wendy house

In my dream I was still living with the *anker that I actually left in 2000 after years of building up the pluck to walk out.  Tight black leather jeans, tears bullying,  and that was just his his contribution to the dream, mine was even more icky.  I fell over several times at a cricket match during the game.  Most embaressing. 

Godley and Creme sang Under your thumb

The early hours of a march morning,  dew is forming on the grass,  the clear skies above reveal more stars than I can count.  After a long evening meandering around country lanes I found myself sat on the sweet smelling damp grass of the hillside. I pull my dufflecoat tightly round me for warmth.  The black line of the Severn in the distance cuts the view.  Above the black slash I could see the flickering lights of Cardiff.  Only visible on a clear night. 

Have dinosaurs roamed this very hillside?  Running my fingers through the grass I pull a pebble from the earth.  Turning it in my cold fingers, feeling ridges, it is a fossilised shell.  The cotswolds were once the seabed.  Difficult even to begin to imagine how much has happened here on this now hillside.  How many people have lived and died in this world.

The enormity of my insignificance seared. 

A plane rummbled across the night night sky above.  Sniffling while tears silently crossed my cheek.  The rough cloth of my duffle-coat sleeve clumsily failed the tear sponge test.

A week of temperatures in the 30’s (centigrade). 

No air conditioning in the Wendy House. 

Remiscent of North Carolina in the spring. 

Beautiful. 

Body Heat.  

Hot enough to draw sweat in the shade and not too hot to drown movement.  Body Heat caused quite a stir in 1981.

As a teenager, for empathetic reasons I had a soft spot for lanky skinny people with pale complections, outrageously large quiffs, and an inability to clearly articulate.  People like me!

In 1981 Edward Tenpole,  or ‘Teddy’ as I liked to call him,  twitched and loudly mumbled in a video that could have been inspired by the fabulous sets and costumes of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  I could loudly mumble along with this little ditty without even knowing what the lyrics were.  Excellent.

Tenpole Tudor sang ‘the swords of a thousand men’

Early 1963 was the coldest winter on British record.  Records had been kept since 1659. 

During a cold winter people try all sorts to keep warm.  One result of ‘all sorts’ was that myself and most my secondary (US = High) school classmates have birthdays during the Autumn.  In 1981 the autumn babies turned 18.  A fabulous autumn of parties.  Myself and my best friend, born 7 days before me, shared a party with buckets of big hair, lip-gloss, bouncing and upbeat music.

Altered Images frequently bounced around to Happy Birthday that autumn. Unfortunately, or not, my dance style hasn’t evolved since my early days of copying Clare.

Since 1981 my dress sense has been significantly influenced by Julian Cope.  As the Guardian recently reported:

Julian Cope arrives on my doorstep looking exactly like he does in all his photos. He is wearing leather trousers, heavy boots (it is midsummer) a flowing camo jacket and The Hat. He politely takes his boots off when asked, but The Hat stays on throughout the afternoon

Julian was the front man for one of the first bands that I saw live in concert, Teardrop Explodes, the band included Alan Gill who co-rote rewards and joined Teardrop from Dalek I Love you  who’s Compass Kumpas album is one of my favourite vinyls.  Through the years Julian has supplied much worth attenting to including a couple of treasured books (e.g. The Modern Antiquarian).  Fabulous fellow.

Teardrop Explodes sang Rewards