Good Gang (60% thereof)

It would have been October or November 1985 - my first term at Liverpool University - when I first met Ash, Bob, Ian, and Ross. And here we are, nearly thirty-seven years later, still firm friends. When I hear the phrase 'band of brothers' these are the guys my thoughts turn to.

Two bits of background, no doubt covered in Blips passim, but just to save you looking:

1. On some occasion during our university days, we were in conversation with a bunch of people and Ash described someone as 'a bad person'. One of the party took exception to this and said, 'There's no such thing as good and bad people', which led, I can't quite remember how, to us referring to ourselves - ironically but probably not quite ironically enough - as The Good Gang.

2. For many, many years now, there has been an annual weekend away for the five of us, and we refer to these trips as Good Gang Special Assignments. Of course, not all of us make it along every year, but we do our best.

Recently (and happily), we have started to gather slightly more frequently, and it was suggested a few weeks ago that we should all meet up before the summer. I explained that much as I was all guns blazing for such an intermediate assignment, I was grounded in Kirkby Lonsdale for the duration of Abi's A levels.

And, like the menschen that they are, they addressed this problem by suggesting that they come here for the weekend. Perfect!

So, here we are after an afternoon in the pubs of Kirkby Lonsdale, a splendid evening meal at The Lunesdale, and a return to The Royal Hotel for nightcaps. You might have noticed that even with me on the other side of the camera, we are a man short: Bob had retired to bed before I remembered that I needed to take a photo.