Friends reunited

I had an email the other day via Friends Reunited which I haven't subscribed to for a couple of years so I wasn't sure how anyone could make contact with me. Having looked at the website, it says that it is now free to send and receive messages so I guess that's how! Anyhow, the message I received was from a Denise Richdale and I immediately dismissed it because I didn't recognise the name. A couple of days later I received a prompt stating that someone was trying to contact me urgently. I then decided to click on the link to the website and to my delight I saw that Denise's maiden name was Steel and I knew who it was immediately: one of my very best friends from Westborough High School. Apart from my old school mates who I still see regularly now (Suk, Ellie, Elena & Sunita), Denise was, as I recall, the only other person I was really close to and hung around with a lot of the time. I replied and gave her my email address so we could catch up. The same day I received a response telling me all about herself (well as much as you can in a nutshell). I sent a reply straight away doing the same and we both remarked how wonderful it was to be in touch again. To be honest I can't remember why we didn't stay in touch when she moved away. Denise was always in my mind whenever I walked past the Railway Hotel pub behind Southend Central station because that's where she lived during the time we were friends. I recall going into the flat above the pub one time and it was enormous! Anyway, she now lives in Sandwich in Kent which is a shame because I would've loved to get together, but it's not impossible - it's only in the next county and maybe one day we will see each other again.

The other mates who I referred to above came round for dinner last night, all with their other halves with the exception of Elena's Seb who doesn't 'do socialising' and so we always invite her sister Lianne instead. It's great to get together every so often as there's always so much to say, whether it's reminiscing about school, giving opinions about films, footie, or talking about work - the latter sounds boring but believe me when you have Elena in the room it's nothing but hilarious most of the time with the stories she has about her encounters in Lloyds Collections! Funnily enough, Sunita also ended up working for a bank (RBS), I work for HSBC, Suk works for RBS in the I.T. area and Ellie is the only one who went out on a limb and works as a receptionist in a opticians. It was a lovely evening and all the food John and I prepared was edible!

I am very lucky to have such great mates. As we always say, we may not see each other for months on end but when we do it's as if we've never been apart. Everything just falls into place. I don't know whether I'm making that very clear but I know what I mean! :)