The Long March: Chapter III

With my coke in hand I head for home. Something new appears in my eyes. Do I dare? It is national fried chicken day after all. No, there's no time for chicken.


I decided to take a completely different route home, because I am near to where my grandparents used to live and I know the roads like the Tim Henman's backhand. Cut through Asda is what I do. Someone once told me that this was the first hypermarket in Europe. Look into it, it may be a lie. There was not a single person inside, because of an alarm.


What's this? The river Tawe. Where were you when I needed you most? Are those crocodiles in the distance?


Bingo! Castle Bingo. In the background I see the church my parents got married in. I ponder their relationship in my mind, there has never been such an unlikely couple. No wonder daddy left us all alone.


Aldi. Have you shrunk since I last saw you or have I grown? My memory has not kept the measurements of things well.


Hello, school. Remember me? You were my first, how could you forget me? Sure I was only there for a week, but I painted a bat and stuck it on the wall. Does that count for nothing these days?


Mmmmm, orangina. This is where I got all of my orangina from as a child. My mother worked in this pub. Every sunday when my dad was taking us back from my grandparent's house he would pick my mother up too. They were divorced by then, so it seems very cheeky for my mother to ask for a lift. Why have you closed down? You were in an excellent location.


Fuck this shit. I'm not walking home I tell myself. I find a bus stop and look to see what time the bus is coming. Ah, it's one of these new wish time tables where the bus comes when you desire it so there's no need to print a timetable.


I close my eyes and wish for the bus to appear. I open them and gaze outwards, but there is no bus. My grandparents used to live up this road. I have but one memory of that house and it is not a good one. I got my hand stuck in the letter box.


I remember that you're supposed to say "I wish, I wish, I wish" before you want the bus to come, so I do it. Huzzah, the number 4.


What in heaven's name have these women got on their shoulders?


If a bomb was to fall on the houses in this picture you would be able to see the house I grew up in, but only if you had a special vision that allowed you to move up hills and turn corners in photos. There used to be a toilet where that big gap is. I wonder if a bomb fell on it.


After 20 minutes of nonsense I arrive back in Swansea city centre. The entire city is being dug up at the moment. It has caused chaos and one way systems.


Ah, back in the real world, with a Mcdonalds on every corner and free Pepsi for every man, woman and child. Do I get a pepsi? I've only just had a coke, it seems greedy to jump straight into bed with coca cola's biggest rival.


Behold, Castle Garden, where the skaters skate and the homeless home.


The fountain welcomes me home. I hear the water singing my name, asking me where I have been.


Wind St, the street with one pub for every 3.6 men.


There is only one thing that wind st needs and that is a strip club. There is only one thing that I need and that is a strip club. It closed down a year or two ago. Sadly I never went to it, because I had a girlfriend. Damn you, Becci, you owe me a hundred breasts. P.S. Revolution is on the right.


I get the the bottom of wind st only to be confronted my worst enemy; the TGI Friday's poster boy. Have you no shame, son?


I cross the road from wind st and see the old Museum. My road is to the left, just like my penis.


I wonder if this journal will ever make it into the Evening Post. What an ugly building.


After the journey to end all journeys, my battered feet bring me to my street. It looks different through my eyes now. After the things I've seen on my quest I couldn't expect to see the world in quite the same way again.


Into my flat I go. I don't need a knife for I, Chin, the traveller, already opened it on the bus.


And so ends my story. The treasure I seeked could have very easily been the Holy Grail or the Queen Mother's pearl necklace, but that's not what is important. It's about the journey, the friends you make along the way, the demons you fight within yourself during your most difficult times and the can of coke. Never forget the can of coke.