Chris’s family along with the police are not alone in their mistrust of the government. This next weekend the Conservatives are holding their Annual Party Conference in Manchester. Which is a bit rude - to put it mildly - where the main item on the agenda is the closing down of the continued construction of the High-speed Rail link that travels from London to Birmingham and is scheduled to go to Manchester. The South/North divide is strong in England, and Andy Burnham the major of Greater Manchester sees this move for what it is. Like a true northerner he is able to speak his mind.

There were as many European Union flags and berets in the audience as their were Union Jacks. Members of the Government are asking for another investigation by the BBC but it could be - that just like the late Queen before them - with her clear message hat, the people are speaking calling for a greater self than just this treasured Isle.

‘Ello darlin’” He calls to me, having long forgotten my name and it being too old a friendship to ask to be reminded. And we chat, about this, that, the other, and loneliness. A kiss is always welcome. The last time I saw Jim he was walking slowly with his cane, going to the bus stop for the aforementioned 168 bus on his way to The Royal Free Hospital in South End Green where the bus stops right outside of the hospital - in both directions

“It came to me last night, we are bit like ancient oak trees, a bit bent and gnarled, but the inner strength keeps us going. So from one Oak tree to another, take care of your roots and branches but wave your leaves merrily into the air whenever you get the chance.”

Salman Rushdie took a quote from ‘The Book of Laughter and Forgetting’  “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” And this is why there are novels, poems, songs and biographies of work and of people written - to hold onto what we know as true for as long as possible remembering the stepping stones that were laid down for our work and we provide for those that follow.

We seek him here we seek him there and the whereabouts of Yevgeny Prigozhin the Russian General who took a group of mercenary fighters towards Moscow and then back again, is reminiscent of Humpty Dumpty who took a big fall - as I remember - and all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put Humpty together again.

The Government party-gate reports are in, and the votes on ‘did Boris Johnson break the rules the government set for us all?’ were cast. 354 ministers said yes, 7 puffed no while a few slippery ones went missing. It is too much all too foolish and for this moment I am closing my eyes and ears.

It came on Saturday - effectively immediately - Boris Johnson resigned from his parliamentary seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip - a Greater London constituency inside of the M25 Motorway for those who need to know - It was on the front page of the Financial Times Weekend Supplement but - below the fold. Michael Heseltine, the former deputy Prime Minister under Margaret Thatcher - keep your friends close but your enemies even closer - described the move as “a brilliant coup de théâtre - and - it is … totally unprincipled and dishonest.”

On Monday evening our plane touched down in Athens Airport 59 years after we left - not knowing if we would ever see each other again. The drive to the city dips in and out of old memories. Small towns and old olive groves spread out in age, showing dreams made, broken and reset as the trees are realigned to the country’s fortunes. The scattered sage and scrub are muted in the decaying dusk before we enter the city center where there is not a refugee to be seen.

It was raining - of course it was - with the steadiness that puts up umbrellas and gives rise to the English complexion. It was not cold.