Ten Most Memorable Times At The Movies

This MEME originally did the rounds way back when but I thought it'd be nice to revisit it.

"This is not about the best movies you've ever seen. Describe ten experiences watching a movie that stick in your mind as being particularly memorable - for whatever reason."

Star Wars
Still my favourite film of all time, I saw this when it first came out in the UK in early 1978, when I was 9.  As I've written about before (which you can read here), I was very aware of the film and very eager to see it.  We'd already tried to get into one showing but it was  full, so Dad took me and my friend Claire back to Rothwell.  We headed off down the Rec. to play - it was cold and there was a lot of fog - and only realised the time when we could hear Dad calling us, to go to the next showing.  My main memory from that day is watching the Star Destroyer come over the camera in almost the first shot and I knew I’d never seen anything like it before in my life.

I was lucky enough to see it in the cinema a few more times - a double-bill with The Empire Strikes Back and then a triple-bill (what a marathon that was) with both Empire and Return Of The Jedi - and I also caught the special editions at the cinema too.

Even better, I got to watch the films again with Dude and it was wonderful to re-experience them through his eyes!

Dead Ringers
My friend Craig & I went to the cinema a lot in the late 80s/early 90s, alternating between the Kettering, Burton Latimer and Corby ‘theatres’.  Can’t do that now, can we, Mr Odeon?  I’d loved David Cronenberg’s films since watching Videodrome (which I wrote about here) and Scanners in the mid-80s, so rushed along to see this.  It wasn’t a popularly held view - including me and Craig, there were only 6 people in the cinema.  It’s the quietest I’ve ever heard an audience file out - all of us looked shocked and white faced - but what a brilliant film it is.

Basic Instinct
Not the greatest film ever, I know but Alison & I went out as mates on a cinema trip to The Point in Milton Keynes.  We booked a double bill, watched Waynes World first and then went to get something to eat.  Midway through I asked her to go out with me so therefore our first film as a couple was Verhoven’s sleazy thriller.  Well, it could be worse…

The Land Before Time
Back in the late 80s, I often took my kid sister Sarah to the cinema during school holidays (video was starting to get a real grip, but we didn’t have a player, so the only place to see big Disney films was at the flicks).  I picked this particular film out of the many because it vividly reminds me, every time I think of it, of the difference between kids and adults (I would have been in my late teens, Sarah around 5 or 6).  One of the dinosaurs’ mothers dies, right near to the start and the kids in the audience went mental (it was quite a spectacular death if I remember rightly), laughing and shouting.  I thought it was very sad and looked around, trying to see if I was alone in that and wiping away a stray tear.  Turns out I wasn’t - whilst most of the kids were thoroughly enjoying themselves, most of the adults seemed to have “something in their eye”.

Whore
I went to see this at The Point, in Milton Keynes, with a friend of mine called Julie.  It was my suggestion - I'd enjoyed the Ken Russell films I'd seen to that point and I liked Theresa Russell a lot.  The film started.  It was vile.  It got worse.  To date - and I’ve seen a lot of films at the cinema - this is only film I’ve ever walked out of.

Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger
1977 - my friends and I went on our own to a matinee showing of this (I assume none of our parents wanted to sit through it).  The cinema was chaotic, popcorn everywhere, a lot of noise and we 8 year olds were thrilled to be there on our own.  The noise quietened down during the film and I remember I liked it - a feeling no doubt helped because of the presence of Ms Lambs Navy Rum herself, Caroline Munro (who, many years later, I got to meet - as I wrote about here).  A friend of mine, who’d already seen the film, kept telling me about this huge seal that came out of the ice to attack the goodies and I was, quite frankly, terrified.  Then I saw it and, for the first time, realised that my imagination, on occasion, could be far more powerful than what film-makers could get on the screen.

Fatal Attraction
For our first date (I do pick them, don’t I?), I took my new girlfriend Sara to see this at the Northampton ABC - a beautiful old Art Deco theatre, complete with a balcony and organ that came out of the stage, which is now a Jesus Army Centre (thanks for that, Mr Out-Of-Town Multiplex).  I enjoyed the film and, as soon as it appeared that Glenn Close was dead in the bath, I knew what was going to happen.  This is why, when she leapt out of the water only to be shot by Ann Archer, I was watching the rest of the cinema-goers rather than the screen.  And I swear it was as if everyone moved into the seat directly behind them, a living, screaming ripple effect.  I’ve never seen anything like it since.

Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

Never the biggest Star Trek fan, I don't think I'd even see Wrath Of Khan (probably my favourite of them all) when this was released but one of the tabloids offered free tickets if you queued at the nearest relevant cinema and that seemed like a good idea.  The closest one to us was the Northampton ABC so me, my friend Steve and his sister spent a happy few hours in the queue, chatting to our fellow would-be patrons.  We got the tickets, I enjoyed the film and later wrote an essay about the day, which won an English prize that year at school.

Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Nick (who I've known since 1976 and is still my best friend) and I had a falling out during the summer of 1981.  Not being friends wasn’t at all pleasant but, typically for pre-teens, as horrible as it was neither of us was going to back down (and I can’t even remember what caused us to fall out).  It just so happened that, at the same time, Raiders Of The Lost Ark arrived at the cinema and nobody I knew wanted to see it - they either didn’t like spiders or snakes or ghosts.  Quite by chance, our mum’s met in the high street and, whilst talking, discovered both of us wanted to see the film but didn't have anyone to go and see it with.  I can’t remember now who made the first move but we made up, went to see the film and haven’t fallen out since.  The irony is that now I like horror films and Nick doesn’t, yet it was me at the time who covered his eyes when the first ‘angel’ turns into a ghoul at the climax!  It's a fact Nick has never let me forget.

A brilliant, stirring film, Raiders remains one of my all-time favourites.

An American Werewolf In London

I've long been a fan of the film (I wrote a retrospective on it here) and adore it but had only ever seen it at home or with friends, first on murky VHS, then on gorgeous DVD (where I finally realised the figure steaming in the night air was the original werewolf and not Jack, as I'd always thought).  When a company called Luna Flix began showing open air films at Stanwick Lakes, my friend David & I jumped at the chance to go and see this, the evening of the showing coinciding with a full moon, which was terrific.  The film looked gorgeous, it was great to see it under the stars and on a big screen and the whole experience was great fun (I wrote about it here).

I could also discuss the Live & Let Die/The Spy Who Loved Me double-bill my Dad took me to see, in 1978 - the first Bond films I’d ever seen at the cinema (but I already did, in-depth, at this blog post).


So what are your memorable moments?

Happy Birthday Nick

On the 21st, my oldest and best friend Nick became a fellow member of the Half-Century Club.

Nick, Alison, me and Dude, January 2019

I wrote about Nick in 2014 (you can read the post here) and everything in it still holds true.  We first met in September 1976, the first day of junior school - I was new to Rothwell and didn't know anyone else in the class - and the teacher sat us next to each other.  We became firm friends that day and, wonderfully, we still are.

detail of school photograph, Rothwell Juniors, 1977, with Nick on the left

Over the years, we've had some great times (and some down times), we've run the world, put on plays, saw Jarre at the Docklands, holidayed, laughed and had terrific adventures together.  My brother-from-another-mother (as kids we spent so much time in each others houses you got fed by whichever Mum was in your orbit), I was his Best Man, he was mine and he's Dude's godfather.

I saw two quotes which I think sum Nick & I up perfectly.  The first is more sentimental...

A good friend knows all your best stories, a Best Friend has lived them with you

The second made me laugh and would have the same effect on him...

I want to be the reason you look down at your phone and smile.  Then walk into a pole.

Happy birthday Nick and here's to many more!

1979, Mum attempts to skateboard.  I'm holding onto her, Nick's in front of me

1986, last day of school (Sixth Form trip to Great Yarmouth) - from left; James MacDonald, Steve Corton, me, Phil Cross, Nick (he wore that top hat for years...)

1987, off on a bike ride

1988, on Corton beach with Tracy and Sarah

1988, high above Bath in the back of a Hercules (Nick was in the RAF at the time)

1990, on the way to his wedding, his mum's car broke down.  Not the best start, it has to be said...

1998, our wedding day

2009, pulling faces with Dude in Taddiport

2013, in Market Harborough

2015, post heart attack and weight loss (both mine)

I Thought He Was Older...

This past weekend, I celebrated a milestone birthday and hit my half-century.  I wasn't particularly worried about it (except I now fall into that age-bracket where the adverts assume I'm falling apart and will need sheltered accommodation and funeral plans) - I was more concerned with turning 30, to be honest - and I'll carry on as normal (since I'm still somewhere in my late twenties in my head anyway).

