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Monterey To Seattle via Alaska. Not.

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Dear Juliet Sorry, still a bit shattered so this'll be a brief one. Same point, though. No matter how hard you try to control things, life will always get in the way. I'd had that great holiday at Point Lobos in 2023, and I was booked on Alaska Airlines back to Seattle for my connection to Heathrow. I was really looking forward to leaving the Hyatt at a decent hour, looking like a dignified, civilised gentleman traveller... And then the rotten swines moved the flight, leaving me unable to make the Seattle connection. Instead, I had to get a United flight at the crack of dawn. A very kind local taxi driver called Pastor Barrozo helped me out. He usually picked up the United pilot early on and just added me to his route. I thanked him a lot, cursed Alaska Airlines in five different languages and simply swore I'd never fly with them again. I'm quite pleased I made that vow. A door fell off one of their planes over Portland a few short months later... So that's it real...
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Recycled In Bridgnorth (Not Perfect)...

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Dear Juliet This was going to be an urbane meditation on the impossibility of being perfect while mentioning my old travel mantra, which states: "You can do the most meticulous planning imaginable; and then the bus, train or plane just doesn't bloody well turn up." Dwight D. Eisenhower himself said that "plans are worthless, but planning is everything." And I was going to explain that I turned up in Chicago in 2022, complete with a reservation carved in stone for a roomette on board Amtrak's Empire Builder , looking forward to breezing down to Union Station the following morning in order to glide with effortless ease into my mini-stateroom, boldly to go and see the roof of America unreel magnificently before me. But they cancelled the train the night before. Just like that. A sudden strike. I was going, calmly, wisely and perhaps a little pretentiously, to compare this to narcissists' childrens need for control and perfection, and the need to realise tha...
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Recycled at Sainsbury's!

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Dear Juliet Sorry, got caught between the local recycling centre and Sainsbury's supermarket this afternoon and now I'm just going out to work! I'll do a longer post when I get back in. I hope you're okay. Love, James
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Are You OK, J?

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Dear Juliet Like the title says, are you okay? Love, James
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Grey Squirrel On Redwood

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Dear Juliet I thought I'd better mention that if you (theoretically) wanted to come over, preparations would be necessary (travel insurance, return ticket, support letter from me etc.) so I'll just quickly advise you to  check this link and liaise with me beforehand. To make it easier for you, I also have a To Do list which I'll cross-check with the primary source material next week or so. Okay, said it. It was on my mind... In the meantime, I lit a candle you-know-where for yourself and the 9/11 victims. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I did get a nice shot of this squirrel. Hope you like squirrels. I think you don't like dwelling on bad things, so I'm not going to go on about it too much. Just provide this excerpt from Dear Miss Landau about breakfast in the South Tower, 2000. In 1989, fresh from Australia and California, I’d lain on the ground in the plaza between the Twin Towers and gazed up the vertical precipice towards the 102nd floor of the south tow...
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High Times and Hope's Bell!...

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Dear Juliet Not quite sure what that title means, but most of my synapses are now functioning properly and I can write a better blog than I did last night... I do have to go out and attend to the sick and the needy in less than an hour, though, so it'll be short. Perhaps then, let's once again tackle any doubts you may about your worth and value. So please look at it like this: I dragged myself bodily to my Dell PC at two o'clock in the morning because you were worth it. Sat there for half-an-hour trying to hang some theme on a literary hook and eventually managed to say something about 9/11 and Vera Lynn. AI passed it but it wasn't great. I'd probably have put it off 'til later but for the fact that you were worth it. I also understand metronomic regularity and reliability on my part is of help and support to you. Hope I helped. You are worth it. There we are. Love, James P.S. You're hot!
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We Will Meet Again

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Dear Juliet Sorry I'm late, there was a lot of laundry and ironing to do. I don't think I can manage much tonight, but there's an important anniversary I should observe so I'll reprint this blog entry from Dear Miss Landau . Ground Zero, afterwards   There’s always a girl sitting alone on a bench.   Work goes on to put up a new building in place of the lost towers, and the sound of the ta-pocketa ta-pocketa machines reverberate above the din.   The skeleton of the new edifice rises from the foundations.   Raw-red girders are just beginning to climb skyward, but she’s always there. I cross the causeway to West Street and Battery Park. A young man brushes by me on the escalator, wrapped tight in his own private little world of finance and shutting out all else with headphones. I met another young man like him once, in the plaza before the towers fell. I come to the water’s edge and relative silence greets me. There’s Lady Liberty in the distance and clo...
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