It’s an interesting word isn’t it? Nostalgia, the sense of looking back fondly. Then we have the word reminiscence, from an entirely different root, which means virtually the same thing. And very few other languages have words at all to compare with these unless they rob from English. We have an infinitely wonderful language that draws from Latin, Greek, Arabic, German/Dutch, Scandinavian, ancient sub-continental, modern American and so on. Anyway the point is I had a feeling of wistfulness (another lovely synonym) today when I listened to Beautiful South singer Jacqui Abbott on Radio 2 talking abut the Tracks of her Years. She recalled happily (I’ll stop doing similar phrases now) a song which her mum loved and played a lot – And I Love You So – sung originally by Don McLean. It is a haunting little tune for sure
Tag Archives: opera
verona
I’ve mentioned earlier about leaving BT. Paul S who worked with me and is just the best guy I know in the company, organised a great do at the top of the BT Tower for my 30th anniversary. It was a ‘This is Your Life’ theme and dozens of the people I’d worked with over that time were there. They’d even organised a live video-link up with my first boss B at Cellnet who now lives in Annapolis USA and who is married to my last boss in BT, S, before joining his team. It was all very poignant but it was also when I realised that it was time to show some ambition and move on. I’m nothing if not impetuous. It took a little while to agree my leaving arrangements, thanks largely to S my last boss in BT. She was brilliant. So to the leaving do – Paul S a big influence again. This time it was just my closest colleagues and business contacts but still a great, great do. I made an embarrassing speech about a former boss which I hope wasn’t recorded and celebrated with lots of wine. Lots. Next morning I woke up to find a huge selection of cool leaving presents but the most intriguing was a pair of best tickets to the Opera at Verona, date at our convenience. It seemed a long way from working vacations on the ovens at Mothers Pride bakery in Blackpool. Continue reading