"And erm, perhaps looking like this it was perhaps the only thing I could do. "

Life I saw an old school friend today. I was on my usual Saturday morning stroll up Lark Lane to buy the papers and a girl (well she was then) called Claire was walking towards me. Although she hadn't changed much it took me a second or two to register exactly who she was -- long enough for her to walk by me. I turned on my heal and followed her a bit around the corner next to Keith's Wine Bar and watched her head up the street, my brain still processing not having seen her for eighteen years and wondering if I should shout out. I didn't shout out -- or run after her. The moment was gone.

When I was at school, me and a few friends talked about having a ten year reunion which would have been in 2003. The year came and went, mostly because the friends had all lost track of one another. For all I know the reunion happened and I wasn't invited but anyway I did still wonder how everyone was getting on. Since then, though I'm slowly having the reunion anyway, meeting old acquaintances in likely and unlikely places. Of course online (hello Facebook) but also in the real world, in newsagents in Manchester, in pavilions at the Grand National and now on Lark Lane.

Sometimes we talk, sometimes we don't. Sometimes you can tell a lot about a person by what they're wearing and how they're walking. Claire strode confidentially, perhaps even more than I remember at school, although when we walked home together once or twice it did take less time than usual because I had to keep up with her. She was dangling car keys not pocketing them which either means that she wanted people to see the badge on the fob (not that I could tell you what that was knowing simply nothing about cars) or she was in a hurry. Clearly I'm not Sherlock Holmes.

Oh the stories I could tell about me and Claire -- most of which would be fictional. I quite liked her and actually asked her out once although she didn't seem keen and like all the other girls I asked out and didn't seem keen I didn't pursue it. But sometimes we were good friends though and it's genuinely great to see that she's still knocking around and still in the same city. So many of the people I knew from school have moved away so it's pleasing to see that the statistic of people I met in school who are still in Liverpool just went up by one.