Becoming

Man On The Edge

Dave enjoyed his visit with Nicko and Becky, as well as meeting little Justin for the first time. They played several rounds of golf, and Nicko showed off his skills on the grill and asked Dave for his opinion of his homemade BBQ sauce.

The two men flew to England and rented a car to get to Steve's place in Essex. Janick joined them as well, driving down from Yarm, where he and Sandra had moved, as they decided that with two growing children, a larger house was in order. The four recorded all of the instrumental tracks for the upcoming album, which Steve had titled The X Factor. Steve reported that Blaze was recovering well from his motorbike accident and hoped to be able to record the vocal tracks in May. Steve also said that as their original plan to start the tour in February had gone completely out the window due to the accident, the new plan was to start touring in late September, with the band's first shows in Israel, followed by their first shows in South Africa.

After that, they all went their separate ways once more – Janick home to Yarm, Steve back to Chiswick, and Dave and Nicko to return their rental car. Nicko planned on taking an overnight flight, while Dave would overnight in a nearby hotel and fly out in the morning.

"You sure you don't want to come back by way of Florida, mate?" Nicko asked as they waited for their respective shuttles from the car rental lot to the airport and the hotel. "I can fire up the grill, give you an early birthday party before you head home to spend your actual birthday with your wife and daughter."

Chuckling, Dave shook his head. "I appreciate the offer, Nicko, I really do," he said. "But Ade and Nathalie already issued an invitation to do the same thing at their place, when they heard I'd be travelling back from England at this time. So I already had plans to head home by way of Montreal this time."

"Right, well, can't argue that now, can I?" Nicko said. "Besides, we both know perfectly well you don't wanna come stay with me and get your arse kicked on the golf course again," he teased with a laugh.

"Oh, fuck you, wanker," Dave laughed, flipping two fingers at his bandmate. "Bring Becky and Justin out to Maui one of these years and I'll kick your arse on the golf course there. You just had the home course advantage on me, is all. And I only lost by two bloody strokes even so!"

"You just keep telling yourself that, mate," Nicko laughed. His shuttle pulled up and he swung aboard with his bags. "See you 'round, Davey. Enjoy your birthday parties, and early Happy Christmas!"

"I will, and early Happy Christmas to you too, Nick," Dave called as the hotel shuttle pulled up behind the airport shuttle which was still loading more passengers. He hopped aboard with his gear and settled in for the short ride to the hotel.

A decent night's sleep and a long flight later, he arrived in Montreal, where he happily spent three full days with Ade before travelling on to Maui. Tamar had set up a birthday party for him, a luau with their neighbours, which he enjoyed. Christmas proved just as enjoyable, especially now that Tasha, at three and a half years old, had reached an age where she could truly participate in activities like decorating the tree and going to get her picture with Father Christmas at the shopping centre in town.

*****

Ade and Nathalie, plus their kids and their nanny, came out in late February and stayed for a week. Tamar took Nathalie, the kids, and both nannies on an overnight to Honolulu for some kid-friendly sightseeing and also to give the men some alone time for a private celebration of Ade's birthday.

After a relaxing morning and dip in the pool, Ade had a few things to say to Dave regarding his brother-in-law Carl, who'd very persistently nagged at Ade until he agreed to start a band, and who subsequently decided he was bored with the whole idea and quit, taking one of the other members with him. For obvious reasons, he didn't want to vent to Nathalie about it.