MEETING AN 'OLD' FRIEND AND A 'NEW' ONE TOO!

I knew that Gina, an “old” friend was coming to the UK with Marsha, a “new” friend, who happens to be her cousin, and had seen from their itinerary that they would be in Stow-on-the-Wold today.  We hadn’t seen Gina since she came over in 2022 - and in fact, she and Connie, the friend she came with on that occasion, had planned to do so much, but the Queen died early in their visit, so they had to leave much of their itinerary undone.  However, as Mr. HCB was due to be at cricket, I hadn’t said anything to him because I thought a meet-up would be impossible.

The cricket match finished early yesterday afternoon when sadly Mr. HCB’s team lost, so I realised he would be at home today and I wouldn't be left "home alone".   This morning, therefore, I suggested that I got in touch with Gina to see if they could fit us into their plans for the day and asked her if we drove to Stow-on-the-Wold we could meet them at least for a coffee.

After several excited Whatsapp messages, it was arranged that we meet up with them when they got off the bus;  they would be taking the train from London to Oxford, then Oxford to Moreton-in-Marsh and a bus from there to Stow-on-the-Wold.  

We stood eagerly awaiting the bus and when it arrived, Gina hopped off like a 2 year old and embraced us both - and I then hugged Marsha - who probably wondered what Gina had let her in for!  

We went for a quick wander around the quaint Cotswold town, before taking them into a lovely little sort of “takeaway/or sit in” restaurant for an American-type meal and salad.  Mr. HCB and I had checked it out earlier as we wandered up to the bus stop, and I had asked the proprietor if he was American and he admitted he was!  His partner told us that they put the food into takeaway trays, so that we could either take it away and eat it, or sit in, but either way, they avoided the extra 20% VAT.  The meal was delicious and of course, lots of chatting was done - well you know me - always eager to chat and of course, not having seen Gina for so long, we had a lot to catch up on.  I thought after almost two weeks of English food, they might appreciate something familiar from back home.  

After we had eaten and chatted, we knew that Gina and Marsha had several things they wanted to see in Stow, so we bid our farewells, with a promise to keep in touch.  The one thing that I was really upset about was the setting on my iPhone camera - I must have changed it earlier in the week and most of the shots weren’t good, but I have done the best I could to remedy that - and black and white was the answer for the selfie of the four of us.

So here is a collage of our day - you may be wondering about the shot of the Unisex toilet sign - having got to Stow-on-the-Wold, we were desperate to use the loo, and we were relieved to find there was one in the car park.  However, two of the four were “Out of Order”, which was bad enough, but then we realised that we needed 40p each for the pleasure of using the toilets!  As we had no cash on us, we prevailed on the good nature of a lady just leaving, but I made Mr. HCB stand outside “on guard” just in case the door opened as I was in the middle of doing what I needed to do! ;-)  You couldn’t make it up could you?  And only in England could that happen!

Next in the collage is Marsha’s tee shirt, proudly worn and showing off their visit to Liverpool - she asked me if we knew the Beatles - knew them, we grew up with them!!  However, a quick rendering of “We all live in a Yellow Submarine” on the pavement did NOT elicit any cash from passers-by - perhaps we needed a hat on the ground - but by this time, Mr. HCB had turned away, as he often does at times like this!  

The lovely Golden Labrador was sitting in the doorway of a Solicitors’ office, patiently waiting for its owner to come out - and was quite happy to pose for a photograph - this one is especially for Marsha, as she said she is missing her little puppy back home.

And last, but not least, is a shot of the storm of biblical proportions which we drove through on our way home - in fact, it was so bad - and I can never remember having to do this before - Mr. HCB pulled into a lay-by until it had passed.  There was lots of thunder and lightning, and we were glad to have pulled over.  However, once we got nearer to home, the sun came out and is still shining now, although our neighbour told us that it lasted about an hour here - but that will save Mr. HCB watering the plants later. 

We had a wonderful time - so a special THANK YOU to Gina and Marsha for letting us be part of your day and for the unscheduled meeting - which was such a blessing to us both - who knows when we will meet again - but until we do, enjoy the rest of your stay and have safe flights back home next week.  M xx 

P.S.  I had put several little wooden hearts into my pocket before I left this morning, so gave some out along the way, and then gave my last four to Gina and Marsha - two each!  


P.P.S.  To top off a lovely day, just looked out of the window and saw this beautiful sunset - see extra - Mr. HCB and I then had a conversation about whether these are "crepuscular" clouds, as normal the rays point down - but who cares, they made a wonderful and spectacular end to our day!