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Prelude To the Walk

Dear Juliet I just wanted to mention that I have to walk to hospital in Wolverhampton from the railway station tomorrow so, from your perspective, I might be a little late with my 22nd April blog post, due 7.45 am (your time). All I have to do is pick up some pills but the car park is always chock-a-block so I usually hoof it. Actually, that isn't the whole story. It may not seem like much, but I sent out yesterday's post dead on at 7.45 am, felt pretty pleased with myself for an hour, then had the earth-shattering realisation that I'd forgotten the keywords, thinking that you might not have seen it, that you might feel I'd forgotten about you and that I didn't care. Nothing could be further from the truth. I added the keywords and prayed everything would be all right, but you wouldn't have wanted to be me for the next hour or so... I was like the proverbial cat on the hot tin roof and the feelings of dread and disaster were awful. Anyway, I don't think you ...
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Chocolate Chunk Cookies in Church and Chapel...

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Dear Juliet They started building St. Andrew's Church in Shifnal sometime in the 12th century, and they're still not finished. I got involved with it just after I arrived in Shifnal (September 2020) to get to know the community because they had an Open Door (tea and biscuits) session every Tuesday morning for all the older folk. I checked I wasn't too young, started taking the tables out at the end (partly because no one else could), and with the exception of a two year pandemic gap, on it's gone ever since. I once again became "your local celebrity no one's ever heard of" although this time, the birth certificate matched up and my accent largely fitted. Not that there was much intolerance shown to me in Scotland, but the question, rarely asked, "how do you like it up here?" had got old very quick. For a while, I was part of a group of older guys who congregated round a mobility scooter in the corner, but time winnowed our ranks. A nice old gen...
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The Stainless Steel Rat Shakes Your Hand!

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Dear Juliet I just had a thought. Yes, I know that doesn't happen very often. Anyway, there I was, looking at my lengthening line of little blog posts, feeling happy when I thought of you, wondering at the ways the world can sometimes turn out well, and I noticed the original To See My Friend and Shake Her Hand had had a few more views than the average. You'd like me to shake your hand? Maybe I can do something. A couple of crazed and convoluted ideas came and went then, like a small eureka, it hit me. Why not at least suggest we try a brief, time-limited Facebook video call? As you know, I'm typically online between 7.30-7.50 am your time. I'll open up my Facebook Messenger page every day while I'm on the job and see what dreams may come. You'd have to send me a Facebook friend request first, but I think that's what's needed to make it work. Do not worry. I'm okay with things as they are. I don't mind sitting out somewhere south of Needles lik...
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Life is Like a Jar of Pickles!

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Dear Juliet That title just popped into my head and I'm not even sure what it means yet! I'm also a little concerned you might be getting sick of all the Star Trek analogies but I'm afraid they just work perfectly. At the moment, I'm quite content to be on shore leave while they're getting the bugs out of the new ship in Spacedock, and there's actually a good story about that from the first time I was in Hollywood. But let's think about you. Not a stretch, really. I guess everything's been pulled apart in your head, turned upside down, hoovered, stuffed back in again and now it all needs time to settle. Possibly quite a lot of time. However, I will be here and I am patient. It is simple, all I like in life is having you around. The best days where when I'd see something interesting and be able to tell you immediately. Forget Hollywood, Buffy and even Dru. That was what was important. Remember that you were always worthy of all that I did over the y...
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While You Wander Your Starry Sea, Remember, Remember Me...

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Dear Juliet I hope you're not finding all the Star Trek analogies a little confusing, but I really can't come across anything better. Even the title's taken from Gene Roddenberry's lyrics for the theme... Anyway, the statistical reads of the blog lined up very neatly last night (contact with the city on the edge of forever) and my subconscious gaily announced this morning that I'd got my nice new metaphorical Enterprise back after the last one got blown up . I don't know where to take her yet, but at least I'm back in the centre seat. And I understand, or at least I think I understand, that you're relearning a few things like Spock did at the start of Star Trek IV . That I did not forget you. That I did come back for you. That you always meant everything to me. And I like you just the way you are. I suppose you're going through a lot of change and readjustment. Quite a bit of uncertainty and a soupcon of insecurity, perhaps. Wondering if James is...
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Jim, You Used to Call Me Jim?

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Dear Juliet I think the 'flu's sweating itself out, thank God I washed the bedclothes last night. Even darned the socks the other day, looked at your pictures and felt a bit happier than I had for the last two years. Also sat up watching  Star Trek IV for fun after that fal-tor-pan (so to speak) last week. Darn, it's a good movie. They just don't make them like they used to... But I was struck by the way Kirk didn't quite know how to relate to the reconstituted Spock, who kept calling him Admiral . Kirk remembered how they'd painstakingly built up a friendship of mutual regard and respect ( despite the occasional slip ) years before and he wasn't quite sure how to handle this new and somewhat transformed version. It's a bit like this today. I used to call you dear Miss Landau, then it was Juliet. Occasionally Rose if I felt deeply emotional about something. Myself, I have always been a James, never a Jim, and no one's ever attempted Anthony although...
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Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?

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Dear Juliet "Who watches the watchmen?" (Juvenal) I was wondering how to make an interesting story out of being jabbed for Covid at the nearest clinic when Dr Mary Beard came on TV talking about her latest book, Talking Classics . I think I tried to contact her about the Book of Deer years ago and may even have got a reply, but it did remind me how much I liked using old quotes. That there are lessons we can quite easily learn from antiquity, though for sure we never do. Dallas. 22nd November 2013. With my usual luck plus a red-eye flight from Austin, I'd stumbled on the 50th anniversary commemoration of John F. Kennedy. It was one of the great days. I essentially covered it for the Huffington Post UK , wrote this article  and also took this photograph: Sadly, the script was taken from the text of a speech President Kennedy would have made at the Dallas Trade Mart later that day, but he didn't get there... You should be able to see the word "watchman" quite...
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