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Out of the blue, this afternoon Katie Bee and Daniel dropped by. Katie was heading homeward from visiting a family member in Horsham and, noticing that her return trip passed our way, she’d decided to pay me an impromptu visit and rung Daniel to get him to come over from the Isle of Wight and join her.
We chatted over coffee and biscuits then Katie invited me to join her and Daniel for a walk. Daniel’s early childhood home wasn’t far away, and as he and Katie have known each other from nursery school that had them reminiscing about those days. We passed a green where Katie and Daniel used to play cricket then went on to the house where Daniel lived in our sixth form college days. One of the neighbouring houses, where they used to visit, was empty with a For Sale sign showing, and we went up to the windows for a peek - as we said, we were like kids going exploring.
We carried on to the creekside path where the Octagon is. We’d been standing over the stone reminiscing for a couple of minutes when a couple walked up. Noticing we were talking about the Octagon we explained that Daniel and I were the people who’d put the stone in 20 years ago, and that it had been dedicated to Katie. They were fascinated, and said they’d always think of us when they came down the path.
From there, it was on to Gina’s, a shop Daniel and Katie had frequented as youngsters. Daniel observed that whenever he’d been back in the years since, Gina had always seemed to be the same age. Gina turned out to be present. She remembered Daniel and Katie, and after a bit of talk about the old days, Daniel told her all about the National Poo Museum. We bought some sweets and ate them on the long walk to the ferry.
Passing the Haslar site reminded them of when each of them (on separate occasions) had been admitted to the hospital as children. Daniel recalled his devastation on finding that the play room, which before his admission he’d been told contained top of the range toys like a rocket launcher, was closed during his stay. We were excited to see a firework go off in the distance as we crossed Haslar Bridge, but despite our exhortations no more followed.
After a stop to admire the colours on the water by Rampart Row, we headed up the Millennium Walk to the ferry, exchanging stories of how we spent New Year’s Eve 1999. Katie said she was saddened that we were about to part, but Daniel lifted her spirits saying we’d had a fantastic time. They noticed me keeping an eye on the Millennium Walk bricks and started to look at them themselves. I pointed out Sarah Kane’s brick, we stopped there and Katie, who’s very religious, said a prayer of thanks for Sarah’s life.
We said our fond goodbyes, and I walked the length of the High Street to Morrisons where I needed a couple of things.
We chatted over coffee and biscuits then Katie invited me to join her and Daniel for a walk. Daniel’s early childhood home wasn’t far away, and as he and Katie have known each other from nursery school that had them reminiscing about those days. We passed a green where Katie and Daniel used to play cricket then went on to the house where Daniel lived in our sixth form college days. One of the neighbouring houses, where they used to visit, was empty with a For Sale sign showing, and we went up to the windows for a peek - as we said, we were like kids going exploring.
We carried on to the creekside path where the Octagon is. We’d been standing over the stone reminiscing for a couple of minutes when a couple walked up. Noticing we were talking about the Octagon we explained that Daniel and I were the people who’d put the stone in 20 years ago, and that it had been dedicated to Katie. They were fascinated, and said they’d always think of us when they came down the path.
From there, it was on to Gina’s, a shop Daniel and Katie had frequented as youngsters. Daniel observed that whenever he’d been back in the years since, Gina had always seemed to be the same age. Gina turned out to be present. She remembered Daniel and Katie, and after a bit of talk about the old days, Daniel told her all about the National Poo Museum. We bought some sweets and ate them on the long walk to the ferry.
Passing the Haslar site reminded them of when each of them (on separate occasions) had been admitted to the hospital as children. Daniel recalled his devastation on finding that the play room, which before his admission he’d been told contained top of the range toys like a rocket launcher, was closed during his stay. We were excited to see a firework go off in the distance as we crossed Haslar Bridge, but despite our exhortations no more followed.
After a stop to admire the colours on the water by Rampart Row, we headed up the Millennium Walk to the ferry, exchanging stories of how we spent New Year’s Eve 1999. Katie said she was saddened that we were about to part, but Daniel lifted her spirits saying we’d had a fantastic time. They noticed me keeping an eye on the Millennium Walk bricks and started to look at them themselves. I pointed out Sarah Kane’s brick, we stopped there and Katie, who’s very religious, said a prayer of thanks for Sarah’s life.
We said our fond goodbyes, and I walked the length of the High Street to Morrisons where I needed a couple of things.
