Having supper with Michelle Shocked

The Dyson man is away up in the Heilan's working for a couple of days, so it's just me and the Rockster for supper. I meant to finish early and be home about 6pm, but it has just been so crazy busy this summer, and my desk is awash with piles of paper so I just couldn't get away any earlier than 7pm, which is my official finish time.

Coming home, starving, to an empty house is no way to end a busy day! I had a quick rummage in the fridge, debated whether to make do with a bowl of cereal, but decided on a slice of a rather nice red pepper and chorizo Spanish omelette with some salad. A bottle of chilled Sol to wash it down, and the last few pages of my Stephen King, 'Doctor Sleep' to read as I ate. (I love Stephen King, but have kind of fallen away from him for a bit, so this book has been a rare treat - one of those that you seize the minute you open your eyes in the morning, and makes you stay up far too late at night.)

Anyway, as I'm enjoying a quick and tasty bite to eat, Jo Wiley popped on Michelle Shocked doing 'Anchorage'. Instant nostalgia! I don't know what she is doing nowadays, but whenever I hear her, and particularly that track, I remember October 1987 when I went abroad for the first ever time with Mrs Family Dog, now mother of the Bandits.

Abi was 12 then, and the only kid in her class who had not been abroad so I booked us a week in a lovely wee Spanish resort called Calella de Palafrugell on the Costa Brava. Only snag was, due to my penniless single-parent status, I could only afford to get us there if we went by coach.

It was a torturous journey; all the way from Perth to Dover in a coach, ferry over to Calais, and then coaching through France and down into Spain. The air conditioning broke down, so there was condensation running down the inside of the windows, there was some kind of problem with the fuel line which meant we could only drive about 40 mph, and the journey ended up taking about 40 solid hours of driving. By the time we got there my legs were swollen to about twice their normal width, and took about three days to go back to normal!

But - the saving grace was that I had been given a (height of technology at the time) a Sony Walkman cassette player, and Abi and I took turns listening to the 4 cassettes we took with us. One of them was a NOW compilation, one was T'Pau (the one with China in my Hand on), I think there was a Bros tape, and - thankfully - lovely Michelle Shocked. I can't even remember the name of that album now, but it saved my life!

That's it! As soon as I get off Blip I'm going to walk the dog, then come back and look for that tape! It's time me and Michelle met up again ......