anniversary – Pete's Blog

When I was six, I knew what a great party required – icecream and balloons. When I was sixteen I knew what a great party required – girls and beer. When I was twenty six most parties included dancing although with my uncoordinated body I tendered to avoid.. I am sixty two now, my world has moved on, but on Saturday night we had one of the best parties of my life – for Mandy and my Ruby Wedding Anniversary.

What made this one such a great party? Well we did have balloons and icecream – with my home made brownies. And we did have beer. There was dancing, albeit a Ceilidh, which suited me, rather than a sweaty boogie. But what made it so special was the people. We had nearly a hundred friends and family from the past forty years, many of whom we had not seen for a very long time.

Everyone joined in and everyone enjoyed themselves. Our sons and their families organised the decoration and sorted the food (pie and peas because we are in Lancashire). The boys even made a beautiful speech. I got to spend at least a little time with pretty much everyone, and overall it was simply a magical occasion.

Thank you to everyone that came and helped us celebrate our very special day. It was quite a party.

Monday was our 35th wedding anniversary. Thirty five years is an awfully long time. When we first got married I was just 22 and knew very little about the world. In the 35 years since then, Mandy and I have both changed so much. Many people tell you that to make a marriage successful you need to work at it. Of course that is true, but I think there is also a huge element of luck. We are fortunate that we have tended to change together rather than change away from each other. I know many couples who were perfectly suited when they married but over the years have simply grown apart.

This year was always going to be critical for the two of us. After many years when work dominated my life and I was often away from home during the week, suddenly we would be together all day every day – this summer in the confined space of a narrowboat. And on top of that, retirement brings a lot of time to reflect on what you want from life.

So you can imagine how delighted I am that we seem to be rubbing along pretty well. We are both really enjoying the contrast of peaceful miles of country canals with the bustle of industrial city centres. We are both enjoying both meeting old friends and family we have not seen for years, and also the solitude of time to ourselves. So different from who we were 35 years ago, but still in love.

Sorry for soppy post. Back to normal grumbling next week.

Tag: anniversary

What makes a great party?

Married for 35 years