Isn't it funny how having a conversation with some one can suddenly spike a memory? Just like when a smell spikes a memory; you smell a distinctive smell and then you realise what that smell reminds you of. it could be a smell that reminds you of you of the last time you ate your mums delicious chicken and sweet corn pie; alternatively it could be a smell that reminds you of the last time you threw up, which may have only been last weekend, but you may not have remembered it all that well.
I was having a conversation with a colleague at work the other day about the rain. It was heaving it down out side and the day was pretty much miserable. My colleague said to me it was raining so hard you could have a shower in it, and then joked about how she forgot her shower gel and shampoo. This was what spiked my memory and this is where I get to the point of this interesting piece of autobiographical writing.
When I was younger, about 9 or 10 years old, one of my friends brought me back a present from his most recent trip to Walt Disney Land, Florida. When I say most recent I do mean he used to go once a year. I don't know how he wasn't bored of it; he must have ridden every ride a million times or more. He was an only child and his parents were divorced and therefore both spoilt him rotten to win his affection. Back then children from divorced families were actually quite rare, I seem to remember him being the only known one in the school, or at least in my year. He had twice as many possessions as any one else because he practically had two families. That's probably the reason he's don't to Disney Land so often, one year he'd go with one family and the next year he'd go with the other. This is all only an assumption, but I might be close. I've only been to Disney Land once in my whole lifetime, and even then it was the one in Paris and I was 20 years old, it's still fun but I don't think there is as much magic in it compared to when your 10 or below.
Now I'm actually going to get to the point where we got our presents. When my friend came back from Disney Land, Florida, he brought back, for me and our 2 other friends, a pen with a Mickey Mouse pen topper and some hair gel, I know random, who brings back hair gel from Disney Land? But back then we thought that these presents were awesome. He gave us the presents while we were at school, so for that day we did all our writing in our Mickey Mouse pens and styled our hair with our fantastic hair gel which we all agree seemed different to normal gel, but we just put it down to coming back from another country, we didn't care, we looked cool.
As we were on our way out of school it began to rain, first it was just a few patters, but then suddenly the heavens opened and it was pouring down. All the parents were pulling their children to cars and sheltered bus stops and huddling under umbrellas. Being 10 years old my friends and me loved the rain, and we walked home alone so we didn't have to leave it. We splashed around in the big puddles out side the school gates and ruffled our fingers through or soaking wet hair, we didn't care that our new stylish hair was getting messy we had plenty more gel to style it when we got home. I specifically remember this next part, as it was the most embarrassing bit, not just for me, but for my friends too. I looked at my friends and noticed that their hair was all white and frothy like they had just decided to wash their hair in the rain. Then the thought hit me, I felt my own head and noticed that I was the same. The 'hair gel' that my friend had brought back from America wasn't actually styling hair gel, it was shower gel, and my head and my friend's heads were covered with the stuff. We quickly tried to wash it out with the rain, but just when you don't want it to stop raining, it does. So at this point my friends and me were stood out side the crowded school gates with soapy white afros, feeling pretty stupid. Since then I always read the label of bathroom products thoroughly.
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