Out for a family meal on Saturday, with Mum & Dad and my sister Sarah and her family

The celebrations kicked off a few weeks ago with my oldest friend Nick sending me a book, charting our shared friendship together (we've known one another for 43 years now).  I love photographs, I love Nick, I loved the gift.

The weekend before last, I organised a Crusty Exterior pre-birthday gathering in Leicester and it was great fun.  We chatted, laughed (a lot), scoured second hand book shops, walked and ate.  And Linda Nagle made a wonderful Star Wars themed cake she presented me with in Carluccio's (our waiter led the sing-a-long).

outside Leicester Museum - from left: John Travis, Sue Moorcroft, me, Steve Harris, Linda Nagle, David Roberts, James Everington & Steve Bacon

Last week, the Golden Wonder Oldies held one of our semi-regular dinners at the Sondes Arms in Corby to help me celebrate.  Having known most of them since the 80s, it was a lovely evening in the company of old friends, filled with a lot of laughing and some good food.

The Golden Wonder Oldies between courses

There's a lot to be thankful for and I really am - I have a wonderful family (I've known Alison for more than half my life, which is a startling thought) and terrific friends, two of the key components to a happy life, I feel.  I'm fit, I'm active, there's a ton of books I need to read, I have stories to write, films to see, adventures to have with Dude.

As my friend Cindy wrote in her card, the "half century club isn't as exciting as the Mile High Club but it's just as awesome!"

me in May 1969 (pic by Dad) and me in February 2019 (pic by Sue) - only the hairline remains the same...

Age is just a number, it's true - and I'm perfectly happy with mine.

1986 and all that...

1986, as I’ve mentioned on the blog before, was a banner year for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  In honour of its 30th anniversary - and because we’re rapidly heading for 2017 - here’s a little celebration.

Hunters Foods Xmas do, my friend Helen is standing next to me.  Taken at Kane's Wine Bar (now long gone), Corby - December 1986  

Top 10 Films (US)

1: Top Gun
2: “Crocodile” Dundee
3: Platoon
4: The Karate Kid, part 2
5: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
6: Back To School
7: Aliens
8: The Golden Child
9: Ruthless People
10: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

I was in the Sixth Form for the first half of the year and a group of us went to the cinema quite often - though we had to convince one of the dads to drive us each time.  In late January, we went to see Rocky IV (released in 1985, so it made that years top 10) which I remember vividly because my friend Sean Marshall insisted on calling it “Rocky Eye-Vee”.  Just to show we weren’t affluent teenagers, I should point out that our local cinemas at the time (Kettering Ohio, Corby Forum and Bentley’s At Burton Latimer) weren’t part of a chain - they were glorious flea-pits (Kettering, which I wrote about here, was built into the upper tiers of the old cinema whilst the ground floor was a bingo hall) and it cost £1.50 to see a film.  With most of that same group of friends, I co-edited the student magazine for that year too (which I wrote about here).

According to my diary, my favourite film of the year was “Crocodile” Dundee (which I still love).  Top Gun was also very popular with us and we saw it a lot, mostly due to the fact that it hung around for such a long time so we caught it on several occasions.  The same thing happened with Dirty Dancing in 1987.

I may have had a bit of a crush on Kathleen Turner...

Spies Like Us was another favourite (I re-watched it recently and it doesn’t stand up at all well, unfortunately), Young Sherlock Holmes, The Jewel Of The Nile (not as good as Romancing The Stone but, hey, Kathleen Turner…), Aliens (my second favourite film of the year), Nightmare On Elm Street 2 (which none us particularly enjoyed, since it departed so far from the original), the incredible (and unsettling) Blue Velvet, Poltergeist 2 (which was very odd but good fun - and the first film I went to see with my friend Pauline Weston, who I wrote about here) and the genius that was Big Trouble In Little China.  Cobra, the very silly and very violent (and very, very 80s if you re-watch it) Sylvester Stallone film (he’d apparently been in the running for Beverly Hills Cop and took his ideas with him) was the first 18-rated film I saw at the cinema (along with Nick Duncan - who I wrote about here - and Craig Tankard - who gets introduced later - at Corby).

