Be Excellent To Each Other

I had the strangest sense of nostalgia this morning.

I was carrying a laptop bag amongst other things, and was compelled by my burden to brace said satchel across both shoulders, as if to spread the load. All at once, my mind was flooded with memories of being a small boy in my first year of 'big school'. And small I was, although tall for my age, I was narrow of shoulder and slender of chest. Attached to my bird-like frame was a large gym-style bag laden with many unnecessary books and superfluous stationary. I was instructed, by my elders, that my load must be carried across both shoulders, for fear of a stoop or worse - a hunchback!

I wonder if any of you, fair readers have experienced such pangs of the past, from such humble events?

I actually had a flash back to a very vague and fuzzy memory a few days ago, my niece had managed to chew the end of a roller ball pen off and some of the ink was staining her lips. When i saw her i had the odd memory seep back into my mind, i have no idea how old i would have been but it would have been very young, but i have the distinct memory of warm ink flooding my mouth and dripping down my chin, i also know it was blue ink even though i have not image to go with the memory.

As I've been buying and building model planes again I dug out my old Aircraft of World War II book to skim through. I've had it since I was 8 years old, and as I flicked through the pages I was transported back to the lounge in my Grandma's old house. Vivid memories came flooding back of waiting in the lounge with the smell of Sunday dinner being cooked.

I recently had a taste of a madeleine dipped in tea, which trigged a flashback to Sunday mornings before church, eating with my Aunt. I then went on for about 1,000 pages about loss and friendship and betrayal.

I watched Blockbusters on Challenge TV the other night and was instantly transported back to eating my tea in the kitchen of my childhood home.

The TV had an Atari 800XL next to it and I was eating crinkly cut chips and fish fingers. I could taste the Sainsburys own limeade too which then reminded me of the time I spilt a glass on a Far Side book when I was a little older.

Good times.. I want some limeade! Non of that no sugar stuff either.

I get this from time to time, sometimes when I'm feeling a little down I pine for times gone by, happy moments that I can never go back to. Really, I've got as much right now as I would need, probably more in fact, and we're pretty comfy and happy. No I'm not rich but there isn't anything we need that we go without, and we've got some neat gear and done some cool things that others would love to do but sadly cannot. But sometimes, I find myself thinking that maybe I'd be happy to give it all up to go back to those innocent days. I think having had a fairly horrible, long and drawn out loss in the family increases this sort of maudlin feeling.

Anyway, my sister and I have a 'game' of sending each other silly pictures of things we used to remember from our childhoods. Recently, I was thinking about the time I went to the Channel Tunnel exhibition in Folkestone with my family back when I was a young teen. We'd been past it a couple of times on family days out, and my dad wanted to go. It was actually more interesting than I thought it would be, and the diggy machine out the front was big and impressive. The bit that still sticks in my sister's mind was that the exhibition had mannequins with monitors for heads (speakers stuck out the sides like ears) and video playing, so it was like a family discussing how they would use the Chunnel. It was actually quite effective, but also looked pretty dorky and lame - and as such made us laugh.

I had a look online and managed to find a few clips on youtube, from some camcorder footage of a day out to the exhibition and watched them (in eerie silence, as I'm in the office). This sounds pretty sad itself actually now I'm typing it out, but it was totally worth it in order to send my sister this:

Smells set it off for me - mostly machine-based ones. Smokeless coal reminds me of my dad's model steam engines, for example, and the smell of his workshop makes me feel nostalgic but not about anything in particular.

Oh, and the "silver" perfume by Charlie or something, but that fortunately has nothing to do with my dad!

Yeah, smells are very good at triggering memories.

Fresh Lego, Scalextric, Playdough...

Oh, yeah Scalextric. That ozone smell

There's a particular type of tree, that I don't know the name of, and the smell of its leaves always brings back memories of going to Bisley Shooting Ground in Surrey every year with my Dad, 'cos they had shit loads of those trees there and the smell of the leaves was often overpowering.

Over the last few weeks I've been overcome with a powerful desire to smell a freshly opened pack of Garbage Pail Kids stickers. I think it was that foul shattery chewing gum that gave them the distinctive smell.

Ohh.. That's a good one. I had some Anglo bubble gum the other day which reminded me of these.