Artist: Take That
Album: Stardust OST
I unshamedly love that song. My sister and I would listen to it in her car when we would go see our nana in hospital (my sister shares my naff pop taste in music), and so it was chosen as the closing song at the funeral on friday. I didn't know it was going to be played, so when it started I felt like I had been hit by a emotional shovel in the face. I had manged to hold it together (mostly) up until that point...
I won't dwell too much on the funeral, they are what they are, an opportunity to say goodbye and to pass the care of a loved one onto whatever god/afterlife system you or I happen to believe in. Nana was an aethiest, so if she is now with a supreme omnipresent being up/over there, then she'll be a bit annoyed and will no doubt have a bone or two to pick... Ha! They better have channel4 and Countdown or scrabble in the very least, that's all I can say. She was looking forward to an eternity of rest...
Was good to see some of the old family, and meant huge amounts to me and my mum that my ex (and Moo's mother) P was there.
My mother's cousins (although they are all much closer than that, they all grew up together in the same street and even the same house in some cases), some of which I hadn't seen since the early nineties were all on characteristic good form. My godfather was there too, haven't seen him for yonks...but within minutes it seemed like only yesterday. Was brilliant to see him. Was brilliant to see them all. I should make more of an effort to stay in touch with them.
What I thought very funny at the time was, surrounded by our london family, how my mother's, my sister's and my own accents slipped right back into our native London tongue after a few drinks... I even managed to get some to shout "Poawk!" at the top of their voices (it is 'pork' in a london accent if you didn't know) in the restaurant. I was worried it would be a sombre occasion, we were all very fond of Vi and she is effectively the last to go from that generation (she was the fourth eldest of twelve kids), but as it turned out it was a laugh, loud, light and fluffy...just like the old days. At one point I got goose pimples and felt like all the (now dead) oldies were sitting with us...silly I know, but the feeling was real enough.
My Moo (born and bred yorkshire lass) was quite confused by the accents at one point. My aunt, her great aunt, Mo was asking her all the regular questions that people ask kids, how old are you? How's school? Etc etc... But it turns out Moo was giving her all the default answers that kids normally give distant relations without actually understanding a word Mo was saying... Moo came and told me that she thought Mo was speaking in an another language, but knew she was asking questions so she had just said "yr 4.....8yrs old...thankyou". My auntie Mo and I had a laugh about it later. She does have an accent and voice that requires a certain experience I guess and is deaf enough to not have heard the answers anyway. Funny thing is Moo is in year 3 not 4, I don't think it was a fib, I think she just panicked. Moo, during the wake, also wrote and illustrated a story about a caterpillar, its cocoon and emergence as a butterfly, all on the back of a napkin. The poignancy of that made me catch my breath... I've framed it.
Emotionally drained by midnight I bade my fond farewells and went and crashed on Chris and Alayne's (First Life) sofa. We stayed up chatting and playing games til early o'clock. A good way to 'come down' from a day like that is with the comfortable distraction of good friends. I'm glad for that.
And now it is sunday. I have woken with back ache, an odd bruised feeling in my left side and I had dreams about the bailiffs coming to take all my stuff away last night. If that's not my body and sub conscious telling me straight that its 'game on' and time to get my shit together then I don't know what is...anyone wanna buy a painting? A print? A coloured-in doodle? I've got a whole 3 for 2 thing going on... :)
*Matt, put it back where you found it, you'll get mucky fingerprints all over it. There aint no gap between you and I for you to mind...
Now, to whomsoever it may or may not concern, please...
Mind The Gap.
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