Old Friends

March 16, 2012

Old Friends

Over the last week I have spent a lovely few days with old nursing buddies.

We walked into the Royal Alexander Hospital to train,
a few more years ago than I care to count.
Suffice it to say, they are some of my oldest dearest friends.

The Alex

Once we had all gone our separate ways,
we kept up by phone,
letters, (old fashioned these days, I know,)
and the occasional meeting, (raucous affairs).

We do seem to manage to meet up more
these days than we have for many years.

Two of the friends live in France and over the years
I spent many happy holidays

down in the French Alps, mostly in Annecy,

particularly when Jay, my son, was small.

my gorgeous boy in the alps ...Oh so many years ago

A few years ago we met in Paris, when,
( lets call her Charlotte) dropped
all the wine she had so carefully chosen
just as we were leaving
to come home and smashed the lot.

Then Nice, when Charlotte fell down steps and
broke her leg,she was laid up for months.

Nice again, where Charlotte had her bag stolen.

Barcelona was a great one.
What happened there?

Oh yes!
Charlotte had her cash stolen by a gypsy.

She bellowed out a stream of expletives
and as if from no-where,
out popped a rather
gorgeous plain clothes policeman.
By then, though, Charlotte was feeling suspicious of
the entire Spanish nation and carried on screaming,
" They are all in it together"

Even after he produced ID she was still reticent.

He did, however, catch the offending gypsy woman, who
pulled all Charlotte's cash out of her very ample bosom....Yuk.

Charlotte then lurched foward, so eternally grateful,
she wanted to kiss our knight on the cheek,
only to lurch backwards with equal speed,
when she spotted the enormous cold sore on his gorgeous, Spanish lips.

THE RAMBLAS IN BARCELONA

Each time we meet up we laugh until we cry.
Occasionally, we argue, but not much.

This weekend we all met at a friends B & B in Eastbourne.

Actually, we had as much fun as we did in more exotic locations.

On the way, a couple of us stopped off
in Lewes and had a bite of lunch at Bills.

If you have never had a mooch around Lewes,
its a great place to find little, quirky, interesting shops,
as well as some lovely antique shops and centres.

Back to Bills.

www.bills-website.co.uk

I discovered Bills a few years ago,
when the shop had just metamorphised
from an ordinary little greengrocers into the
most wondrous greengrocers,
with a small cafe area,
serving the most astounding grub.

It possessed a real ambiance.

Wow! its grown into a most wonderful cafe three times the size,
and although the fruit and veg is still there, it takes more of a back seat.

The store now also produce a whole range of Bill's jams, chutneys,
beer and a myriad of other goodies.

They have a place in Brighton also and I hear they have spread to London.

Nice to see a business that's expanding instead of the usual gloomy story hey?