Today (October 7) is the reason for the entire trip: our 30th wedding anniversary. Apparently this is the Pearl anniversary not that we’ve ever minded such things. We originally thought it would be a great opportunity for us to have a big celebration with all the family and friends who couldn’t be there on the actual day but that didn’t work out. The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley as Robbie Burns once penned.
No surprise that the day is grey and misty. We had our breakfast and started the visiting in earnest. Off to the care home for tea with mum. She wasn’t doing particularly well and words seemed difficult for her so we didn’t stay long. Next stop: Auntie Jean and Uncle Jimmy who have also aged since the last time we saw them and are now fully and admittedly in the ranks of “old people”. Jimmy rarely drives now, which is probably a good thing given that he’s near enough to 90. And Jean says she doesn’t mind since the only place she wasnts to go in the car is the supermarket. We spent an hour or so catching up on family stuff (with a short time out for me to “fix YouTube” on Jean’s ipad) and then we were on our own for a bit.
We had a lovely bar lunch at the Westerton Arms as we have done so many times before and then proceeded to mark the passage of time in our surroundings. The hotel where we had our engagement party is currently being remodeled for offices, the University of Stirling (where I was studying when we met) is also under construction and nearly unrecognizable given my 30+ year old memories. We wandered through the center of Stirling noting changes old and new. When did every second shop become an estate agent’s office? How many houses can they possibly be selling?
Travel tip #33: you can’t go back. You can go again but nothing stays the same. We took some comfort that we aren’t the only nostalgic travelers as we noted a couple in Vernazza who where wandering the town looking for a restaurant they had visited 20 years before.
We spent the evening with the best man and his wife who were two of the only 4 people who came from Scotland for the wedding. We had drinks at our wee holiday flat before walking into town for a lovely meal at Brea instead of our usually “box of curry” meal and drinking session at their house. It is wonderful to have such long standing friendships even though we are generally 3000 miles apart at any one time.
Travel tip #34: take joy where you find it. Life is short.
And so we marked three decades of marriage. And it was just perfect.
Dubious data for today:
12,727 with apparently no floors?
Number of estate agents in the high street: 10
Number of places that are still where the were 30 years ago: a handful
Number of things we would have done differently over the decades: 0
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