SPECIAL MOMENTS

Life can sometimes be about tiny, special little moments.

When all the drudge and banality of the everyday and the routine are brushed aside and forgotten, it’s those perfect little nuggets that made the day memorable and slightly different from all the others that we hang on to.

I was reminded of this last night.

Yesterday had managed in all sorts of ways to remain something of a table wine of a day rather than a rare vintage. Things plodded along with the usual monotony, the stuff that happens most days happened again… brewing the kettle, working, watching the telly, brushing the teeth, all that sort of thing. There were some distinguishing moments along the way - A jolly little personal email (I don’t get that many, alright?), A couple of tetchy little conflicts narrowly avoided when my car turned out to be not quite as blocked in as it first appeared to be (twice), Some ongoing family irritations – but nothing that was going to place that particular Tuesday up amongst the all-time greats.

Fairly late on in the evening I had to venture out to collect the beloved from the Railway Station (do we still call them that by the way?) because she was attending her irregular evening book group, and so I trudged out into the darkness of another chilly evening and extricated the car from the Gordian knot of other vehicles and headed off into the night.

As I walked to the car, by the way, the stars were dazzlingly clear and rather impressive to see yesterday evening, but that wasn’t the “special moment” I’m referring to. Still, I can never resist a chance to encourage a bit of stargazing when I can. (Now of course, the so-called “special moment” will come as a bit of a letdown won’t it? How can anything else compare with the infinite majesty of the heavens…? Oh well…). Actually, they grumped me out a little as stars at night usually means windscreen ice scraping the following morning, but they didn’t grump me that much because they were so beautiful after all…

I parked at the station a few minutes early and decided to put the radio on. At the exact second I switched on, the very first note of The Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” kicked in.

No DJ prattle, nothing, just the song, which just happens to be one of my very favourites.

Two and a half minutes of musical heaven followed (I think it’s got something to do with a particularly brilliant drum fill at just the right moment that just seems utterly perfect) and then the train pulled in and I could switch the radio off again.

I could go on about the incredible coincidence of the appropriateness of the song to the whole book group theme here, and the impeccable timing, but I won’t. In all truthfulness it’s not even my absolute favourite Beatles track, and if I’d been organised enough to grab a CD before I headed out (Old school, me. Another analogue bloke in a digital age… Crikey! CDs are “old school” now, are they? I remember when they started appearing as the next big thing. Apparently some of the very early ones – especially ones by Phil Collins - are now self-destructing which shows that they’re rather discerning technology, too), I don’t think it would even have been a Beatles one that I selected.

But, at that moment, it just seemed so right and so bright and so full of brio and gusto and so utterly cheerful that it quite made my evening.

I’m trying to be short, pithy and to the point this icy morning. I know you’re busy people who don’t need to fill up your own moments with one of mine, but I really do hope you manage to find at least one of your own special moments today.