rivers2cross

We had a lovely afternoon in Windsor catching up with Andrew and Kellie on the final day of their 2022 European Tour! We first met at the Sydney Ashes Test in January 2007 and it all grew from that fateful day. I was in Australia with my friends Lewis and Adam, also meeting up with my brother who was already out there having travelled overland from London! In the ground we were sitting behind Andrew and Kellie and it was one of the great days, with plenty of banter and beers. Bearing in mind England were getting thrashed, on that particular day England had a rare good day.

I kept in contact with Kellie afterwards and 4 years later based on just that one day at the cricket they put me up for over a week on my return visit which this time was on my own. Dad had died 18 months earlier and the holiday was much needed and once again we had some amazing days at the cricket, the Hunter Valley and the Blue Mountains.

In 2012 they travelled to Europe. At short notice I jumped on the Eurostar to meet up with them in Paris. We took in the end of the Tour De France and crammed as much as we could in 24 hours. A couple of weeks later they came to the UK for the London 2012 Olympics. I vacated my small house so they could have a base for the week, and more lovely memories were made including going to watch Olympic football at Wembley, a trip to Stonehenge and some lovely meals. One was a rather raucous affair at The Bull in Sonning, the pub of my youth, and then a really lovely evening when they met Mum at The Shire Horse at Maidenhead, which was the pub where Mum grew up before she met and married Dad.

In 2015 we met up for the start of The Ashes in Cardiff when they returned to Europe. They had booked tickets for the first day of the series and I think I managed to get pretty much the last two seats in the ground and we went down on the train to meet them for the day.

Sadly 7 years passed since then without be able to get together until today and as with all great friendships it seemed like yesterday picking up from where we all left off. A lovely catch up over a nice meal. Hopefully I’ll make it back out to OZ for the next get-together 🤞🤞

Windsor is a town where I have a lifetime of memories. From Dad working under railway arches when we were tiny children, to the factory in Dedworth. We went to Windsor most Saturdays to see the changing of the guard and then came back to the toy shop in Maidenhead. If we had been good a miniature toy soldier was added to our collection. It was also where me and Noel found out at a very early age that Father Christmas wasn’t real, as Dad couldn’t take us to the annual Christmas party and his work friend who we knew as Uncle Stan took us instead, but had to get changed into his Father Christmas costume during the afternoon! 😆 In 1977 I played a small part in the procession for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. Although most of youth football was played for Maidenhead, I did have a year at Windsor & Eton and did play in the FA Youth Cup against Wimbledon. We got thrashed! Held them to 1-1in the first half, but were totally overrun in the second half and lost 7-1 I think… Back in the 1980s when I first started work we used to supply Windsor Castle with their black bin bags, which meant driving through the arch that everyone walks through to get into the castle. Security was somewhat less rigorous back then!

We met in Browns today, which used to be The Old Trout and hosted lots of famous bands back in the day. I must confess that Browns used to be my Internet Dating go to place in Windsor when I was trying that route to meet the future Mrs D! 😂