Myself, Robert, Stuart, Ronan and Conal all went to Secondary School (High School) together, and while over the years we’ve kept in contact, and occassionally met up in groups of two or three, its been over 30 years since we were all together.
So this year, with us all turning fifty, we decided we were all overdue for a big meet up. With Ronan in Finland, Myself in Chicago, Robert and Conal with teenagers still at home in Ireland, and Stuart a teacher in England, finding a time and place that would work for everyone was no easy task. But eventually we decided on a long weekend in Northern Tenerife in October, not during the school year for those with kids, far enough south for Ronan living in chilly Finland.
Overall it was a really great trip, amazing to see everyone doing so well, with lots of debate over whether we had changed at all. I definitely saw a lot of continuity. On our first full day it rained a lot, preventing us from hiking as planned, so we ended wandering around the neighborhood in the drizzling rain, something we spent a lot of time doing when we were teenagers:
And on the second full day, when the weather did clear up, we ended up going on a great hike, to a place that looked like a slightly more epic version of high rock!
But joking aside, it was a really great trip. We rented a house for the weekend that was really beautiful, with balcony, swimming pool and incredibly decorated:
With some incredibly hiking in the volcanic formed mountains by the coast:
Great restaurants for catching up and eating some really great food:
But most of all, it as a great few days to catch up on what we’d all been up too:
Robert is still in Dublin, working as a law librarian, with two daughters, still an expert in so many things its astounding:
Ronan runs a farm cottage for tourists of the coast of Finland with his wife of one year
Conal lives in Galway, where he is an engineer, now with three daughters, one in her twenties and two teenagers:
And Stuart lives opposite A.A. Milne’s historical home in England (author of “Winnie The Pooh) where he is a vice principal teaching maths at a private school there, along with playing in 3-4 bands at any one time. Both his kids are in their twenties, but they all live at home with him, along with his partner of three years and her daughter.
After so many years, it was so amazing how everyone clicked back together and we promised we wouldn’t let it go so long, before doing it again!
What a great catch up! Fab to all click back in together! I see those names and think of our small snooker table on the dining table, Pink Floyd and being the kid upstairs trying to get to sleep!
Great photos from Tenerife, John! So good you could meet up with your long-time friends! Beautiful rugged coastline. I had no idea it would look like that.
Great to see all the old faces. Happy 50th to all. Glad the get together went so well. Yes photos brings back memories of the old snooker table and your music.
Yes, lots of talk about the pool table, a real star feature of the kitchen! Everyone said to say hi and glad to hear all doing well
Looks like a great trip, fun to see ye all together, and nice idea to do the “end credits” of what they’re all doing now. There was a real knack to playing the weird contours of the snooker table!
For sure, lots of skill required to remember the hills and valleys!
Wow, looks like a great trip! Nice you all could get together and talk about old times, and make new memories! It looks beautiful there! Very interesting landscape.