Top 10 Books (US version, as per the New York Times - couldn’t find one for the UK)

1: IT, by Stephen King
2: Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy
3: Whirlwind, by James Clavell
4: The Bourne Supremacy, by Robert Ludlum
5: Hollywood Husbands, by Jackie Collins
6: Wanderlust, by Danielle Steel
7: I’ll Take Manhattan, by Judith Krantz
8: Last of the Breed, by Louis L’Amour
9: The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
10: A Perfect Spy, by John le Carré

My favourite book of the year was IT (which I wrote about here)

UK Top 10 Singles

1: Don’t Leave Me This Way, by The Communards

2: Chain Reaction, by Diana Ross

3: I Want To Wake Up With You, by Boris Gardner

4: When The Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going), by Billy Ocean

5: Take My Breath Away, by Berlin

6: The Lady In Red, by Chris De Burgh

7: Papa Don’t Preach, by Madonna

8: Spirit In The Sky, by Doctor & The Medics

9: So Macho, by Sinitta

10: Rock Me Amadeus, by Falco

I liked a lot of these (hey, it was the 80s) but most of my favourites didn’t hit the chart.  I loved the Cliff Richard & The Young Ones version of Living Doll (and still do), Debbie Harry’s French Kissin’ In The USA (written by Chuck Lorre, who went on to create some sit-coms...), the double-whammy from the Bangles (Manic Monday and Walk Like An Egyptian), Livin’ On A Prayer from Bon Jovi, Queen’s A Kind Of Magic, the wonderful Levi-related re-releases from Sam Cooke (Wonderful World) and Jackie Wilson (Reet Petite), Bowie was back (with Absolute Beginners), The Damned had Eloise, Broken Wings from Mr Mister, two crackers from A-ha (The Sun Always Shines On TV and Hunting High And Low), soundtrack favourites Glory Of Love by Peter Cetera and Power Of Love by Huey Lewis and the News, plus Spitting Image’s wonderful The Chicken Song.  My big favourite of the year though was Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer, a cracking song enhanced by a cracking video.

UK Top 10 Albums

1: True Blue, by Madonna
2: Brothers In Arms, by Dire Straits
3: Now 8, by various artists
4: Graceland, by Paul Simon
5: Whitney Houston, by Whitney Houston
6: Now 7, by various artists
7: Hunting High and Low, by a-ha
8: A Kind of Magic, by Queen
9: Silk & Steel, by Five Star
10: Revenge, by Eurythmics

My favourite, which came in at number 39, was Riptide by Robert Palmer.  True Blue, the single, was everywhere that summer, most discos (either school ones or the various 18th birthdays we were going to) played it (as well as The Lady In Red) and it was big at Tymes nightclub too.  It took me a long time to appreciate it again after that kind of overkill (Lady In Red hasn’t fared so well).

1986 events - Highlights and low points (for me and the world at large)

January
7th - The Society Of Motor Manufacturers and Traders announces that more than 1.8 million new cars were sold in the UK during 1985, beating the record set in 1983.  The Ford Escort is the most popular model and all of the 10 top models are built by Ford, Vauxhall or Austin Rover.
The Westland Affair claims big government scalps - Michael Heseltine resigns as Defence Secretary (9th) and Leon Brittan resigns as Tade and Industry Secretary (24th).
19th - the first PC virus, called Brain, starts spreading.  Hardly anyone has a PC.
20th - The UK and France announce plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
24th - Voyager 2 makes its first encounter with Uranus - ha, you said your anus (hey, I was sixteen, it was funny…)

February
3rd - Pixar Animation Studios are opened in California.
10th - I turned 17.
17th - I go to London by bus with my friends Rob Nichols, Mark Guyett, Sean Marshall, Steve Corton and Phil Cross.  We have an excellent time.

In Kettering bus station (also long since demolished), very early in the morning on our way to London.  This was taken with my disc camera, hence the grainy image.  From left - Rob, Sean (Rocky Eye-Vee), Mark, me, Phil

March
10th - the first sanitary towel advert is broadcast on UK TV
30th - the BBC2 TWO ident takes a bow (and stays in place until 1991)

April
5th - Jean Michel Jarre performs Rendezvous Houston in Houston, Texas.  Years later, that will be one of my favourite albums to power walk to.
7th - Clive Sinclair sells the rights to the ZX Spectrum and other inventions to Amstrad.
11th - The Chart Show (the first place I will later see Nirvana perform Smells Like Teen Spirit) debuts on C4.
17th - John McCarthy is kidnapped in Beirut
Also on the 17th, the Three Hundred And Thirty Five Years War between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly is ended by treaty.
26th - Chernobyl.  A mishandled safety test kills “at least 4,056 people and damages almost $7bn of property”.  Radioactive fallout is concentrated near Belarus and Ukraine, leading to 350,000 people being forcibly resettled from those areas.  Tests afterwards showed “traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were found in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere”.

