Touchdown

There was a beach party the following night, the group of us from the pub hired a van and drove off towards the coast, Formby or Ainsdale, to have a night of drunkedness, as if we needed a van to do that.

The ex-girlfriend was with her boyfriend, who I knew and I was this returning astronaut type of guy that nobody knew any more.

I walked away from the group and went off to sit facing the sea, it was dark and I sat there talking to myself, I know, I know, insanity was setting in. It was noticed by a couple of guys in the group that I had gone missing and they started searching for me, not that I wanted to be found.

This beach was far, far way from the beach where I wanted to be, and the sense of being powerless was great, but resistance was futile and the following weeks were spent trying to fit back into a lifestyle in the UK that was alien and unfriendly.