As I mentioned in my last post we have been away, our first few days in the Bournemouth / Wimborne area staying with friends.
Our friends took us for a walk along the cliffs at Hengistbury Head and then into Christchurch, Dorset for a picnic lunch by the river.
As I got out of the car I wondered if there would be any coincidences or synchronicity to write about - and there was. The first boat I saw as we approached the river had the name MacGregor on it's side. This is the surname of my blogging and author friends Trish and Rob who publish synchrosecrets.
Okay not exactly a big synchro but more was to follow.
After lunch we strolled along the river and my friend pointed out a new hotel (photo at the top of the post) which had been built recently. "It's where there used to be an old holiday camp," he explained.
"Ding!" went a bell in my head. I stayed at such a holiday camp when a child with a school friend Graham Barnes. I was taken along to the camp by his parents to keep Graham company. This was after we had both been to a scout camp for a week in the New Forest.
It then came flooding back to me and I realised I had sent my mum and dad a postcard from this very spot (see photo below). And I now have the postcard!
Mum and dad kept all the postcards I sent them from my travels. (Click on any of the images to make them larger)
The bottom left of the postcard shows the river exactly where I was with my friends and the middle section is the Holiday Camp where I stayed when young. Oh and the bottom right pic is of the New Forest where I had camped with the scouts!
I lost touch with my friend Graham Barnes. We lived in the west London area of Hayes when young. Strangely though, I had been thinking about him before I went away on my break - because of a walnut!
Graham and I started a club called 'Nuts'. I say 'club' but there was probably only us two participating in the membership.
I was thinking about Graham recently because I came across the nut that symbolised our club. We both had a walnut on a cord to hang around our necks, with out initials painted carefully on the shell. Goodness knows how it has survived after all of these years.
I don't remember too much about the Nuts other than that people who weren't Nuts were known as Prunes! And Prunes meant: 'People Running Under Nuts Est Stupide.' Okay, I know that doesn't sound too clever, or make much sense, but we were young - that's my excuse anyway.
Coincidence? Synchronicity? Whatever. But my walk along the river at Christchurch brought back some unexpected happy memories.
As for Graham Barnes he lived in Balmoral Drive, Hayes, Middlesex while I lived at Clynes House, Hayes, Middlesex and we both went to Mellow Lane School.
It's a funny old world at times, the way everything is connected together.
Other Looking Back Personal Posts:
Teenage Memories Unlocked By A Coincidence
Reflections On My Early Life
Finding Myself As A Boy On The Internet
So I must be a prune then? Funny. We stayed in the New Forest last year and we went into Christchurch, we also walked along the river, but getting BF to walk far isn't easy so he must have been in a good mood.
ReplyDeleteI consider the Nuts to now be defunct so you aren't a Prune! Good that you've been to that area, I love the New Forest. There's a small pub there at Burley where we used to have a pint or two. Had to be careful driving there though as there were always horses roaming along the roads.
DeleteThat boat belongs to my parallel self! Love the walnut...and how did you happen to find it again? There's probably a synchro in that story, too.
ReplyDeleteI think we all have a parallel self. I found the nut when I was looking for bits and pieces for an album I was making for my son. The nut, along with my scout badges, was in a small box in a no longer used suitcase in our attic. So it all sort of fits together.
DeleteI'm reading "Synchronicity" by Dr.Kirby Surprise,and while I don't agree with his all over view of synchronicity there are some ideas he brings up that do have value to the overall puzzle of the phenomena.
ReplyDeleteAnyway,I thought this passage of a conversation he had here,was relevant to your post;
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/synchronicity-the-art-of-coincidence-an-interview-with-dr-kirby-surprise
"One of the things you’re doing with all that computing power is taking trillions of bits of digital sensory information, and constructing, in areas of memory, the universe as you are experiencing it as you read these words. You, the conscious executive functioning in the frontal lobes, is about the size of a walnut. You have no direct contact with the outside world. You experience a neurological representation of the world constructed for you on a stage of the brain’s memory. You are, in effect, your own “Matrix” computer."
According to Alan Abbadessa-Green,Dr Surprise has agreed to do a chapter for "The Sync Book: Volume 2"
and so has Trish and Rob MacGregor.
He asked me to do a chapter too,but I turned him down
as I didn't feel I had anything to really write about for the book...maybe next time?
Thanks for the link Darren and the quote - interesting that the 'executive function' is the size of a walnut! I've always believed that we, at least partly, create our lives and what happens within them. I feel though that there is slightly more to it than this. At times we can look at ourselves and watch / hear what we are doing / saying. Who is this watcher? Our real 'soul'?
DeleteOkay, I'm really new at this stuff and this site...and... this is really overwhelming! All I can offer is: "Sometimes I feel like a nut and sometimes I don't."(sorry, Mike)
ReplyDeleteI sometimes find life in general overwhelming, Dixie! :)
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