2004 - Castle of Tranquility - Zed

September: Zed turns 20.

2004 - Castle of Tranquility - Miles

September: This is Indi's brother - getting right into mixing it up.

2004 - Castle of Tranquility - Ramona

September: Part of Zed's birthday revolved around the start of the w/e and the secret arrival of Ramona. This worked a treat: Ramona snuck up to her bedroom and woke her.

2004 - Bristol - Djr

October: My world is rocked by its very foundations and a huge chunk of my life, a key structure, falls and smashes into pieces. I'm stunned and devastated.

To cut a long story short, the work-situation becomes shit. I'm exhausted by the experience.

2004 - Halloween Night

October: I spent Halloween in a pub recently bought by Jo's brother. It was nothing like the fantastic events of the past few years... and I'm acutely aware of the massive changes taking place in my life... my best friend and soul-brother Matthias had vanished to Bath, I'd not seen him in weeks... my mum was suffering acute depression from the house being half-demolished and Dad's rapidly deterioration mental state... and I'm trapped in a new role that has no bearing on my previous role or experience.

Meanwhile, I'm spending the vast majority of my spare time writing up the novel Iron Man Project. This is a period where I spent my days in Cafe Nero on Corn Street. It's also around this time that I first started using the DaVinci Method, of writing for 45 minutes, then lying on the floor with my eyes closed for 15 minutes, and repeating throughout the day... it allowed me to maintain a fantastic level of concentration and creative output.

2004 - Newcastle - Dad

November: I remember walking in to see Dad and he was sat in a room, alone, staring at a window...nothing but darkness beyond. It was a chilling sight. He barely registered my arrival.

Another time I came to visit him, they'd moved him into a different room. He smiled when he saw me, then told me to get my jacket...and he'd give me a lift home.

"A lift home, dad?" I asked, perplexed.

"Yeah," he said proudly, "On the back of my motorbike."

I hid my tears until later.

2004 - Newcastle - Armstrong Bridge

November: Dad had been moved to another care-home, out of Sandyford, to a place with more medical qualified staff. I walked back one night, in a light but persistant rain... and found myself walking past my old junior school, Ravenswood. I stood for a while by the black railings bordering the playing field, gazing at the huge windows of the assembly hall, and the long squat shape of the main school. I could vividly recall being 7, 8, 9 years old, standing just on the other side of these railings, playing "lets pretend" games with my friends... how could I have possibly imagine myself standing there, as an adult, 25 years later, contemplating the slow and grim deterioration of my father.

I did the walk I used to do to & from Junior school after we moved to Jesmond... it took me across Armstrong Bridge.

2004 - Newcastle - St John, Akr

November: my sister had found a cool little cafe on Acorn Road... called Kitsch'n. She said I should check it out. I went up there and fell in love with the place: Jesmond had never had a proper cafe like this.

St John was one of the owners. He and I struck up an easy rapport.

2004 - Newcastle

November: progress with the extension to the house continues.

2004 - Newcastle

November: you can actually still see the "old" kitchen window inside the new extension... right up until the final stages, the old house remained intact.

2004 - Newcastle - St John, x

November: St John and I headed out clubbing. This was Shin Dig, down at the old Riverside club.

2004 - Tynemouth - AKR and Djr

November: I took some time off work to focus on issues with home and life.

Spent a lot of time back home in Newcastle. My sister was there, having moved back from Glasgow. Was great to spend time as a family.

2004 - Newcastle - Bonfire Night

November: Next door to my parents house; they set up this huge bonfire which was embellished by the remains of an old shed and all the offcuts from the building work going on.

2004 - Newcastle - Bonfire Night - DJR

2004 - Newcastle - Bonfire Night - Mum and Les

2004 - Newcastle - Yazmox, Djr

Bonfire night: Yaz came round so we blasted off in her car.

2004 - Newcastle - Yazmox

Bonfire night: strange highway

2004 - Newcastle - Catharsis

November: I got to go through all my Dad's old papers - the contents of the massive grey metal filing cabinets that had been cluttering up the house for over a decade. I took all the crap and burned it; it took me two nights. 10 hours!

2004 - Newcastle - Mike C

November: One of the other partners in the Kitsch'n enterprise, among many others he and St John are involved in.

2004 - Newcastle - Jesmond Dene

Part of the whole healing process during my time up in Newcastle; an early morning walk in the Dene behind my parents house. Divine.

Flashback to 1952 - Tynemouth - Dad

Going through my Dad's things I found some photos of the man as his younger self...

2004- Bristol - Dom

November: It was Game weekend; Kelvin had made it over from Reading on the Friday night so it was a gathering at Budokan. Dom has just returned from Shanghai - China, where he was officially married to his partner Lucy :o)

2004- Bristol - Nice Guy Tony

November: Tony's role at work had also gone through a massive transformation.

2004- Bristol - Kelvin Sharky

November: Looking damned sharp Sharky - visibly happy with his life. Looks like he might be moving to Madrid next year.

This was the weekend that the guys, including Jo, completed Beyond The Mountains of Madness. Around a year of real-time playing... a vast number of sessions, and certainly goes down in history as one of the best game campaigns ever.