“I am not the only traveller
Who has not repaid his debt
I’ve been searching for a trail to follow again
Take me back to the night we met”
Benjamin Emery Schneider
We watched a film called Omni Loop this week. We watched better films as well, Sky High, and The Hunger Games – The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Sky High is an old family favourite from when the kids were kids and we’d watch several times over any holiday. It’s about a school for young superheroes and sidekicks and we all know most of the dialogue and having watched it this week for the first time in ages it has passed the test of time. The Hunger Games prequel was excellent and I think was better than any of the actual Hunger Games movies.
Omni Loop wasn’t as good as either of those, and yet it has stuck with me and made me think. The basic premise of the film is a scientist who is dying but just before she dies she takes a pill which takes her back 5 days in time. She then repeats this process indefinitely, trying to figure out a way to go further back and change her life. It is very thought provoking and the ending is still with me now , a few days later. I won’t give it away in case you fancy giving it a try.
If , for some bizarre/sci-fi/biblical/spider bite reason I had to re-live a five day period ideally it would be a long weekend, starting on Friday, with the kids all home. I’d go to Parkrun on the Saturday morning chat over coffee with my friends, call to Mum and Dad’s for a cup of tea and a chat, then home to make lunch for everyone. In the afternoon I’d maybe mow the lawn, or trick around at something for a while, like maybe attempting to impress Jake and Elliott with doing something mechanical/practical, fail spectacularly, and decide to sit out the back with them and drink beer instead. We’d be joined by my Soulmate, Robyn, and Teresa , and we would all chat and for some mysterious reason they will all gang up on me.
I’ll go inside and make dinner for everyone. We’ll sit at the kitchen table , have dinner, chat and listen to music. Robyn will add 100 songs by Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon, Carole King, CMAT, and The Pillow Queens to my playlist while I’m not looking. I will start to give out to her and my Soulmate will squeeze my hand and I will stop. My Soulmate will hold hands under the table while we listen to the giddy banter of the kids. I will sleep a good sleep.
I’ll have a lie in on Sunday morning which will be cut short because Gareth is calling over to see the kids. I’ll make lunch. There will be 4 different kinds of sausages, but as I’m cooking them I’ll forget which is which. We will have lunch, then we’ll saunter over to Mam & Dad’s. Mam & Dad will show old photos of me as a child. There will be a long discussion about my Ladybird Mackintosh coat and how that was the last time I was dressed properly. Dad will show my Soulmate things in his garden that I should do in mine. I won’t. Robyn and Mam will sit beside each other and conspire and laugh a lot.
When we get home we will all shower and change and go into The Pig for dinner. We will have a lovely meal, Ray will slag me off to impress the kids. My Soulmate will encourage him. We’ll come home again and play Uno. I will suggest that my Soulmate and Robyn are not allowed to sit beside each other, as I always suffer when they do. I am ignored. Robyn wins Uno, and my Soulmate comes second. I light a fire and we watch an old movie, which I fall asleep to.
We will all have the next day off. This will be a wonderfully lazy day. Everyone will potter about. I will catch up on Dr.Who and The Last of Us. Then I’ll make dinner and we will sit again around the table and swap old stories. Everyone will watch another movie together and then they will drift off to bed and I will stay up until silly o’clock watching a music programme, such as ‘Hidden Gems from The BBC’ and I will look up the songs on Spotify and WhatsApp them to the family.
The next day the kids are due to leave.
I will take the pill/say a prayer/ kick the flux capacitor/ be bitten by a spider and it will be Friday again, and I will be thrilled.
Yes, that was my weekend , last weekend. Elliott was 21. Every one was home. We had family dinners every night. Everyone was giddy. It was perfect and will live long in our memories. But it can’t be repeated, so we’ll just have to make new memories and have adventures that we can tell each other about the next time we all gather.
Enjoy today.
Toodles,
Paul
P.S. This is perhaps the only song that Teresa and I both like. It’s gorgeous…and I liked it first ! This is Lord Huron’s “Take Me Back To The Night We Met”
