Friendship is a precious gift

Here's my advice  ...

As you go through life, make friendship a priority!!

I'm not a poet and I really don't have the words to express how blessed I am to have some amazing friendships that have lasted the test of time and distance.

Penny spies her
welcome committee,
who had been waiting
at the wrong part
of the station 😏

I have just had the most wonderful long weekend reunion with friends from far and wide.  Louise now lives in Plymouth, but we hadn't seen each other for 24 years!!  Penny lives in Louisiana and I'd not seen her for 16 years!!  Joke (pronounced yo-ka) is from the Netherlands and we have visited each other a number of times over the years.

Penny was the last to arrive, and after a circuitous drive from Abbey Wood station, because the A2 southbound was closed, we headed straight for coffee.

Me, Penny, Joke & Louise

Sadly, Louise was only able to stay two nights.  On Monday, I worked from home whilst Penny & Joke went off to explore Rochester.

Don't think I mentioned it, but Monday 19th was my birthday. So later on, along with Pauline, we went to see the Bob Marley: One Love movie, which was excellent; and followed that with a truly scrumptious Turkish meal at Taze Restaurant in Chatham 😀

Tuesday was a day off and we took ourselves to Bateman's House, which was the historical home of author and poet Rudyard Kipling.  If you don't know the name, he wrote the famous children's story 'Jungle Book' and a well-known poem entitled 'IF'.

We thoroughly enjoyed the day, exploring the house, having coffee & scones in the cafe. and an extremely muddy woodland walk, which we had to abandon half way around.

It was Penny's turn to leave on Wednesday, initially to spend a few more days with Louise.  Whilst Joke had the 'privilege' of coming to help with our weekly World Cafe, where we fed and watered 160 students.

What an absolute privilege it is to not have seen someone for one year, 16 years, 24 years and yet feel so utterly comfortable and at home in each other's company.

But Joke, too, had to leave this morning

...  and then there was one 😢😢😢