Sunday 18 May 2008

Long phone conversations from the Gulf

The old friend I told you about two posts ago - scroll down and take a look if you've not already seen it - phoned me last night from overseas. How exciting!!! Nobody has phoned me from overseas for years. We chatted, and chatted some more, and chatted some more after that. We were on the 'phone for over two hours!! We were on the 'phone for so long that my dinner was ruined and Millie gave up trying to tell me she wanted to go out for a pee and did it on the doormat instead..oops!!

Those of you who know me will remember that I can talk the hind leg off a donkey - but it wasn't just me!!! We had 18 years to catch up on, and it was hilarious. He called on some kind of sat-phone device which gives a one second lag time delay...makes things a bit difficult as you're waiting for them to finish speaking, and then you speak - but they haven't actually finished speaking - they were just drawing breath!

It was as if the 18 years in between just melted away and we had seen each other just a few days ago. Don't you think it's funny when that happens? Someone who you haven't seen for a very long time (and I mean VERY long time) gets back in touch and all the years that have passed just disappear in an instant - and you are transported straight back to where you were. The happenings that have happened in between miraculously disappear and there you are at 20 years old again!!! I could do with some of that more often. As we chatted the memories took on a crystal clarity. There must be a special part of your brain that keeps these things fresh so that when you look at them again and are reminded of things it's as if it were only yesterday. Most of the time I can't bloody remember what day it is!!!

So then I started to think......

Other things I can remember with crystal clarity are Christian's wedding, Justin's wedding (funnily enough I can't remember my own 3 with the same definition), driving Christian to Newcastle to start college, the day we took the door off at Abbey Lane, Dan's birth (ouch), the day I passed my driving test, the day I went to Cyprus (to join the Army) all by myself with all my belongings in one suitcase, the day my father admitted to having an affair and left home, the day my Jaguar car was delivered, the day my brother got beaten up on the way home from Judo class and lost his front teeth, the day we moved into a pub, the day I met Dan's father, the day I bought our very first pony...the day I started senior school and walked there with Alison Farmery, and probably some more if I sit and think long enough. The strange thing is that you can remember exact details - like how the weather was, and what car you were driving, what you were wearing, and also accurate details of conversations etc

I wonder if it these crystal clear memories (from now on I shall refer to them as CCMs) that define who we are? Does all the other day to day stuff not matter? When we are no longer for this mortal place and we are laying in our last bed, is it these memories that flash before our eyes. If it is - then clearly these are the things that really matter and all the other day-to -day crap is not of any importance. This then. would explain the popularity of things like school re-unions and 'Friends re-united'.

So here's an idea. Why don't we get our box of memories out more often and have a good root through them? Remembering these things just to write this post have brought a big smile to my face, and I'm sure if you gave it a try it may have the same effect for you too. I know that we can't live in the past and there are new memories to make - but sometimes it's nice to just sit and remember. Don't you think?

4 comments:

  1. How weird, I don't remember your weddings too clearly either. ;-)

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  2. How weird, I don't remember your weddings too clearly either. ;-)

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  3. I wish I remembered Christian's wedding with such clarity!

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  4. I wish I remembered Christian's wedding with such clarity!

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