27/06/2011

Too good to be forgotten?

Of course, it's not only people I don't know approaching me that cause confusion (see previous post)...

There I was, walking down the Toll Road (the most salubrious location in Harrow), when I recognised a couple walking towards me. Hadn't seen them since 1976. Had been her flatmate's boyfriend for two years, had lived next door to her for a year, had been present on the day that he had moved into the road and met her for the first time.

"Chris? Anne?" I greeted them. "You haven't changed a bit, blah blah".

We agreed that no-one had changed, blahed for ages, they told me how their kids were doing, I told them about mine.

And all the time, I failed to notice that tiny gleam of panic in both their eyes. Not that they only had one eye each, but "all four of their eyes" seems like such an odd thing to say, doesn't it?

So when, having not seen them for 35 years, I then bumped into Chris a week later in Waitrose (do I have any life outside of Waitrose?) and greeted him with "Small world", he had to admit that neither he nor Anne had any idea who I was.

I have noticed them in the aisles of Waitrose a few times since then. As if by unspoken mutual arrangement, we avoid bumping into each other.

2 comments:

Martin McCallion said...

You do realise that this is a sketch from Absolutely, don't you? :-)

Mike said...

Absolutely? Ermmm... I have just googlesd it, and I never saw it (sorry Channel 4, but your comedy outpt is, on the whole, a bit hit-and-miss). I recognised the name John Sparkes though - I am surehe managed to get himself on a talent show many, many years ago, claiming to be a ventriloquist whose vent's dummy was a brick.

Pinches of salt not provided...

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