Class of ‘79

45 years on a small group of us who lived together at Uni met up at the Hare and Billet in Blackheath then pub crawled our way down to Greenwich and then up to the Dog and Bell in Deptford. It was a lovely day and the Cutty Sark looked perfect against the blue sky. Much beer was drunk, many tales told, and old haunts revisited. We actually finished up at Big John’s Biltong Bar in Deptford High Street which is one of the whackiest places I’ve been to in years, and full of local characters who could have dropped in as cast extras on the Men In Black movies without any make-up or costume fitting. Fabulous. Lunch was taken in one of South London’s few surviving Eel, Pie and Mash shops - Goddards - which was perfect beer soaking material. And of course we clocked up a healthy steps total, just to show it wasn’t all about food and ale.

As one of our company remarked, there comes a time in your life when you can make new friends but you can’t make new old friends. The years give a depth, and the people that were there when you were a youth and knew you before you dropped anchor will always know you in a way that no-one else can…