Keep your friends close.......

Well believe it or not it’s been almost exactly 6 years since I last produced a blog. That was on my old site "Adopting the brace position" and I only wrote two before, as they say, life took over. I had taken early retirement and was eagerly awaiting the birth of my first grandchild, Scarlett, whose glorious arrival was on 6th November 2009. My daughter and her partner were very young and sadly destined not to stay together so I spent the next 5 years working as a part-time childminder as Becky endeavoured to return to work and plough through the mine field that is single parenthood. I also spent most of that period slaying the dragons that chased our beautiful Becky. Unfortunately she has kissed a lot of ugly frogs since she started dating some 10 years ago and so far none have been transformed into a handsome Prince. Those pesky fairy Tales have a lot to answer for. But I digress, more of that later. That old saying "keep your friends close but your enemies closer still" is the basis for this tale. About 7 years ago my husband John and I teamed up with another couple and a recently widowed lady and her much older male friend who she had at one time worked for. We spent several pleasant evenings together, meals, nights out at a private club we frequented, family gatherings - you know the sort of thing. Said widow's brother had a large 6 bed roomed house built in Ireland and there was often talk of us all decamping there for a long weekend. The widow had an old friend living in Spain and she suggested that I and the other wife accompany her also for a long weekend. The main obstruction to any plans was the teenage son of the other couple who couldn't possibly be trusted to be left at home alone even though a more well behaved young man you are unlikely ever to meet. He just isn't the type to throw a large face book party, (unlike my daughter who did just that aged 16. That's material for another blog too). He doesn't drink, smoke, (fags or pot) and besides he wouldn't dare...... So the idea was put on hold for a few more years. So imagine our surprise when John got wind of a Spanish trip planned for the two women. At first I thought nothing of it. I even gave them the opportunity to come clean. The widow denied any holiday plans were a foot even though she usually visits her Spanish contact 3 or 4 times a year! The other wife kept her eyes downcast and even claimed she had a hearing problem and never heard the query in the first place. Exasperated at their barefaced cheek, I confronted them individually. After generously giving them time to come up with a plausible alibi guess what their best defence was? "As you don't speak any Spanish Bridget we didn't think you'd care to go". Ha ha, well I've just enjoyed two trips to Barcelona and Mallorca this year and my lack of knowledge of the lingo didn't impede in the slightest. To add insult to injury the widow and the other couple have recently enjoyed a lovely trip to - you guessed it - the huge Irish mansion! Yes, even old boss man appears to have been squeezed out. Could he have been making overtures in the wrong direction, one wonders? It reminded John and me of a similar scenario several years ago when we were used as a shield for a couple having an illicit affair to give them respectability. As soon as they were forced to go public we suddenly became "persona non grata". Am I the only one to see a pattern forming here? 26/09/2015