28th October 2019
“ Has your passport turned up yet?” was the first question Kelli messaged. I responded in the negative, although I was in a bus traveling back from Bath. Just pass Winsley everything changed. An email from the American Embassy popped up in my inbox.
At last I had some good new to share with her, and just about all of my family who were on the same tenterhooks.
The phone rang almost immediately, it was Kelli. I didn’t want to answer the phone with a bus full of people, so I declined the call.
It rang again, so again I declined it, I knew my stop was just round the corner.
As soon as my feet touched the footpath I called her.
I could tell she had been crying, but in her unusual cry laugh way.
The relief fell off me like a over size coat, my voice was trembling as I read out the email.
I could collect it tomorrow from the courier, this was the last part of a painful experience, so I couldn’t wait to get the document in my hands.
Earlier I had met up with Phillip and Ann to look over the refurbished Factory 2 building.
A tremendous amount of work had been done to upgrade it for the Bath Spa University Art and Design campus. Most of the features have been retained, and it all looked clean and new.
Unfortunately they let the students into it.
There were some good interior and some bad ones, and I know money has to be a big issue, and it shows in a lot of tatty work tables that were brought from existing places.
I guess I thought that more consideration would be taken to give a real creative environment. The layout could have shoe-horned into any square building, it’s only redeeming feature is the river bank location.
I hope that once it’s allowed to evolve, it will improve, but something tells me that once the first pot of paint is spilt, the interior will become just another shit hole.
Another Lifetime to go 