Meeting my chum

In the days that I was a lot on my own I spent a lot of time on the net. I started a group for people with the same name on MySpace. (MySpace used to be a popular thing in these days.) I named it Planet AL and was pleasantly surprised how many Albert, Alfreds and Allen joined my silly thing. There were even some celebrities getting in, I remember a trumpet player and a violinist. But above all it was great to get a blues and jazz crooner on board: Albert Cooper.

Soon we talked a bit more and we became sort of befriended. There was a quarrell on his page with the lady who quite soon became my wife. I managed to soothe it and Mr.Cooper asked me to visit one of his gigs when I was around. Almost a year later I was going over to my wife in Norwich; for five years we were not able to really live together. We travelled to each other's place in England and the Netherlands whenever we could to be together.

Norwich was also the city where Albert Cooper lived. Almost a year later he got word that I would be in Norwich for a few day and he invited my wife and me to a gig he was going to do in Poringland. First I misheard the name and asked my wife where Boringland was. She had a good laugh, but we did end up at the gig. Albert Cooper seemed to be a great guy, we had a talk, he named me his chum and he even gave me a goody bag in which I found a t-shirt and a few CDs.

The concert was quite entertaining, Albert was a real showman, singing jazz standards and the audience was very enthusiastic. He kept himself going with a former jamjar filled with brandy.
After the show he immediately got surrounded by female fans, who obviously were not letting him go in a short time. My wife had a short discussion, we decided not to wait till Albert Cooper was available again. We phoned a taxi and were ready to quietly leave the venue.

My wife's walking was not great, so she had to walk with a stick and often had to steady herself. On our way out she almost fell, but could get hold of a table. It was loaded with an amazing amount of empty glasses and bottles and had one bad leg. The table collapsed with a thunderous sound and we were surrounded by broken glass. I could catch my wife before she got into this. A few of the staff came over and apologised, I should not worry about paying for damage. We got out and got home safely.

A few months later Albert Cooper had blocked my wife everywhere on the net, he remained friendly towards me. That changed later, I still don't have a clue why. My wife assured me that this was the way he always acted: there were loads of former friends to be found in Norfolk.
A few years later we were shopping in the inner city of Norwich and saw him walking towards us on the street. I was already starting to offer him my hand when he suddenly turned around and walked away, even straightening himself like a haughty peacock. We had a good laugh, I hope he heard it.
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