Staring into the Abyss on Crosby Beach
In the last couple of months before leaving Cheshire, there were a lot of goodbyes. In people’s homes, in coffee shops, in two universities and in church there were more goodbyes to be made than I’d realised. Whilst living in Crewe, it turned out I knew a lot of really nice people. By the time I’d done my round of goodbyes I was heartily wishing I’d done more helloing over the past few years. ‘Helloing’ isn’t a verb, of course, but in future I hope to get better at it anyway. It’s not a good state of affairs when you find yourself saying, ‘It’s a shame we haven’t seen each other in a couple of years but I thought I’d pop in to say goodbye.’ That’s like waking the sleeping patient to give them sleeping pills. Wake up! It’s time to go to sleep! Surely that is not what friendship is about. As an escape from the trauma of packing and trying to sell a very reasonably priced and luxurious house (see Rightmove for further details), Tracey and I took a drive to Liverpool and ended up o