Time, the Point and the Streets of London...

Dear Juliet

This is probably going to be a bit of a mash-up, but in your absence (and I did miss not having you to write to, even for three days) I did another walk to New Cross hospital and checked the clinical facts of my age with my doctor.

Yep, according to my blood results I'm still thirty-five and Dr. Iqbal still thinks I'm fabulous, which is nice to hear.

When faced with the incredible, the only thing to do is approach it logically so I added on three years for the sake of humbleness. I'll think whimsically of myself as a slightly creaky thirty-eight.

Thought of you as I passed the canal, I think the ducks also missed you and one even swam my way.











It reminded me of an old song by a famous British disc jockey called Terry Wogan...

I hope this doesn't lead to too many tears and buckets of Ben & Jerry's?

Looked back at the stats while I wandered lonely as a cloud 5th-7th May, and I think you liked the photos of Point Lobos? Well, so did Steinbeck and Robert Louis Stevenson. As Steinbeck said in Cannery Row: 

"Monterey is a city with a long and brilliant literary tradition. It remembers with pleasure and some glory that Robert Louis Stevenson lived there. Treasure Island certainly has the topography and the coastal plan of Pt Lobos."

And it seems Stevenson hung around Monterey recovering after a train trip from New York broke his health ca. 1879. He probably visited Point Lobos and may have got the first inklings of inspiration for Treasure Island from its peerless coastline. The Point was so meaningful to Steinbeck that his family chose it as the site of his memorial service in 1968.

There've been quite a few authors associated with Point Lobos. I guess I'm one of them.

I'd like to get back there one day.







Oh darn.

Just realised I'm away again.

It's that Society of Authors get-together in London, but I thought I'd take an extra day and see some more of the streets of London.

Sorry.

I'll be away (your time) from the very early morning of Tuesday 12th May until mid-morning Friday 15th May.

Well, don't worry and don't break out the Ben & Jerry's, I will definitely come back. I'll also take the smartphone and if all else fails you've still got my number.


Still, you'll be there in spirit.

I did say I still carry your picture, didn't I?

Well, I still do. I always will.

Love,

James





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