My travelling companion Joe has been a very close friend for nearly thirty years and over that time we’ve shared dozens of holidays abroad; The Gambia, Crete, Wales and India are just a few of the fabulous countries we’ve been to together and whenever we’ve been away we’ve always gone off on the hoof to check out the neighbourhood. I have fabulous memories of us driving all over Crete looking for Zeus and pigging out on their traditional dish of goat – and seeing his face when I sang ‘No Woman No Cry’ in the market place in The Gambia and whole place erupted in song. Over nearly three decades we’ve built up a wonderful bank of memories and here we were him in his 80s me in my 60s on the road again but this time in Gibraltar, a place Joe had never been to before.
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Although I’d been out and about on walkabout a lot during the week Joe had often chosen to rest up more and take it easy with the ladies around the pool; today was the first time he had opted to take a good long stroll with me and the plan was that we would go check out the 100-ton gun. Mindful of his age and his health I figured it might be quite a slow affair because it was quite a distance from the Bristol all the way down Rosia to the Gun and so after strolling up Main Street and over the Trafalgar roundabout I suggested our first Pitt stop should be in Piccadilly Gardens for a cup of tea.
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Sitting in the gardens opposite my old home (the beautiful old cream building, Trafalgar House) in the sunshine was lovely; I don’t ever remember Piccadilly gardens being here when I lived in Gibraltar otherwise I’m sure I would have had a recollection of taking the children there. Seeing Joe so very chilled out and enjoying people-watching made my day; although he was never a big talker I’d learned over the years to read his mannerisms well and knew he was having a good day. Looking past him from where I was sitting was a lovely reminder of just how very British Gibraltar is; the red phone box in the corner standing very defiant and proud symbolised everything British and reminded me of many a time when it was my only connection with home. As I sat back to drink my tea I felt very blessed to be once again enjoying Gibraltar in the sun though I was becoming increasingly aware my days were once again numbered.
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RockHeart 
Piccadilly gardens was there when you lived on The Rock, only thing is I would not have taken my girls there either having the Alameda next door. I’ll try and get an old photo of the place for you to see
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Ahh yes Maruchi you are right, I would also have always taken my girls to alameda and may not even have noticed Piccadilly gardens because of that. I’d love a picture yes please Maruchi and I will add it to the post. You can either email it to me at spailpinfanac@aol.com or I’m on Twitter @spailpinfanac I look forward to seeing it 🙂 Thankyou.
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