Monday, 28 September 2015

And What a Time it Was.

The three years from ’94 to ’96 stand out as the three most special of all the years I’ve had to date.

A time of innocence
A time of consequences

Both, and rather more besides.

It was a time of Helen and Hilary, of Sam and Sue and Sophie. A time of hurting others through no fault of my own, and being hurt myself through every fault of my own. A time of working in the dream factory and partying late with the purveyors of those dreams. A time of struggling financially, yet always having just enough luck with money to avoid going under. A time of dealing with a mother’s death, from accompanying her to the departure lounge to preparing the buffet for the wake, and all done alone because there was nobody around to help. A time of being very grown up when I needed to be, and living as a kid with a new toy when I didn’t.

It was a time of learning and loving and losing, but mostly a time of gaining greatly. A time of playing games and taking responsibility. A time of magic and consequences, and the tone was mostly innocent. It was the jewel in the crown of a life. So how good it was to find this on YouTube last night:


One of the colleens heretofore mentioned went to see a performance of Riverdance in Birmingham, and she bought me a tape containing a selection of music from the show. As I recall, this piece was my favourite. In hearing it I got to hold the jewel again, twenty unprepossessing years down the line.

What I never knew until tonight was where the title came from. The story of Countess Cathleen can be read here. It’s a nice story, and it's good to see the redhead not only being in charge but also biffing the blokes.

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