One of the lovely things about house-sitting is having time to explore the local area without feeling you have to rush from one attraction to another.
While we were staying in Reigate, Deb and I went for a walk through Priory Park. It was a beautiful day, with sunshine, green trees and a lake where the swans and other birds seemed perfectly content to spend their afternoon.
The park is home to Reigate Priory, a historic building with roots stretching back to the early thirteenth century. It began as a religious priory before being converted into a mansion following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It’s quite something to think how much history is tucked away in a place people now visit for an ordinary afternoon stroll.
We wandered along the paths, stopping to admire the lake, watch the birds and take photographs. The trees were beautiful, and there were flowers to catch our eye. It was one of those walks where there was no particular hurry to get anywhere.
And then we met Chris.
He was out walking his dog, and we stopped for a chat. As conversations sometimes do, one thing led to another, and Chris mentioned he was a DJ. He told us he’d be DJing at a place called Cloonys the following Friday and invited us to come along.
Well, that sounded like a bit of fun! We told him we’d go, said our goodbyes and continued our walk.
It’s funny how a simple afternoon wandering around a park can turn into something unexpected. We’d only gone out to enjoy the sunshine and explore Reigate, and suddenly we had an invitation for Friday night. Sometimes the people you meet along the way become just as memorable as the places you visit.
That chance meeting led to another memorable Reigate adventure: our unexpected night at Cloonys, where we ended up with a nightclub almost to ourselves.