Back in Whitstable
Disorientated by my time away, I have turned up a week early for my Breathe Easy meeting at the Whitstable and Tankerton Hospital, looking forward to seeing everyone. No-one is there, and the respiratory team are out on calls. The emptiness is palpable and so is my disappointment.
4.30 pm:
Walk across Whitstable to see cranial-sacral therapist Val for a treatment session. This works wonders for my stiff neck. There's a mackeral sky on the way back.
Calling in at the Horsebridge Art and Community Centre, Whitstable's recently awoken giant, Captain Sam has been stored under the stairs. Sam is part of a long tradition of Kent giants which originated in France. He was commissioned from public art group Strange Cargo in Folkestone who work with local communities in envisaging together, and then constructing their giant.
Captain Sam is seldom seen indoors; he must be nearly two stories high. Today he is less than half his height. His legs have been surgically removed and are elsewhere. No-one seems to know where.
The mackeral sky is still there and I go home to consult Alan Watts' 1968 Instant Weather Forecasting, a classic text which uses the author's cloud photographs to analyse the weather. It has been reprinted twenty-one times.
