You might say it started with a bang. Eric and I blew up
a watermelon. The image at left shows it about 3 milliseconds after detonation.
It is on a park bench, to give scale, so the "exploded view" is about 2m
high and the jet of flame about 1m long, meaning that it is roughly
travelling at the speed of sound. The light patch to the left is my old
flashgun on a suicide mission to freeze the action.
The air was sweet that night... literally.
Here you see "The Four Doctors".
Many readers of this page will recognise more than one of them,
but I suspect few will get all four. There is a prize if you
can say who were in the two daleks as well.
The event was the Wesley College Fancy Dress Party, in April of that year.
If you are thinking of pedantically asking what happened to the other Doctors,
there weren't any then!
This year was my second at Wesley, and some of us "captured" the
Callighan Balcony, central to the action.
This photo was the "Balcony Photo", taken the same day as the Wesley
College Photo. What a bunch of wa... well, we were young. OK, youngish.
Well, we had fun. I think.
This was the year that Andrew and Jane got married. The photo
first here is your typical wedding-type photo, to set the
scene for you.
My then and current friend, Mr Tony Green, was there too. He comes into
play in the middle of this story.
Ici the piece de resistance: This is the first photo of me and the
horrid little 11-year-old who would one day (in 1997) become my wife.
Yes, the squeaky little spot with glasses on the left is Kay M Ramsbottom,
bridesmaid to her sister, and the afroed-out string bean on the right
is your humble author, best man to his best friend.
Puts a new twist on incest.
Kay lived with Tony before she and I got together. I take the
constancy of each of the friendships as a sign that we are
civilised, healthy people. (Looking for these photos I saw a lot
of people about whom that could not be said.)
Life went on outside college, of course, much of it at wargames or socials
with the people I met there. I stayed friends with only two people
from school, one is Garry, the other NickR. (A good call, on the keeping
and the losing side, I think.) Here Garry is seen in a photo with a rare
beast, for Meron did not like being photographed.
Nick did.
Oh Louise, my Lou, were we both this young?
I remember knowing you then, and through many times thereafter.
I think you have changed more than most. Garry and Meron's souls
are really the same, I could recognise both if I met them in
a place like the Heaven of "What Dreams May Come", but I would
not know you so fast. It is time the inner Lou got out again!
Here is a photo to jiggle the neurons. The late Pam Mitchell and the
quite probably late Peter Toluzzi.
Hard to image two dissimilar souls.
Pam was a solidly religious girl who was (shortly after this photo
was taken) killed in a cablecar crash; Peter was last seen
with quantities of illicit substances somewhere... oh gosh, here
in America!
Back in Wesley, Dave and Melissa were in a lot of the action.
In the change stakes I figure you are both about in the middle;
pretty healthy, really. I don't recall if we ever figured out what happened
to the door to Dave's room, but it had definitely been in the wars.
Still, it could make an excuse to chat... you never know who'll crash
in.
I bet that Brett has changed. Anyone know what happened to Brett Wake?
I loved your sense of humour, you were the reason I went to Wesley
in the first place, and I have lost you. I bet you have changed so much.
And now to you Ming. Remember 4AM on April Fools Day, 1977? Oh dear, did
we screw up, but hey, you live and learn. I have not had a chance to
really get to talk with you, that communication that takes time and
love to happen, for so long. Like Andrew, your e-soul is not your real soul,
and it seems that we do not get to have the "quality time" that we did
on pranks in college. Perhaps we should organise some international mischief?
Could not forget you, Vicki, especially with a photo like this.
I am sure you still think of me like you did at the instant
this photo was taken, 22 years ago, don't you?
I don't think I appreciated you then.
I miss you now... hurry up and jack into this e-world, I want to see
what your netsoul is like!
I would have you know that you are one of the few people I would
bother to keep in touch with but who is not easily reachable on the net.
I bet you will be able to project the same Mona-Lisa-like enigmatic
mixture of love and annoyance.