Wednesday 1 October 2008

First Love


Today I'd intended to write Moonshine this morning, then go to the lunch time session of Weight Watchers, and then (after the crying had stopped) be dutiful, and spend the afternoon alternately writing and concocting inedible (see Fine Dining blog entry!) little lo-cal meals to pop in the freezer.

As always with my higgledy-piggledy life, this didn't happen.

What did happen was a) My Weekly rang and asked if I'd like to be a feature in their Christmas Special. I misheard this and thought they'd asked me to write a feature, so we talked at cross-purposes for ages and I made a bit of a prat of myself, frankly. Anyway, once we'd sorted out that they wanted someone to interview me about my writing life (WHAT writing life???) and they'd be ringing me to do this on Friday, and I'd got all excited and a bit big-headed, there was just time to grab a small Toblerone (eaten standing up so the calories wouldn't count for Weight Watchers) and head off to the spare bedroom. Then b) happened...

b) was the Daily Express. They wanted to do a feature too. (Think that the lovely and efficient Little,Brown publicity girl is working overtime - bless her. I've never been so popular - and certainly never had TWO national publications approach me on the same day). This time it's going to be on my childhood. And I had to provide them with notes so that when they rang me we'd all know what we were taking about. Well, they might - I never do.

So, by the time I'd stopped preening and showing-off and smirking smugly, and rapped out a few notes about my youth and emailed them, it was too late for Weight Watchers and I hadn't actually even opened the Moonshine file. So I ate two more (small) Toblerones. And then there was c)...

c) was the Sunday Telegraph. And my admiration for my publicity girl knew no bounds!!! They wanted a 1,000 word article on My First Love (human, not animal - otherwise it would have been my cat, Smokey Seaward, at the age of 7). And they wanted it today. And that's where the rest of the day has gone... lost in blissful dewy memories of Being A Teenager In Love. 1,000 words wasn't enough! I got goose-bumps just thinking about how we met, and all that starry-eyed obsession. Remembering all those lovely, wonderful, mad, never-to-be forgotten moments... Writing and deleting and writing again about how it feels to be madly, truly, deeply in love for the first time ever... Re-living every glorious minute, hearing the umpteen "our tunes" in my head, picturing his face, his smile, his long legs and Hendrix-hair... I sent it just now, smiling nostalgically, but oh, it's been a wonderful way not to write Moonshine or find out how fat I am...

Now I have to go and be a grown-up again and feed the cats and find a suitable pierce-and-ping for The Toyboy Trucker's tea and I'll probably be able to force another Toblerone in there too - but at the moment I'm still 17 and wildly, dreamily, soppily in love...

5 comments:

Jayne said...

What an amazing day you've had! Fantastic... I hope you don't mind me reading and commenting.....I'm fairly normal and not very scary I promise!

Christina Jones said...

thanks mummy - and yes, it has been a bit of a blast today - and no I don't think you're scary, and yes, I'm chuffed to bits that you read the blog and comment. Please, please don't stop.

Jayne said...

Oh OK, then :) I feel a bit like I'm peeping round your front door! Feel free to peep around my blog door...if you have a minute between writing for the Express and the Telegraph, of course! Hope today is as successful for you as yesterday :D

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

What an incredible day you've had!

I know how you feel re first love and can imagine that glorious feeling.

My first cat (and second, and of course third) were all called Smokey Joe. Not sure why I insisted calling them all by the same name now, strange child that I was.

Best of luck with the interview.

Christina Jones said...

mummy - I've been to your blog and tiptoed through it - it's great and Bean sounds gorgeous... I'll be back!!!

debs - thanks for the good wishes, and yes it was a great day - but it's a miracle we're not all insane the way each day is either a real upper or a complete downer!!! I don't need anything else to confuse me as you well know... Don't think I could call another cat by the same name actually - but friends of my parents had three daughters all called Tessa... True! Aaaah - first love... so long ago and so bitter-sweet... guess we've all been there and still remember???