OUR LOVELY SWISS FRIENDS

We first met this lovely couple, D and M, about 14 years ago, when we used to go down to Boscombe and stay in our son’s apartment at Honeycombe Beach - hence my name - when they were visiting their son, who also lived at HCB.

Their son lived in the apartment next door, so when his parents used to come and visit, D and I used to chat “over the balcony” - in fact, their son, Erich, used to tell his Mum that English people didn’t “do that” meaning “chat over the balcony” - but how wrong he was!  D and I quickly formed a firm friendship and realised that we both loved our families, both had a wonderful husband and both had a great sense of humour.  What made D laugh also made me laugh and our husbands invariably joined in.

Whenever they came over to stay with their son, and we were in Boscombe, we would chat, go for walks, meet at Little Pickle café for coffee and cake and lots of other things too.  I even conquered my fear of going on a boat when D and her daughter-in-law, L. invited me to go over to Brownsea Island, and of course the only way is by boat.  Thankfully that day it was quite calm!

As the years progressed, D would often say to us that we should visit them in Switzerland and go to their little cabin in the mountains, and we used to say how good that would be, and in 2012, we did just that and had a wonderful time.  They and their family made us so welcome and we have never forgotten their kindness to us.

Meanwhile, their son got married and the chat over the balcony continued with his wife, L.  When their little one was born, we were invited to the Christening - so we felt that when Erich’s parents weren’t here, we were his surrogate parents and always looked out for them.  They often came round to us for a meal when we were down in Boscombe and we would go round to have a meal with them and play silly games with them and their friends and I remember that it was often very competitive.  They came to visit us in our home in Swindon and one of Erich’s favourite English puddings was Rhubarb Crumble - and E was often to be found “scraping the dish” to enjoy the remains of the crumble - so nothing went to waste!

Our friendship has continued over the years and we last saw M and D when they came to visit us with one of their daughters in 2017 so we were thrilled to get a message from D asking if we were about yesterday or today as they were in London for 4 days and would love to see us and take us out for lunch.  We said we would love to see them and today was the day so here we all are - on quite a windy day, but at least when I took this, it wasn’t raining.  It was a good job I had booked a table though, as it got very busy.  We all had beer battered fish and chips and our friends were so happy, as they said they don’t get this sort of meal in Switzerland.  

Partway through our meal I had a text from our plumber to say he could come and service our boiler, if we were in, as he was “over our way”.   Our friends  were happy to come home with us, so we were able to continue our conversation before Mr. HCB took them back to the station to catch their train back to London later in the afternoon.

What a lovely day we have had and now all that remains is to look in the bag and choose which of the chocolates will be eaten this evening.  I have just checked the BBF dates and on one lot it’s 06/2024 and on the other 08/2024, so I reckon that will keep me going for a while - or perhaps I should freeze some of them to make them last a while longer!  

Seriously, thank you so much D and M for your friendship and also for the chocolates - you know me/us so well!  

Safe journey back home on Thursday and please give our love to all your family.  M & J xx

P.S.  In case you are wondering, the words on my collage are how you would say “Merry Christmas” in German-speaking Switzerland!