In real time it’s Easter Saturday, I just got back for visiting Southwell Workhouse, and in less than an hour I’ll be watching a brand new episode of Doctor Who- the first full episode to feature Matt Smith as the Doctor. But that’s enough about the present, as I recall we’ve still got some catching up to do. Alot of catching up.
So, my last ‘Flash back’ ended with Nikki and Leila’s leaving party on the immediate horizon, my essays half written but imminently due and me getting the call to head to London to interview Dudley Sutton. Let us now return to this whirlwind time. Specifically to Nikki and Leila’s leaving party- or the ‘Leikki Party’ as it was accidentally christened by Lucy.
It seems odd describing this now, as just the other day I got a message from Nikki, written in Australia (the final leg of their globe trotting adventure), lamenting that it will soon be over.
But that’s a spoiler! I’m supposed to be talking about the past!
The party was a relaxed low key affair. It had the feeling of being the end of an era, not only because Nikki and Leila would be shortly leaving Sheffield probably never to return - with each returning home or heading off to do post graduate study in other cities after their journey finishes- but because it united many familiar faces from our degree in the same place at the same time. It is a sad but unavoidable fact that since graduation in July out friendship group splinted, with each of us pursuing lives in different directions, and thus it becomes increasingly more difficult to arrange small scale reunions let, let alone something of this scale.
First to arrive were Fay and Adam. After graduating Fay began a PGCE, but at the other Sheffield University. Adam makes my earlier point even more emphatic, as he is now, right now, studying in Spain. So that each were present at this party makes it extra special in retrospect.
Then arrived Becky and her boyfriend Stuart. Becky moved back to her hometown after graduating and is currently studying in Hull. Again, this instance further stresses my earlier point as just the other day Becky and I were discussing potential opportunities to meet up in the not to distant future, and it seems that any such opportunities are conversely all in the very distant future!
Next came Lucy. Lucy has been a Southern girl since graduating, and this should have made her especially difficult to keep in touch will. However, I’ve probably seen Lucy more than any other of my now-non-Sheffield based friends, and actually hope to meet her in Nottingham this coming Saturday. Lucy came bearing many gifts for our departing friends.
The final addition to the party was Adam’s old housemate and my good friend Tom, who since graduating has become a free lance tech guy, currently situated in Sheffield.
It was a fun night of banter, chat and a few drinks, and although enjoyable it was tinted with the underlying acknowledgment that such a gathering might be difficult to stage again.
The following morning Lucy also treated me to an impromptu breakfast in Lloyd’s! Bonus!
However, this wasn’t the last time I was Nikki and Leila. We would meet one last time, in my favourite Starbucks in Leopold Square.
We met and laughed and joked, almost refusing to acknowledge that in the coming minutes we would part, and although we’d be together again at some point it’d probably never again be in this exact same context. We finished our tea and the time finally came. Nikki, being Nikki, disappeared to the rest room, making that particular parting one tinged more with bathos than anything else. However, Leila, who was about to begin one of her final shifts at Strada across the road walked with me down the steps in the square beneath. It was here, with a hug and a few kind promises to keep in touch that we parted.
And just like that it was over. The end of an era. But with every ending comes a new beginning, and oh, the next few months were going to be a treat! New friends! New places! New adventures! The semester about to begin was to be one of the most exciting in a long time…. stay tuned folks!
