My Friend From Barcelona
Joey Llatse is in town. We spent Wednesday afternoon with him in Smith St, Collingwood.
He’ll be in Melbourne for a couple of months. His 2 children Lucia and Juan are in Melbourne doing their University courses so he’s come back to visit them.
It was fabulous seeing him again.
The last time we were physically together was in Barcelona back in September 2000 when Paul, Allissa and I went to Europe to celebrate Paul’s 21st birthday. We stayed close by to his family home and he helped us out immensely. He even offered his house to us on our final weekend when he and his family went south to the seaside. During our stay in Barcelona we spent a lot of time together. Paul loved Joey. I think he was the only friend that I had that Paul had any time for. Plus he was Paul’s godfather. Allissa and I caught a train south to visit Morocco and Paul stayed with Joe for a few days before he headed off to have some wild adventures in Amsterdam before meeting us in Paris for his 21st.
We first met was in the late 70s when we were both very involved in a “left of centre” religion. We ended up living together in a big old rambling share house in Alma Rd, North Caulfield with several other people. The year? Must have been around 1978 because Joey was there the morning that Paul was born in September 1979. In actual fact the poor bastard was having a shower getting ready for work when Melanie ran into the bathroom, mid contraction and screamed at him to “fuck off immediately”, she did it with such force that he ran naked to his bedroom.
Joey was the best man at my wedding to Melanie in March 1979. I remember quite well having a white suit for my wedding but no shirt, so he loaned me a soft brown shirt at the last minute.
We were both born at opposite ends on 1952. Me in February and Joe in December. When I first met him he lived in Geelong and had an Egyptian friend named Jacques Doucas. They used to drive to Melbourne to do a course on Communication skills. Jacques was a charming man who could have starred in a movie written about a classy waiter in a 5 star restaurant.
I don’t think that Joe ever went through the hippy thing so he had a somewhat better sense of dress than me and drove a nice little sports car. The girls loved him and of course, he loved them. He was the epitome of an eligible bachelor.
Mel and I must have moved out with baby Paul possibly sometime in early 1981 because Allissa was born in our little house in Highfield Rd, Hartwell in September 1981.
We possibly lost touch a little bit after this but still worked together at the headquarters of “said religion” in the city (Melbourne).
A couple of years later Joe disappeared and went on to have many adventures which are now his stories to tell.
Eventually he moved to Barcelona and set up house there, marrying a girl named Lucia and having 2 kids. His daughter, who is also called Lucia was born not too long before Finn, my youngest son.
The beauty of friends like Joey is that you can pick up the friendship anytime and it is as if no time has passed. Not really the case … 20 years is a long time, but that’s how it feels.
He has a wonderful generosity of spirit, huge charisma, a wicked sense of humour and he’s so damn comfortable to be with. There’s not too many people who I feel this way about.
It’s nice to have him back in Australia for a while and there’s now a very good reason to go back to Barcelona with Georgie and just hang out there for a month or so sometime in the future.
Last words.
Neither of us are still involved with “the religion” but we have both found things in it that we regularly use to enhance our lives. Joe may have some tricks in his back pocket that I don’t use and visa versa. Basic principles that when applied, with a lightness of spirit, can make life so much more rewarding and enhance our own lives as well as our relationships with others.
What is true for you is what is true!
Truer words have never been spoken.
