I am great at meeting people. It's almost like I'm a magnet for people. I meet them all the time. Wherever I go. People, people, people. Some people have told me they find it impossible to meet people, especially in London where there's only 8.3 million of them, but it comes very naturally to me. I'm good at it. No, I'm GREAT at meeting people. It's just that once I've met a person, I ruin both of our lives. Immediately.
In the 1990's, when meeting my then girlfriend's mum for the very first time, I accidentally bit her. It's hard to come back from that. Especially as my then girlfriend and I had split up on the way to meeting her mum, it might have looked like I wasn't exactly taking it well. I'm sure it must have helped her with the decision not to see me again though. I was once introduced to a man who looked like Dave from Chas & Dave and I told him I hated Chas & Dave. I don't, by the way. They're great. I only said it for a joke because he looked like Dave from Chas & Dave and then he told me he WAS Dave from Chas & Dave. When I met my old flatmate, he constantly talked about how in love he was with a woman called Cheryl. They saw each other all the time and she thought of him as her best friend, exactly what he didn't want. So, to impress her, he decided to invite her round to meet me. (I know and you know. But he didn't know) As soon as I met Cheryl I said "Charmed, I'm sure". I may as well have said "Run for your life. I'm a cunt". I realised it was a stupid thing to say so, to put her at her ease, instead of shaking her hand I decided to kiss it. That didn't help at all. Especially as I loudly, disgustingly and completely unexpectedly farted at the same time. I don't know if they ever got together. I just know that I haven't seen him since 1995.
Even yesterday I met the new window cleaner in my street. He pointed out how nice the weather was and I replied with, and I quote: "Yes. Sun Lewisham time".
But at least I met him. It just didn't work out. It never does. That man has a skill and he has confidence. Why the hell is he talking to me? Pick on someone your own depth. Leave me alone. Even if I hadn't just said the most gormless thing anyone has ever said, what would we have in common? I don't know how ladders or suds work. I can't banter with people while whistling and winking and if I knew how to clean a window then I wouldn't be completely dependent on him doing it.
But at least I met him. And he was right about the weather. It was beautiful. Even Lewisham looks lovely in the sunshine. There's a sort of shimmering haze that beams off the graffiti and sick. I decided to go for a nice stroll around the town and passed a church with an adorable little bric-a-brac market right at the front. I say an adorable little bric-a-brac market, basically a load of angry people put everything they hated into plastic bags and then fucked the bags over the church wall but it was as close as Lewisham gets to a Moroccan bazaar. It was mainly just clothes and baby toys lying in a puddle but, as I passed, I couldn't help but notice a large box sitting away from all the other junk. I couldn't help noticing it because it had about 15 Doctor Who DVDs in it.
Right. What ones do I not have? Even as I got closer to the box, I knew this was going to be pointless. I have them all. It's not like they found Fury From the Deep and put it out and forgot to tell me. They always tell me. But I'll have a look anyway. The DVDs were in great condition so whoever buys them has got a great bargain. That's if you COULD buy them. There was nothing around to suggest you could. No till or charity money box. Not even a person. It was just a box of stuff sitting on the pavement all on its own. And it wasn't just Doctor Who DVDs in there. There were two Alan Partridge DVDs too. I have them already. And all The League of Gentlemen DVDs, which I also have. And Dark City, one of my favourite films. The same DVD sits pride of place on my shelf at home. So many CDs in there too. Most of which I had and a few that I think I wanted to buy at the time but glad I didn't because I'm sure I'd have regretted it. I have quite a few regrets in my CD collection myself. There must have been 30 Star Wars figures in there, just like the ones I have and even a Death Star T-Shirt almost the same as mine. And underneath the DVDs was a pile of collected Kerrang! magazines from the '80's.
I have found my soulmate.
Somewhere in Lewisham is my best mate. My life-long buddy. My brother from another mother. My... Friend. He likes EVERYTHING that I like. I looked further into the box hoping to find psoriasis cream or some bottles of very, very vegan water or a really adorable dog. I mean, he's bound to have asthma like me because... Well, look at him. He IS me. And he's right here in Lewisham. My BEST FRIEND lives in Lewisham and for the first time in my life I'm excited to meet someone. I'm not afraid to meet someone. I actually WANT to meet someone. My best friend. We can watch Genesis Of The Daleks together and record our own commentary to put out as a podcast. We can go to Forbidden Planet together and buy those Doctor Who t-shirts designed to look like The Doctor's clothes. Him Tom Baker, I Peter Davison. We'll go to see Morrissey together and talk about how great he is all the way there and about how terrible he was all the way back. I'll introduce him to great vegan restaurants and he can show me where the best Heavy Metal bars in London are. And we'll laugh. We'll laugh all the time. Of course, we will because my best friend and I don't just like the same things. We also hate the same things too. And we'll spend all our long, sunny days taking the piss out of idiots and laughing and even laughing at each other. Yes! We're best friends so we won't mind having a matey pop at one another. I tell you what, I'll certainly be having a go at him for throwing Doctor Who DVDs out, that's for sure. "Mate!", I'll say. "Why you throwing these bloody brilliant DVDs out? Mum think they're too scary for you?" and we'll laugh. We'll go to the pub for a tankard of the barkeep's very finest - OR TEN - and I'll say "Mate! Why did you throw these DVDs out?" Ha! Yeah. Yeah, no, but really. Why... Why did he throw all this stuff out?
He's dead, isn't he? My best friend in the whole world. A man who knows me, who gets me, who is me... and instead of meeting me, he's dead. Typical. He's even just as selfish as me.
But my best friend left me with a message: stop looking at crap left out on the street and DO SOMETHING. They say that no matter what you do in this life, we all end up in a box. Not true. Only the good ones end up in a box. They leave their legacy behind them for everyone to enjoy long after they've gone. The rest of us end up in two boxes and one of them is full of crap and gets dumped in the street. I really can't be two boxes. And I thank my best friend for teaching me that.
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