The next day I picked up my tickets from GoldAir. Now it was real. There was no turning back from this point. I ordered some Turkish cash. I had to be at London Heathrow Terminal 2 at 11.00am on 9 September.
Despite the fact that I had arranged to let the flat there was the little matter of advising the Nationwide that I was proposing to part with possession of it. I needed the building society's consent. I had to chase them up about that. I went to Dick and Chris' for dinner up in Highgate. Over the next few days I packed up the flat and my notes say I moved out on 1 September. I went home to Gresford where my brother Hugo helped me do a spreadsheet to present to the bank to ensure that they stayed onside whatever happened. These were turbulent times in terms of interest rates. I needed to set up arrangements to be able to collect cash and travellers cheques at various places on my route and felt I had to demonstrate that I had worked out what the effect on my budget might be if interest rates were to go up. They were cool about everything and the various transfers were put in place. I said goodbye to all and sundry at home and set off back to London on 5 September.
I stayed that night at Brian's. Emma came over too. There's a note in the filofax that indicates that Emma and I must have been on pretty good terms notwithstanding that we were no longer an item.Brian had suffered a break in to his flat. Someone had basically smashed their way through the plasterboard next to his flat door. What was strange was that nothing had been stolen. The mystery of how the guy in the ground floor flat had acquired the music recording and production equipment was revealed. It seems that shortly after this guy had moved into his flat he had replaced one of the windows. In doing so the window sill had been removed and beneath it was a plastic tube. In the tube was a vast quantity of white powder! Clearly the person who had "left" it there had come back looking for it.
The reason that we stayed with Brian was because the next day we were going to Lowestoft where Brian wanted to shoot a scene for another film. Emma was to be in it. There was a maze in this place Brian knew and he wanted to shoot a scene in it. The effect was to be a continuous shot ending with Emma being in the centre of the maze. I think he intended to shoot the scene backwards (from the end to the beginning) and then play it the other way round and quicker when the film was projected. The effect was to have the viewer whizzed though to the centre of the maze. It was the kind of shot that you need three hands to do (unless you had one of those tracks they mount cameras on in film sets, which we didn't have). So my role was as the "focus puller". We did it but I have no idea whether Brian's film project came to anything. Emma and Brian are pictured here on location in Lowestoft (how exciting does that sound?!). In Brian's hands is his prized Eumig.
I completed the Shorthold Tenancy agreement with Geraint and Tina on Friday 7 September and had my last Hepatitis jab and got the Doctor to sign my Anti AIDS and Hepatitis kit so that I could dispel any concerns about having needles in my rucksack whenever I crossed a border and went through customs.
