'They line theur pockets with our souls.......'
It's difficult not to blink sometimes . Sometimes I'd say it's best to try not to. It's Friday morning. At the end of May. It's my sister's birthday. I imagine she'll be rising and will take her Bulgarian rescue dog for a walk at some point today. Across woods and sunlit meadows of bluebells, primroses. and the like My brother is rising in Galicia with his wife. Making their way up steep slopes. Ir's hot as blazes he tells us. We're all walking up steep slopes aren't we? it's the only way we know
My mother will stir and go down to prepare my father some breakfast. .Fix a tray with corn flakes, yoghurt toast and a cup of tea. Just how dad likes it..Run her bath, dress and descend to the living room to do her sudoku and crosswords. Classic FM. Everywhere people are rising. Heading into their day, The world turns. The weekend is coming
I run my bath and dress, I look in the t shirt drawer and find a Jane Birkin t shirt Alison gave me for a birthday many years ago. Jane Birkin isn't with us any more but the t shirt still is snd I put it on. It will do me for today,
I've got Alena Diane's new album Who's Keeping Time playing on my television. On my television You see what I mean about not blinking, It's called Who's Keeping Time? Who Knows Where the Time Goes ! Ir's a lovely record. With a sleeve adorned with images of Alela surrounded by a gathering of geese clustered around a dining table on a prairie. Little Table on the Prairie,.
I teach my first class. Dennis, Julianne, Beheshata. Clinical Professionals heading into their own days but making a window for English. We talk about implants and why the body rejects them. Stones in our internal organs and what we can do tabout them. Broken bones and our experience of them comes up. One to Ones with our line managers and how best to approach them. How to best demand appreciation and ensure commensurate recompensation for our labour. not being taken for grantedWhat we have looking forward to at the weekend.
In Beheshta's case this means a drive to Rotterdam to a wedding tomorrow. A stay in a hotel and then a quick look around Antwerp. A drive back to the Ruhr Gebeit and a baby shower on Sunday. Fitting in a bit of life before work starts again on Monday morning. All the while the stones keep stirring in our inner organs. The blood that keeps flowing across our arteries.
I have some downtime between classes so I send off powerpoints fir my classes and fix myself more tea. Boil an egg, I fancy a change from Alela so I put Soft Machine's Third on my turntable and the stylus clicks into gear and my flat fills with light and cool burbling, meandering Hippy Jazz sound.
I've been entranced with this magical record for a few weeks. I saw a vinyl copy at one of the record store around the corner from me where the price of the vinyl copy of this in their racks had dropped from £39 to £29 so I saw my chance, made my move and bought a copy. It already sounds like a good investment for my sixties.. A long term investment in sound and space.
Onto Class Two Olli and Stefan. Insurance professionals. Tuning in from Dussledorf and Nuremberg. We always laugh. There's time for football, family and fun.Chat about cheese.. I have a quiz on cheese prepared. We debate who would win the World Cup of Cheese Why does Emmentale have holes. Olli and Stefan read an article to find out. Spoiler. It's the flecks in the hay folks.
The conversation meanders back to 1970. A podcast I'm engrossed in about a World Cup related Conspiracy from when I was five and In Zimbabwe and my sister was just a baby Gordon Banks drank a beer in a bar Mexico a few days before a World Cup quarter final against West Germany. And was struck down with tummy trouble and missed the match which England lost,. The podcast posits that it was all a CIA related plot. There's no end to the mystery and wonder of life. Why bother doomscrolling about the here and now. Being right wing . Blaming someone else..
Onward frim Srefan and Olli to Pierre. A Broker Manager from the same organisation with a great Wes Anderson look.. Charming and kind. Just turned 50. He tells me about his weekend in Holland with his mumbrother and their kids. We talk about erm football again. Where will Cologne's finest prospect Mala go un the summer. Brentford possibly.
Should my team Newcastle make their move. They've just lost Anthony Gordon to Barcelona not Bayern. Much to Olli and now Pierre's amusement. Then we talk about how he can find the word he needs when he needs it in Business contexts when talking to Poles or Indians about contract and brokerage stuff. We develop a strategy which I follow up after the lesson.This doesn't feel like work.
Soft Machine have taken the place of Alela as my ongoing soundtrack as my Friday turns its attention to the afternoon. I'm in a trance for Part Four of my Friday online oddyssey. The ideal state for Marina. My Friday afternoon Extemadura Angel. In Amsterdam working for a bank but always Extemadura essentially. There's never, ever a dull moment wuth Marina.
She's charm and intelligence personified. We're training her up to be CEO within the year. She confides at a certain point this afternoon that she doesn't actually ant to be CEO but she certainly gets my vote. We have the dreaded Internet is down panic midway through. That hasn't happened to me for a while. We reconnect. There are fifteen minutes left.
So we get to the heart of the matter. That's what Graham Green would do. You can get to this point after four pints on a Friday night with a mate if you choose but in my experience it's far better at four in the afternoon with a canny operator like Marina who knows what she's talking about. .Does Love exist? Does the Soul?
From Marina's perspective the idea of a Soul is ludicrous. It's something we want to believe in but it's actually a huge red herring. Wishful thinking. .Like Lloyd Cole though, Marina believes in love. There's been persuasive scientific research. She's persuaded. It's nice to hear. A good time to wish each other a happy weekend. Next week we'll discuss Atomic Habits further and delve into the Third Conditional. Anyway I need to go to Rosie's and find out who I've got in The World Cip Sweepstakes. These things are important.. Fellowship. Banter. A fiver.
I make my way up the slope from my flat. Turn into Stowell Street. Newcastle's Chinatown. Millie is perched on his place at the end of the bar. Where he belongs.. I've got Belgium. He's got Mexico. No chance for either of us. Neither Belgium nor Mexico have ever reached the World Cup Final never mind won the bloody thing and paraded round the pitch kissing the golden trophy. That's for France, Brazil, Spain and Argentina. Millie and I. Like Belgium and Mexico are content to be supporting players. In the chorus. Halfway down the final credits. I ask Millie if he's got a tab and his eyebrows head for the ceiling. 'You'l lbe the death of me.' 'not too soon I hope Millie.' I thank him and head for the exit, Get back to the flat. Put Soft Machine on again while I smoke my tab. Call Mum at half five as I always do.
She tells me of her cleaning lady Linda's latest travelling drama. Coming home from Majorca the flight was delayed. A passenger was taken off the flight.. Charged with murder in Majorca. Perhaps Nigel Farage who Linda feels is the bees knees is the answer. I doubt it personally. That guys a spiv. Private Walker.
I say goodbye to mum. She's going to a birthday party tomorrow. Makes a change from funerals. I go upstairs collapse on the bed. Wake up at nine and make a cup of tea. Alison has had a good day. She's having a barbecue. There are parakeets flying over her lawn. She likes the Bowie book I've sent her. I go to bed.
Now it's Saturday morning. I'm listening to Who's Keeping Time again. I commend it to you. Time to head into the new day. Somewhere the geese are flying somewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment