We don't look a day over

...54!

L to R: Elspeth, me, Catherine C, nee K, in the pub in Stroud. Catherine was last seen by me in 1981!

I had to run a market stall in Nailsworth in the morning, so we took Elspeth to catch the bus to Bath, where she met up with Catherine, in the rain.They'd seen each other in July or August, when Catherine attended the last-ever Runrig concert. Catherine and I didn't know each other well at school, so hadn't kept in touch. Because she lives near Salisbury Plain, I'd assumed she'd married an army man. It turns out that was figment of my imagination!

C and E returned to Stroud about tea time, by car, and we looked over old photos, before heading out for a pub meal in Stroud. In my final year at school, I had to keep my head down to study hard for Higher exams, as I needed the grades to get into Uni, after doing badly in my O grades. I was shocked to realise that I hardly recognised any of the people in the photos. Perhaps if they'd been 12, not 17 years old, I'd have known them. I was an old lag, spent eight years in Cell Block H in Perthshire. Most of my mates were lightweights by comparison!

Eventually Catherine had to drive home, and Elspeth and I went to a free concert, part of Stroud's folk weekend, in the Ale House pub. Niall Kelly, a blues singer and guitar player from Northern Ireland, is a force to be reckoned with. Catch him if you can !