Note to Self — Episode 12

What memories are made of

Memories have been hard to create this last year. Pretty much everything has been the antithesis of the right environment to build incredible moments to reflect back on.

Nothing stands out when everything is the same.

And let’s face it, almost all of the scenery of this year have just flowed one into the other.

Whether it’s the world map screen divider that backdrops my zoom calls, the view from the flat, the same route I’ve taken for my run and let’s not forget the never ending greyness that is the London skyline — it’s all just blended into a mess of nothingness unlikely to engender any kind of wonder to reflect back on.

But today I got to take myself back in time…

For the first time I can recall, we decided to buy some live crab — not something we’d normally permit ourselves — but my amazing wife Deb had noticed my dad’s nostalgia for the sort of food he’d get in Kenya on the coast with my uncles.

And so, she cooked a sumptuous curry coconut crab to drop off to him (and naturally some for me too).

This evening I indulged.

And right then and there, I was transported back to my time in New Guinea.

Evenings spent in the compound with some of my team from South India, beers flowing and the crab slowly cooking till, spiced perfectly, the meat sweet in the shell, the heat of the night bringing its own scent to the air.

It’s incredible how food can do this, so unexpectedly and so effortlessly, and that memory, long forgotten came straight to me, and made me smile.

And in that moment I forgot the now and lived for a time in the memories of then.