Dru, Steinbeck and the Book of Deer

Dear Juliet More precisely, Marathon Flats... I've always set some store by the fact that I walked from Carmel to Point Lobos, partly because I'm a macho idiot and partly because there was no other way. I even got quite fond of the Number 5 bus which dropped me off at the crossroads and the nearby Chevron filling station. However, I looked up news about Point Lobos for you and found out they're setting up a shuttle service to the Point from Marathon Flats, just south of the Chevron and near Safeway. It'll take a couple of years and 'til then it looks like the need to take a walk or crowd out the car park will stay the same. After that, though, you'll need a reservation to get into the Reserve even if you're on foot , it seems. I also ended up finding out Monterey does monthly condo/cottage rentals, which might be interesting. Right now, though, I feel like I've run a marathon and don't desire to go any further than Cleethorpes. Still, maybe one day.....

Dear Mrs Robinson Okay, bear with me! I noticed you read a couple of posts about Point Lobos (perhaps while eating a pastrami and rye sandwich?) in the wee small hours. Good, and the thing is, I like Point Lobos. I like writing about it. I've been three times and I wouldn't mind making it four. So let's look at it from another angle. After Robert Louis Stevenson might have got the idea for Treasure Island there ca. 1879, the Point featured in quite a few films, including: Treasure Island (1934) Rebecca (1940) Vertigo (1958) The Graduate (1967) I think Point Lobos can just about be seen at the start of this excerpt from The Graduate , as Benjamin Braddock shoots north in search of Elaine to the tune of Scarborough Fair . Funny thing is, I had Dru singing Scarborough Fair  too... "She walked up the stone steps to his grave every day, softly singing Scarborough Fair as she went on her way. Sometimes she took daisies, often she made posies, but most times she too...

Dear Juliet Yes, perhaps I'm getting short of subjects here but bear with me... In that famous scene in When Harry Met Sally , shot in Katz's Delicatessen , Sally was having (apart from the orgasm) an ordinary turkey sandwich on white bread. Katz's signature special, however, is pastrami and rye. And that's what I ate on that petrified log next door to Point Lobos on my 59th and 60th birthdays, sitting somewhere between Brad Pitt's place and the Market. I could make a lot of jokes right now. We even joked about it once ourselves. I'd taken Mum to Mallorca in late 2010, she saw a cocktails menu and asked me what a Screaming White Orgasm was... Well, I had to tell her, commenting that I'd rather have a Pina Colada Told you the joke from there, you said you'd rather have the Orgasm... Those were good days, laughing with you via Juliet the Notebook. I want to get her restored one day. I'd like to have a sandwich with you there sometime. Down by Brad...

Dear Juliet You've gone all quiet again and I miss you 😢. Well, anyway, I got back on the job again yesterday and, considering you might be feeling invisible, thought I'd do something macho and silly. Namely climb the steps from Bridgnorth's Low Town to its High Town (you remember Gene Kelly and Dancing In the Rain ?) in your honour, proving that, to me at least, you are highly visible. So I did. There's a Theatre On The Steps halfway up, quite a few inebriated kids/adults in short pants (not a style I admire) at the top, and I took a photo of the general situation from the Town Hall with Dear Miss Landau in the foreground. Please consider this explicit evidence that you are seen and visible. Remember, too, that you can also be seen in Dear Miss Landau itself. I certainly wasn't waiting for Dru that day... And I always liked going to comic-cons just to see you. Okay, I'm back in Bridgnorth tonight, think I'll try that climb again (I have to get fit some...

Dear Juliet Thinking about today's blog, I came across the fact that children of narcissists think they're invisible (and, I guess, worthless) when they're not performing. That they're only of any value when they're up there on stage earning their crust. Well, I don't agree with that. Except for a few utter lowlifes I won't go into, everyone has innate worth and value. It may be a statement of the obvious, but you are innately valuable. I've always enjoyed worrying about you, trying to work out what makes you tick, and deciding what Christmas and birthday presents to give you. Despite the wet feet, I really enjoyed getting you that statuette . In fact, let's review a few crucial phrases from  Dear Miss Landau : "Crucial meetings in the NAS briefing room came and went as the clock ticked down to zero hour. There was a strange contrast between being personally fond of someone with whom I was corresponding in private and professionally dispassionat...

Dear Juliet You're not ditzy. Queenly, perhaps, but that didn't rhyme with dear and I wanted to remind you that you don't have to be perfect to be loved. I always thought you were quiet, cute and sweet. There. So I'm due to get pummelled by the osteopath this afternoon, back on the job tomorrow, physio on the 11th and a victory lap at New Cross sometime. My leave's between 24th August-11th September, not sure if I'm going anywhere, such is life. How are you doing? Looking for a subject... So your uncle worked for Mattel? I've been there. January 2024 in L.A., and my back had locked up over that nerve again. The osteopath had freed it but I wasn't in great shape. However he gave me some of the best advice I've ever had, which was to exercise and walk. So I made it on and off the plane, got into a sterile Travelodge south of Sepulveda, rolled painfully out of bed in the morning and walked across to the Metro at Mariposa. And I found I was walking right...