GOOD LUCK, BARRY

My friend, Barry Spence, is taking a few days off from whatever it is he usually does to hang around in the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, to have a heart valve replaced. So this post is just to wish him luck.

Incidentally, the photo isn't of Barry. Amazingly, considering I've known him 50 years (from our first day at Bede Grammar in September 1959) -half a bloody century, I don't have a single photo of him on my hard disk and I couldn't find one of him on the Net either. Hell, even I have photos of me on the Net, albeit not usually posted by me (except for the ones on this and my cat rescue blog). I thought everyone in the world had their photos on the Net.

Barry, you're slipping.

(Oh, and the photo is of his big idol, the late film music composer, Jerry Goldsmith who, I'm sure, is wishing Barry good luck from wherever he is right now. Hi, Jerry!).