May
21st - My Dad & I start to watch A Very Peculiar Practice.  It is very peculiar indeed.
25th - Sport Aid, supported by Band Aid and UNICEF, organised Run The World, a worldwide event comprising a total of 19.8m runners who ran, jogged or walked 10km to support African famine relief charities.  I ran the local course between Rothwell and Desborough with Nick and Mark (and wrote about it here).

Mark Guyett (centre of picture on the left) and me Run The World

June
12th - Austin Rover is renamed the Rover Group, four years after changing from British Leyland
20th - Montsaye School Lower Sixth trip to Great Yarmouth.  We have a brilliant time.
21st - I finish working at the Co-op (my place of regular employment - after school and on Saturdays - for the past couple of years), which has helped pay for most of my driving lessons.
22nd - Maradona beats England with one sensational goal and one assisted by the ‘Hand Of God’, knocking us out of the World Cup (Argentina go on to win the competition).  Gary Lineker wins the Golden Boot with six goals.
23rd - I start work at Hunters Foods as an accounts clerk.  I meet Craig, who is 2 days younger than me and we instantly become great friends - as well as cinema buddies, we go on holiday together until the early 90s.  I meet Pauline, who would go on to become one of my best friends, on the 27th.

On the beach at Great Yarmouth - from left, James McDonald, Steve Corton, me, Phil Cross, Nick

July
28th - Estate agent Suzy Lamplugh vanishes after a meeting in London.

August
9th - Yorkshire Television (YTV) becomes the first British TV channel to broadcast 24 hours a day.  The other TV regions do likewise over the next two years, leading to scores of 80s nightclub goers coming home to veg out in front of Get Stuffed! and Hitman And Her.

Nick & I at Corton Beach on holiday.  Disc camera, flash, twilight - it wasn't a great combination...

September
GCE ‘O’ Level and CSE’s are replaced by GCSE’s.  I’ve just started work and already my CV makes me look like a dinosaur…
6th - Casualty starts on BBC1.  Thirty years later and it’s still bloody going…
8th - I pass my driving test first time.

October
27th - BBC1 starts a full daytime service.  Before this, apart from covering special events, it closed down during weekday mornings and afternoons, though it broadcast pages from Ceefex starting in May 1983.
‘The Big Bang’ in The London Stock Exchange abolishes fixed commission charges, leading to electronic trading.
29th - The completed M25 (the first section of which opened in 1975) is officially opened.

With my first car, a Vauxhall Viva.  Trust me, white socks and black loafers was a fashionable look back then...

November
UNESCO designates the first World Heritage sites in the UK - England has Durham Castle and Cathedral, Ironbridge Gorge, Studley Royal Park (including the ruins of Fountains Abbey), Stonehenge and Avebury and associated sites.  Northern Ireland is represented by the Giant's Causeway and the Causeway Coast and Wales by the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd.
1st - I buy my first car.  It is both a wonderful passport to independence as well as being a slightly dodgy purchase which lasts me less than a year.
16th - The Singing Detective, by Dennis Potter, debuts.  I remember being astounded by the scope of it but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it since.

Craig Tankard & me, performing a comedy routine we wrote, at the Hunters Foods staff Christmas dinner

December
8th - “If you see Sid, tell him!”  British Gas shares are floated on the Stock Exchange and the initial public offering values the company at £9bn.
17th - Ringo Starr narrates his last ever Thomas The Tank Engine episode.  I won’t actually see any of them for another twenty years, when we start showing them to Dude.

Dad's traditional 'picture of the kids at Christmas' - me, Sarah and Tracy

Thanks for the memories, 1986!

sources:

My diary

UK film releases

Books

UK singles

UK albums

UK TV

UK events

For Tracy

Sometimes, things happen that really take the wind out of your sails.  Sometimes you lose people that mean a great deal to you and it's hard to comprehend that they're not there any more.  Sometimes things happen and you still, years later, can't understand them.

But sometimes, maybe, we can keep those people with us a little longer by ensuring their memory lives on and burns brightly...

