No Jolly meetings in Hot town, summery in the city - 2017

21.  What is something you miss doing that you can’t do now?

I have binge watched the American Office over the past few months (I never finished the U.K. one because I can’t stand Ricky Gervais). I saw the last episode yesterday and one of the characters (Andy) said, “why can’t you know you’re living in the good old days while they’re happening?” Such a true statement! I try to enjoy the things that I can do at whatever time is the current time but here are a few that I miss.

I miss not having to think about what to cook every single day (of course, then it was my mum’s issue) but those days were a looooong time ago.

Taking of my mum, i miss talking to her. It’s coming up to the 21st anniversary of the last time we spoke. I phoned her on Friday night to chat about Christmas but she’d just come in from shopping and the freezer hadn’t closed properly, everything was melting and she couldn’t talk. She said we’d talk on Sunday. On Sunday my sister visited and we were out so I didn’t call my mum. If I had I’d have reached the answer phone just like my nana did as she called over and over and over again, the dementia making each call the first in her mind, but in each call she also sounded more frantic. My siblings and I listened to every one of those messages (more than 50) because my parents hadn’t turned up with her evening meal. That evening they were driving to her from a Christmas party and something went wrong with the car. It stalled in the wrong place and they ended up in an accident. I haven’t seen my mum since.

I’ve lived near the beach twice in my life: at college in Scarborough and as an au pair in Florida. I utterly took it for granted! Although it’s only 1.5 hours to our nearest decent beach (traffic permitting), it’s still a little too far to make it a regular outing when you’ve got teenagers to get ready (because despite being teens, the younger one is still too young to be left alone for that long and the older one can’t be left alone for that long for her own reasons). It’s a little over two hours to my absolutely favourite beach. So yes, I miss being able to pop to the beach rather than making a big palaver over it.

And lastly, Covid related, I miss gigging. R (my husband) and I love going out to see bands. We go to Bristol which has a fabulous music scene. We haven’t been to a gig in two years now. The next ones we had lined up fell during the first lockdown. Some were outright cancelled and some were postponed. R will be going to a gig in a couple of weeks though. He’s going to see the Libertines. He spent some time weighing it up, they’re one of his favourite bands and he didn’t think he’d ever get to see them. I don’t want to see them, I’m not enough of a fan, so I’m not going. Of course, with their reputation it’s still up in the air whether they’ll actually turn up for the gig!! But yes, I miss seeing the likes of Riley Walker, The Correspondents (although they no longer exist as one of the members died a year ago), Poliça, Warpaint, Julienne Baker and so many more in venues small and medium, being at the front and dancing and singing along.

One more thing I miss is painting my toenails. That is why I’m putting so much dedicated warfare into the phight against Phil the Phungus.