Book 2, Chapter 32

‘I must be crazy!’ was the thought going through my mind as I pounded the streets next morning working off the Pirate Banquet of the night before. I'd had no idea that the scheme would prove so successful or that I could eat so much suckling pig. On an evening the restaurant was booked to cater only to The Brotherhood of the Coast they threw open their doors to everyone for what the restaurant owner (who was also a member of the Brotherhood) described as the biggest night since the restaurant opened. I wouldn't have thought Hells Angels would be welcome in the place but the Cardiff chapter included some enterprising individuals not short of a few pieces of eight (how else could they afford those enormous bikes) and even two more members of the Brotherhood. Bill, true to his pledge, picked up the bill for The Sisters of Venus, including the male members, and we included amongst us in the form of Martina, Evan, Philip and myself our LGBTQ sector whom he formally recognised and included with an extra toast.

I did later 'out' myself as having been disqualified by surgery from the LGBTQ sector but Serena would have none of it insisting after several drinks that I, possibly uniquely, could be described as L & G & B & T & Q & Straight according to which part of my body you addressed and maybe on which day of the week.

I think I'm going to have to kill Serena. She might be my BFF but she knows far too much! On the other hand it might be best to question her beforehand on how I came to be running along the waterfront this morning with, beside me,… Jean Luc!

I hadn't slept with Jean Luc or had sex with him last night but I had done worse! I'd talked with him! I'd even joked with him as much as you can with a person with Asperger's. He reciprocated because he does have a sense of humour, just one that dances to a different drummer. Maybe my dance lessons, dancing to different beats, were having side effects because last night he made me smile much more than when we were in Bilbao.

Jean Luc came to Cardiff in response to an urgent call from Litara to film my first trip as captain of Dumblebit. I didn't doubt that he got some good footage and 'the local media' were also there in force seeming very happy with themselves which is why I aimed to take my run past Mr Patel's paper shop in case anything had got into the national press. Normally a Cardiff event wouldn't make it to the nationals but tonight the BBC were broadcasting Litara's friend's exposé of the Model School that had given Sarah such a hard time. Things were brewing for a perfect media storm. The news of the BBC programme had only come to me when I joined Litara, Simon and Jean Luc at their table and it had seemed natural somehow for the conversation to continue as though we were two couples and for Jean Luc to ask to join me when I mentioned my plans for a morning run.

"You'll be wanting these."

"Good morning Mr Patel; I'll be wanting what?"

Without waiting for an answer Jean Luc picked up the Guardian from Mr Patel's offered pile of papers and leafed through the media section where there was a photo spread on what the journalist described as a new art form, a 'Flash Mob' created when, seemingly unconnected , the Cardiff Coastguard, a yacht, 20 motorcycles, a motorhome a choir and an orchestra coordinated and congregate to provide a full dress rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta. The instigator of the event was named as one Venus Williams who was also a leading figure in tonight's Panorama exposé of modelling school scandals on BBC at 9:00 pm. As well as showing me in full pirate costume there was another still photo taken from the BBC programme that made me look like a magazine cover model.

"Dr Carter is going to have a fit!" I exclaimed knowing that Mr Patel and I shared the same GP. "She told me to keep a low profile!"

After breakfast Jean Luc left for London in his campervan and I had to bow to the inevitable. My family wanted to watch the Panorama programme with me, Jenny's family with her and our friends with the two of us together. The only house available big enough to solve the impasse was Bill's and when asked he immediately offered to get in caterers to make an evening of it. I objected to the extravagance until he asked just what I thought I'd need for 40 guests. I then suggested we all go to a pub that had a widescreen television but he pointed out that the event clashed with the football on Match of the Day and no such pub would be available. Trapped I agreed that caterers could supply and deliver the food but any waiting on people would be done by me and volunteers. List making started and with Litara's help I contacted Blanche who had been in London with us and accepted an invitation. Also I rang Sarah from Yorkshire, the model school student focus of the exposé about whom I was frightened that she would be alone and hate us for showing her vulnerability. I couldn't have been more wrong because she was having a party with her Yorkshire friends to celebrate and, despite Bill's conclusion, had booked a local pub for them all to watch it on the big screen TV - I suspect that threats might have been involved!

Even with this big event planned for the evening my life involving other people was still going on and Saturday afternoon was a special dance class for which I'd borrowed a dress so that I could try the Paso Doble. I couldn't imagine anyone getting a chance to dance it anywhere but a class or competition but having watched videos that John had lent me I didn't want to miss the opportunity for some expert tuition. Mum and dad were still Saturday regulars but even they had never tried this bullfighting dance. The reason John included the Paso Doble only became clear in the main class when the sheer drama of the dance carried those with little sense of rhythm. Afterwards I couldn't not invite John and Judy to the evening's gathering as we'd been through so much together and there was the couple whose romance had blossomed in the dance class who I felt didn't get out much…

Just how 'normal' is it for 45 people to gather to watch a one hour programme of investigative journalism? Maybe the English are too sophisticated for such things but in Wales there is an enthusiasm for gathering waiting to be tapped. Even at the moment Panorama started, after the throng had already spent an hour getting into the party spirit, Jenny, Blanche and I would have happily watched it on a small portable TV hidden in a bedroom to save our embarrassment but Sarah who was on the mobile phone to me from Yorkshire would have none of it.

"You are who you are and don't have to apologise for that to anyone," she emphasised. "You are not a victim because whatever you do and whatever you feel you are the one who willingly takes responsibility for it."