Letter - Views from over the water.

Views from over the water.

Friends reunited has a lot to answer for,believe me. I recieved an email two months ago, from the for mentioned website informing me that Allison Sutherland an old school friend and drinking partner was wondering what i was up to these days. Not a problem you would think, but then the memories came flooding back. The last time i saw Allison was over 15 years ago all grown up and a mother. I say grown up in the loosest term because thats one thing the pair of us never really did. More memories of nights in the White Swan and frequenting the rugby club are as clear as day. Im now mightilly relieved that digital cameras and mobile phones with cameras were not invented then. I replied to the email telling Allison what i was up to and where i was working, and left her my telephone numbers. Two days later i go into work and there was a message on my phone in my office and here is Allison sounding very excited demanding to know where i was exactly. WHY ??? Because we are both living and working in Northern Ireland about 25 miles away from each other. We just didnt know it. We have now celebrated Allisons 40th birthday, that was some party 48 hours later we were still reminiscing about the good old days in Barny. Our Irish friends have decided that we are both as mad as a box of frogs and look at us in a very strange but contented way when we start waffling again about the town and its inhabitants. Thanks to our wonderful mums we get the mercury every week, even if we dont recognise anyone in the paper, or we selectivly choose to forget. Things we miss are decent fish and chips, you dont get them here. Peats pork pies, cow days and the views over the dales which are comparible to the ones on Ireland. However we have fallen in love with Northern Ireland Allison has settled here and has lived here for ten years, i have been here a year and am looking for property here. Nothing changes in Barny, the glorified rumble strip in the middle of Galgate just epitomises the double standards of the town council surely the money could have been used on something far more beneficial to the town. The need to build a purpose built tourist information office on the Scar Top is verging on the ridiculous , dont you have one of those already? Allison and myself have done our fare share of travelling over the world and we are both in agreement that it dosnt matter where you go that once you scratch the surface all places are the same its the people that are different and thats why we love living in Northern Ireland. Having visited Barny recently we feel that we have both out grown it and really are in no hurry to come back, the attitude of Teesdale folk is unique to the dale, and the warmth and feeling of welcome is no longer a part of the area. We raise our glasses and toast the memories to our families and friends in the town. You can take the girls out of Barny but you cant take Barny out of the girls. Monica Jefferies Allison Sutherland Lisburn Whitehead County Antrim County Antrim Northern Ireland Northern Ireland.