Issue #121. February 17th - March 2nd, 2006
I Promise To Go Wandering (Part 7)
The moon had just come out and she just had chance to tell me where the moon was from her view from the fire, when her battery cut out. She didn't think I'd even heard that, but I did and it was crucial information.
By Matilda Mother
The Giants
Tom felt like a giant. Yesterday he had learnt how to tie his own shoes, and today he had stopped a whole row of cars with a touch of a button. The green man shone brightly and he strode slowly across the road, swinging his school bag to and fro.
By Rachel Queen
The White Car
The car was parked directly opposite ours. It didn't seem like an accident anymore. We walked all around looking for clues, but there were none so we decided to sit and wait until the owners returned.
By Rachel Queen
Record Review #1: Nightmare of You
New York always comes up with the goods, be it The Velvets, or Blondie, or, now, the melodious, uplifting, punk tinged power pop of Nightmare of You. The chimes of glee cut through this seven inches of vinyl like the proverbial hot knife through cold dope and do their best to leave the listener gushing with joy and begging for more.
By Johnny Mac
Record review #2: The Snowdrops - The Sleepy Dust E.P
The new order-esque electronica? Check! Pet shop boys hand claps? Check! These are the bones upon which the soothing hushed vocals sit.
By Jon Powell
Record review #3: Pete Dale and the Beta Males - Betrayed By Folk - Album
Continuing in the protest tradition started by Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs (both strong influences here), comes Milky Wimpshake and Slampt leader Pete Dale’s reaction to life in Britain under Blair.
By Tracy Kidner
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I promise to go wandering
Part 7
part 1 ¦¦ part 2¦¦ part 3¦¦ part 4¦¦ part 5part 6
Dorset, Continued
I found the A35 four times, but the first time didn't go near it because
there was a van parked at the gate of the track and I didn't want to have to
hurt anybody. The second was when I was at the gate of the first campsite. I
decided that a main road would be better than a forest, insofar as I could get
a clue to where I was, phone a taxi to take me to my campsite and then find the
gang from there. I walked up it, pondering where I was going to find the taxi
number from, when I saw the van at an entrance to the forest. I remembered
that! I wasn't long lost when I first saw it, so I still must be close! I
walked further up and re-entered the forest (I was actually moving in the
opposite direction to both campsite and gang here.)
I passed a hillfort and noted it for returning and taxi purposes, then went on
walking. It was around this time that I texted Kate to announce that I was
lost. I didn't want Pete to think I'd disappeared in a huff or something. There
wasn't much network coverage, so it took a while to send it. She didn't get it
for an hour or more later. By then I'd been as far as a sign to Bloxworth (one
and a quarter miles away) and a sewage works. This gave us later the scope my
walking - probably a three and a half mile square of forest. Along the way, I
saw definitely three foxes, none of which disappeared and all of which started
howling at me.
It was around this time that Kate got my text and phoned me, but her battery
was going. The moon had just come out and she just had chance to tell me where
the moon was from her view from the fire, when her battery cut out. She didn't
think I'd even heard that, but I did and it was crucial information. I had been
walking towards the moon, now I knew that I had to walk away from it. This was
all going well until I found the hillfort again. My spirits sagged then for the
first time. I knew that the hillfort was near the wrong campsite... I just
didn't know that the wrong campsite was next to ours, so I turned around and
walked back to another main track. This still kept the moon behind me and, I
reckon now, would have taken me near to the fire.
I stood at a crossroads and I could hear a car on the road. I listened and I
could hear music and voices. In short, I could hear my friends. This hadn't
been the first time, but it had been the first time in a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, I can't tell direction of sound. I was also getting tired by
then. I was seeing wondrous things and having quite an adventure, but I wanted
to be with the others celebrating Pete's birthday. Frustrating, to me, is
wanting to punch something. This wasn't frustration, but some kind of milder
cousin. I figured it would give folk a laugh back at the fire and it wasn't my
fault. Pete would understand that (and he did and they laughed after they'd got
the being concerned over with). I had no concept of time, I didn't realize how
long I'd been gone. I looked at the moon; I discounted (foolishly) the road as
not being ours; and, as it was getting lighter by then, I looked around at the
landscape - the first time I was able to over any distance. Across two fields
was a bit of forest which looked like ours and it kept the moon in the right
place. It never occurred to me that even though I couldn't tell sound
direction, there was a fireside gang of people who could. Why didn't I just
shout? I thought of phoning Kate and getting her to shine a torch into the sky,
but her phone battery had just died.
I headed over the fields, then saw a flash of yellow - gorse bushes. Our
campsite was surrounded by gorse bushes. From the gorse, I could find the fire!
