Friends Reunited

“Great friends just pick up where they left off“. Anon

 

Today marks a month since I met up with a small group of ‘old’ school friends for a much anticipated meet up.

Our original reunion happened in 2014 where we all met for the first time in almost 25 years and it all began with a chance encounter…

A few months previously, I was enjoying a night out at Galgorm Resort and Spa when I was approached by a girl who addressed me by my maiden name! I was completely shocked at this as originally coming from Belfast and living in the Ballymena area for almost 20 years at the time, no one local could possibly have known my maiden name. It turns out it was my school friend Joanne, who like me, married and moved to the same area, in fact approximately 3 miles away! Yes we had been living so near for so long and didn’t even know it! The days before Facebook!!

From that night, we swapped numbers, friended on Facebook and so it developed from there, searching and connecting with the rest of our ‘bunch’.

Our reunion included most of our year so it was a little manic trying ‘to do the rounds ‘ and catch up with so many people. We left vowing to do it again. As is life, it was almost 4 years until we could finally make arrangements and this time it was just our ‘wee group’.

Myself and Joanne caught the train together to Belfast and met early to have a few sneaky cocktails first!

The Perch Rooftop Bar

Our first port of call was ‘Rita’s’ a piano bar for a cold glass of Rosé, before heading next door to ‘The Perch’ a quirky rooftop bar, home to the most amazing space and cocktails. Their espresso martinis are to die for!

Unfortunately we had time for only one drink here before strolling across the City to the very stylish ‘Café Parisien’, situated directly opposite Belfast City Hall.

It came as no surprise that we were the last to arrive (those darn cocktails!) . We were immediately greeted with hugs and toasted each other with fabulous crystal glasses of prosecco . We had a beautiful afternoon tea and the next few hours were spent drinking, chatting and laughing until our cheeks were sore! Those stories about teachers, fellow pupils that we all loved/ hated! Any mild anxiety about catching up again, which I’m sure we all have, was immediately dispelled as we chatted as if we had never parted. Now that’s true friendship!

Before long, we were back on the train with full hearts and bellies, multiple pics on our phones and with plans to do it all again in September (hopefully 2018!) . Watch this space….

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