Sunday 22 March 2009

Arrival



A track that always brings tears to my eyes, and would make a wonderful wedding march.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did you see them on tour in Australia when you were a teen, Zoe?

bint alshamsa said...

I never thought about this as a wedding march, but now that you've mentioned it, I think it would be just perfect!

Zoe Brain said...

Nica, in that respect I was never a teen. Never went to a concert. Never dated. Never "hung out with friends", as the only friends I had I'd see during school hours, and never afterwards. I only ever knew where one of them lived - the closest, a 5 hour walk away. I went to his home twice, as I recall. In 6 years.

My routine from age 12 was to catch the 6am bus, probably be late for school, read in the library at recess, catch the 3.45pm bus, arrive home at 5.30, do homework, watch TV if there was something good on, have a bath, go to bed. And yes, do some crying sometimes in my room because of the whole TS and puberty bit. Not often though, my mother was ill, and the family was relying on me and my academic achievements. Didn't have time.

Vacations, I'd read a lot, and except in winter, walk the few miles to the beach to snorkel, on my own.

Not being with others helped me keep my mind off my situation.

I figured that I'd learn about this "socialisation" stuff when I went to Uni, but initially at least, that was more of the same. Except I got off at 5, so wasn't back till at least 8. The 9am lectures were murder, I kept on falling asleep. And of course, money was pretty tight. I skipped a lot of meals to have the money for textbooks, and owning a car was completely out of the question. $76.92 a month was my budget, and $42 of that had to go on busfares.

So something like a concert ticket may as well have cost a million dollars. I'd treat myself, and get a $1.45 subsidised meal from the Students Union once a week, but some weeks, I didn't have enough for that.

When I was 19, I stayed in college, so things were better. But I also had medical problems that kept me in hospital much of the time.

So I've never been to a bar, or a nightclub, or a rock concert, or "hung out" at a milkbar. Maybe next life. :)

Zoe Brain said...

bint! Thanks so much for dropping by. You've been an inspiration to me, by the way.

Anonymous said...

someones talking about you:
http://carolyn-ann.blogspot.com/2009/03/back-in-real-world.html

Anne O'Namus

Anonymous said...

I am going to have to take you to a concert some day, kiddo. :)