Bye Mate It Was Fun

A dear old friend Rob Jarvis passed away some weeks ago and tomorrow it is his funeral. Boy, he made the early eighties more than interesting and a lot of fun. When we first met, he was sitting like a king at the head of the table. We were introduced and give him is due, I was a stranger but he made me feel at home straight away.

I remember he had a massive book open besides him I thought to myself he must be reading the ruddy full version of War and Peace later he told me it was worst then that. I was surprised we hit it off so well and we liked many of the same things, music for one.

Thereafter, we became mates and soon there was a group of us socialising mostly involving pubs, drinking, and we acquired the nickname ‘The Motley Crew’ precisely who we were with Rob the kind of leader. He had a tremendous sarcastic wit, I thought I was good but Rob could wit me under the table and sometimes he would tell you something and you would say yes with no idea what you are saying yes to in reality. He was sharp as a penny humour wise and bloody great fun to be around.

We come out of a pub somewhere in Cardiff and the next minute we would be off for something to eat but not always local! We would find ourselves on the M4 heading for the Seven Bridge services or the other way to the Bridgend services for a bacon or sausage sandwich, at like 1am, it was crazy.

Then there were the crazy singsongs in the car as we drunkenly belted out my version of Stop That Train - Clint Eastwood & General Saint was we headed home from a night in the pub. I jokingly turned it into a gay sonnet to our friend Martyn using the chorus

Hey, mister postman, bring back my Martyn

Hey, mister postman, bring back my Martyn

I need, I need, I need my Martyn (Big-a jump, hey-a)

I want, I want, I want my Martyn (Oh yeah, me wanna)

'Cause if you miss the car I’m in

And then you'll know that I am pissed

And you can hear the whistle blow five hundred miles

It’s a surprise to me we were never pulled over by the plod the car would be bouncing down the road as we fought to get our tune on the tape recorder not that Rob was a drink driver.

How we laughed when Rob on a holiday got so pissed off he decided to go home a night early with Martyn and Ivan the pain in the backside, literary he was complaining of Haemorrhoids, since we had arrived. On the way back to Cardiff from West Wales, Rob his car and passengers took a tumble or two off the road, they were all ok which we were grateful for and that was not funny.

However, it was no simple crash … Ivan had been collecting stones and bought a load of flour from a flourmill he had visited and with him on the back seat, you can imagine stones and flour flying round the car as it tumbled off the road. Somehow, Rob didn’t see the funny side when the police brought them back. Martyn later said it was like been in a washing machine on full spin. A great memory.

There was the time we were out and about and I was desperate to get home because I had a 5am call outside Ninian Park for a trip to Carlisle. Instead of taking me home, we sat outside the ground with a KFC bucket each, extra curried beans for me fixing the world and chatting until the coach arrived.

Remember when pubs would close in the afternoons many a time we would be standing outside waiting for the doors to open at 5pm and leave at last orders. He was the catalyst in the future wife and me coming out as a couple to our friends after he spotted us in Cardiff Bus station. I phoned him the next day to tell we were dating and asked him to keep it quiet, he figure it out and told Martyn we outed ourselves the next day.

There were so many more adventures we had from the happening at the Lighthouse Pub, the early morning fishing trip with ended in the disaster, the skittles night where I would normal end up drunk and stupid, trips to Heath Park for badminton and golf, and even green bowls we could always find something to do.

I haven’t seen him for near enough thirty years we didn’t fallout or something our lives just went in different directions. Married with a young family drunken nights were becoming extinct with no social media back then he became employed working in Bristol and we just drifted apart. He was never out of my mind we always talked about him fondly and I was excited when I found him on Twitter and later Facebook.

It was heart breaking this mountain of a man felled by the ‘Big C’ and the pain he had to endure you could see in his face. On a selfish side I am glad Wifey (Glenys) and myself with friends Andrew, Leighton had our so late reunion with Rob, which he agreed should have happened long ago.