[Sorry Stuart. Here is the proper post that went missing in transmission]
There is a wonderful poem by Dylan Thomas written when his father was sinking into death. The first verse is:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
That may be the theme for this post. There is a gang of us that have known each other for a long time. Three I met when I went to primary school at age five, one lived four doors down the road from me, and the rest I met at Youth Club (yes, we still had those when I was a boy) as young teenagers or down the pub when we were slightly older. Three or four years ago one of us died: the first one. I was on holiday in Turkey so couldn't make the funeral. Two of the chaps who did, got to drinking after the ceremonies were over. They wondered if the only time we would now meet up was attending each other's funerals. On the spot they decided to do something about it. They pledged to organize an annual Dennis Roberts Memorial Meetup. Each year since the lads and their girls have held to this tradition meeting in Cardiff, Plymouth and, a few weeks ago, in Exeter. In 2017 it looks like we are going international: one of the gang now lives in Carcassonne so ... Look out France! Here we come!
