¦ dialling in from the Sky Bunker ¦
17:39 on a glorious sunny Sunday afternoon. The sun has been blazing for days now. The Easter weekend began for Jo & I on Wednesday with the arrival of an old freind: Kelvin, aka El Sharky. He used to work for Jo in the Voda-days, and I met him in mid 1998, through a corporate contract with the Agency, after which he became a devout participant of Game, along with Russell, zaniah, Tony and Dominic.
Kelvin moved to Spain over a year ago - taught himself the language, went through the ending of a major relationship and then completed his Masters in Business, in Spanish. Not bad for the son of a gardener from Gloucester...albiet Prince Charles gardener ;o)
Jo and I last saw Kelvin at Christmas, when he joined the family gathering in Newcastle. Wednesday night saw us devour spicy chicken fajitas and too much red wine.
Thursday was an amazingly lazy morning (I left them in bed and did some work on Yellow Dawn), Kelvin made one his famous poached-egg and chopped tomato breakfasts, with copious amounts of strong strong coffee brewed in the Italian coffee maker he bought me a while ago - this was my first time using it and wow, what a difference in taste and caffeine rush. We drove out past Chippenham to Lacock Abbey, too late in the day to go inside so we wandered around the beautiful rustic village and then had coffee and nibbles at a tavern made within old stables. We headed back to Bristol and met up with Tony, Simon & Vicky at our secret hideway down by the edge of the river (Hanham Mills). A really lovely sociable night with a few beers, fading sunshine, colourful sunset, cheap and tasty pub food and great freinds.
Friday was another lazy start (I went upstairs and did more with Yellow Dawn). In fact, the whole day became a lazy-fest... Jo & Kelvin sitting in the suntrap of the backgarden all day after another lovely poached-egg / tomato breakfast. Evening came and we relocated to Simon's palace for a small session of Yellow Dawn, with Hagen, and Kevin. Sadly Tony had been dragged off to his in-laws in South West Wales for the entire weekend. It was a good session, Kelvin got to experience his first Dead City, although I think things were frustrating because he was playing an 80 year old Native American Indian Shaman. Hmmm.
The night left me brain-drained and overdosed on all things Yellow Dawn. In fact, I woke up during the night in a cold sweat, cursing the day I ever came up with the idea for the thing, and swearing I was going to pack all my notes away, delete the webpage and forget the whole damned project.
Saturday woke up, dropped Kelvin off at Temple Meads, dropped Jo off in town, then headed up to my new favourite cafe.... Coffee #1 on Gloucester Road, an awesome place, not only does it make great coffee with friendly staff who act like humans, but the clientelle are an ecclectic mix of interesting faces that usually smile back and engage in random conversations...a lot like the Boston Tea Party but without the hassle of getting into town. I park up outside Simon's palace and walk down. Easy. I spent 2 hours there, sitting in soft sunshine, reading Stephen Covey's 7 Habits and wondering where my brain had gone. Caught up with Hagen and drove to the cinema to see Danny Boyles new film, "Sunshine". I loved it. A few flaws like.... wouldn't all the dust have some footprints inside... where did the dude spent all those years living and how did he know he'd spent 7 years talking to the big G? Aside from that I was very impressed and emotionally moved by a point where a guy is enveloped in pure white light and I found myself thinking about my dad, and his last moments before dying, and the whole context of my existence within this reality, and my mortality, and was dad with me now... so my shouldes started shuddering and I struggle to contain some really big sobs.
Came outside and both Hagen and I needed a big drink to calm slightly jangled nerves; it's a visceral film.
Dropped Hagen back at his home, then met up with Jo at Cosey Castle before a 40 minute car ride through exquisite English countryside to Tetbury, rolling green hills shrouded in evening mist out of which stood proud trees, lanced by the furious light of a setting sun. Jules aka Ms Scarlet has just bought a house in Tetbury so this was a little celebration party. Simon & Vicky were there, as were people who we didn't know, Michelle, Jo & Andrew. It was a great night, bit too much champagne, with an interesting flux between Jules' old world (Simon, Vicky, and I), and her more recent world, with new and old stories being told. Simon told me he was a reading an excellent book, that I would like it and should check it out, when I asked what it was he replied, "God Seed." I smiled radiantly.
Sunday morning I took Jo to Coffee#1, sitting outside in their sun garden, I took her through the first couple of exercises in 7 Habits...all about identifying the values deep inside of you and the things that really mean most to you. It was interesting but nowhere near as a profound experience for her as it was for me when I completed them in January.
Jo & I headed home, she spent all afternoon outside in the garden... I alternated between sharing time with her and being upstairs; resumed work on James C's website. That night Sonja & Nic came over for dinner. I'd made a monstrous mountain of roast vegetables, brushed with butter, and a big salad with dressing and cherry tomatoes; garlic bread and a bowl of creamy coleslaw. Delish. After 11 years in my blissful but tiny Happy Flat, I acknowledged how wonderful it was being able to entertain like this.
Monday is going to be a day spent in the house; Jo wants to start work on the garden. I'll probably alternate being helping out, working upstairs and watching the rest of DUNE which I started to get into Sunday afternoon.
All in all, an utterly awesome weekend (that began Wednesday night).
Signing out
Djr