my family not intent with crushing me have managed to focus their madness upon jakob who returned dejected and depressed after my brother and mother picked him up from the station. i've spent the evening attempting to cheer him up and make him understand that he is fine, he did nothing wrong and he is not at fault. he just can't understand why my mother is so irrational, having never encountered anything like it before. he knows it is destructive and needs to get out fast as it is impacting on his mental health now.
in the morning we both go into the city, looking for an apartment which i think he has found. we spend a really great morning in a coffee shop in brick lane, it's dark and has hookah pipes everywhere, i like it.
we part company and i head off back towards charing cross, on the way i stop in at rough trade records and promote my band, something i am crap at but have to do.
i pick up an astrological chart from mysteries a good bookshop, i get a couple of books and look for a few gifts for evan and leanne but honestly find nothing suitable. i head back. tonight i have a meeting with someone i went to school with, mash.
i broke his nose when i was about 14 and we were good friends up until i left the uk.
he picks me up and we go to the pub where we are joined by bruno another guy i was at skool with.
we actually get quite drunk and end up having a great night, mash was always very cynical and sarcastic, he still possesses that wit but these days it has a serious edge to it, everyone seems to know the future is bleak. we chat about books and he recommends 'experience' by martin amis a writer i enjoy. he also talks a lot about traveling and his impressions on the usa, it's a good night and we travel home in the back of a cab laughing. time travel.
incidentally bruno left skool with no qualifications, came from an impoverished background, had a brother who was into hard core crime ended up being the manager of british telecom, while his brother is a professor of mathematics.