2006 - Happy Flat - Oj

June: Being back in Bristol took some getting used to. Jo picked me up from the airport and we both experienced a bizarre sitution of feeling like we didn't know each other. It took several hours to wear off.

Wear off it did, and I was glad to have such a fanastic woman in my life.

This return exposed the Happy Flat as no longer relevant to my life. Something of a prison of memories.

2006 - Bath - Vega$ & Tanya

June: Despite my distance from Bristol and my reality, Matthias and I have had regular contact. He's currently focussing his energies on his website, and Tanyas. And progressing with his photography.

2006 - Australia (image from) - Zed

June: got a lovely email from Zed. Lengthy and detailed, giving me an indepth insight into her life in Oz. Carmen Lopez is in full effect :o)

Along with the lengthy Email came some pictures. Zed describes herself as very happy. She has achieved many things she has dreamed for.

2006 - Bristol - Grassy

June: Graciela finally got hitched. Ironically, the bloke she was marrying was from Bristol and so that's where she had her wedding... even more ironic is that the wedding took place in Westbury-On-Trym, in a place I'd ridden past every day for 8 years whilst working at the Agency.

2006 - Bristol - Brendan

June: one of the guest's at Grassy's wedding was Brendan. A successful poet who used to run creative-writing courses in the late 1980's in Newcastle... including one that I attended with Sarah L. It was great to see him again, almost 18 years later and catch up.

2006 - Jesus Mound - Djr

June: buying the house continues to suffer delays. I'm now looking at early July before we can move in; meanwhile most of the Happy Flat is filled with packed boxes and the full heat of summer is magnifying the claustrophic experience so I decide to bail out back to Newcastle for another month.

The perfect bubble-world of Jesus Mound continues...

2006 - Jesus Mound - Akr, Mum

June: my sister travels up from London for a visit. We take mum to Armstrong Bridge one Sunday to see the Crafts Fair.

2006 - Jesus Mound - Akr

June: my sister gets a caricature portrait done. Very good.

2006 - Scottish Borders -

June: Mike C suggested going for a long tab. He picked me up 11.30 at night. We drove 120 miles, and pitched our tents beside a river around 3am. Put together a ring of stones and built a small fire, polished off a hip flask of whisky and crashed out.

Up early next morning and set off 7.30 am. Drove twenty minutes and parked along edge of a reservoir. Hauled on our packs and set off, straight ahead, straight up a slope that was 600 metres high and close to 45 degrees. We traversed uneven ground to another slope 2 miles away and 900 metres high where two telecommunication masts stood out at the summit. As the 2nd slope increased in gradient, and tormented us with false summits they became like the twin towers and we were on the walk to bloody Mordor. Finally got there, made breakfast / lunch and faffed around for a while.

2006 - Scottish Borders - Mike C

Mike enjoying time-out at the Twin Towers.

2006 - Scottish Borders - Yellow Dawn

I'd been working on a scenario for Yellow Dawn - post apocalyptic survival - and being out there in middle of nowhere, not a soul in sight, with a humming generator working away oblivous to our presence, it felt very atmospheric.

2006 - Scottish Borders - Mike C

June: Mike found a souvenir lying on the ground in the middle of nowhere, including a ten foot scaffolding pole that he used to increase the weight of his pack.

2006 - Scottish Borders - Djr

June: Leaving the Twin Towers and the gently humming generator, we tramped down a 200 metre descent across uneven ground then up another bitching 200 metres to a 3rd summit, followed the ridge along and then down and up again to an 800 metre sheer drop, this led down to the resevoir and the road that would lead us back to the car.

This was our final descent and was utterly insane. If you fell you would have not been able to stop yourself picking up speed, rolling, tumbling and then bouncing the full distance down, with enough velocity to smash your bones on the rocks jutting out from the heather. Lovely. Great views though.

2006 - Scottish Borders - Final Descent - Mike

June: Mike is highlighted in the lighter blob near bottom left. Even carrying 75 Lbs that included an unweildy scaffolding pipe he surged ahead of me. You can get a sense of how high up we were, and how much distance we had to descend by looking at the height of the hills around us, most of which we're above. This picture was taken HALFWAY down the total descent. Get the idea.

2006 - Newcastle - Dad

June: My final visit with Dad before returning to Bristol. It was a great day, Dad was very alert and in good humour. We rubbed noses like innuit and I joked about his walrus moustache. I'd brought him a few drops of aquavit, a Danish liquor which he managed to sip. I said good bye when I left.

This was the end of two and a half months in Newcastle. A fantastic time, drifting between my parents house, through leafy streets, to Kitsch'n cafe on Acorn Road. High-caffeine hours of pure creativity. I scored some freelance photography commision and a new Life Coach client. The daily competitive duel with mum over the Norweigan card game of Olsen. Evening's bouncing on next door's trampolene with thier children. Getting hammered with Pete, watching LOST and Big Brother. Completing my film script and seeing it accepted. Awesome time.

2006 - Bristol - Hägen

First day back. Reality. I grab a ride with Jo at 7A.M into town - hit the Boston Tea Party, crack on with stuff and get busy. I'm missing Newcastle but a pot of tea and a croissant keep my mind focussed on the here and now. Lunchtime I see who's around. Meet up with Hägen, sitting outside Bristol cathederal. Lovely.

He's changed considerably since I first met him in Spring 2005. That was as a new Gamer from RPG website. He played at Dom's pad on Redcliff, last session Kelvin partook in, and last time Game was ever played as the rules fell apart ... to complex and organic after 9 years of unplanned growth. Hägen didn't hear from the Game group until early 2006 and he's assumed we'd dumped him. Truth was I was creating Yellow Dawn since Summer 2005. It got it's first play early 2006. During this period Hägen has gone through the ending of a relationship, which was probably the reason for his negative energy when I first met him.

I spend the afternoon in Watershed utilising the free wifi. Then met up with Hägen again after he finished work. He brought two friends with him, Ant and Øivin. We drank beer and enjoyed the Bristol sunshine sitting on the cobblestone quayside outside the Arnolfini. This was an important moment for me. It reinforced why it's good to be back in Bristol. Calmed some uncertaintaties I'd been having. Plus it was lovely to meet some new people.

2006 - Bristol - Ant

July: Another creative, like Hägen. Like's to longboard and is a keen sailor.

2006 - Bristol - Øivin

July: Another creative, and a Norweigan, like Hägen. Likes to stomp around with a large two-headed axe.

2006 - Bristol - Kevin

The next day in Bristol was a Saturday. Game on. Yellow Dawn. I meet Hägen again, and Kevin down by the Neptune statue in city centre, grab some food then wait for Tony (Hulk) to collect us. We drive back to Tony's and play Yelow Dawn all day. Bliss.

2006 - Dursely

It was the world cup - England versus Equador. I was Jo's brother's pub in Dursely... this is a scottish man, heavily drunk, calling out all sorts of cries of support for Equador... and then England... then Equador.

2006 - Bath - Vega$, Mini, Tanya

July: Another phase of my return to Bristol. I grabbed a night in Bath with Matthias and family. He cooked an amaaaaaaazing chilli, with divine creme fresh, garlic and lemon side dish. Lovely to see my soul brother again. Great to see him so happy with good people who are good for him and his creativity.

2006 - Bath - Vega$

July: Of course, Mathias' addiction to chilli sometimes causes him to suffer peculiar fits.