Today is our 20th wedding anniversary.  We met at the Boss’s brother’s wedding.  He married an old school friend of mine.  She and I met on our first day at boarding school on 16th September 1973… and now we are sisters in law.

The Boss proposed four weeks after we first met.  As I was living and working in Sussex and he was living and working in Glasgow that means we had only met three times before he proposed.  I knew he would propose that weekend.  I told Chrissie, with whom I then shared an office at Sightsavers   that I knew he would propose that weekend.  She laughed but laughed again on Monday when I told he had and I had accepted.

So twenty years  and three children later we are in Australia and have had the most wonderful laid back day.  We travelled up to Nimbin;

ate samosas in the park in the craft market and listened the music; drank margaritas at The Balcony

and watched the world wander by; had stupendous burrundi and chips at The Fish Head

and listened to the drummers on the beach; lay on the beach whilst I taught the Boss the little I knew of the southern hemisphere constellations (the Southern Cross and the Keel); watched the fire dancers; wandered back to the market and bought our daughters a present and came back to our apartment for a glass of wine and some good music.

What do I want now?  Not a lot.  I am going home with a drive to divest myself of more stuff I don’t need or want.  I am going home with a desire to do what we want to whilst we can.  I am going home with a wish to instill in my children that life only  happens once.  I can honestly say with my hand on my heart that if my daughters said they wanted to buy a bakkie (hello my SA friends 🙂 ) and just cruise around until they ran out of money or decided what they wanted to do with their lives then I would be happy with that.  We only have one shot at this life, why should it be something that other people think it should be?