Annual Old Friends Get Together: In Scotland.

By Erica

Every year, since 2010, about a dozen of my fellow retired partners (and our spouses and partners) from around the world who worked together on risk management issues get together for three or four days. We call ourselves “Ogres” as an amusing reflection of our risk management roles, though not of our personalities or styles.

We alternate continents. A different Ogre is in charge each year. Last year, the meeting was in Napa. This year we met in Edinburgh, Scotland—our first major city trip. For sure, just about every year one questions whether it is worth the time and expense. But once you bite the bullet and go, you know it is worth it. Old friends are priceless. You are privileged to be able to participate.

This year, our hosts, a partner and his wife from England with ties to Scotland, got the balance between special events and free time just right. (Check out the Lustre List for details of where we went and our guide.) Our three hour guided walking tour of the city was full of information and stories we had never heard.

• Did you know that New Town Edinburgh is actually older than Old Town?

• Or that the 23 year old architect who planned New Town, James Craig, had to fight for the open space between the New and Old which actually makes the City work—but died destitute, buried as a pauper and still, to this day, has no memorial markers.

• A dinner with a Scotch Whiskey tasting, a magnificent story-telling bagpiper, Irish dancers, and a bit of thankfully toned-down haggis, was a Scotland-only experience.

And, the highlight of it all, a private dinner on the Royal Yacht Britannia. The 340 foot yacht, decomissioned after 70 years by Tony Blair, is surprisingly comfortable. You can’t imagine Jeff Bezos or any of the other megas would find it acceptable. There are no spas, or pools, or helicopter pads, or gold fittings. Just a lot of lived in furniture whose springs are a bit shot and lampshades a bit crooked. We loved every minute of it. The meal, the service, the ambiance were all magnificent.

These trips remind us how important it is to stay connected with old friends as well as new ones. It may take work and planning and time and expense, but if you can swing it, do.