks ago, not ten years.

For some reason I found the latter aspect especially terribly reassuring. Friendships do last, even in this increasingly transient world (and I admit I am very guilty of upping sticks and moving to the other end of the country). The bonds forged by shared experience and life events last a decade at least, hopefully a lifetime.

Apart from making me incredibly nostalgic, the whole evening made me profoundly glad I had the opportunity to meet and get to know such a wonderful group of people. Not just get to know them but get to experience what we did together.

Hopefully it won't be as long as ten years before we all meet again. The reunion has certainly galvanised my resolve to keep in touch with more of the group and broken that awkward stalemate that can arise out of substantial gaps in communication.

For now, Sopa!

JR

The Month to Come

It's October already. That's come as more than  a bit of a surprise. Where has the year gone? More pertinently, why the hell have the shops got their Christmas stuff up already? Seriously. October!? Bah humbug.

But before I turn into J EbineezeR (see what I did there?) let's switch back to the positive. This month is shaping up to be quite a month. First off, this weekend I'm going up to Scotland (well this weekend and for quite a bit of next week). It is nicely coinciding with my mother's October holidays so, since I'm STILL not working I thought I might as well spend a few days up there. Not only will it be a nice change from staring at the walls here, it will allow me to spend some quality time in Scotland which, sadly, is something I don't often get to do. It is usually limited to rushed weekend trips.

As well as seeing parents and having some pre-emptive birthday celebrations for my mother (she has her birthday later in the month... note to self; send card) one of the main reasons for going up to Scotland this weekend is the ten year reunion of the people I was in Africa with. It is slightly scary to think that this was ten years ago. Since then a third to half of us are married/engaged, most have gone through Uni. (at least once) and have embarked on proper careers. This adventure was undertaken in our final year of school and it's slightly scary to think how much we have changed since then. Despite that, I am confident we will pick up like we saw each other yesterday. Friendships will be renewed and invigorated and hopefully it will provide stimulus to stay in touch for another ten years. It's still slightly scary to think that it happened all that time ago.

Also this month is my second anniversary with my girlfriend. Neither of us can quite remember/decide/agree on when we got together so we decided to set the date at Halloween: cue all sorts of jokes - go on, I've made them all already. Plans for celebration are still somewhat embryonic but I'm sure we'll think of something.

Finally there's an event which I've been waiting for for at least two years. Something that has loomed large in my consciousness and calender for a long time. The hype has been building for months now, aided by the fact that there's a significant anniversary of it's basic concept. Syfall, the new James Bond film, is being released at the end of the month on the 50th anniversary of the Bond film franchise. Bliss. I can't wait. So far what I've seen looks promising (although that wouldn't be hard after Quantum of Solace) now the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Bring it on.

So that's what's in store for me for the next few weeks. Happy October.

JR