Family party in 1981 - my cousin Carl on the left.  I'm not swinging a punch, I've got one of those weird 'magic fish' things on my arm.

On the anniversary of my sister passing away

Junior school photo - 1979

12 years - where did all that time go?

With Mum, Sarah and Auntie Lynn (who was visiting from South Africa), 1987

Thinking of you, TJ.

For Tracy

Tracy and me, Ingoldmells, 1977

On this anniversary of my sister passing away.

Thinking of you, TJ.

Flashback Friday - me & Alison

In 1992, I met a girl called Alison and we became friends, though I fancied her pretty much from the start.  On June 6th we arranged to go to the cinema, with another couple of friends, but they dropped out at the last minute.  We went to The Point at Milton Keynes and booked a double-bill - "Wayne's World" and "Basic Instinct".  I asked her out, when we went for a meal between films, so Paul Verhoven's sleazy shocker was our first film as a couple.

Six years later, on June 6th 1998, we got married.  It was a lovely day and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

This year marks our 16th wedding anniversary and our 22nd as a couple.  Through ups and downs, we've been there for each other and, I'm happy to say, our bond is stronger than ever.

So, my Flashback Friday is my wife & I.  Happy anniversary Alison!

Cutting the cake.  Nick, our best man, takes a breather...

In memory of Tracy, after ten years

Ten years, in terms of anything, is a long time.  People look back over decades and think ‘wow, is that when it happened?’ and then they wonder how that time could pass by so quickly.  I think that often.

It was ten years ago that I was sitting in the canteen at work with a colleague, when the telephone rang.  It was Mum.  She told me she had bad news and I paused, expecting to hear something about my Gran having fallen over or something.  But it was much worse than that.  Mum told me that she was at Leicester hospital, walking back to the car with my Dad and that my sister Tracy was dead. She was 32.

Tracy was two years younger than me and I think we spent most of our childhood (and a good chunk of our teens) fighting like cat and dog, though we were also fiercely protective of one another.  She developed MS late, a few months into 2003 and suffered upwards of six relapses as the year wore on.

An active person - she was a riding instructress - I can’t imagine how awful the lengthy hospital stays must have been for her, but I never really heard her complain about it.  At the time, Alison & I were trying for a child and Tracy kept track of our appointments at the hospital, asking how things were going and trying to gee us up as each month passed. Visiting her at Leicester Infirmary was often a difficult experience - I loved to make her laugh and would do pretty much anything in the pursuit of that - and it was painful to see her try and do things as her body rebelled against her.

But things seemed to be improving - we saw her on the Sunday and she was sitting up in bed, bright and lucid and Mum & Dad found the same thing on the Monday evening.  We had high hopes for these signs of recovery but on the morning of November 25th, 2003 (my Dad’s 60th birthday), she collapsed beside her bed.  The cause of death was later given as a pulmonary embolism.

I left work, got Alison and we went straight to Mum & Dad’s house that day.  Our younger sister Sarah was in Derby at Uni at the time so I drove us all up there to deliver the news. We arrived just before she got home and she got out of her car and seemed excited, as if we’d all gone up to see her for Dad’s birthday. Until Dad went across the road and told her the real reason.

Tracy’s funeral service was held in the Parish church in Rothwell - I’ve never seen so many people in there - and I read the eulogy. The burial was held at the little cemetery on the edge of town and it was a cold, dank day. Afterwards, we went back to the Trinity Centre for tea and some food. Nick was with us (he and Tracy got on really well), staying overnight at ours and supervising the taped music at the service. At the wake, he busied himself making sure that everyone had a drink and something to eat, whilst the rest of us just seemed to reel around and try to connect with people.

Since then, Dad hasn’t been keen to celebrate his birthday, which is understandable and instead we have a quiet gathering of the family, which has grown in ten years - Sarah married Chris and they had Lucy & Milly, we had Dude.  A lot has happened since then but it really does seem like only yesterday.

I miss Tracy a lot, as do Mum & Dad and Sarah and Alison.  Matthew never met her but he knows who she was and what she meant to me and he keeps an eye out for Snoopy stuff because he knows she loved it.

That’s all I can do, I think - talk about her and make sure that her memory continues to burn brightly and I will try and do that forever.

Ten years and gone too soon, I miss you Tracy.

