Intermission
My original intention was to spend a year in Tenerife then return home and travel on to a new country next year. As I was booking my flight home I contemplated the English weather, a cold Christmas and all of the places I had not yet seen in Tenerife and the wider Canaries. A quick search revealed that I could fly back to the UK for a month via Easyjet at a very reasonable price. This would give me a week each with brothers and sisters in the UK and a chance to visit friends in Leicester where I had been living before my trip.
Things did not go quite according to plan due to the death of a very dear friend of mine and next door neighbour, Gordon but I was pleased to be in the UK to celebrate his funeral as he wished and to see his family. Gordon was an exceptional man who worked for BT before his retirement. He also found time to be an Elder in his church, a special constable, a warden for the Ornithological Society, a tree warden in Anstey parish and a good friend to all. He also managed to raise two wonderful daughters. Despite suffering from Parkinson's in his later years he kept up his activities with the church and the society, kept himself busy model making and bird watching and engaged in intricate board games and incisive conversation. It is a shame that the plebs in government and some journalists who make the fatuous remarks that people should 'work for their pension' have no idea of the contribution made by many already apart from the fact that they have given a full life of service to earn their pension in the fist place.
We have had the movies 'When Harry met Sally' and 'Sleepless in Seattle' but truth is stranger than fiction. When Gordon met Mary in Blackpool where he lived, she was on a trip from Anstey near Leicester. The following week Gordon got on his bike and cycled the 150 miles to see Mary only to find that she was away for the day. He found refuge overnight and they met the next day. As they say the rest is history!
Good luck Gordon wherever you are and I hope the family take heart in their happy memories.
Things did not go quite according to plan due to the death of a very dear friend of mine and next door neighbour, Gordon but I was pleased to be in the UK to celebrate his funeral as he wished and to see his family. Gordon was an exceptional man who worked for BT before his retirement. He also found time to be an Elder in his church, a special constable, a warden for the Ornithological Society, a tree warden in Anstey parish and a good friend to all. He also managed to raise two wonderful daughters. Despite suffering from Parkinson's in his later years he kept up his activities with the church and the society, kept himself busy model making and bird watching and engaged in intricate board games and incisive conversation. It is a shame that the plebs in government and some journalists who make the fatuous remarks that people should 'work for their pension' have no idea of the contribution made by many already apart from the fact that they have given a full life of service to earn their pension in the fist place.
We have had the movies 'When Harry met Sally' and 'Sleepless in Seattle' but truth is stranger than fiction. When Gordon met Mary in Blackpool where he lived, she was on a trip from Anstey near Leicester. The following week Gordon got on his bike and cycled the 150 miles to see Mary only to find that she was away for the day. He found refuge overnight and they met the next day. As they say the rest is history!
Good luck Gordon wherever you are and I hope the family take heart in their happy memories.
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