Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship means laughing so hard I have to stagger from the room to catch my breath and wipe the tears from my eyes. It means being cooked a Michelin-starred-meal by a total stranger and being thanked for eating it. It means realising that a stranger is a long lost brother, whom one finds oneself flying across the sea to walk with, and talk with, and practice with. It means enjoying things directly, unexpectedly, without the radio-static-interference of pre-programmed responses: blue-grass, hours spent buffing bone into a smooth brilliant whiteness, parade ground manoeuvres wearing a woollen jacket in the summer heat, gambas, Rioja, diving into the Irish Sea at Christmas. It means delight.