Last Seen

I'm always interested in the last times we see characters in fiction: not the main characters, usually, cos their fates are normally spelt out pretty clearly and are often quite boring. But, for example, the last time we see Esme Squalor in A Series of Unfortunate Events, she's on the second floor of a hotel that's on fire. The last time we see Ludo Bagman in Harry Potter, he's on the run from the Goblin Mafia. And the final time we see Screwy Squirrel on Looney Tunes, he's just been crushed by a dog he'd been tormenting for what seemed like time immemorial. Fun fact: they originally planned to make more Screwy Squirrel but the animators were afraid of him and so we are left to assume he died.
Those are all rather morbid, or at least perilous, examples and I hope to God none of the people mentioned in this post find themselves in the situations above but whenever I'm about to move, I'm powerfully aware that I won't see some people again, even if I want to. When I came back from Australia, I just honestly presumed I'd see Moe again, but even after I acquired his phone number, he never reappeared in my life. Sometimes, people get lost.

Anyway, that was a rather indulgent and ultimately tangential introduction to a pretty long post about the 'goodbye period' before my move to Japan. I haven't been updating this blog due to a mixture of indolence and preoccupation, so I'm going to have to get through a lot in a short time.
First off, I went to visit my sister in her new flat and new job just before she left both of them. Not much happened during that trip because the town where she was living, Bottesford, was boring as hell and smelt faintly of dog poo. Still, it's always nice to see Moi and we watched a lot of documentaries so at least I came away smarter.

Then, the day I arrived back from Bottesford, Grace came to stay and it was just magical. We talked for two days straight and never ran out of conversational material. We cooked, went for walks, gave each other nicknames and drew each other.

My picture of Grace, as she pointed out, ended up looking slightly...Quasimodoish. But then she left it at my house anyway so we both hurt each others' feelings.

A few days later, Tom Lee (who has previously been referred to in the narrative as just Tom, but now there's another one, so I've given him a surname, and chosen to honour late actor Christopher Lee) and I went to see The Merchant of Venice by the RSC. It was great but I actually saw Tom Lee again, so won't describe it here.

Then, Tom Jennings (who was, of course, named after Alex Jennings, who played Prince Charles in The Queen)- an old school friend who now works in the village- and I went for drinks. It was strange, catching up with someone after nine years; he knew me before I was out and before uni took its various tolls on my personality and general outlook, so I can only imagine how I appeared to him. But Tom Jennings seemed quite unchanged- he was still high-spirited, analytical and with his finger on the cultural pulse: he recommended a Netflix series which I have been rabidly devouring instead of packing, much to the chagrin of my parents.

Next I said goodbye to Husnain, Ella and Patrick, at a small gathering at Ella's which was ostensibly to celebrate Paddy's birthday but really just involved lots of cake, booze and random in-jokes between us. This is, I think, the perfect way to sum up my friendship with these guys (well, ok, not the booze for Husnain): Ella was cool and calming, Husnain was mellow and considered and Patrick was somewhere on Mars, waving down at us earthlings. I stayed the night at Ella's and then went shopping around Shrewsbury's finest tat shops looking for gifts to give my Japanese colleagues. This is what I got:

All of English culture for under £5.

They're gonna love me.

The day after that, I went to the zoo with my parents. I'm not gonna lie, I know it's not a hip thing to say but I freakin' love zoos. And Chester zoo, where we went, is huge and conservationistic, so one doesn't have to feel guilty. What I love about it especially is there's always something new to see: for example, this time the two animals that stole the show were the chameleons- surprisingly active and cute- and the birds- amazingly up close and personal. I never usually spend that long watching either of those two animals, but this time they held my attention for a really long time. Sadly, this meant there was less time to fawn over the penguins, but I'll make up for that in the future when I own several of my own and keep them all in my house like that film with that guy that no one saw.

Then, I saw Tom again and this was actually our final rendez-vous. We drank and discussed the woes and being young and creative in an area which is not designed for either of those categories. Tom is at least finding an outlet in his work: I have not updated my writing blog for several days, and I imagine it will be a while yet due to my impending move.

And then finally today I said goodbye to my neighbour Norma, who is something of a surrogate grandmother for me (I'm not sure she'd appreciate me saying that). Norma is the way I want to be when I'm seventy- she's fun and funny, with a twinkle in her eye and a lust for life. She went to the same RSC production as Tom and I and we had a very spirited discussion about art and realism and accents and acting: I hope these are still things that concern me when I'm older.

And so yeah, that's pretty much it. It'll be August in a couple of minutes and then I move to Japan.
Holy shit.
Wish me luck.