NEW SENSATION

It was a bad day for walking. We bruised toes and tripped over cobblestones, the rain burst pipes and spilled down streets and drowned out conversation. We misheard, mumbled, smiled to cover silence. But the skies cleared as I headed west, there were songs looping in my head, and by the time I reached parkland the air felt light and clean.

At second home we shelled broadbeans and danced to Aretha. ‘We have beetroot, let’s make… cake!’ A press of bodies in the kitchen, squinting at recipe instructions and leaving bloody imprints against cupboard doors and the soles of feet. I’d never tried chocolate and beetroot together in a cake before: ‘Earthy’ was the common consensus, and the cardamom icing sealed it. Every mouthful made me reconsider what I knew about flavour, the pairing of ideas and stepping outside of the familiar. I decided I liked chocolate beetroot cake: it tasted like a challenge.

And because I am easily distracted, I ended up at a house party in vinyl pants and sloppy white shirt. I looked like a pirate. It was ridiculous. And because it was ridiculous, and because A makes really good mixtapes, and because my default method of meeting people is to make a complete spectacle of myself, what else could I do but Tightrope-out to Janelle Monae and partystart partyhard? Lessons taken away from that night: 1) learn how to make mash-ups 2) never dance in vinyl pants.

Conversation on the walk home: [redacted]. I remember humidity, then sitting in the living room thrumming with energy, then falling asleep within moments of picking up Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. What else? By the end of these accounts I always lose interest, something about this resonates with the original intent of this post but right now I’m too busy thinking about INXS’s relevance to consider the low-grade discomfort of last night. Sometimes… sometimes you have a day, a night where moments stand out, and you want to tie them together and draw conclusions from the contrast they make. And like a new recipe you need time to savour the outcomes, decide whether it’s worth repeating or adjusting certain elements before proceeding. For the record: life is pretty good nowadays. I have a feeling if I stop overthinking things (HA) and keep on keeping on, it’s going to get even better.