Ill-Fated Journeys (Part 1)

Sometimes you wonder why you bother... You'd looked forward to it, you'd got it all planned out (or so you thought at the time!), set off on your journey, and then... And then there's that last-minute glitch, that skid into the twilight zone, a forced foray into a parallel universe. A case of 'that thing' that had eluded you all the way, that you'd overlooked somehow and that was gonna bring unplanned consequences to your physical and metaphorical journey, taking you from the high-speed motorway to the rocky tracks... An ill-fated journey, that's it! Which is actually what happened to me last night, and don't you giggle, because this could even happen to you!

Playing happy families with Richard Perez, aka Skinny Ships

So here we are... One of my mates was celebrating his 28th. Mind you, let me rephrase it. One of my mates had been coaxed into celebrating his 28th. By nature our guy doesn't like celebrating his own birthday(s), although he's partial to gatecrashing other people's parties. Human nature, eh! But that's not our point. On Friday last thing, our mate had loosely told me - almost under duress - that his 'unwanted' birthday party would take place in Corte, Central Corsica.

It was understood we would all meet up down the bars there on Saturday night and party on from there. This was as much information I was gonna get but, used to my friend's mindset, I was satisfied enough. I told him casually that I would ring him closer to the time to check the finer details. And there we parted off.

The writing's on the wall... Illustration by Richard Perez via Urban Graphic

Yesterday (Saturday), I had a lie-in, then got ready for my 2-hour journey across the mountains. I packed a bag, although I had strictly no idea about where I would spend the night... Yet I didn't quite fancy the idea of an all-nighter. I spent some time in the bathroom fixing my hair, slapping creams on, trying on brand new clothes I'd bought months ago but never got round to wear. I felt great! Maybe I should have double-checked the meaning of the lunar calendar I'd casually flicked through at work: something about a knot in Mercury... Mercury, my ruling planet as a Gemini. With a looming full moon to boot... Astrologers would have called this an ill-fated journey in the making!

I threw caution to the wind, drove down to Bastia, stopped over for a couple of hours, treated myself to the salon, bought card and fancy gel pens, breezed down to the Café Napoléon for a good old-fashioned cuppa, while I overstretched my calligraphic skills to pen one of my poems in Nat-fashion-styley to the birthday boy! (to be continued)