Alison, Mum, Tracy and Dad, on the London Eye, March 2003

Happy Easter

Dude made us an Easter card and it's lovely.  The message is beautiful, the front cover is a vividly coloured egg, the whole thing is great.  On the inside cover, he's drawn a little conversation between him, me and Alison and this is a picture of it.

Note how Alison looks good and says nice things.  Then notice that I'm bald and just say "YEAH! Dude!"  I love that kid!

Happy birthday to my sister

Tracy would have been 42 years old today.

Yet if you should forget me for a while 

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave 

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, 

Better by far you should forget and smile 

Than that you should remember and be sad. 

--- Christina Rossetti 

The Passage of time

Today is my lovely Dad’s 69th birthday, we’ve bought him gifts, we’ve got him cards but apart from a small cake, we won’t be celebrating in as much style as I’d like to.

Today is the 9th anniversary of my sister Tracy passing away.  Sometimes it doesn’t feel like nine years since I had that phone call at work, from Mum who was standing in the car park at Leicester, red raw with emotion and running on sorrow and fear and grief.  Other times it does - we now have Dude, Lucy and baby Milly, Sarah is married to Chris, we’re back in Rothwell - but neither state seems or feels right.

Today I shall celebrate the life of my Dad, who is the nicest, kindest man I know and I shall mourn the passing of my sister, who was my constant companion - and often bitter enemy - through my childhood.

Most of all, I’ll give thanks to the fact that I’m part of a loving, warm and incredibly supportive family, who picked me up when I needed it and allowed me to try and pick them up when they needed it too.  Happy birthday to my Dad, a million hugs and kisses and warm thoughts to my beloved Mum & Dad on this day and a hug to my sister, gone but never forgotten.

Us outside Madame Tussauds, March 2003 (Sarah didn't make the trip)

Bonfire night

A conversation yesterday:

Dude:  Dad, can you get some sparklers on your way home from work?
Me:     Yes, of course I will

(later)

Dude: Yay, sparklers.

Me:    Okay, hold still, I'm just going to light it.
Dude: Light it? What're you doing, are you setting fire to it? Dad, what're you doing?

(by the last sparkler in the pack, he was enjoying himself...)

What Gets Left Behind, Darker Minds, London and Exmoor (a round-up)

It’s been a while, sorry about that, so here’s an update.

Thoroughly enjoyed the Olympics, a superb display of both athletic prowess and behind-the-scenes organisation. Watching Jessica Ennis, Bradley Wiggins, Greg Rutherford, Mo Farrah and everyone else push themselves to their limits, speak frankly and honestly about their perceived forthcomings and deal with the whole experience with a sense of fairplay and good sportsmanship was wonderful. Dude & I watched the early evening show most nights and he loved the swimming and the cycling, especially since we’re biking a lot more now and swimming too. Great stuff.

me & Dude - astronuts!
Had our family holiday - a week of day trips which included the excellent National Space Centre in Leicester (which is well worth a visit) and a day in London where Dude pronounced the Shaftesbury Avenue Forbidden Planet as the “best shop ever”. Not because I did a signing in there, oh no, but because he picked up a handbook with full details of 640 Pokemon characters!

In Covent Garden
We spent a week at Doniford Bay, just down the road from lovely Watchet and the beautiful town of Minehead (if you go, try Mullions restaurant, we had a fantastic meal there). We all loved it there and made regular trips across Exmoor (Lynmouth was another West family favourite - both Dude & I loved the funicular railway) - I think, if I write any more seaside based tales, I will be using Minehead as the basis.

On Exmoor
In writing news, the Darker Minds anthology - edited by Ross Anthony Warren and Anthony Watson - has been published and it looks fantastic. A great Ben Baldwin cover, crisp design and beautiful production, it’s a real treat to be included in the ToC (with my story “Looking At Me, Seeing You”). The inestimable Jim Mcleod is ‘real-time reviewing’ it and has these kind words to say about my tale - “I love Mark West's writing, especially when he is writing stories like this. Where Gary [McMahon] is a master of brutal dark brutal horror, Mark is a master if quite soulful, and heartbreaking horror.”

In addition, I’ve been asked to contribute to an anthology (this one about demons) and have signed a contract for another (about things in the dark) and I’m still trying to work up my pitch for a new novel. Plus, of course, there’s the little matter of my Spectral Press chapbook - What Gets Left Behind - being published in September (and it’s been sold out for months - wahey!)