Reflecting on 25 years

Aren't these flowers gorgeous? They were a surprise for our anniversary from my sister and her family in Wales. We've never had flowers delivered here before, let alone internationally ordered. They arrived mid-morning and since someone was here in the afternoon with a digital camera, I asked him to take a photo while the flowers were still at their best. We both think it's one of the nicest flower arrangements we've ever seen, and they look just as good today.


We went out to eat last night, at our favourite Tex-Mex restaurant, Aztecas, which is about ten minutes' drive from here. It's gone rather upmarket since we first found it a few years ago, but still has a good selection of food: Quesadillas, Chimichangas, Burritos and so on, mostly with a choice of beef, chicken or vegetables as filling. All served with spicy beans and rice and a bit of salad. I suppose we go there about once a year on average, not being the kind of people to eat out often, and in the past we've gone straight to the main course. Last night we decided to try some starters, and while they were excellent they were very filling; so much so that I could only eat half my main course, and had no room for a dessert! A nice touch about Aztecas is that they always bring a complementary margharita drink at the end. I don't really drink anything alcoholic, but last night's seemed to have more strawberry than usual and less alcohol, so I enjoyed it very much.

We talked about how time seems to fly... and how 25 years seems such an unusual number. Many of our friends here are retired, or almost so, and have celebrated their 40th anniversaries already - or will do, within the next year or so. That makes us feel young. On the other hand, the only other 25th anniversaries I can remember are those from our parents' generation. Our siblings and most of our cousins have been married considerably less than 25 years, and the same is true of other friends our own age and younger. Rather depressingly, the two couples we knew who were also married in July 1980 - and indeed quite a few of our other friends around our age - are now divorced, many of them married for the second time.

Just for the record, I've scanned one of our wedding photos and also include a picture of us taken at the end of May by the friends who were staying with us. I don't think we look 25 years older, but then I don't FEEL 25 years older. It just seems as if the rest of the world changes around me.

So here we are, 19th July 1980, in Moseley, Birmingham outside St Mary's Church where we were married. Even now I remember the trouble I had with that veil... the headband thing kept coming away from it, and my hair got blown all over the place - particularly, as in this photo, when people threw confetti.

And here we are, at the end of May this year. I liked this picture because it shows our front garden at its best, rather than dry and brown as it is now!

I thought we would have changed a lot more in 25 years. I suppose by the time we've been married for 50 years we'll inevitably look much more elderly, but I don't suppose I'll ever feel more than about 26 on the inside.