Looking back but no regrets

This was taken nearly forty years ago at Blarney Castle in Ireland. We were on a work trip but it was difficult for us not to stop there when we were virtually passing by. Kissing the Blarney Stone is a great tourist draw. Of course I wanted to do it and did. it is not as easy as it sounds tough but there is somebody there to make sure that you do not fall to your death when you lean over backwards across a sheer drop to kiss the stone so that you do not fall to the ground far below.  Kissing the Stone is said to give you the gift of the gab and it seems to work because I have not stopped talking and writing ever since!

However, the link here is to a poem a wrote in more recent years looking back and I have to say that I am as happy now as I was all those years ago. We both aim to make each other as happy as we possibly can and we discuss at those times when we don't agree. We do not scream and shout at one other. Give and take, but try to work on the giving side as much as you can in life.

That Pretty Young Girl

So much of my life holds memories warm

They are pleasing for me to look back,

Yet harsh recollections flash to form

A hint of what I in my character lack.

Each day I grow older too late for sighs

I gaze in a glass at the image I see,

Outward appearance that may look wise

Yet inside my head I hope she’s still me.

There is no need for regretful head shake

Picture frame of a face hair all a-curl,

Try to be kind and give more than take

Still my heart see’s that pretty young girl.

Not only in dreams are we ever the same

So pleasing to see a backward glance,

One identical thing is our given name

We hear music and our feet love to dance.

We had our moments of joy she and I

They are pleasing for us to look back,

We neither question the reason why

Dreams and fact share the same track.

Only in dreams are we ever the same

Life is not always simply by chance,

Play each day without laying blame

Our spirits share and smiles enhance.

Everything there from heaven was sent

Space for both sadness and loving whirl,

Tears and happiness need no consent

Still my heart see’s that pretty young girl.

As you can see in the pictures of our life's as triathletes. Our sport has made us both very happy.

This is the start of the Windsor triathlon that we have done nearly every year since the race began and that was thirty years ago. This photo was several years ago at the swim start in the river Thames in the shadow of Windsor Castle.

     This is in transition at the Eton Sprint weekend which has been another firm favourite.

 

Here is a happy shop of me with CEO of Human Race, Nick Rusling. I am not as small as I look in this photo; it is he who is tall. That was at Windsor last year and I am already entered for that race in mid June this summer.