Remembering Michael

I'm lying on my bed in a hotel directly under a flightpath at Heathrow, watching a Father Ted Christmas special and trying not to think about my long flight to Sri Lanka tomorrow morning.

Mrs Doyle's trick of "a nice cup of tea" is certainly a calming influence after a long, tiring day. We left Stroud this morning with my luggage and drove straight to Mortlake crematorium, where one of Steve's oldest friends, Michael Cameron, was to be commemorated. As it turns out, it was a beautiful Humanist ceremony, with many heartfelt tributes to Michael and his excellence as a tutor of design: both graphic and interirio. Afterwards we retired to the rowing club near Hammersmith Bridge, where the wine flowed freely, as did the memories. In the midst of this, my friend Una's mother Dee turned up with a bag of goodies for Una, with whom I will be staying in Sri Lanka.

We were exhausted by the time we left, so we grabbed a pizza in Chiswick, and set off to find the hotel, where I had to change of out my winter funeral gear, and give it to Steve to take home. He is flying out on Wednesday, as he found a cheaper flight, and he doesn't have the same holiday restrictions as I have. I really wish he was coming with me, as the whole airport malarkey fills me with dread, from physically getting there to taking off my shoes, to presenting the right document at the right time...

I've chosen to snap the DVD souvenir we were given at the funeral service, as it features Steve's portrait of Michael, which he used as a blip in November 2011, when he was decorating Michael's flat, after he'd moved back from Cardiff to London. There were some inspiring views of Hammersmith Bridge at sunset from the balcony of the rowing club this afternoon , but I did not have my camera on me, and today I want to remember Michael.