I must be getting old...

How often do we look back and think of those from our past?  Friends, now long gone...

This takes back me to two people we met long ago, neighbours at the time, but friends never the less. A time well stamped in my memory when we would invite Rose and her husband over for the evening. A time for a good chin-wag... Rose and I shared a common interest in music, we both loved to play the piano and our respective husbands enjoyed discussing their interests, albeit the same time. Now and again there would be an interruption. "Now-now Rosie dear!" A reminder to tone it down a bit.

Norm's many anecdotes, particularly of their travels abroad held us enthralled. We were just a young couple at the time, in our early twenties, two little sons and another on the way. Overseas travel and all those adventures - simply a dream... 

At the time of moving into our newly built home, Rose and Norm were overseas and as yet, we had not met them. As it turned out however, it happened quite soon afterwards and it was when Norm happened to be standing at the front of his place. He soon introduced himself and from that point on, we hit it off.  Age was no barrier, their sixty or so years made no difference and the hilarious times we spent listening to their adventures, we never tired of.

We soon learned that they spent six months of each year on some pacific island where the climate was warmer. The rest of the time, across the road from our place.

It was early in the peace that Rose shared her green tomato chutney recipe with me and I whipped it together the moment I got my hands on some green tomatoes. From then on it has been a family favourite.

Because they were overseas when green tomatoes were available, I would make enough for all of us -  I think of them with each new lot..

One year Dad gave us a bottle of Old Parr which we were delighted to offer our new friends. Neither of us were interested in the whiskey, but it went down a treat with Rose and Norm. The room livened up, stories flowed... "Now-now Rosie!" at frequent intervals and I think the room actually shook with all the hilarity.

Now, If you two should just happen to be looking down from wherever it is you are these days, how about dropping in to update us on your latest adventures.............?