I arrived at Evan’s house just north of LA yesterday afternoon. Evan is a PR guy who specialises in quirky internet stories, and he had contacted me very early on during “ALife4Sale” and given me a lot of help with some of the internet publicity for the auction. Evan is actually number 8 of ten people to meet from “ALife4Sale”!
Less than an hour later we were in his car and travelling south through LA, heading towards San Diego.
I had managed to track down an old friend, Tim, from college days back in the UK, and was going to catch up with him for the first time in 20 years! Evan dropped me off and disappeared to meet his friends, and I knocked on Tim’s door. As I walked in we both laughed and both exclaimed, “You look exactly the same, mate!” I reckon we were maybe both being a bit kind to each other!
It was great catching up on all we had done in the 20 years gap, and we drank beer late into the night, swapping stories and laughing about some of the stupid stuff we used to do together.
Our initial meeting all those years ago had been because of our mutual interest in motorbikes, and I was pleased to find that Tim still had a bike out in his shed, a fantastic looking Ducati Monster. “You can take it out tomorrow if you like.” I like! I have never ridden a Ducati before.
The next day I got a tour of some of San Diego’s downtown spots – it is a very scenic place, and once again the weather was beautiful.
The ship in the middle picture was used in the movie Master And Commander
After lunch, and a quick pep-talk from Tim about his pride-and-joy I was off down the freeway and then back up along the beautiful beachfront. The sun was out, the surf was rolling in, the bike was fast and smooth. Absolutely fantastic – things couldn’t get much better than this – I had a big grin on my face, I am sure!
Later that evening Tim sparked up the BBQ, and we drank more beer and told more old war stories to his wife, Laurie.
Wonderful to see you again Tim, see you again in another 20 years! Thanks to Tim, Laurie and their two lovely daughters.