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Writing about my son's piano lessons and taking my daughter to visit secondary schools has made me realise that this year marks the 40th anniversary of me leaving school.
I did two archaeological digs and it was maybe 6 or 7 weeks of my life, but that whole year of my first forays into freedom was so intense that it feels like much longer.
I wondered what had become of the who I kissed on the last day of the dig and stayed in contact with for a few years and I managed (I am 99% certain) to find her online. It can be hard to find women who you know by their maiden name (we can't be calling it that any more, can we?) if they have got married, but luckily she's not got a double-barrelled name, keeping her own surname (we can't still be calling it that, can we?) and adding (I presume) her partner's.
There's not much about her online (certainly compared to me) but she's still working in archaeology and living in Canada. I didn't feel any compunction to get in touch, but nice to see her again after four decades. It's a sweet, warm feeling as much as being nostalgic about your own shared foolishness as anything else and confused about how that thing from yesterday is 40 years old.
I wonder if she's still got all my Japan tapes (I'd loved the band at school, but then gone off them). She gave me a cool Dutch hoodie in return (I don't have that any more).
She's the reason I became vegetarian (for the next decade and a bit). It wasn't just to try and make her like me, as I only changed my diet after the dig had ended and we'd gone our separate ways, but like I say, those few weeks (that first dig was four weeks max) had a big effect on my life.
I remember returning home (after less than a month) and feeling like I'd been away for years. I'd broken up with my teenage girlfriend before I went, fallen in love with the one girl my age on the dig, then returned home and fell back in love with my girlfriend again. I was just in love with whoever was right in front of me.
RHLSTP Book Club with Andrew Lownie, talking about his explosive book about greedy, wasteful, sex pest, stupid royals, Entitled. It's hilarious and horrifying in equal measure (actually more horrifying).
