Jimi’s back in town…

It’s always a great joy in life catching up with an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while.  Saturday night, for the first time in around 4 years, Jimi Jazz was back in town.  Only for a night mind you, but still it opened the door for a whole lot of reminiscing… and boy did we reminisce!

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Jimi Jazz and I first met during the heady 1st year of Canterbury university way back in 2001.  During the first few days of university, we found ourselves on the wrong end of a few heavy nights out and instantly became mates.  We were not inseparable by any means, it was just that we’d always find ourselves in the same places at the same time, usually doing the same thing.  (Namely, enjoying the freedom (and generous student loan) that university had gifted us.)

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It’s amazing how as you get older a lot of your fondest memories are brought sharply into focus mainly through association.  It would be pointless of me to describe how fondly I look back on my first year at Canterbury University only to say it was one of the best years of my life.  Great new friends, a grown up freedom that was always safely cocooned by loans, the blanket of education and hundreds of people in the same boat.  It was a year for dreaming but never having to face up to the reality of it all… Wonderful, carefree times, all played out on the Canterbury hilltop overlooking such a  glorious town with the Cathedral at it’s heart.  A time I feel that was made for lazy romantics like myself…  A time I fear I have long since struggled to get over.

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Sure my view is rose tinted (it wasn’t all sunshine and happiness), but there is a great comfort to be found in knowing that there are great times to be had like those during the university 1st year and that hopefully there are people out there who are enjoying those same experiences now.  I will forever associate Jimi with that year, sure we remained friends throughout university but it was that 1st year we made our own.

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Back to Saturday night and sure enough we caught up quickly.  Changes in jobs and loves were all briefly dispatched with.  Then came the nostalgia…  The good old days.  Anyone else listening would probably have been bored out of their minds or at least thought we were two raging egotists, eager to outdo each other.  But we talked the night through like our lives depended on remembering every detail of that year.  And just like that, the night was over.  Money spent, beers lingered over and our memories relived.  It’s always the sign of a good friend that no matter how long it’s been since you’ve seen them last, you easily slip straight back into the groove like they’d only been gone a day.  I count myself fortunate to have even a few in this life.

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The goodbye was brief, manly yet meaningful.  Let’s not leave it another four years being the summation of it.  Then the train journey home alone, lingering wistfully on opportunities won and lost over the years.  Springsteen softly playing through my iPhone and me remembering how it was the only thing I’d play on my CD player that whole 1st year of university.

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One of my great associations… I can’t listen to an early Springsteen album without thinking about that year.  I’d come home after a night out, usually lightly toasted, in good spirits trying to piece together the events of the evening.  Climb into bed, turn the lights out and press play on the CD player.  More often than not, I’d fail to stay awake till the end but every once in a while I’d begin drifting as Springsteen’s voice clambered from a whisper to a howl as the CD came to an end…

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‘Tonight,          in,           Jun,          gle,           Land……..’

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Every time I hear that line, it always takes me back to those days and rarely fails to bring a smile to my face.