Whilst clearing out and packing to move West, I came across an old notebook that I had ingeniously entitled 'Philosophies, Phrases and Pheelings'. Its purpose was for me to write down, not only my philosophies of life, phrases I'd heard or 'pheelings' I felt at the time, but also of those around me. It was 1987 and I was at boarding school at Mill Hill in North London (incidentally, dear reader, where I met Mr. M). This made me 17 or 18 years old at the time and OH MY, CHRIST ALIVE! What an tormented, dramatic 17 and 18 year old I was. I'm amazed I had any friends at all (let alone met my future husband).
It is now safely packed away in the attic of our new house and will not be seen again unless I need another really good laugh, so I cannot, unfortunately, give you accurate extracts but they went along the lines of..
'Why can't I just be happy!' and 'I'm so depressed because I can't have ....... (insert any boys name.. I seemed to have fallen in and out of love quicker than you can say 'Anguished Annie'.
(Above is an extract from a photo I took of it when I found it... SO DRAMATIC!!)
But the one phrase from that nugget of a notebook of my 17 year old life, that really struck me was this little gem...
'I only ever see one Magpie..'
I unfortunately cannot take the credit for this masterpiece of a one liner. It was said by my dear friend and room mate at the time, Sarah (who I still see today and who, I am glad to report is very happy!) I can almost visualise the conversation that would have led up to this iconic line. It was probably while we were both lounging on our beds waiting for something to happen. I can see Sarah avidly focussed on picking out the split ends of her long brown hair. I would have said something like,
'Oh my god. On the way to Geography this afternoon I saw one magpie. You know what they say? This means I'm doomed and something really bad is going to happen and I'm going to be sad for the rest of my life.' (I have Neil from the Young Ones' voice sounding in my head). Sarah, without looking up from her split ends, would have said, 'I only ever see one Magpie' and then we would have both sighed a lot and then gone out to have a fag in Smokers Bush.
(Smokers Bush was a massive bush to the side of our boarding house which had been gradually carved out by generations of teenagers dedicated to giving themselves lung cancer, so that on the outside it looked like an enormous bush but once inside was a cavernous interior. A monument, if you will, to years of smokers who all went in there for a sneaky fag away from the Housemasters prying eyes. This bush really was a sight to behold and at a busy prep break you could house about ten or possibly 15 smokers in there at any one time. I have little doubt that we were fooling our Housemaster at all as the plumes of smoke that must have come out of that bush when it was at full capacity would have been bigger than the smoke signals sent by the Sioux Indian Tribe in the Wild West.)
The Magpie line is sad and poetic and dramatic and I can totally relate to it at the moment.
You see, whilst I am happy, relaxed and excited to now be a residing Cornwallian, (is that a word? Suggest I may have to find the right term if I am truly going to become one). I have, since we have moved here seen only one Magpie at any one time. I kid you not. We've been here for nearly 3 weeks and I have only seen one Magpie...but I've seen one Magpie a lot! I mean, almost wherever I go, there it is. I wake up in the morning, look out of the window and it's there, sitting on the fence. I drive down to the beach and it's sitting in the road in front of me. Go for a walk, there it is.. it's really quite eerie. Even when we went back to Hampshire for a few days last week, again, I only saw one Magpie at a time.. NEVER MORE THAN ONE.
Does this mean I am doomed to a life of sorrow? Should I take a photo of the one Magpie and carry it around with me so, should I see another solitary Magpie, I can whip out the photo and put it in the same line of sight as the other? Is there credibility in the old folk rhyme; one for sorrow, two for joy, ect, ect and has anyone actually ever seen 6 magpies together and suddenly found themselves up to their armpits in gold?
So many questions unanswered unless I suddenly sink into a sea of sorrow never to emerge again - in which case we know the whole thing has legs.
A weird post to write, I appreciate, but I had to share..
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