250 Albums- An Arbitrary Rumble Through My Record Collection # 109 ABBA - The Visitors

 

Life seems incredibly heightened to me right now. I imagine it does to many people. These are extremely dramatic times we are living through. You can't deny it or hide from it it seems . We're forced into perilous tides by extreme times. Unscrupulous greed, populist politics .Strange behaviour from people we work with and for. Extreme emotions. Where does that leave the rest of us who are clinging to or crawling from the wreckage.. Desperate for sight of  a deserted shore Harbour. Sanctuary.

I've personally had the most incredible year. Trust me you haven't got time. I've turned 60. I've shaken the hand of perhaps my great musical hero. I've done a road trip and seen some of the most important friends of my lifetime . Gone to Denmark and reunited with three wonderful Danish women, two of whom I hadn't seen for forty years. I've got back in contact with one of the most incredible people I've ever met. in my life. Corresponded with her since on a regular basis. And spent three fantastic days with her in Dublin for her 48th birthday. Talking about our lives. Having an unforgettable time together in a wonderful city.

And all the time I've been doing incredibly motivating and interesting teaching. Minimal paperwork. Maximum teaching. Working for a friend of mine another great person, who I met 25 years ago in Katowice where I met the other woman I've mentioned. When the world still seemed young and innocent. Curiously both ABBA fans.

I'm working with German business people mostly. But also Dutch and Belgians. Caught in historical circumstance in an incredible moment in human history but getting on as best they can with ingenuity with humour and determination. And grammar and vocabulary as required. I never know what will happen in the next lesson. What they'll want to talk about There's a book in it. A blog. A podcast. A long running serial.

But I haven't got time. I've got tests to do. Turning 60 fast tracks you into a  test lane which I'm grateful for but I've discovered can be rather scary . On the day after my 60th birthday I was obliged to go for scans and x rays in the RVI .I have mixed feelings about hospitals .There were people being wheeled down corridors on trolleys. Other shuffling unsteadily on crutches in dressing gowns.  While I sat in a waiting room there was a woman groaning dreadfully behind a door. Was it a vision of the coming decade I asked myself.

It was all quite unnerving and disturbing frankly. I like to credit myself with a reasonable imagination and I've lost two siblings an uncle and grandfather to cancer so you'll forgive me for having the slight willies as these tests had been triggered by weight loss which put me momentarily on the cancer pathway. I'm not making any jokes about that because frankly it's not funny,

To cut a long story short I didn't lose my mind this morning  I got up bathed and started teaching.  I had a couple of great lessons. Listened to Rubber Soul and The Visitors by ABBA. ABBA always make me think of Christmas mornings. Waking up early with my younger sister incredibly excited . About Christmas stockings jammed with tangerines and yo yos. Both of us grinning and giggling together. Desperate to wake up mum and dad and show them our haul.

The Visitors is an album I'm really taken by. It's the band's last record and its shrouded in sadness as well as joy. There are some of their most haunting and evocative moments but you're aware that all is not well within the unit. 

Anyway my lessons done I went to my doorstep, picked up a letter from the NHS and ripped open the envelope. I knew I was due to see my GP too this afternoon. As it turned out It was like opening an envelope with a Golden Wonka Factory Token gleaming before your eyes.

The gist. A tiny myelolipoma in the right adrenal and some small polyps/ adherent stones in the gallbladder. Forgive me. Too much information I know. But otherwise  normal, Stop the cancer pathway and return to the normal pathway please.. Go see your GP.

Life works strangely on your emotions sometimes. Bloody ABBA on the turntable. I thought about my elderly parents, now 90 in their corner house in an avenue in Canterbury. I also thought of myself. The waterworks gushed suddenly like taps turned on full volume. Then I wiped my eyes and called my mum.