Another Letter

Dear Dave,

Hi, its me again. Told you I would be back. I hope I won't bore you to much. I just felt the need to get my thoughts down on paper, well on blog. You know what I mean. 

This morning I have been getting my stuff ready for the trip to see you play at the Leeds Festival. It was supposed to be the Reading Festival but due to the incompetence of the bank and the thoughtlessness of my other half I had to settle for Leeds. Shame really cos listening to you play at the end of the weekend would have been the highlight for me but seeing you on the Friday night, well, it will be all downhill for the rest of the weekend. 

I was so gutted, I was actually crying down the phone to the woman at See Tickets. It was not a good look. I mean, a woman of my age crying over a ticket cancellation? What ever would my Gran have thought if she could see me?

My Gran, I must point out, was my main family influence, especially during my teen years. She was the one who tried to encourage me to be what I wanted to be and do what I wanted to do. I wish I had had the courage to act on what she advised but I had to much respect for (ha) and, more honestly, fear of my parents to completely break away and do what I really wanted to do with my life. Not that I knew exactly what that was, but you get the gist.

I was a child wrapped up in cotton wool, according to my Gran and she could see the harm it was doing to me not letting me find my own way and make my own mistakes. The end result was several doozys of mistakes when I was older and had finally undone the family apron strings.
Since having my own two girls, I have tried to allow them more freedom to experience and learn without being in any danger. The eldest has done alright but I am still worrying about the youngest. Still, she is a good girl at heart so I hope she will make the right choices in the end. I will always be there for her if she doesn't, which is more than my own parents were for me.

Anyhoo, I have just seen the time. Gotta get some dinner and finish packing. Early start in the morning. Hope the weather holds.
Won't be writing again until Monday. I'll let you know how you were and how the weekend went.

Warmest Regards

Eve C

Letter to my Idol

Dear Dave,

I don't know why I'm bothering with this because I know you will never see it (or maybe you will, who knows) but I am going to write it anyway, even if its just get things off my chest and make me feel better.

OMG, How rude of me, I didn't introduce myself. My name is....ahhh, almost spilled the beans.
 Lets just say for the purpose of this letter my name is Eve C. 
I am a forty something Mum of two and Grandmother of two. My life started in the 60's and hasn't been exactly easy to date, but then who's has?

I spent my childhood mostly arguing with my Sister or listening to my Parents fighting. I can't say it was awful, I have great memories of holidays in Wales, cushion fights in the flat we used to live in and dancing the Charleston, by candlelight, to BBC Radio 2 when we had power cuts - something that happened quite often in the 70's. 
But my earliest memory was finding my Mum crying on the sofa after my Dad had stormed out. I must have been no more than Three years old.
Then there was the time that my Dad came home drunk (regular occurrence) , parking the car in the middle of the road and falling asleep under the rose bush in the front garden. Or the time he decided to throw all Mums stuff out of the bedroom window, trying to smash the lounge window with her nail varnish bottles. Oh and also the countless times he would fall asleep on the lounge floor having drunk almost a full bottle of Bacardi. He used to habitually drink and drive. How, in Gods name, he never got pulled over by the Police or, worse still, kill someone is totally beyond me. Maybe he has by now, I haven't seen him in years. Anyway, I would spend most of my time in my room, listening to music. In the 70's it was Abba and the Bay City Rollers (God help me) and in the 80's it was mainly The Police. I loved The Police. I had all their albums but I never got to see them live.( In fact my first live "gig" didn't happen until the 90's when I went to see Robert Palmer - God rest his soul. Another one taken to soon.)

Break for a quick run down :-

1st single I ever bought - Save Your Kisses For Me by Brotherhood of Man (Well, I was only about 7)

1st Album I ever bought - I can't actually remember what it was but I was bought Regatta de Blanc and Outlandos D'Amour by The Police along with my first record player when I was about 13.

My early music memories were of my Mums' old mono record player and her old 60's singles which consisted of The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Kink's, Del Shannon and others whose names I have forgotten (its an age thing). 


Oh yes, those were the days, "were" being the operative word. 
Turned out my Dad was a complete coward. He left, quietly, without a word, when I was 18 years old. I had been working in a pub for the previous few weeks and had started smoking and on the night he left, he watched me walk up the road to work. I remember thinking at the time that he had guessed about the smoking and was watching to see if I would light up when I thought it was safe. Turns out he was watching his last normal family occurrence and, as it happens, watching his eldest Daughter walk out of his life. I would only see him once more after this night before a break of almost twenty years.
When I found out that he had gone, I was devastated. I was always a Daddy's girl and now he wasn't there. Just left a note asking me to believe that he was " not as black as people will paint me"!

Ok, just read that back and I am amazed that it still upsets me all these years later so I am calling it a night. If you are interested, I will write again. Probably will anyway, even if you aren't interested so prepare for installment #2 very soon ;)

Best Regards

Your Fan Eve C