But it brought back this thread - and I missed seeing it before, and it's been really good scrolling through it.
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I had a strange kind of a quiet time today. I was walking across the town centre and I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in a good few months. He was wearing an even dafter hat on his head than I was. It's been a cold day for our part of the world.

Anyway he said he'd just got some great news, and he looked it - a new grandson born that morning. So, since we were just outside a pub I frequent, I said, come and wet the baby's head.

So we went in and got our drink and sat in a quiet corner. And then he said. "I had some other news this week that wasn't so good. I've got cancer". And he wasn't exactly casual about it, but he was relaxed, at ease - what mattered today was the new baby. "Ah well, you can't live for ever" he said, and we talked about politics and stained glass and that, and when my wife rang me on the mobile to say she'd done her shopping, I passed it across to him, and he told her about the baby. He didn't tell her about the other. I did that later.

As I said, a strange kind of a quiet time, life and death together, and Christmas around the corner.

And thanks to that deleted porn spam I've got this place where I can share it with friends I've never seen.