The mug of tea in the photo was made specifically to assist me in writing this post, not as a procrastination activity. It is 10.20 am, I have been up and busy since 6.45 am and, to blow my own trumpet, I have achieved a lot already, both chores and a walk for coffee.
Yesterday’s chapter most definitely was not a work of literary genius, but still better than chapter 1. I wrote about knickerbocker glory, my childhood birthday dessert. It led me down thought-paths I hadn’t expected to discover, one of which featured a photo from my sixth-ish birthday. My friends and I are sitting on a picnic blanket in my parents’ garden, probably post-knickerbocker-glory. I only still know one of them, Alex. I wonder what the others are doing now and whether, after so long not knowing each other, we would have any kind of connection if we met again now.
Writing a memoir based on memory triggers, mainly objects rather than food, is proving to be a fascinating and thought-provoking experience for me. Chapters 1 to 10 are items from my first decade. I am yet to feel any sense of melancholy, which is the negative that I associate with looking through old photographs, but maybe that will come in the rose-tinted 20s, chapters 21 to 30. For now, I’m enjoying thinking about things that I remember fondly from my first decade of life, and, no, I do not really have specific memories of most events in my zeroes.
Chapter 4 is going to be about my Wendy house, which was made for me by my parents and is still standing, though on borrowed time, at the bottom of my mum’s garden.