North Carolina

Friday 4 November 2005

Another great day which included a trip to Durham and a look at Duce University where Harold graduated recently. A fun filled evening with Geoff and Virginia's friends Dan and Barbara and Cristina. The last hours before bed were spent remembering schooldays, singing and dancing to songs of the 50's and 60's, both pop songs and opera. We all thought we were terribly good! A sparkling time - so much to catch up after 39 years! Bed at 12:30am.

Thursday 3 November 2005

Spent the morning with the Hawkins and had a lovely relaxing day. Virginia showed us how to do one's own checkout bill at the supermarket! We went for a great walk around the neighbourhood and viewed peacocks and a hundred year old house that is part of the farm that this area is subdivided from. We then finished the evening by touring the local Country Club which is amazing. Preston is a delightful family suburb.


Wednesday 2 November 2005

The best, easiest and most convenient way to get ourselves to Cary in North Carolina was to hire a car for 24 hours. We managed to get a pontiac for $60 and with insurance it cost us close to $100. John very kindly took us to pick up the car and kept telling us to remember to look left (something right hand drivers often fail to do)! After an emotional farewell to our dearest friend we set off on the highway 95 driving feeling awkward on the wrong side of the road. All was well until we needed to stop for petrol, sorry, Gas. We wanted to use one of these simple stops where you just pull off into a layby, fill up, and then continue in the same direction to get back onto the 95. We waited until we were almost empty until we found the courage to let go of the slow lane that we were hugging and we pulled off after a sign that said GAS.

To our horror we drove straight into a maze of roads all blocked off and changed because of roadworks and we had no idea where the garage was because we couldn't see it or which roads we were allowed to go down and which were "the wrong way" as there were no signs or arrows anywhere. We decided to give this a miss and try to get back onto the highway so we looked right and proceeded to cross one of the main roads when suddenly we were very nearly wiped out by a huge semi coming very fast on our left. Sandy just flattened his foot and we did an enormous smoking wheelie to project ourselves forward out of its path. It was a near miss and we were a bit shaken, saying quietly to ourselves, "Well, John did tell us to remember to look left!". We reached Cary at 8pm and it was wonderful for Sandy to meet Geoff again after 40 years! They talked about school days and sang songs until bedtime!

Geoff, Virginia, Harold and Tina (standing in for Kirsty) Hawkins