Terry Adlam Memories beat the miles

I met up with a friend from times long gone recently who was over from Australia with his partner to visit his mum, who, by the way, is an avid and lovely reader of my columns, who regularly sends them over to Oz for him to read.

Apart from keeping in touch via Christmas cards and updates from his mum, I hadn’t met my antipodean buddy in the flesh for a while but that evening we picked up exactly where we left off last time we met as if was yesterday and not nigh on a decade ago.

It is the same with his younger brother, who in the awful modern vernacular, is and always will be my ‘bestie’ from school days, though his journey to visit his mum is more a M25 slog than transatlantic crossing and when we meet up, within seconds the beer and conversation are flowing.

Families, work and putting the world to rights is always a prelude to the wonderful ‘Do you remember when…’ reminiscent, and at our ages there is a lot to reminisce about.

Schooldays hi-jinks, teenage mayhem, jolly boys’ outings, growing pains and pints, love and marriage, sons and daughters, mortgages and the ubiquitous ‘Where has all the time gone’, makes the evening pass as quickly as the years, but, the immediate connection and lack of awkward silences has always been to me the sign of a true friendship.

I do have a few more accessible and wonderful friends but not with the eventful history of these two lads.

I’m lucky that though the many miles may separate us, the memories keep us together and long may that continue.

And finally, a big ‘thank you’ to their mum for the excuse to meet up and for making this column an international read.