My 50 year Reunion

Hello, my darlings.  Hope you are well.

This is just a quickie today.  Phew!,  I hear you say!!

I could tell you that I'm pushed for time as I am off to do something really interesting, but truth is, The Photographer has just shouted up that he's pouring me a G&T :-).  My weekend clearly starts here, and in a glass!

I recently went to an amazing event.  An office reunion with people I mostly hadn't seen for about 50 years.



I deliberated over what to wear for precisely no time at all.

Having this jumper in my wardrobe makes life so easy.  Because when dressing for the unknown, this Zara pearl top is just soooo perfect.

Add some black jeans and a pair of courts (pumps) and I'm good to go.

I bought this jumper in September and it is already proved itself to be indispensable. It's the perfect go-to when the occasion is a little bit more special than a trip to the pub, but not cocktail dress posh.  It can handle every situation in between.

Of course, a biker was needed for the chilly night.  Here, a Peacocks pleather waterfall biker.

This biker is another fits-most-occasions sort of jacket.  It's not rock chick and it's not WI, it's somewhere happily in the middle, which is where most of my socialising occurs.

I'd like to have shown you a photo of us all at our reunion dinner but 1) I'd have had to have asked every single person for their permission to publish and 2) I forgot to take a photo!

How did it go?  Brilliantly.  My first observation was that everyone looked the same as they did back then.  Yes, some of us had put on a bit of weight since our teens.  Yes, some had changed hair colour.  But we were all recognisable as our older selves.

I had known some of the girls at school before the office years.  One of them said "Mary, I bumped into you years ago and didn't recognise you.  But now you look like you did at school".  Well, make what you will of that.  I'm still pondering over what that means exactly.  But as you can see, I wasn't wearing a gymslip or navy gym knickers so it must have been something to do with my face!

Another said she used to call me Mary Quant because of my bob back then.  Aah, memories.

 No surprise that we chatted 19 to the dozen.   We were about 25 men and women.  Some old colleagues had moved off island and couldn't make it, some had sadly passed away.  

It dawned on me early on in the evening that there were so many stories to hear.  Each had had 50 years of living since I saw them last.  I so wanted to spend time with everyone, hearing their life stories, but the reality was that I chatted mostly to dining companions at my table.  I so wanted the evening to carry on and on, until I'd found out what had happened to each and every one of them.  That was not to be.

When I sent my thank you to the organisers the next day, I asked that we don't wait another 50 years for the next meet up ...

So, ladies, what are you like on reunions?  Have you had any lately?

Have you met up with old school friends or work mates?

Did you recognise each other?  What changes could you see?  I saw just a little bit more blonde in the room, but otherwise it seemed as though the last 50 years just had been a dream.

Ooops, must dash, the ice cubes are melting as I type.

A la perchoine.