The first month we were here we had a garden party, go back through my blogs and read about it. There was one person there whom I immediately felt a kindred spirit for but we played it cool not wanting to overstep boundaries.
Hubs and I got on with our lives which included putting my parents’ furniture on eBay and displaying it on news bulletins at church and in the flats.
We got no bites so I took down the photos and there was a knock on the door. It was the potential kindred spirit. Immediately I ushered her in, we had our new carpet and our new couches and she was muttering about being forward. We Brits are so polite. In my best American spirit complete with haut couture accent I attempted to make her feel at home,
“Take your shoes off, the carpet’s new,” I instructed. Relieved she complied and then got to the point of her visit.
“I saw your advertisement to sell your furniture and I have some furniture that I want to sell and wondered if, oh this is so presumptuous of me, but I wondered if you would be interested because it is shabby chic and may fit your style…”
“Come,” I said, “and look at what we’ve bought!”
She was dumbstruck. No, it wasn’t shabby chic but I think our ivory leather couches made her want to kick herself.
“I should have said something sooner, ” she said. But your English reserve stopped you, I thought! Drat!
My kind hubs offered to put her furniture on eBay too when she was ready to sell because she said she didn’t have a computer. We arranged to take photos on Sunday.
Yay! I have a potential friend.
The next morning the letter box clattered and an envelope addressed to me plopped on the new carpet. It was from the lady upstairs saying she’s going to wait until October to sell her furniture so no need for photos just yet!
Too much too soon! Here I was looking forward to visiting with her. I wrote a return note to that effect and popped it through her letter box.
This flat living is rather like a community, down the stairs she came and invited me to the Royal Academy Summer Art Exhibit!
When she picked me up on Monday morning another furniture comment was passed that started me thinking our meeting was not a mere coincidence. I told her of the Victorian Settle we had put an absentee bid on and won, and she said she had a settle she wanted to sell too…so we laughingly said we would not buy anything else without checking with her first!
After the exhibit and over lunch we began to chat and this is what we discovered about each other:
We are both convent schoolgirls, collect rare stuff from foreign countries, grew up abroad, had fathers in the service. My dream, I told her, is to go to Australia, her family, she told me, emigrated to Australia when the Government was selling tickets for L10.00, my parents nearly took that opportunity but were saved by the bell and posted to Beirut instead. She’s been to Beirut and Tehran, both places I grew up. She has one brother, loves the theatre, works for herself, is independent, has a freedom travel pass like my husband, was born the same year as him and the I mentioned Ridge Farm Recording studios where Hubs was working when we first met. This mention of Ridge Farm finally stopped her in her tracks,
“This is amazing,” she said, “is that in Guildford?”
“I don’t know,” I said, “but it is a house with a catering staff, tennis courts, recording studio and…”
“…a pool surrounded by dairy farms, best little pub down the lane…”
“That’s it,” I said.
“I’ve been there! I don’t believe this, when were you there?” she asked, “we may have crossed paths all those years ago!”
But we’d missed each other by about ten years.
With so many things in common how can we not be kindred spirits?
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
No comments so far!
Leave a Comment