I went to universtity in Norwich and came home with a Bradford accent!

[watervole]

It's amazing how some things slip your memory over time. I've always known that I have a slight tendency to slip into a Northern accent or to use just a few Yorkshire-style phrases.

I'd vaguely assumed that I'd somehow acquired it from my father who went to school in Yorkshire. It was only this weekend that I remembered why it really happened...

Dave Spencer. I hadn't seen him in over 20 years. He walked through the door this weekend and apart from the grey hair it was as though he'd never been away. We were good friends for three years at university in Norwich. We were both members of the Games Society (where I met waveney) and we both hung out with our other friends in the computer room between lectures.

Dave was from Bradford, a Yorkshireman through and through. (He went home every other weekend to let his mother do his laundry...) It was he who reminded me what my mother had said: "How come you went to university in Norwich and came back with a Bradford accent?"

I still have bits of Dave's accent, and talking to him is bringing it all back again. How did I let this guy fall out of my life? How did I let my close circle of university friends fall out of contact? These were the friends who were at my wedding and I lost touch with all of them. Yes, I was tired with two small children, but is that a good enough excuse?

I'm more determined than ever to find the others. It may/may not be an impossible task, but I'm darn well going to try. Not least, because I had a magical weekend with Dave, and other old friends from Delenda est Carthago whom I hadn't seen for a decade, and my new brother-in-law and my sister, Gillian, and some newer friends like dougs and Graham (WINOLJ).

We're going to do this again and we're not going to wait for another wedding anniversary for an excuse. I predict Silvercon II in about six months... (I'll let Richard tell the joke about the correct name for a convention held to celebrate a 40th wedding anniversary. It was his pun, and I'm proud of it!)

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'll let Richard tell the joke about the correct name for a convention held to celebrate a 40th wedding anniversary

I think we should cross that river when we come to it. Or possibly not!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I think we should cross that river when we come to it.

That's almost exactly what Richard said!

I love it as an exercise for our readers to work out the joke that had that as a punch line. (It helps if you have a classical education...)

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the confirmation.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

"I predict Silvercon II in about six months... "

I am SO there! :D

Sorry I missed it

[(Anonymous)]

I'm really sorry I wasn't able to be there, as probably the only person who was at UEA, at R&J's wedding, and in Delenda :-)

Unfortunteley Silvercon coincided with our family vacation in Tuscany, otherwise I'd have tried for a cheap flght to be there.

Best wishes to all,

Mark Jeffrey (aka Tintin for the UEA crowd)

You can track me down via http://spaces.msn.com/members/markjeff, marktjeffrey@hotmail.com or markjeff@microsoft.com.