South Africa
Part 99
Based on emails from December 2005 /January 2006.

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Hi Gary,

I hope that you are in great health and still causing all kindsa unowot in Oz. I am fine and doing well.

I'm not sure that I told you that I was getting really pissed off with the psych course and havent studied for a while now but have been working around and travelling a bit to Europe and the States. Its been a good year though.

I met up with Mark in Fort Lauderdale. It was the highlight of my trip and I made sure it was the highlight of his as well. I stayed with him in his garden apartment. He is doing really well for himself working on charters and crewing. The apartment belongs to a yachtie friend of his and he stays there whenever he is in Florida.

The last time I spoke to him he was heading for Hong Kong, delivering a newly built yacht and then he was heading for Perth and then back to South Africa. I can't wait for him to arrive. Mark and I have got the kinda friendship that he had with Cody, and that rocks. It doesn't go further than oral, but I think I've got the knack to make Mark feel really good about himself and I know he does that for me. He's still with Candy. That is why he is coming back to SA. The relationship I have with him is Cody's legacy to us. He would sooner beat any other guy up before sleeping with him, but with me he seems to be comfortable. That kinda happened when I was staying with him in Johannesburg.

Winger and Steph are now an item. He and I had a helluva damn fight when I found out that he was sleeping with her. Steph doesnt speak to me anymore so I guess hes really gone and poisoned her head. I found out that Mark really tolerated Winger cos of Cody and thought that he was too big for his boots even way back then. I suppose the good thing is that Steph keeps him off of drugs.

Cody's folks are still in the old place and I go around and visit them every now and again. They are doing really well and seem to be fine. They are still thinking about going overseas but not sure where or when. They're not in any major hurry and Code's dad reckons that they still have too many memories to rush off.

I manage by just working wherever I can. Managed to get a job on the movie set working with the grips. Its cool but the hours are shocking.

Enjoy the graphic I did. Im also sending some older ones that I put together for Codys site but never got as far as that so you can use them Gary. Id like that.

Im really bad at writing these days but I have been getting mail from Wizid and he was telling me about the Cody book that youre doing. Ive downloaded some of the chapters and will read them. Im stoked that you changed the names and places. So you do listen :) Hope you had a good Christmas Gary. Have a great new year and a healthy and prosperous 2006.

Love
Your friend and the Codemans
Steve
PS. Found a pic of two dudes that coulda been me and Cody if we had met a lot earlier :)

 

G'day Steve,

Like me, a lotta peeps (especially Jace and June) will be thrilled with your latest news, and to know you're still kicking ass. I should be mad at you for not writing for sixteen months, but what the hell. I thought about writing you but I remember too well the last time I wrote a what's up? note to Cody.

So you're a seasoned globe trotter these days. I haven't even been to Tasmania! At least, not yet. What are you now? 22/23. Back then I was a DJ in a Kings Cross disco and a band manager. And yes, my health is pretty good for a fossil. I have no plans to roll up the tent just yet.

Am I surprised about you and Mark? Nah, not really. After knowing you and the Codeman nothing really surprises me all that much. It's great news about Mark; sailing to various parts of the world and enjoying his 'work'. It's a long way from his high school days and an uncertain future. He would be aware of the recent Sydney to Hobart yacht race which was won by an Aussie boat ($10 million worth) in record time, a combination of good weather and the highest of high tech. He would also be aware of a couple of Aussie sailors in the process of delivering a boat from Hong Kong to Oz when the thing broke and sank in a wild storm off Vietnam. They spent many days at sea in a life raft without food or fresh water. They drank their own urine to survive, and survive they did...picked up by a passing Vietnamese fishing boat, hospitalized, then flown back to Oz where they are now in fine shape. Matter of fact, they can't wait to resume sailing.

The Winger and Steph thing is a storm in a teacup. When you reach fossildom you'll understand. If you want a more practical perspective of the way things are compare everything to the holocaust. Ya know, Stevie Weevie, if I hadn't met Cody and created Daniel, you, Mark, Steph, Winger would never have met Cody or Paul, and that would have altered dramatically who and what we all are today. It's impossible to underestimate the effect Cody had on us all.

I'm happy to hear the Ts are doing okay. Time eases the pain but doesn't dull the memories. In fact, the memories take on a more cheerful and pleasant aspect as the hurt mellows. I'm sure I couldn't have written the Cody story earlier...it's taken a few years for me to accept his passing. And, in so doing, Cody is alive in every word I write (or he wrote). That period of his life (and all our lives) is carved in stone.

Yep, the book has been an evolutionary process. Wizid burst a boiler about names and locations. It was on my mind too. Now the story is set in Byron Bay, Oz, famous for its surfing and not far from the Gold Coast. Characters are Kyle Taranto, Brett Mann, Stuart Shaffer, Graham Grimmit, Melanie (Steph) and Susan (Carol).

Speaking of graphics, I need a whizz-bang cover that isn't copyright. Texas Greg did the one attached...something along those lines...not too complicated and minus images of real peeps.

Thanks for the wonderful news (with the possible exception of Winger and Steph...but, hey, when was the Cody gang NOT incestuous?). The only one who's still a virgin is ME! And I'm more than happy to maintain the status quo. :-P

Don't leave it another 16 months before you write again.

Your friend and the Codeman's,

Gary 

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