Well, even though it is only two weeks, it seems an age ago I posted a blog.
I have been away helping a friend at the Business 2012 show which was held at the O2 in Greenwich, London. I have not been there since it was known as the Millenium Dome and had politicians fretting amongst themselves about it. Now it is a grand parade of restaurants and entertainment venues, built in such a way that should the dome structure be taken down, the interior can remain standing, no alteration required. I still think the dome is a fantastic engineering feat. My friend, Caroline Ainslee, owner and director of Bubblz Maths, had a field day taking photos of all the angles, structures, lines, shapes, in fact EVERYTHING that shows maths in real life.
Business 2012 had its own challenges and many learning points. There have been enough hot air exchanged over that; no need to contribute here.
The following weekend it was off to Bolton, via Coventry and the Peak District. The route we chose took us straight through Ashbourne where my friend and erstwhile colleague T lives. So we phoned T en route to see what she was doing that day and proposed to take her out for lunch. This was a spur-of-the-moment impulse. And what a delight! It was a perfect day for lunch in the sunshine at the Izaak Walton hotel in Dovedale, cradled amongst the greenest of hills in a peaceful embrace of nature.
T and I come a long way. Many, many years ago, T, another friend J and I worked together at a radiological practice in Turffontein, one of the southern suburbs in Johannesburg, South Africa. T and J were both from England, had been travelling the world and ended up in South Africa. They would often talk about their lives and families and friends back in England, using expressions and referring to characters, stories, icons, events and ‘stuff’ that were a closed book to me. It was a struggled to understand what the conversation was about, let alone follow it. I could hardly fathom their accents, especially T’s. She has a way with words that I am only now appreciating. Back then, I could not make out a word she was saying.
Back in those days I wanted out of radiography. T would keep on telling me ‘Stop moaning, Riana. Do something about it. There’s enough misery without you adding to it.’
Eventually I had myself a job as a computer programmer in a bank. Ha! You should have heard her then! ‘Well, now Riana. See how well you are doing! If it was not for me you’d still be stuck in Turf complaining.’
To cut a long story short, I came over to England in March 1999. A few years later T retired and came back to England, settling in Ashbourne. Shortly after, J came back to England. We all met up in Ashbourne to reminisce about ‘Turf and the old days’.
‘Who would have thought we’d all end up in England,’ we chirped in amazement and awe as we clinked our glasses and tucked into a delightful pasta dish, a T special, at T’s delectable dining room table.
And the next morning at breakfast: ‘Well now, Riana. You have me to thank. If it was not for me, you’d still be pressing buttons and taking X-rays at Turf. Look how far you’ve come! You should be very grateful I pushed you!’
These days, with T in the north, J in the south west, me in the south east, you mostly find us together on holiday. The first and to me the most memorable, was the time we went to Tuscany, Italy and stayed in a delightful villa, Villa Il Melograno, near San Gimignano. Since then there has been a stint in Corsica and another in Venice.
It was the Tuscany trip that did it for me. From From Turf to Tuscany just rolled off the tongue and has been waiting to be told. Yes, you have it here. It is the story of how three radiographers working together at Turf-(fontein) in Johannesburg end up in Tuscany, a turn of events that perfectly captures that quote from the movie Forrest Gump ‘Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.’
