Family Afar: Heath Cottage

To Shortwood, England -- August 26-27

We had no big plans this morning in Bristol. It turned out the hotel was just across the street from an impressive shopping area -- Cabot Circus -- with multiple levels and a cool glass roof, reminiscent of the British Museum.

Kylie had been asking for weeks to get some yarn for knitting, so we found a craft shop and all voted for our favorite color. She ended up with a ball of thick, deep purple and a pair of 6mm needles. To make things fair, Dex picked out two packs of thick pipe cleaners, which were soon being twisted into various shapes and simple creatures.

Although there was a dozen tempting restaurants within a stones throw, we decided to mind our budget and eat the food we'd bought yesterday, enjoying a sunny picnic in the park before heading out of town.

Our destination for the next couple days would be Shortwood, a small town in Gloucestershire and the tiny hometown of my friend Sally. More precisely, the actual destination was the large field behind Heath Cottage (Sally's dad's house) in Shortwood. The fact that many English addresses are devoid of a street name or number, still confuses me a bit. To an American like me, the addresses just look like a series of descriptive names. It's all pretty quaint and British, I suppose, but I’d really hate to be the new postman.

I first met Sally and Rob in the fall of 1997 during a white water rafting trip in Nepal. We, along with my good friend April, were assigned to the same raft for the 5 day trip. This happened to be the same visit to Nepal where we had first met Cameron (now in Norway) as well as fellow Aussie compatriot, Helen (still in Australia) whom we hope to meet up with early next year.

As with Cam, Sally, Rob, and I have somehow managed to keep in touch over the years. Although, the last time we actually got together was in 2000 when Meg and I attended their wedding in the same field behind Sal’s father’s house that we were now looking for. One hour, one phone call, and one U-turn later, we had successfully navigated the narrow country roads from Bristol and arrived at the large, white tent already erected for the anniversary celebration.

How great to see Rob and Sally again after all of these years. It wasn’t long before the intervening sixteen years seemed to disappear. They, like us, were now parents of two and perhaps had an extra grey hair or two. A couple dozen of their friends and family members had already arrived and set up their tents and campers in the field. We were welcomed with open arms. It was clear the friendships went back years and the quick, wry English sense of humor was on full display.

Dex and Kylie spent much of the two days there running around, either playing with the other kids or one of the half dozen dogs. They also quickly hit it off with Toby (8) and Theo (6) and it was great for Meg and I too, getting to know their parents, Giles and Caroline.

By 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, another couple dozen people had shown up. The BBQ was soon going and the country band, The Bees Knees, was tuned up and ready to play. The square dancing was a blast, though I'm pretty sure at least a quarter of the time I was completely messed up.

Meg, Kylie and I were out on the "dance floor" for almost every dance while Dex was out running with a half dozen boys chasing him in giant game of tag. He did however join us later in the evening, and I was particularly happy when he asked to stay for the last couple dances even after Meg and Kylie (light weights) had retired to the tent.