Day 16/51 - Old Loves - New Motorways.

It's Wednesday and the last day of June. The break at Eastwood Hall was great - D H Lawrence country - his museum is across the road - and though he arguably only wrote one good book in his life, it's interesting to see where other writers lived and wrote. It's pretty countryside but his house is austere and joyless....pretty much like his writing really!
Now we're on the road to Nuneaton. Where? Er....well it's more or less on the way back to Hartley Wintney and pretty much in the middle of England. So why...when there are historical sites galore to see, are we heading for Nuneaton? Well, obviously because my first boyfriend lives there! He's had cancer and is unable to drive to meet us. I found him 7 years ago on Friends Reunited and he and Tony hit it off....both being drummers. We engage in more of Tony's famous circular driving - but this time we can at least blame A for not actually knowing how to direct someone to where he lives! He doesn't seem to know what's a mile down the road - and yet he's travelled all over the world.
We reach the house and after big hugs I spend a mindless hour learning the names of all the plants in P ( his wife's) garden while Tony and A talk about Jazz, big bands, and musicians they both knew.
People say you can't go back.... you can if you have no expectations. But still I look at this very frail white haired man - still younger than my gorgeous husband - and wonder what I was attracted to when I was 15 and he was 20. There is no answer - it's just all part of groeing up - and while A was my first boyfriend he was not my first great love....That was Michael H....whom I've had no luck tracking down.

WE all hug when we leave and I know that I will never see him again and that's okay. He reminds me of a time when my parents were young and fabulous and sought after and a summer season gig in Newquay - all 16 weeks of it - was the most sought after gig in English Variety...and my dad was king of the Cosy Nook Theatre for six years.
All gone now...but not forgotten.
Tony has promised me a trip to Woburn Abbey on the way back to HW..... but we're stuck in traffic, caught between roadworks and deadly accidents - and the side trip doesn't happen. One more thing to cross off the list as unfulfilled - but in the greater scheme of things, saying goodbye to my youth is more important.