End and start. Well, they do go together, sort of.
Dear Uncle William ap Harry
After all that's gone on in the last few days it's only now th at i've had a moment to sit down nd put pen to paper, so to speak . I'l just go over a few to refresh your memory, not that you have any problems in that, i know the others tease you that now you're past the golden birthday and into your seventies as us practical plods would put it in court.
Yes I am still employed, and in the police in Cardiff. I know you thought I'd do the legal and accounting route like some of the rest of the family but I happen to like being with the public and sorting out people and that debate is an old one as we know in the family so let us leave that there. PC, Cardiff, still single but responsibly so and not playing the field after that near miss which is something scary to be thankful for,now that i look back on it .
Remarkably a piece of good luck happened about where I am living at the moment. A flat wth private access came up that had had my name put forward for and the landlord asked for me, not any bloke on The Job but me by name. At last am movng out of the Section House, the poliice housing for singles that's shared. A bit better than an army boot camp but stll sharing wth all sorts in varous parts of the force. Can't have homeless coppers in cardboard boxes,can we! Other than the horrble incdent with a rotary toaster I move wth an Intact securty deposit and a token gesture for the landlord because of The Job beng a good referee for me. The Lads will be invited only now and again and will not be usng it for stuff. It's over a church whch has been sold and turned nto a Buddhist educaton centre that does yoga and other classes at odd hours and all around, so I will likely as not be able to be secure there too, since isolated coppers have nowadays to think of that sort of thing in the city.
It was a strange week, and no mistake, promptng me to write and catch up with you and touch base with the family and the familiar. Nothng in particular, but the day before the flat was telephoned to the City Desk for me I had I thnk a blow to the head I was told, which left me dizzy and wth some strange memories. On duty in Central near the docks as well, all I remember about it was being found by some people I was off duty with. it's rare I'm off duty but n unform, but there was a party and no Uncle Harry, I had'nt had a few too many and tripped up.
There were some strange but friendly people I'd known through the Job and small food on plates and a rather strange beagle puppy that was well trained but snuffly independent, and the next thing after a golden blue sort of a swirly blur I was seated by the Dock and I myself was phoned in as a 999 at the tourist Plass by a passer-by who happened to be an offduty servces bloke visting the Merchant Seaman Memorial and his son who works n a bank or an office I thnk. A quck shufty at my eyesight at A&E and I was back at my Section HOuse room and picked up the phone message for the move from the board. Typcal of the lads they were already moving ther stuff around the rooms on the same corridoor and had already packed up my gear in many many strange shaped spare boxes ready to move n to the room I had.
There was no bad feelng there mnd, just a sense that becaucse 'd had to scub the walls due to the multiple toast fire it was the ncest room to beat the lot. A lift from the off-duty shift and about two hours from getting out of the hospital all the boxes were n the flat and there was me looking out of a wndow onto a quiet residential street wth chldren playing in back gardens and a Spar on the corner and a second-hand bookshop of all thngs n the flat below, run by the Church Centre itself. It's not at all creepy havng a partywall with the church, although there are one or two plaques and thngs in the entryway that remind you as you go n. They get unofficial unform security and I get a sense of well-beng from the spiritual heretage of it all.
They have classes where single women arrive n groups, Unk-Badunk!!. I am of course well behaved about t. Wsh they were. Tell you later about all those conversatons man to man at the next famly gathering in the ktchen when we get a beer, eh.
Actually, when I checked the boxes for unpacking I found I even had all of my own stuff. Not always the case n a multi-move scenario hee hee!. Only one other box of what must have been someone's gear for housewarming, wth a squashed box of choccys and a posh coffee selecton and thank God regular tea, loose leaf. And this laptop with the wonky keyboard too with the i and b and g and r and e and one shift key that stcks. The Centre had furnished the place for a spare existance but had WiFi with some bandwidth pull that would scare some office network managers. Use of technology is apparently OK, t's about a right style of living rather than depriving onesself apparently. Whod've thought it, me a near miss to being a buddhist monk Ha ha ha...
I know you and the men at the Club and all your wives are Silver Surfers and can handle alternative lifestyle details like that so I apologise for the lack of spellcheck and assure you that all is well here especially as the chanting downstairs is not at all in the way or upsetting. I slept well and woke with a lack of anxiety that bodes well for the rest of my stay here.
They've ask me to start a class at the centre too. When I said the usual about civic stuff they looked at me patiently and waited untl I'd stopped talking, and repeated it this way Uncle: "we want YOU, Andy, to do a class". What do you think best for me to explain about, eh, toast or yurt building?
YOur loving nephew, Andy.