So, I walked out of the toilets of The Corner Hotel on Friday night and forgot where I was.
Frighteningly sober: something that an old me and The Corner wouldn’t have been together. But the current me had driven the 7 seater family car along the Geelong road to remember another time. To be reminded that there is a whole other world after swimming lessons on a friday night. One that doesn’t collapse into pyjamas and herbal tea by 8:00pm. Rather, this world paints their lashes, orders whisky and wine, and stands on the rooftop of Richmond talking of lives lived long ago.
I made the trek to see an old friend of mine play. And play she did.
She played alone.
She played with a known.
She played with a few unknowns.
There was a marriage proposal and some knitting. A teapot was played.
But in the organised randomness, it was the tardis of the toilet that grabbed me.
I didn’t really need to go to the toilet. But while trying to be the hipster I thought I once was, I forgot the fundamental difference between a 20 year old spine and a 40 something one. My young spine never needed a seat. But my older one was getting bitey after it’s 3rd hour of holding me upright – and the only seat available was that which was connected to a cistern.
So in I went.
After a wee and a cheeky forward bend – I felt straighter, younger, lighter. And walked out of said toilet.
Into a room full of cheesy casio pop beats, upturned palms and shrugging shoulders.
My friend on stage had her hair thrown up in a side pony while wearing sunnies covering most of her face. As she Pumped Up the Jam so too did the inner pop dag that resides within us all – hipster or family car driver. I had no idea where I was.
Or what year it was.
And in that blur of dark pulsing lights, I was reminded that we are where we are today because of who we were yesterday.
Think forward bends, shoulder openers and inversions.
I have listened to my friend sing for over 15 years. Most of that was in the front room of a shared house in Fitzroy. She sang beautiful ballads and cheesy covers then. She sings beautiful ballads and cheesy covers still now. There is something eternal and unchanging which resides within her.
And when I see her -with her chocolate voice and her open heart – sing the songs that have shaped her inside and out,I am reminded of the young 20 year old with the spine that didn’t need to sit. Of the hipster that I thought I was.
And the comfortable place that we both dwell in now.
After too little sleep, I woke on saturday to unpack the wet and now kinda smelly swimming bag from the previous night.
After too little sleep, my friend woke to her twin boys’ birthday party shenanigans.
And while we are now a little different to who we were, I feel a little more awake about who I am.
And when asked what the 6 small folk around my kitchen table what they would like on their pancakes on Saturday morning?
“Jam.”
Indeed.
Pump it up.
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