Well,
the time has come to leave Washington DC. Though I've always thought of Jerusalem as my "second city" after London, I suppose, in all truth, it is Washington. It's hard to summon up feelings of regret as I leave. That doesn't mean it's been unpleasant here - in fact, any hardships I suffered here were of my own creation - it's just been a time of isolation and unease. Isolation had one up-side; Maria and I had a whole eighteen months of glorious together time to get to know each other and grow together. I think she would agree that she's much better now ... ;-)
Now I'm in trouble - even that emoticon won't save me :-0
The only other thing that has been a pleasure has been getting under the skin of the Imperial capital at this auspicious time. Everyone knows where they were when 9/11 happened. I happened to be in a pub, the Hobgoblin on New Cross high street, finishing off a boozy lunch with my confederate Dave Flindall. Months later I was in the US watching Dubya give the Axis of Evil speech from an airbase in Alabama. In the 32 months since then, I've spent just over 26 in the US, most of that in DC. In that time, we've seen the Taliban booted out of power and the US/UK bloc wade into Iraq. It's been one mania after another - first terror-mania, then Iraq-mania, and then election-mania. I've spent loads of time sitting behind Rumsfeld and the other administration goons at Senate hearings, earwigging on their conversations. I've been in a lot of the closed-door meetings that were worth being at. I've been I guess it's been fun. I'm certainly all worn out with politics. They can all just stick it up their butts. I'm going for a pint.
This is my new philosophy; the pub, my new lodestone.
Looking forward to Greenwhich. Looking forward to running and sitting in Greenwich Park. Looking forward to reading books ... for fun! Looking forward to anticipating having brilliant thoughts and being surprised when I don't manage to have any. Most of all looking forward to having the gang/crew around me. It gets harder to make friends as you get older - that I've really learned here - especially when everyone is as busy as you. I reckon I've met a couple of people that I'd have spent time with if we were all on "London time," but it's different here. Hectic, transitory, remote. Goodbye to all that. Bring on the long lazy Saturdays lounging with old friends,
We've earned it.



