Heather

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of Heather to add to her posting either, as the last time I saw her properly was on my return from New Zealand in 2002, when digital cameras cost my annual salary.

So you can imagine what a pleasant shock it was to find that she'd taken the time and effort to sponsor me from the other side of the world! Unlike - ooh, I dunno - the people I hang out with on a daily basis in London. Muzz and Lizzi excepted of course.

As you may have gathered from my other blog posts, I have had the great pleasure of meeting some beautiful, intelligent women over the years, and Heather is yet another fine example. I don't know what I did in a past life to be surrounded by such loveliness on an almost daily basis, but I think it must have involved burning buildings, trapped kittens and lions with thorns in their paws. Kind of like Ralph Macchio in "the Outsiders" only with a happier ending.

We first met at a James Taylor Quartet concert in the Arches if I remember correctly. I was introduced to her by my other 'young friends' - Sandra and Helen. They were still at uni, whilst I was a grown-up working in a call centre. I could tell they looked up to me.

Although in the grander scheme of things it was not a long period of time, I will always remember spring and summer 2001. Heather, Helen Macq, Sanj, Paul D and me, strutting our stuff at the Art School, the Riverside, the Renfrew Ferry, Optimo, Subculture - you name it, we were out-dancing every other bugger in the place. Life was good. Still hard to believe it only lasted a matter of months. It had the knock-on effect of causing me to develop a life-long affection for archaeologists, which even now finds me sat looking slightly out-of-place in numerous dodgy old mans pubs the length and breadth of London of a Friday evening. Salt of the earth that lot, I tells ya.

One of my abiding memories of Heather is of phoning her one afternoon to find out what she was up to, only for her to tell me she was sat in the back garden "eating flowers". It was not a total surprise then that she chose to swap leafy Bearsden for her spiritual home of San Francisco soon after. I can still almost imagine her sitting there with a few rogue petals hanging out of her mouth as small birds come and land on her shoulder and bunny rabbits hop past. I think my new nicotine patches might be a little bit strong.

Anyway, thanks a million Heather, it truly was a pleasant surprise to see your donation. And very generous too I might add - obviously crawling about in muddy ditches is more lucrative in California than it is in blighty. Either that or you got confused by the exchange rate and only meant to sponsor me a tenner! Hope all is going well for you in the States(and you haven't developed a Sheena Easton style transatlantic drawl yet).

Tx