When I moved to New Zealand in 1973 I stayed with Kirstie's family for the first few weeks. Kirstie was then a young girl, and though I saw her socially a few times in the 1980s, I lost touch with her completely over 20 years ago.

So when her brother John contacted me recently (via Google!) I asked him for Kirstie's address and got in touch with her in Auckland. (I haven't seen John for about the same length of time – he now lives in England, but in a part of England I never visit on my trips there.)

It was lovely seeing Kirstie again. I spent a delightful afternoon catching up on the news of her family, reminiscing about old times and filling in the gaps in each others' life histories.