The 2nd of June 2013 was a bastard of a day. I'm sure it was no fun for you either, of course, but boy, did you know how to make an exit.
The next few after that weren't exactly all time winners, either, up to and including the day we said our official goodbyes, some in a more controlled and subdued manner than others.
The 2nd of June 2014 wasn't exactly a highlight either, come to think of it; although we did manage to mark your birthday that year with some hirsute fun and games, a bit of charity fundraising and a local newspaper appearance or two.
The 2nd of June 2015 was a weird one; am I supposed to still feel like this? Are these regular dreams about you ever going to stop? How do I square my belief that there is nothing After, with my desire to want to visit you in Westall Park every year, for a chat and to play you any new music by Simple Minds or Depeche Mode?
The 2nd's of June 2016 to 2019 were all very similar; we'd meet in the same place, of course... you'd already missed Big Music, but you also never got to hear Walk Between Worlds either (not a massive loss, IMHO) and more recently Direction of the Heart. You never got to hear Spirit, a terrific album, and now Memento Mori, something unique and precious that reminds me of you every time I hear it.
The 2nd of June 2020 was a doozy; I can't remember the exact lockdown rules we were under then, but I convinced myself I could travel to see you, and amused myself imagining how you would have processed the whole palaver. Part of me thinks we'd have been fitting you for your tinfoil hat, honestly, but it would have been nothing less than interesting, of that I'm sure.
The 2nd's of June 2021 and 2022 have come and gone, little to mark them out from the collective passing of time; post COVID, post lockdown, the world has not exactly returned to 'normal', but memories are shortening, along with attention spans, and history is already being re-written.
And so we come to the 2nd of June 2023; a full ten years on from That Thing That Happened. Ten years sounds like a long time, it feels like a long time, when you're thinking forward, but looking back? Not so much, I've found.
In these ten years, we've said goodbye to Nelson Mandela, Robin Williams, David Bowie, Prince, Carrie Fisher, The Queen (did I mention we have a King now?), some of whom you would have cared about, some of whom you would not...
Some of our friends have bought and sold property, some have had major health issues, some have had professional successes and some have, well, we're not all cut out to be captains of industry. The ties that bind us together over the years get looser every year; they go slack, they appear to have snapped, they get pulled so tight I fear they may break, occasionally I wonder why I'm holding on to them at all...
There are things that I know, things that I want, things that I need and things that I feel; in the past ten years, each one of those things has shifted, sometimes gradually, sometimes dramatically, and often because of the 2nd of June 2013. I became a different person on the 3rd of June 2013; I became someone who had lost a very close, very special and very important friend. I've realised now that that doesn't go away; waiting for it to stop so you can carry on as before is futile. Like Resistance. Knowing you, missing you, loving you, is part of who I am, and whether you're here or There, or even Nowhere, I'm not letting go.
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