It’s been a hectic few weeks in my Small little world with another fantastic and memorable time passing into the annals of memory. I said annals there by the way if you read that wrong. It all began with a party, which is always a good place to start I’m sure you agree. It was to celebrate Charlotte and I being together for ten years and we were lucky enough to have many of our friends and family come to help us mark the occasion.
We had people living all over the place come along; Nottingham, London, Bristol, Madrid and even as far flung as Seattle. Our Seattle contingent, Stacy and Jerry, have been close friends of ours for over ten years. Whilst they were over here we spent a little time reminiscing about some of the amazing things and wonderful places we’ve been to over the years. From travelling around Washington state, camping in British Columbia, Canada, road tripping from Seattle to San Francisco and back, meeting up in Barcelona and Berlin, staying on a boat in Amsterdam, we’ve been lucky enough to have some fantastic trips and experiences with our Seattle friends.
While we were getting all nostalgic, looking at photos and laughing at how much thinner I was and how young we all looked it struck me that the last ten years has flown by. It seems like only last year that Charlotte and I got on a plane and went to Seattle together for the first time when in fact it’s been the best part of a decade. The older you get the faster time passes it seems.
While I think using the phrase carpe diem can sound a bit pretentious, there is certainly a lot to the meaning behind it. There’s shitloads of stuff I still want to do but I’m more than easily led down the path of indolence by the likes of games consoles, alcohol and a general tendency towards procrastination. I want to write music, write a book, go travelling, lose weight even, but I need to get onto these things soon because at this rate I’ll blink and be sixty next week.
These feelings of not wanting my life to slip by without having a good crack at the things I want to do were made even more poignant today when I learned some shocking news. An old friend has been diagnosed with stage four cancer at the age of thirty‑eight. She’s a wonderful person I hung out with in my late teens and early twenties who made me laugh a lot, sharing my dark sense of humour and love of rock music, particularly the band Soundgarden. She’s staying positive and meeting the challenge of getting well head on, something that doesn’t surprise me about her in the slightest. Where I admired her before I admire her even more now, given how she’s dealing with things. I wish you well my friend and have all my available bits crossed you’ll make a full recovery. Kick that fucker into touch.
So one thing I urge you to do, as the saying goes, is don’t put off until tomorrow what can be done today. Time really doesn’t wait for anyone and before you know it you could be staring back at a life of unfulfilled potential or be hit by something that changes the life you know. Start that book you’ve always wanted to write, have those guitar lessons, learn that language you always said you would, or even just stop shovelling someone else’s shit for a while and take time for yourself. We’re not here long, some have less time than others so we really should make an effort to do the things we aspire to do. And remember to make time for the people you love, don’t put things off until next week, month, year, it may be too late to by the time you get around to it.
To quote the character Chip from the Taco Cart Productions film Girl Trouble, ‘you gotta take this bitch by the balls.’
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