Memories

We live a few miles from Shell's Stanlow Refinery where the striking tankers drivers are currently holding court. Just before lunchtime today, I was on my hands and knees in the garden when I heard horns sounding for what must have been a mini support protest. The horns reminded me the Neil Diamond song Beautiful Noise. It didn't actually take much to remind me of that, as after last Saturday, Neil Diamond been playing in my head all week. From there my memory took me back to New Year's Eve 1999/New Year's Day 2000 when between midnight and one am we stood out in the garden of our house in Surrey and watched the fireworks in the Guildford area light up the sky whilst the continual spluttering of the fireworks filled the air. Then my memory took me even further back to New Year's Eve/New Year's Day as a child, when I remember lying in bed and hearing the horns of the tug boats on the River Humber welcoming in the New Year.

My memory was still working when I flicked through the travel section of The Times and spotted a photograph and article about Lake Annecy in France which brought back memories of my first skiing holiday. On the journey home from Courcheval to the airport we drove by Lake Annecy busy with sailing dinghies on a warm Spring day. Then it was onto the sports section of The Times. Here I read about the Artois tennis tournament which reminded me of the first weekend that I spent in Chester exactly five years ago. I remember watching some of it on the grainy old portable television in the uncomfortable flat that my husband rented when he first moved up here, before we sold our house and I moved up to join him.

Enough of memories and daydreams and back to the here and now. This afternoon I needed to concentrate on the garden.