Harbour, Viaduct and Royal Parade, Ramsgate

I was in Ramsgate this afternoon for a very poignant and sad purpose to say farewell to a very long standing friend who is leaving the UK to start a new life in Bulgaria next week. I've known Adrian since I was 5, which is over 60 years ago. The connection goes back even further as Adrian's mother and my mother were school friends in the 1930s so there's much shared interest between us both.

I spent much of my formative teenage years with Adrian. With many japes and activities together even after he went to the Grammar School and I went to the local Secondary Modern. We kind of lost touch after we finished college and university only once catching up with his then wife in Milton Keyes in the 1980s.

It was only by chance that I learned he had moved to Ramsgate with his business that I did some investigations on his company and found out where he lived. We established contact again in 2014. Both his parents have died, like mine. His mum the same year as mine, his dad the same year as mine.

His separated from his first wife who took their children back to Ireland. She subsequently died and he married Rosi from Bulgaria in 2000 or thereabouts. The angst caused by Brixit led to Rosi wanting to go back and so eventually, despite the intervention of covid, they're all packed and ready to go with 2 out of the three loads already in Bulgaria.

I know modern communications technology will enable us to keep in touch but it's not the same. And having only recently reconnected with him it was a sad time this afternoon. On the positive side we have an invitation to visit them in their new home in Borgas once they're settled in and covid allows travel. I quite fancy going there by train.....

Let me see what the Man In Seat 61 says about getting to Bulgaria... Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord, metro to Gare de l'Est, Munich, Zagreb....