Collecting memories

A memory can be a moment, an hour, a whole day, a weekend, an event - anything at all, but it's special.

A long time ago, when Albert and I thought being together an impossible dream, we made a list of some of the things we would love to do together. Some items on the list were realistic and others were not.

After we eventually realised our dream of being together we decided that, as it was not possible to have the years a young couple would have and we had already spent many years living other lives, we would make a point of collecting memories together.

Here are some of the memories we have collected so far:

• Our first real date in a restaurant
• Our first public kiss at the reception of Astro Squash Club
• Discovering that we jog at the same pace
• Our first weekend together in St. Peter Ording
• Our first holiday together in Makadi Bay, Egypt
• Floating arm in arm in the Red Sea watching the underwater world go by
• Our first Easter together, hiding Easter eggs for the children
• Our first English Christmas together
• Going to a Santana Concert together
• Spending a long weekend in Denmark with our friends Dirk and Silke
• Collecting fossils in various clay pits
• Sitting at the bar designing the upstairs bathroom
• Laying tiles for the first time together
• Our first argument - over the colour of the walls in the lounge!
• Visiting Albert's sister Tina in Hamburg
• Visiting my brother Andy in Monaco
• Visiting Norwich, England.
• Becoming members of the Mile High Club
• Our first Centre Parcs holiday with all five children together
• Walking through the woods in the middle of the night after the first snowfall
• A wellness weekend in Victor's Hotel in Thuringen
• Visiting our friend Bjarne in Copenhagen
• Planting our Magnolia tree in the front garden
• Finding our favourite coral again in the Red Sea a year on
• Learning to dance together
• Dancing for the first time in the Kuppel Saal in Hannover
• Having the honour of being invited to the Lion's Club
• Dancing the slow Waltz through midnight into my 41st birthday
• Rolling in the snow after a sauna
• Dancing for hours at Frank's 50th birthday party
• Visiting the Hamburger Fish Market early on a Sunday morning

No doubt we will continue collecting many more special memories in the future.

(written: April 2005)