Dear Yiannis.. Yianni.. Mu.
We have the same name day.
There was so much more I wanted to learn about you.
 
You charmed everyone you met:
My parents
My housemates
My friends via a lockdown zoom call.
Bristol Food Project foodies
Wedding guests in Oxford...
 
Your need for giggles and sense of adventures meant we were never short of places to go, things to see, topics to discuss…
And your love of Bristol meant you would grill me on every part of town.
I miss your Bristol grillings tremendously.
And you would always choose the furthest away places from the station so you could walk across Bristol.
 
I lent you my umbrella….. you send one back as a gift. It arrived in a gigantic box, taller than me, and own fell a slim umbrella. I will keep it safe.
You gave me a beautiful notebook, leather-bound, in a fancy box to write my journal. I will keep it safe.
 
I’ll never forget your Greek chicken and potatoes- you made so much I had to take it home with me on the train, you said it would cure my hangover.
I wrote a list of all your food quirks, so I wouldn’t have to keep asking you every time we ate.
They were never as many as you made out really.. just the green things.
 
Remember that fab meal in Cloak & Dagger with the live violinists playing TV show covers?
Remember the soulless tapas restaurant?
Coffee and cake became the norm at The Bristolian when we both were a little poorlier.
 
You were there for me when I was ill- both times. I will neve forget that. You watched me open a letter in Cardiff when I thought I might have cancer. I didn’t. We didn’t know, we didn’t know then my dear friend that it would be you.
 
I miss you terribly, but I feel you are there – you will always be there smiling, to talk to.
 
The journal… maybe I will take it to Athens and write it there.. I’ll write to you about all the things you told me to go and see. I’ll do it from a co-working space in the Bohemian area you told me to go to.
 
Take care my beautiful friend.