I bumped into an old graffiti friend and he was in the park hanging out with some guys. My friend had been a writer but got caught up in a lot of assault related violence coming up in a rough area, ie Maroubra. His friends in the park looked like they had seen some jail time at some point and I came up to say hello. It was funny one guy started on me straight away saying that I had turned up to blow my trumpet. He went on about it I found it funny because he was the kind of guy who can find your weak spot and dig in. I am pretty thick skinned so I took it more as a rub and I was in their territory so you have to take some shit. It is true though I blow my own trumpet all day long, I remember when I was like that guy just minus the jail time and I had that attitiude. You weren’t allowed to big note yourself only others could do that. When I went to uni after hanging out with criminally insane vandals I had the attitude that you had to be put in your place. Whether it was verbally or through violence. I was never that violent and had a long fuse but I remember being with all these uni kids who came from a nice home. I learned from meeting people that it wasn’t always perfect or even if you are better off death and cancer and anything can still visit you. Nothing is perfect that was a good lesson for me and I went to nice houses in nice areas and tried to be someone who wasn’t from my own past. I can see how far how I have moved on. My graffiti friend is cool and he looked a bit tense as his mate went on but I ignored him and had a quick talk and went on my way. I guess I can see that I really have moved on, I remember in 98 or so trying to put people down so I could level them out, I wanted them to get off their high horse but I was wrong. I was usually drunk though to go that far. Which is half the reason I stopped drinking as I carried a little reminder of my past. The ‘put that guy in his place’ disease. I was never that bad but I would get caught up occassionally. Funny enough these guys were pretty drunk and had been on the grog for who knows how long. It doesn’t bother me, I want to keep blowing my own trumpet for as long as possible.