Do you have anything which you keep about you – practical or not – in order to remind yourself of something you’ve experienced, achieved, or learned?
If so, what, and what does it remind you of?
Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
Do you have anything which you keep about you – practical or not – in order to remind yourself of something you’ve experienced, achieved, or learned?
If so, what, and what does it remind you of?
Yes, I probably have quite a few, but there’s one that ticks a lot of boxes. Back in prehistoric times, when I was a teenager, our family had a really different Christmas in a tented camp on an island in the middle of a lake in the north of Kenya – semi-desert country. It was heaven for a family interested in Geology and wildlife, but truly hot as hell, with steaming vents, and alkaline waters full of flamingos and other birds. An extraordinary place!
At the camp in the evening there was birdsong of so many knds, but relative safety from the larger wildlife that came to drink on the shores of the lake around us. There was a tame owl – rescued after an injury – that sat in the shelter and stared at us, and when I later found a stone owl that looked just like it, I had to buy it, not that I need anything to remind me of that amazing trip! The Italian alabaster owl (carved from rock showing at least three different coloured minerals) now sits on my desk, flanked by two cats from Russia and Portugal.
So, as for boxes ticked: holiday memories, geology, travel in many parts of the world, my childhood collection of cats, and my favourite poem – ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’.
Nice!
I have the car badge of a specific Honda Prelude. I don’t like to display it. I don’t even like to look at it. But I need to have it, apparently.
Several times I’ve gone to throw it out, in a tidy-up purge, but pull my hand back from over the bin at the last moment.
Interesting! Do you know why? (Bait for a Prelude-trap? Car-murdering trophy? First installment of a whole Prelude?)
It’s from the one that broke my body and my brain, in 2001. Technically, I suppose it would have been the chip seal 70ft from the rear windscreen that did that, but it feels more rational to blame the car. They’re easier to personify.
A bit like Stephen King buying the truck which hit him – a trophy of survival, perhaps?
Sounds as good a theory as any.
Probably a healthier approach than keeping a chunk of the driver! Certainly more hygienic…