I've had a terrible shock this morning. A really old friend of mine, probably the best friend I ever had, added me as a Facebook friend.
Now, I never look at Facebook really, I have the odd burst, but if nothing else it's a useful and interesting way to keep tabs on people. I'm not into gifting cakes or becoming a zombie or taking a which member of Sherbert are you, but I do like the keeping up element.
So this old friend and I parted company when he became far more interested in ecstasy and that entailed than anything else. My drug hell was over and done with years before that, but him always being a late starter fell in with a crowd while working at HMV and that was that really. So I've seen him once in 15 years.
It's a shame, as we shared so many excellent times, and there are songs from 1982 right up to 1994 that remind me of him. We share student houses and flats in London, we were like brothers, so when we drifted apart I don't suppose either of us thought any estrangement would last this long. We'd fallen out before, but we always made up.
I get an email from him once a year on my birthday, but I get no news whatsoever. I know he lived in Majorca and has a Norwegian wife and two cute kids, but anymore he's not saying. He did impart on his last birthday email that he'd moved back to the UK, and not that far from me, but there's no use asking what he's up to because he just won't say. He's always been a funny one. The family was dysfunctional before his parents split up. When they finally did they got a teacher to break the news to him. He never forgave them. But they always welcomed me, and his family were like my family, especially as my parents lived abroad during that time. I was the fourth child. I was really close to them all.
So it's bittersweet when you get something like this. All those lost years. Much as I'd like to see him the momentum has gone. I don't know his wife and kids and looking at the photos any of his friends either. And the shock comes because he's so bald and fat. He used to be skinny with lots of curly hair. I feel quite good in comparison.
So it's nice that I can see what he's up to without having to see him. Not that that's currently an option. Nothing lasts forever.
**This photo is not my sixth form, it's just plucked at random from the net, but I looked uncannily like the guy in the front row third left with the wedge haircut and shiny suit. Well it was 1983.
