29 Jun 2005

Dear John

I read your site. Umm, are those pot plants in the header?

Damn

Now that Cutting it have killed off Sarah Parrish, there's nothing to watch on television anymore.

Maybe I'll start reading ...

2 Jun 2005

Untethered

Kirsten's gone. Packed up and flown out and down under and gone. It's hard to believe it, admit it, imagine it or accept it. Both the physical absence and the idea of it.

Our friendship was forged fast and forged strong. That first night out, drinking champagne at Home House, drafted to play the boyfriend to ward off some City midget creep from hitting on her. Subsequent days of work and nights of rowdy drinking at the Montrose. A true compadre with enough patience to share work and social time. A profound mutual respect with a mix of awe on my part.

Then years, a dance in the forests of Fontainebleau, a boyfriend (hers) found on the other side of the world, Organic London closing, an engagement (the recurring theme of champagne), a 48-hour sprint to New Mexico for a wedding, a baby. Her life evolving and revolving. My life stagnating and changing. Towards the end I wasn't sure there was room in her life for the randomness and dissimilarity that a single gay friend can bring.

Yet, I knew we were made life friends. If nothing more than by a memory of a golden time in London, or the fact that she never not got the cultural reference or inside joke.

Gone. A little family I adored. A best friend who never judged a repetitively tiresome two-year infatuation. Who shared a love of fine things. Who could be a voice of reason. Sharp enough to get the Economist. Smart enough to figure people out. Lovely enough to have lovely people adore here. Gone to Perth, with its faraway farawayness. I now feel positively untethered here in London. A bedrock has shifted and migrated, and unsettled feelings follow.

I miss my blond, beautiful friend. You always deserved a life of sunshine, but I'm glad you stayed for a short time of cold, dark, grey and me.

Tim points out ...

... that the word 'facetious' has all of the vowels in correct alphabetical order, which I never realised before.

I won't tell you what I was being facetious about, as that would be naughty. And I'm never naughty :)

Turner prize shortlist announced

Interesting list, although I'm not generally a fan of sculpture, and almost never a fan of 'glitter and coloured tape'