Staying in London, looking to spend time with friends, I managed to get over for a flying visit to Minnie and her family. My regular friends, we used to hang to hang to hang, but life is life and it can be all encompassing. Flying by very briefly just in order to say hello… Every time we do that it makes the next time easier.
There are many old friends I don’t have in my life any more. From time to time I feel the lack of them. Some more than others, perhaps. Minnie and I have always somehow understood the gaps, so I never have concerns about contacting her after a pause. Others have responded with a lecture. “Hi Al, yes I got your message. I think you’ll find that actually my life is now xyz so you can imagine how surprising it is to have you contact us and abc.” I’ve had a few of those lectures over the years. They feel like doors closing. I cope by making light of it. “X has broken friends with me, they won’t sit next to me in chemistry class.” Etc. I think the hardest are the ones who vanish completely. But you can’t keep them all, friends aren’t Pokémon, the landscape will always keep changing.
I’m happy Min and I have kept consistency. I had a very clear dream about her dad the other night. Told him about it today. She’s family as much as anyone is. I was making sure nobody stole his big blue grocery bike.
London is in bank holiday mode. Everyone is out in the sun, booze is being consumed in vast quantities.
I went home after Minnie, stopped at a late night clinic for my doctor, got a referral to have a bastard skin tag taken off that catches in my seatbelt. Now just home, stopping, early bed, might even put fresh sheets on, resisting the call to get fucked ahead of an empty Monday. Happy I got the referral.
“I’ve cut one off myself,” he told me. I might do that to be honest. It’ll be down to how quickly they can refer me to do it with a skin numb and a professional implement. Cos otherwise it’s me and the nail clippers. Maybe we were always heading to that conclusion… Let’s see.
AlBarclay 