Yesterday I made a nostalgic journey down towards the South Coast under difficult circumstances to attend the wake of a good friend and ex-colleague Chris Garrett.
I remember when I first met Chris, at Barclays in Trowbridge. I was there to cover for him at first, so never met him, but I then covered other ICL people at the time when they were not around. I thought he was stark raving mad when I met him!
He was always joking and making faces about people, it made me laugh. Even when he was being serious he used to burst out laughing at the end! I don't know what the customer thought of him, but they must have loved him, as he added so much fun into your day.
We shared a common interest in blagging swag from anywhere we could, mostly mp3 music and other bits of software. So we kept in touch about the sort of techie things in life.
We worked together at Westlands helicopters, at which point I found out more about his passion for music. I bought an electric guitar, and he gave me some lessons in the car park of Westlands.
During that time we spent time down at his studio in Sixpenny Handley listening to his music, and watching in amazement at his musical talents on so many instruments. He was a natural, and had a gift! I remember once, when he tried to get me stoned on "herbal" tea, which didnt work, although he said he'd put enough stuff in to knock out an elephant, he played Gary Moore's "Still Got The Blues For You", it was awesome, and better than the original!
Nothing will take away mucking about at HQ Land with him, he'd be doing his pretend pipe smoking Monty Python walk behind some officer as he walked towards me in the corridors, I'd find it so hard to keep a straight face. They were priceless moments, he had such a brilliant sense of humour. He loved to pretend to mince around as well, which was always fun to watch.
I guess the most memorable of all occasions was staying at his and Allison's place for the Blandford music festival. Round 2 on the herbal front from Chris involved some rather nice chocolate (if I remember correctly) cookies, with "oats and seeds" in 'em.
I remember sitting at their kitchen table, and then all of sudden after 2 of these things I started getting the giggles. Man I laughed my way out of their house, down the steps, passed Wazzak the 3 legged cat (yes it's true!) and into Allison's Astra.
It was at this point paranoia set in, I began to focus on different parts of my body, my arms, my legs, my heart... what had I done, I became very frightened, believing I might wet myself or worse! They could see I was worried, but kept telling me it will be ok.
When we arrived I refused to leave the car, I felt safe in Alli's car, and didn't want to get out. After about 20 minutes they convinced me to get out, and I joined them at the festival. I don't remember a great deal other than being taken into the hall of mirrors which was unreal! OH and sitting in a tent listening to drum and bass type music and watching some laser pointer pen whizzing around. I refused to move from my spot thinking i couldn't get into any trouble if I did.
I don't remember driving home at all, just waking up feeling sick, and i was. I remember there was a huge black spider next to my head in the toilet, Chris said "Are you sure, or was it your imagination?". To this day, I don't know if it was or wasn't.
The next day just flew by, I lost track of time completely, as I was still feeling the effects of the cookies.
Chris helped me out a lot when i split from my ex-wife Michelle, he talked me through things on the telephone, he was a real rock at that time, along with Mark Willis.
Chris and Alli decided to move to Portugal in April 2002 so that Chris could earn money doing something he liked (music), it was at this point I lost contact with Chris and Alli sadly, as there email address changed, I moved house, got a new mobile number etc.
So it came as a massive shock to me to find out the Chris had died, and to find out that he had been back in the UK for about 18 months. I would have dearly loved to have seen him, and would have made the effort, no matter what, given the chance.
Chris leaves behind a ton of friends who adored him and thought he was a genius, family, Allison and his two children.
Chris I know you are a techie and a music man, but if you are reading blogs wherever you are then I'd like to say to you that every minute spent with you, were some of the best moments of my life. You were a true friend, and were loved by all, who could ever beat your Mick Jagger impressions when doing Angie!
I'll miss you forever, and look forward to meeting up with you when my time comes be it upstairs or downstairs! Maybe I will have learned to play Sweet Home Alabama by then!!
Rest easy mate, love your friend Duncan.
.JPG)
.JPG)
