Reunion 2000

When? Saturday 30 September - Sunday 1 October 2000

Where? Stuart's house, Canterbury, England

The 2000 Reunion was nothing if not eventful. On a gloriously sunny Saturday morning, Andrew, Katherine and I drove down to Canterbury to meet up with Stuart and Iain for lunchtime. An entirely hassle-free journey, consisting of several comments along the lines of "God, I remember that bridge/house/tree/etc", was followed upon our arrival in the venerable city by steam mysteriously appearing from beneath my car's bonnet, rapidly superseded by the vomiting of green liquid from the engine in Sainsbury's car park. It was here we met with Stuart, who guided us to a car park near his house where my car could sit quietly, nurse its hangover and think carefully about what it had done.

Once Iain had joined us at Stuart's house around lunchtime, we took a sight-seeing nostalgic stroll around the town of Canterbury, stopping off at 'the old place' (which had been repainted from the fading red door we all once knew and loved or loathed), Day Managment Services, the high street, the Time Team excavation site, the nicest Chip shop in the world ever, the cathedral entrance, and the evil HMV shop that appeared there only when I left (the bastards).

It was actually a lovely day, we couldn't have asked for better weather. 'Twas nice to stroll around the town again, having not done so for over two years - graduation in fact. Seeing the familiar shops and signs and French school children was very pleasant (except for the French school children of course). I even caught a glimpse of the ABC cinema, and beyond that, Safeways.

Then, to truly recapture the spirit of the old days, we played football in the park behind Stuart's house, trying, as we did before almost every meal between 1996-8, to keep the ball up for as long as possible. Though never in such beautiful surroundings. I hadn't done such vigorous exercise for ages, so I was knackered afterwards. I can't remember if we got to 10 or not, but I do remember being crazily heroic in rescuing the ball from the river. Andrew here demonstrates the courage and skill he used to amaze us all with while he would wait for his sausages to cook under the grill.

After that, we went for a lovely meal out at Pizza Express, after first waiting for a while in what felt like a dentist's waiting room. The food was quite delicious. Afterward we went on to that Irish bar whose name I forget, and drinking beer and suchlike while people put pegs on our clothes. You won't find a more interesting place than Canterbury! We caught the second half of Predator on TV before curling up in bed for the night. In seperate beds, I hasten to add.

Day Two of the reunion began at Julie's Cafe, that fine establishment whose rather scrumptious food is covered in more grease than John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John combined. We then went for a lovely drive through Kent to catch a train that would take us to Bodiam Castle, not very far from Hastings. During the train journey, I saw why Kent is sometimes called the 'garden of England'. Really nice scenery, it was. Rolling fields, crops of all varieties, er... etc. The castle itself was very interesting, and jolly good fun too. Footie on top of the turret was probably not one of my best ideas, but entertaining nonetheless.

After exploring all the nooks and crannies of the castle, and grabbing a quick bite to eat for some extortionate fee, we went back on the steam train and headed back to Canterbury. There we had a last meal together at the new J.D. Whetherspoons that was under construction when Andrew and I graduated, and then headed back to my car, to discover that the problem with the engine had not miraculously fixed itself, as I had hoped. The RAC was eventually called in, and their jolly nice representative managed to sort it for us. After saying our farewells, we headed off into the thick black night, wondering when we might return once more...

To read Andrew's review of the weekend, click here.