I walked over to find a beautiful sight, a massive stretch of gorse, a maze of
it. I had a toilet break, but had already noticed the main road behind it. I
knew it to be the road that I should be dismissing... and didn't trust my sense
of direction AGAIN. So I turned around and made my way across some bracken and
wetlands, then, climbing up onto a bank of a brook, I felt something slip from
my pocket. Looked down and couldn't see what, checked fags and lighter...
checked 'phone... shit. I ended up with everything out of my bag looking for
it. It was gone. Thing is, nothing else was missing, so I don't know what the
slipping sensation was. I even climbed down into the brook and peered through
bracken and ground nests looking for the Ddraig Goch of my mobile.
Decision time. I knew I had it when I spoke to Kate. I knew
where I'd been since and it was light enough to retrace my steps while
searching. I only had vague clues as to where 'home' was. I decided that the
sensible thing was to see if I could find the phone on the basis that if I got
injured or collapsed that might be my salvation. Also, if I gave up and went
for the road, then I'd need it for a taxi, unless I wanted to add 'finding a
phone box' to my list. If I'd thought that I knew where I was for definite, I'd
have said sod the phone, it's replaceable. So I retraced and found it in the
gorse-bush place. It must have slipped out as I squatted for a wee.
I made my way back across the wetlands and across the bracken. As I crossed a
heath, I saw a patch of forest turn into the most magically beautiful colour. I
turned and welcomed a glorious dawn. That's when I stopped walking for the
first time, sitting on a rock at the edge of the forest, thanking the dawn for
coming. You see, I'd celebrated Beltane in a circle during which I'd watched
the sunset. I now knew precisely where east was and I knew where west had been
in relation to the camp-site. I walked, and walked, and walked.
I stopped. Deer! Remembering the lesson of the rabbits, I didn't fumble for my
digital camera, I just watched and loved it. There were four of them, so
graceful. Each froze and watched me, so I did too. It seemed to go on for an
interminable amount of time, until my legs screamed to sit down, so I moved and
they fled. They weren't like deer as I imagined, either grey or red with white
spots. They seemed dark grey to black, very small with white, broad, stumpy
tails. I entered a forest trail and ended up on that same damn road.
The really stupid thing is that each time I'd followed a clue, I'd ended up
back in the vicinity of the campsite, but upwards of ten mins walk further
south-east. Had I just trusted that, or got the message, and persevered, I'd
have got there, but each time I turned around and ended up approximately three
miles too south at one time. This time I was too tired, I decided to stick with
the road on the basis that it had to lead somewhere and if I collapsed from
exhaustion, then a passer-by would see me. I stood there and looked up and down
this forest road. No clues. I looked at the sun, I chose north-west. :-D
After about 20 mins walking, and wondering if you could call 999 over being
lost or report yourself as a missing person or something, I got so despondent
for the first time. I knew Kate's battery was dead, but I'd half-sat, half-lay
on a grass verge at the side of the road and just wanted to pretend I could
call her. So I did. Her phone had been off long enough to get some charge in
the battery. Looking back, I was so pathetic a figure there! LOL I didn't cry
and there was nothing she could do to help me (I knew that and told her), but I
just wanted to hear a friendly voice and if something did happen, she'd know
that I was last on a proper road somewhere in the forest.
It gave me heart enough to get on my feet and carry on walking. A few minutes
later, I saw the van at the end of the track and knew that the wrong campsite
was just up the way. They would be open now. I could get directions or a taxi.
I walked in there and just fell onto a bench. I got my phone out to tell Kate
where I was, but the buttons wouldn't work. I figured it had been damaged lying
in the dew, but it worked before and since.
A man came by with some dogs and I asked him where Birchwood was. 'Just there,
through the trees'. I stared at him. 'Pardon?' He gave me directions, but I
couldn't take them in. I wrote them in my book and just blurted out, 'I've been
lost in the forest all night!' He said, 'All night?' 'Yes, I got separated from
my friends.' I was losing my voice and I could hear the knackerness in it
myself. He replied, 'You should get better map-reading skills.' I nodded and
got up, thanked him and followed his directions. I still managed to take a
wrong turn, but within sight of the road. I decided against his short-cut
beside the surety of the road.
Within five minutes, I was at the entrance to our campsite. That was such a
beautiful moment! As I walked down the driveway, I saw my guide from the other
campsite coming out of the short-cut he'd sent me down. I waved and called
'thank you' again, touched that he must have followed to see me alright, but
carried on walking towards my tent. There was no sign of anyone. (They were all
sitting IN tents, I found out.) I was too tired to think what this meant. I
opened our tent and Kate called out, 'Who's that?' She sounded really scared.
