Face Time and Old Friends

I first met William age 10 at our  boarding school, which though well placed on the Sussex Downs and attractive arcitecturally, was like many boarding schools of its time, affected by some terrible pupil abuse by staff. Neither Willie nor I though, were personally affected by abuse at the School.

Thankfully though, Ladycross like most of the many prep schools that used to be in the area, has long since closed. 

Now we are both age 74 or thereabouts, he is my oldest  friend still living. The older one becomes of course, sadly friends begin to fade or die but Willie remains well.

He called me on Face Time this week out of the blue, from his home in Shankill County Dublin, where he lives with his wife Gitty. She retired recently from lecturing at Trinity College Dublin. It was fun seeing him again, even if only on FaceTime.

Willie and I are rather different politically, with he being rather more left wing than I.  Before retirement, he worked as a social worker in some of the poorest areas of Dublin, whereas I was merely a solicitor in London.

Mrs maytrees who was present when Willie called, asked me to seek his opinion on the recent riots in Dublin which caused so much damage to shops, buses and even a tram there. His view was that the riots reportedly the worst in Dublin for many years, were caused by right wing extremists.  He may be correct, but people  appear to be moving politically right thoughout what used to be called the free world, although not in the UK where we currently have a moderately left wing government, probably in about 12 months time, to be voted out in favour of a different but still moderately left wing, government.

We discussed children; his daughter in law is a Flight Lieutenant in the Irish airforce and our oldest son is in 2024 to be married in Jersey.  We also discussed grand children as we both take on duties such as collecting them from school and looking after them whilst their parents are away at work.

His health is good certainly compared with mine following my Covid-19, broken pelvis and 'flu. Willie  goes  running on nearby Shankill beach whereas despite previously undertaking much marathon running, I have not run for a year or two since Covid-19. 

Perhaps when next we meet, a stroll if not slow run together, over Shankill beach would be fun.