The last of the remaining hours before having to step back into the workplace are slowly whittling away. I’ve been engaged with old friends and family getting some good quality time together. There isn’t that much time left. There are calls for me to stay and then there are memories of times past. I’ve begun to scan some of my old photos that I’ve kept in a shoe box all this time. 

  
Do you ever feel like you have somehow forgotten what you have done a few days ago? I feel like that right now. What did I do on Thursday? When did I write the last update. Did I mention that I locked myself out again? That happened earlier in the week. I went outside for some fresh air and forgot to grab the keys with me. There was a panic that set in temporarily and calm when someone eventually exited the building and looking down and noticing my flip flops took pity on me and allowed me in. The door to the flat doesn’t quite click closed so I was able to open it and get myself in. 
  
I should read over what I have written then. I know that it has been a few days. There just hasn’t been the time and motivation to keep it going lately. Furthermore, where do I begin? Do I start with my feelings or do I list all the various things that I’ve done? I must say this that looking through all the old photos has opened up a whole bunch of feelings that have been forgotten about. I look at myself back then with a head full of long hair and I remember all those things that I’ve done at that time. There are all those people that are no longer a part of my life for one reason or another. We slowly drifted apart life then different than is now. There was so much promise so much optimism but there was also trouble and weird situations ahead. 

  
Danny Boy and I called each other up and made plans to meet up. He announced to me his intention to sponsor a family in need for Christmas. His Girlfriend made the suggestion after one of her clients mentioned it. One of the local charities has a page where one can inquire about performing something like that. They got on it too late so they will be sharing the duties with the client. The family consists of a single mother and a ten year old daughter and an eighteen month old son. Thinking about this type of situation that that mother is in at this stage of my life is a bit heartbreaking. Just imagine being in that type of situation. What does one do? She probably was in a long term relationship that fell apart for one reason or another. The strain of young children too much for them. With a child that young it would be hard to work and find someone to take care of them. Childcare as expensive as it is. Government benefits will only go so far. It’s a nice gesture as Danny said “Christmas is for the kids.” 

  
Later on Friday I met up with Jonny. We went to a restaurant where Hiro is currently employed and where he designed the menu. It’s an Asian inspired Japanese BBQ place. They serve little plates of BBQ‘ed meat and seafood as well as some vegetarian choices. We had the chef’s special. He just kept bringing out different dishes. We chatted and enjoyed the atmosphere as we made our way through the menu. Jonny told me the story of his injury and how because of it he managed to change his life. It was quite violent. The scene one that we dealt with often as part of our duty as doormen. There was a melee outside the door. Some rushed toward it breaking the first rule of teamwork. In the chaos that ensued people didn’t cover each other’s back and unfortunately Jonny was on the loosing end of this oversight. He told me about the therapy that followed and the months spent getting his mind back as well as his balance and all the other faculties we take for granted. 

  
The meal was delicious and as Hiro finally had time to talk he mentioned the trouble his restaurant has been having with Yelp. Supposedly the positive reviews that they have been getting have for some reason or another been flagged. Someone has it out for somebody there. The word was that there was some bad blood between someone in the restaurant and the person trolling them now. It’s a nice space and I liked the atmosphere of it. It has a modern feel to it and it has this busy lively atmosphere. When we walked in it was busy with a large group of women sharing a birthday cheers. They went off next door to paint a picture as part of the birthday celebration. How organized is that? I found some pictures from a couple of my birthdays and all it seemed like I did was get hammered. Some of the recollections of that time did recall some fun times though. 

  
Friday started with a dentists appointment. Meeting Jonny and Danny came later. I managed to snag an appointment with my old dentist. I had to get my fallen out filling fixed. I have coverage with my work so I might as well take advantage of it. It is a benefit of my work. It is a cost that hasn’t entered into the calculation. I must say that there is such a difference from the dentist I had back in the UK. There is also a huge difference in the cleaning job that they do. I have a bit more work that has to be taken care of. I have know my dentist for a while so it also gave us a chance to catch up. We will likely continue the next time I see her. 

  
Barbs came over the next day a bit earlier than expected but I told her anytime when we were planning this meet up. I think we have become closer every time we have spent time together. On this day after greeting we each sat in front of our respective screens in order to be productive. I was busy with my scanning and she was busy with some homework and a few small projects. I had some issues with the scans. The Lightroom software didn’t recognize the .tiff compression that was automatically applied to the scans. I spent some time figuring it out. The solution is to scan using .png. I managed to automate importing the scans into Lightroom once the scans were saved into a particular folder. Not enough hours in the day. 

  
The box of pictures has laid untouched for a while. During one of thes periods it became moist and as a result many of the photos became stuck together. I soaked many of them in an effort to unstick them. I macguyvered a drying rack for the now curled up photos to dry on. I shared some of the funny images with Barbs. I told her of my artistic block that I went through. It was something that started after a particularly bad break up and was compounded by the situations I found myself in and then the eventual climb out of the hole. They say that first you have to hit bottom before you know which way is up. Am I still climbing? I believe that I may be. 

  

 I have to make time for some things well more precisely some people. My brother along with his wife and son were in town. All of us spent some time together. Barbs and I went to pick up some sushi and then we all ate together. The little one became the center of attention as his favourite vroom sound constantly eminating from his lips. His cries broke the silence of the night still audible through the walls. 

  
My sister in law made it clear to me that I should be staying. They joked about missing his first day of kindergarten. They know that it has been a hard decision but I suspect that they didn’t expect me to be leaving so soon. I’m going to be missing my brother’s graduation. I’m listening to some old songs from my collection. It’s distracted my train of thought. 

  
In the morning we had a collective brunch. Most of the attendees were paired up and as much as we kept our relationship under wraps it’s gotten out that we have been seeing each other. Barbs asked me if we could not pretend a platonic relationship between us anymore. At least not in front of the group gathered there this morning. I think it went well. Not pretending is liberating. 

  
Time is getting late and the morning is fast approaching. The schedule will be favorable for more thoughts a few days from now.