The Done is known!!

We went up to Yorkshire this weekend to visit my parents, so we've seen the first wedding invite replies :-) 16 people are coming so far... more to come, we hope!

We had a very amusing Saturday. It started at breakfast; digging into the marmalade I noticed it was from a jam company based in Wheldrake, nr York - where a certain James Done used to live. James' stories of 'the jam factory', where he used to work, immediately sprang to mind - there couldn't be two jam factories in Wheldrake! Mum and Dad then took us up to the local market in Leyburn, which had a stall from the jam company. We were tempted to buy a jar of lemon curd for James, to remind him of his lemon-peeling days, but got chatting to the people running the stall who told us that there are in fact two jam factories in Wheldrake, and they're from the other one! When I mentioned James' name, though, it turned out they both knew him - Shirley used to work with him at the jam factory, and the other lady (who's name I forget) had children who went to school with him. Apparently this jam making comcern has been set up by a bloke called Neil who used to work at the old jam factory - and they all remember James! 'Oooh, he was always talking about the weather', they said, 'he wanted to be a weather forecaster, but his forecasts were always wrong!' Those of us who have gone walking with James will agree on that last point. Anyway, they were very pleased to hear what he is doing now and said to say hello. They didn't give us a discount on our jam and pickle purchases, though.

The rest of the weekend was spent lazing around and sorting out boxes of belongings stored by my parents, broken up by a trip to the local ice cream parlour. I came across a box of old letters, written by my friends when I was at university. I'd forgotten how often I used to get letters - pretty much all my communication is by e-mail these days! There were letters from people I'm no longer in touch with, but also many from friends I'm still in regular contact with - a good reminder of how long we've been friends and how much shared history we have. It's spurred me on to contact them more regularly - and remind them of some of the embarrassing things I'd forgotten had happened to them!