Quote:
Originally Posted by sgh51a
A mate of Ernie Lee? Yes. A beatnik? Never
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Well, I am not too sure how to take this. Me? Cool? I did go my own way to be sure, and have continued to do so. And yes, I did have a grotty green suade jacket (shades of Leonard Cohen and the famous blue raincoat). I lost touch with most folks after moving to Japan but did meet up with a few when I was back in Manchester doing my MEd but since then ...
I ended up teaching teachers at a Japanese national university and was fortunate enough to write several textbooks until I decided that enough was enough and moved to Cantabria on the north coast of Spain, next door to the Basque country, where I now live with my wife, Hiroko, of 38 years, two dogs, four cats and a donkey. After many years as an alien civil servant I can now take part in political activities once more and am a convener for our local branch of Izquierda Unida (the United Left) and stood as a (failed) candidate in the European elections.
We are both still active in cultural affairs and helped organised a large Cantabria/Japan cultural exchange programme, with music, theatre and dance and we work closely with the Santander Conservatory and a Japanese university to promote further cultural exchanges every year. On top of that we are busy with the International Montessori organisation, so I suppose that in all those years I haven't really changed all that much.
Stew the (non)-hippy