Bittersweet

K is in Cornwall - we've just exchanged texts confirming her arrival - to attend the 18th birthday party of one of her primary school friends. I've known him almost as long as she has - his family moved to the area after we did, starting at K's school when they were in year 3, and she went to his eighth birthday party too, if I remember correctly - and he was always a bright and interesting guy. He's had a pretty rough time over the past few years, suffering depression and self-harm issues, serious enough for him to have been hospitalised more than once, but, from what K tells me, he's in a far better place of late, and long may it continue. Needless to say, I hope the birthday boy and all his guests have a great time, but I can't help but feel the melancholy born of the fact that we're not still living in the little Caradon Borough (as was) town, and that things aren't as they used to be, and never will be again.

2110 edit: And more bittersweetness. Cammy was in my local tonight, the first time I've seen him for weeks, but we didn't connect, shoved, as he was, into the corner of a booth surrounded by his (extended) family, and, from what I could see in passing, pretty much ignored. On a previous occasion, I overheard his father telling a member of the staff 'he (Cammy) isn't very bright'. Hardly surprising, if he's fucking treated like that. Some people really ought not to be allowed to breed.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B