Off to Dorset - Tuesday 17th October 2017

I'm off to Bridport in Dorset.

I take the train to Crewkerne (Somerset) and my friend Lyn picks me up from there - along with her little dog Smartie (a border terrier). We drive south to Bridport (Dorset), about half an hour away. It should have been to her new home - but there have been delays with the sale and purchase, the deal hasn't been finalised and sadly she hasn't been able to move in as yet. She had sold her previous house and in the meantime she and Smartie have been living with her friends Jo and Lo and their young son, in Bridport, until her sale goes through. 

I know this in advance of my arrival and a rather fortuitous Plan B has evolved in the interim. It so happens that my arrival in Bridport coincides with school holidays and Jo and Lo (a lesbian couple) and their son are heading to Lanzarote. They have said I can stay at their place with Lyn during my visit (a week). What a lovely gesture. 

And so Lyn and I caretake Jo and Lo's house while they are off in the Canary Islands sunshine. They are a creative couple and the house is suitably eclectic and colourful - which suits Lyn and my creative souls very well indeed. It's a short walk into town and from this base Lyn will show me around the area over coming days. But mostly this rendezvous is not about sightseeing, must as we love seeing the world - it's about connection. 

Last time I stayed with Lyn (2011) she was living in a village near Seaton in Devon in a beautifully converted barn that she had renovated. In between then and now she has renovated and sold a large house in Yeovil. And now she has purchased a house in Bridport that she will also renovate. Except she can't get into it yet! Bugger. 

Never mind, we settle in at Jo and Lo's cool abode, put our feet up and have a good old catch up. 

Back in 2008 we had a wonderful Orient Express experience together, London to Venice. Venice is our happy place. Venice is always a great starting point - and it takes us everywhere else!

And now we are here, in lovely Bridport, reconnecting. And it's as though we only saw each other yesterday. We have a whole week together to catch up on all the years in between our last connection. 

OBSERVATION OF THE DAY:
Special lifelong friendships are wonderful things. I've just had a wonderful time with Jill, (who I've known for almost 40 years) and now I'm about to embark on a wonderful time with Lyn (who I've known for 32 years).
Lyn and I worked together at the International Planned Parenthood Federation Europe Region in London in the late 1980s. We worked in the area of sexual and reproductive rights in all corners of Europe covering all sorts of issues, meeting all sorts of people and having all sorts of work adventures in countries as diverse as Bulgaria and Denmark, Greece and Austria, Russia and Portugal - and also Singapore and Philippines. Global work, hard work, harrowing moments and many laughs. That's a whole other chapter of life that gave me unique knowledge and insight into the ways of the world that are difficult to describe. So when Lyn and I get together, there is no need to describe anything, we lived worked and played it together and one word says a thousand things! 

Smartie in all his glory!



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