Please come to London......

PinF(UK) is nothing if not a perceptively cognizant person, or so I'd like to think so. Lately I've been so totally immersed in reconnecting the dots of my life, each of them interconnected and woven through the countries and people of past experiences. What I've come to find is that all these factors have both shaped and influenced my life in positive ways.

Many readers of PinF(UK) are either lifelong friends, or people who I've been blessed to have have been introduced to since my move south to Florida. Still others are those who've either linked through friends or word of mouth. To my credit and joy you've all supported, encouraged, and in many cases offered the love an support that maybe I didn't know or even understood I needed at the time. Life changes are tough on us all. Though we all know on one level or another change is gonna come...we somehow or another never think it's coming to "us". Nor are we for that matter ever really able to express or acknowledge the effect these changes will ultimately have upon any of our lives.......or thank those responsible. Many changes have come to me in the twenty years since I lived in the UK, some bad, some good, though to be fair the good has always outweighed the bad.

So here I am back in rainy, cool, England. I have Ted Hawkins beckoning his unique flavor of blues to me after a night of typically rainy British weather. It reminds me of my brother Chris. I'm thinking "Jesus PinF(UK), post a dispatch".....and then I look at my AC adapter and all my other electronic European/UK adapters and think---let me try to do a post with a few photos, relying instead on words alone. To hell with photos...at least for now, I can always post them later.

"Please come to London and live forever, alone over here in Britain is much too hard to live, I gotta house that looks over the ocean, and the stars that fell from the sky are living in Hempstead, please come to London, she said now, but you come home to me. She said ramblin' man why don't you settle down London ain't your kind of town, there ain't no gold and there ain't nobody like me, I'm the number one fan of the man from Tenessee."

Ted's words hit especially true on this night. PinF(UK) has been walking through his past as I(re)discover an England buried twenty years ago in a much different time. Changes have come in many forms, I struggle to conjure street names, bus routes and directions. Yet the one path I've not forgotten is that of the friendships forged long ago along, a path rich in both the variety and diversity of my friends. I've reconnected on this trip with many friends, some long-lost, some not. Surely the truth of one's life lies partly in the direction we choose and the decisions we make. I've been blessed with the fertile seeds of friendship sowed many years ago here in the UK and Denmark, and like a plant these friendships continue to flower in PinF's life and provide ever more contentment as the years have passed. I've been connecting with the "blue pieces".

In Denmark I found one of my dearest friends of twenty-five years, a bond so solid that not even time could erode. Though we have of course lost many years of a friendship through the circumstances of life, what we gained in the end was a greater appreciation of an enduring and continuing friendship based on mutual respect, interest, and love. Certainly neither of us could have ever imagined still being in touch after so many years apart, something that enhances the bond even more. Just as time brings knowledge, separation brings appreciation. And so we felt very grateful for the chance to walk the ancient streets of Copenhagen under a shared umbrella on drizzly July afternoon, laughing, reminiscing, and planning for the next rendevous.


Back in jolly England PinF(UK) finds a familiarity in both the people and places. It helps too to see recognizable writing and hear the familiar sound of accented English again. The comfort of England is and has always been in its simplistic way of life. Alot has changed since I was last here, some good, some bad. There's something really wrong about seeing a Starbucks on an ancient street in an ancient city. One of the best features of England to me was always the absence of mega stores, fast food, and malls. Sadly this is slowly becoming more of a reality here in Brighton, where the old is slowly encroaching upon by the new. Though thanks to the ancient lanes and buildings of Brighton, this city continues to hold back the new.


My days here have been fairly similar; a good 40 minute walk along the promenade of the pebble strewn sea front that is uniquely Brighton. I start just north of the famed West Pier, now a rusting heap of twisted iron in the English Channel, then I countinue south towards Hove the pituresque sister city to Brighton where summer beach sheds line the promenade in a myriad of colors. I then walk back to my good friend's Linda and Phil's house through the ancient lanes that wind through the many back alleys and streets of this seaside town. And on my walks I hear the many languages and feel the very soul of the people and buildings that lend this seaside town its authenticity and character.

I've returned 5 days ago from Demark where I was blessed to have spent the time we all long for---with the friends that fuel our pasts, through memory, experience, and often the bliss that is afforded by the perspective of time. In so many ways, we're all search for something we already had, but maybe didn't know we did. This trip is indictive of this. I came to Denmark and the UK to "rekindle" some old frinedships and walk back in time if I could. What I found instead were long gone memories never to return, but in their place there were even better times in store. In my host in Denmark I found a woman I've maintained an active friendship with longer than any other woman other than my mother. My memory is locked on the early eighties when we were both young, and full of future; my reality found a confident and in many ways just as youthful woman raising two beautiful children while also making a profound difference in the world.

Back here in the UK with my hosts Phil and Linda I'm with people of exceptional quality and heart, as they've opened their hearts and home to me in a way generally reserved for family alone. Phil is another 2 decade old friend of PinF's(UK), one who has made me laugh ways in which I haven't done for a long, long time, again this a BLUE piece. Again, I'm blessed and fortunate to have such people to call friends. My time here has been extraoridinary, just quality people. The little city neighborhood I'm staying has been my home, my muse, and my joy, as I stroll daily the many winding and interesting streets and alleys.

One of PinF's(UK) truest and most stark reminders of the barometer with which to measure one's friends, would be found in his old buddy Paul and his beautiful fiance Natasha. Again, PinF draws a lucky card in this buddy. In touch off and on for over twenty years Paul has always been a straight up and gracious host and friend, treating PinF like a brother. And so it was that PinF was invited to dinner with this couple when they laid the news on him of their quickie wedding in 5 days and how they were then to jet off to the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean or a honeymoon. In a moment of true friendship they informed they were only inviting their parents and best man and bridesmaid and that they wanted me to be there on their day. (gulp). Of course this would mean that PinF(UK) would once again make the "change" again. I called US Air and it's done. PinF(UK) will attend the wedding in a small country village of Lewes and then back to the seafront for a lovely reception at one the oldest and most beautiful hotels on the beach, The Grand. That I have no suit is of a concern though I'm to be "sorted out" in one way or another.

These wonderful friends, people, places, and time spent are as restorative to the soul as anything I can think of. To experience the joy of travel is surely one of life's greatest experiences. To do this with people who mean so much and have given so freely is truly the wonder of each our live's paths. Luckily for me I've chosen my paths well thus far, because as sure as I am these friends would say how much my visit means to them, it is been me who's been permanently affected and eternally grateful.

PinF(UK) will be coming home soon, but certainly not as the same man who left America 10 days ago....