Bolger Family Travels: A Grand Reunion

After the Slow Horses tour, we went back to the apartment to change for dinner with Mick, Jane, Stephen, and Lone. Mick and Jane live outside of London, so Mick just came back to our apartment whilst Jane commuted in. (I don't know where Mick and Jane live -- I believe it is somewhere in the northern suburbs of London, but I could be totally wrong.

Anyhow, the three of us were flatmates from January till May of 1984. Six Americans, three Brits, in our junior year of college on a new, short-lived program called the AU-Leeds Program (American University & Leeds University). We spent the fall semester in DC working 4.5 days on internships in Congress (taking a class the other half day) and then went to London for the same schedule during the spring semester.

At AU, housing was easy -- the Brits were in the dorms, and Americans lived in whatever arrangements we had for the semester. In London, we were put in a cheap Bayswater Hotel, but no one liked it, so the Brits organized effectively and got the nine of us into a flat (one American and two Brits had other places to live).

We've gotten together as a group once and as smaller groups other times. But anytime I'm going to London, we've gotten together at least with one or two of the Brits. Alas, two of the Americans have passed away a while back and way too young. Anyhow, I've expressed on this blog before just how wonderful the experience was, and how it instilled the love of travel in me.

So there we were, going to be late for pre-dinner drinks, and Mick is leading us through the posh streets of Mayfair at double time like we were Gurkhas going to the Changing of the Guard the prior day.

When we arrived at the Burlock Cocktail Bar on Bond Street, we were greeted by Stephen Byfield and his partner Lone. She is Danish and works at the embassy. Mick's partner Jane was already there. We had a lovely corner of this basement bar, and Steve kicked off a night of celebration by announcing that he and Lone are engaged and getting married later this year.

I did what old guys do and young guys couldn't afford (at least back in the day) -- I immediately bought the group a celebratory bottle of champagne -- Veuve Cliquot, to bring our travel for the year full circle. Those who read the Paris blog may remember that on our day trip to Reims we went to the champagne house of Veuve Cliquot. Carol appreciated the connection!

After congratulating Steve and Lone, we chatted, catching up on our lives. Carol fell instantly in conversation with Jane and Lone. This year is the third straight year we've seen Mick and Jane -- dinner in 2023 in London, then they visited us for ten days last year in Alexandria with a weekend trip to Wintergreen for good measure, and now Slow Horses tour (sans Jane), drinks, and dinner.

For dinner, we went upstairs to Alto by San Carlo, the restaurant on the rooftop of Selfridges on Oxford Street. So, drinks in the basement bar of Selfridges on Bond Street, then round the corner and up to the roof of Selfridges on Oxford Street. As I often do when I enter a hip foreign spot, I worried I would be viewed an imposter and tossed, but my cool Brit friends gave me enough cover that I was not thrown out.

Two handsome Brits and me. Glen, Mick,

Stephen. It's a long way from 1983-84!

Front row l to r: Jane

Carol, Mick. Back row l to r:

Lone, Stephen, Glen

Glen, Jane, Mick, Carol, Lone, Stephen.

The food was excellent at dinner, but the conversation was more fun. Even if you haven't kept up with people you've know for 40+ years, the time can fly by. There's no awkwardness with old friends (okay, I'm the old one, Mick and Stephen are still young!).

It was a special night. Walking back to our apartment, we came upon two statues on Grosvernor Square that we missed our last time through Grosvernor Square (we cut through the park, not along the edge). We had seen the FDR statue (shown in an earlier blog post).