'It's me.' I mustered. 'Are you alright?' 'Exhausted, but sorted, ta.' She
didn't say anything else, and I thought she was gone to sleep. Moving as
quietly as possible, I removed my sopping wet DMs and socks, revealing white,
wrinkled feet. I sat down and had a fag. My phone told me it was half past 8 in
the morning.
I needed fresh water (a cup of tea would have been better, but there was no
easy access to one) and the loo, before I lay down. I found our friend in the
toilet block and told her what had happened. She'd been abed and didn't know.
She looked at all my cuts and scratches and said to wash them. I told her I
could deal, I have a first aid kit in the tent. I asked her if there was a cafe
on site, because I was desperate for a brew. Nope. I went back to the tent,
opened my bedroom section and just crashed. Then heard a beep, beep from Kate's
half. 'Are you awake?' 'Yes' Kate opened her section and we canted for a bit.
I'd just got to the 'and I could die for a cuppa', when the tent-flap opened
and there was Sue with a huge beaker of tea. I nearly cried.
And that is how I 'got' Dorset. In one of the most magical nights of my life.
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The Giants
Tom felt like a giant. Yesterday he had learnt how to tie his own shoes, and today he had stopped a whole row of cars with a touch of a button. The green man shone brightly and he strode slowly across the road, swinging his school bag to and fro. His little sister Ellie giggled in the pushchair next to him staring at the bright patterns of light shining through the buildings.
Ellie could not tie her own shoes, nor could she stop traffic with just one finger, but she did see things that her brother didn't. She could feel things that older people didn't. And she could hear things that she would forget in a year or two.
She watched the whirl of colour in front of her in amazement. Pretty soon, the wonderment would disappear and the world would appear less amazing to her but for now, small things like birds flying or wagging dogs seemed magical.
Their mother, Ellen was mentally creating her shopping list: bread, milk, and washing powder. "Have you brought your spellings book Tom?"
Tom rummaged in the bottom of his bag and pulled out a crumpled notepad triumphantly.
Ellen, nodded approvingly. "Dog food, bin bags and apples". She stared down at Ellie in her pushchair and her heart jumped a little as it did whenever she saw either of her children smiling.
Ellen nodded and smiled to a girl she passed everyday. She often wondered what the girl did when she wasn't walking to wherever she was walking to. It was hard to imagine a life for her outside those few seconds in a morning when their lives crossed. She dropped Tom at the gate's to the school kissed his pink soft cheek and waved him inside. It was hard to imagine that he had a life of is own outside of her own.
"Orange juice, spaghetti and broccoli. I wonder what he is doing now." She thought as she reached the supermarket.
And suddenly Ellen's head seemed to explode with thought. She could see her son painting a picture of a green dragon She could see the girl she passed everyday to work laughing and talking to a boyfriend, she could see people in other countries walking along a broad street, and people worshipping an Elephant headed God. The world suddenly seemed so full of life and lives that it was almost too much to take.
She stopped at the crossing and looked up and the bright blue sky.
Ellen felt like a giant. Yesterday she had taught her son to tie his shoes, and today she could see the whole world . The green man shone brightly and she strode across the road.
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The White Car
The white car the same as ours has been following us for two days now.
We first saw it outside Tescos when we had stopped to get pineapple for our Friday pizza. When we came out of the shop the car was parked two spaces along and we almost got into it by mistake. We laughed about it then.
We didn't see it move off but before we got to the end of the road you noticed it in your rear view mirror. It followed us all around the one way system before we lost sight of it.
Yesterday we popped into Comet to buy some batteries and stare longingly at new laptops and computers. When we came out we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, there was some mistake at the till and we managed to buy 12 AA batteries for 50p.
The car was parked directly opposite ours. It didn't seem like an accident anymore. We walked all around looking for clues, but there were none so we decided to sit and wait until the owners returned.
We knew it was them before they even got into the car. There are some things you just know. You said the girl looked just like me, and I thought the boy looked just like you. They were looking pretty pleased with themselves, staring at their till receipt and their bag containing batteries.
"This is too strange" you said, and we drove off before they could follow us anymore.
We didn't feel like talking so you put on the radio. I noticed the time on the clock jump backwards a little and said, "Hey! How did that happen?" And you talked for 15 minutes about how the time was controlled by the radio signal and we must have got a little bit ahead of ourselves.
I nodded.
Last night in bed you asked, "Do you think we will see the white car again tomorrow?" I shook my head and you said, "Me neither".
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