Journaling a journey into the past

Tom Jamieson shares his journal recounting a reunion with seven friends, known as “The A3 Lads” (A3 was the apartment that they shared together in university) in Anglesey, England 50 years in the making.

My wife Sharon and I landed at Heathrow after our overnight flight from Vancouver. We picked up our rental car and headed up to Chester, my hometown; five hours later, we checked into our bed and breakfast.

JUNE 8

We got up around 8 a.m. after a good sleep and ate a hearty “Full English” breakfast of beans, sausages, eggs and bacon.  It was a self-service buffet and as we were effectively the last guests at the trough; they were virtually out of beans by the time I got there. I jokingly called over to Sharon that the label on the container should have read “Bean’ rather that “Beans.” Unfortunately, one of the servers heard me and raced back to the kitchen saying: “Beans, beans we need more beans!”  A scene straight out of Fawlty Towers and I was fully expecting Manuel to emerge from the kitchen.

We then headed into Chester – the guest house was only about one and a half kilometres from the city centre so we left the car. We did the entire lap of the Roman Walls that circles the city, including a detour down to the river for an ice cream, back through Grosvenor Park, onto the cathedral and back to complete the Walls.