CARE-less

The day before yesterday was my first CARE-less Friday and although I did feel a hole where my Jelly should have been I had a wonderful day featuring African dance, deep theological/philosophical/stoner conversation and my dear friend Travis.

Thursday night had seen the last Thursday Date with Travis, Chris and I hanging out in a London pub till closing and then at Chris’s flat until the wee hours. The conversation meandered as all the best conversations do and I left thinking about how much I would miss those times. The reason I start to talk about the day before yesterday by mentioning the day before the day before yesterday is because over the course of the evening Travis suggested that I join him on a visit to his favourite place in London, Borough Market. We had a great morning there, drinking coffee and wandering around the stalls, sitting in the sun by the Cathedral and having a little lunch. I was to join him later for his little London farewell so we said a ‘see you later’ and he headed home for some much needed packing and I headed off for a wander around.

Round the corner from the market there sat a working replica of Sir Francis Drake’s ship, The Golden Hind and I sat and marvelled at it for a moment…a vessel which was, at one fleeting time in history, the height of technology… Then I headed to have a wander amongst the crowds at the Tower of London and then across Tower Bridge to The Scoop by the Mayor’s Office. This would be the destination for the first part of Trav’s farewell, a mini amphitheatre of a venue beside the river. There was an African dance group strutting their stuff so I sat and enjoyed that and then continued my wander down the South Bank, something I love to do, enjoying the street performers and the sun and the surroundings. Later that evening I was back Scoop way where I joined some of Travis’ friends from church and work and his house and listened to a DJ and some sax and trumpet players for what was a warm evening, eating nibbles and drinking wine …it was really nice.

The night went from nice to great as we headed to a bar round the corner and I had a really interesting chat with Trav’s screenwriting housemate and then started chatting to one of the guy’s from Trav’s church. This was one of those conversations about music and politics which keep digging deeper until you reach theology and faith and the unquestionables of religion are suddenly not just being questioned but interrogated… Danny pitched in an idea or two when he wasn’t fighting it out about fox hunting at the other end of the table…and the guy I was talking to, Joe, summed it all up well when he commented to one of the others, “We’ve basically done a degree over here…”

Quality.

Travis will be missed. I admire a great deal about the man. He is someone of real warmth and talent who loves to engage with the questions of politics and faith and culture which so fascinate me…and the guy is banter. The most striking thing about him for me is his real enthusiasm for life…it’s infectious. We’ll be seeing him again certainly…

He has a blog if you wanna check him out…

http://travisrandall.blogspot.com/

Calm down ladies…

“We were all children once…or have you forgotten?”