Dru, Steinbeck and the Book of Deer

Dear Juliet Something's haunting me. I can't say how I know, or even if I know, but I suspect you may be on the verge of stepping out of that cage. Going off to get those strawberries , facing the freedom to choose what to do with your life. Shedding the fear and fatigue, finding the strength just to be yourself. Broken flowers can still bloom. Either that, or you've gone to Mel's for a burger. You are free to do that, too. You have a future. You always did. And it's even been updated. Yes, time's gone by and tomorrow is another day. But the past has presence, too, and it remains alive and bright on the shores of Point Lobos. Maybe that's all I need to say, unless you'd like to discuss it some day? Love, J.

Dear Juliet Just a brief heads-up to mention I've been called out, but I'll be back later. Not like this . Take care. Love, James

Dear Juliet Just a brief one as I'll shortly be on the streets of Shifnal (not Sunnydale) again fighting werewolves, zombies and vampires (not Dru), without even an Espresso Pump into which to drop... In the meantime, I hope you have a good day at Moby's. I was coming in last night and on the radio came "The Sound of Silence." In The Graduate , Benjamin Braddock does drive past Point Lobos and the Carmelite monastery en route to Berkeley. So I sat there, listened to it and thought of you. Yes, you mean a lot to me and no, I won't leave you to your fate. There isn't a coffee shop near the Point, but the market has a few seats outside. Go drive up and see if you want to take flight for a time... Tomorrow is indeed another day, and sunrise has no memory. Love, James

Dear Juliet Slow start today and I'm set to go out soon (helping the frail and elderly etc.) so, as you like history I'll just go off at a historical tangent and talk about casual research I did over the years for Spike & Dru : the Graveyard of Empires . 'Dirty old white and yellow Toyotas trundled past them as they searched out Mazār’s downtown bazaar.  A huddle of market stalls hiding under grey canvas stretched between shops’ awnings by the Blue Mosque. Faded carpets jostled with potatoes and onions for sale or barter, and Spike and Dru both smelt the stink of hopelessness in the humans slouched around them. As bad in its way as London ’s Great Stink of 1858. Quiet murders in the backstreets of a city once perceived as an oasis of peace. The killing of Pashtuns by Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazari. The Taliban enclaves waiting in the hills, intent on retaking the town they’d conquered in 1998 when the few remaining NATO and ISAF soldiers at Camps Marmal, Nor...

Dear Juliet Just heading out to nearby Broseley, where I may be eaten by zombies. Either that or I'll buy a Snickers bar at Asda... Not a lot of news 'til I decide whether or not I book for Seattle. But here's perhaps the thing, part of me would rather throw it all up in the air, hang out with you and buy you a brew. Not at Moby's but that Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf opposite Grauman's Chinese Theater . That's pretty much where it started with me and California, perhaps where it's meant to end. At the moment, I actually don't know. I judge I have four separate possible futures, and I don't know which one will be my destiny. Well, nice to know I've got possibilities... Hollywood may be the boulevard of broken dreams, but I don't mind so long as it's got a Coffee Bean! Love, James

Dear Juliet Moby's on the 17th sounds like fun. I don't think I've got any major points to make today. Everything does seem to have fallen into place again, but my days would be full of neither coffee nor tea if I didn't have my dear Miss Landau for to go and see. So, Dear Miss Landau lore... Coffee shops were deeply entangled with the whole saga. Glasgow's always had a drinking culture, but the Seattle Company Coffee at 13 Renfield Street dared to bring pastries and mochas to its mean streets about 1998. Not being an enthusiastic denizen of Glasgow pubs, I went for overpriced coffee culture in a big way and became one of the first customers of the Starbucks which replaced it about a year later. I went there for about thirteen years and was heartbroken when it closed. Actually, you know it quite well. That's where Xander was sitting when he first saw Dru in Roses . Thank God for standardisation. A Scottish Starbucks could stand in for a Sylmar Starbucks any day...