Summer, a feeling.

I am lying here, hostage in my own bed. Hostage because my baby is sleeping next to me and if I leave the bed he may wake up, or worse, fall off. He had his one-year vaccinations yesterday. Brutal. Four jabs, two in each leg. After that I’m not sure which was worse: the high fever or the fight to get the Calpol into his mouth. At least he’s sleeping now. Which is why you’re receiving me in writing. It would be nice to chat to you, to hit record, but that would wake him up. So typing it is. On my phone, in the air, arms aching in their fight to defy gravity.

Prior to the vaccines, we had a few perfect days. So much so that I keep catching myself singing Perfect Day by Lou Reed. (Does she not know it’s about heroin? Yes yes, she knows.) The weather has been disconcertingly fantastic here in London, and it makes all the difference. Literally. For reasons I won’t get into now, we have not be able to fully rejoin society yet. By that I mean, we are having to be very Covid-wary. Still. Again. So a sunny weekend, when we can walk the city and meet friends outdoors, is a real gift. I clocked 23K steps on Sunday. Yes my legs ache as well as my arms. But it was worth it:

Hackney City Farm (pigs, sheep, baby donkey); Broadway Market (buskers, pastries, memories); Regent’s Park (ugly duckings, pretty swans, bandstand jazz); The Gallery Of Everything (Jarvis Cocker, Campari, soda); all free and child-friendly, I might add. (Does she not know how to use semicolons?; debatable.) And most importantly, in each of these places... people! Purposeful playdates and chance encounters with people I hadn’t seen in years. Not a figure a speech. Years. Two, maybe even three years.

Perhaps you experienced this social resuscitation long ago, after the first lockdown or the third wave. Perhaps it was more gradual for you, or has been long forgotten. For me, it happened now, last weekend. Being back in East London, in Central London, my old stomping grounds… meeting up with old friends, bumping into forgotten friends — even making new friends! — felt invigorating. Like being a tourist and coming home all at the same time.

That summer feeling.

When I called our doctor’s surgery to book the baby vaccines they said we would have to do them somewhere else. Not because they have no appointments, but because they have no nurse. At all. For the foreseeable future. (Does she not think this is because the NHS has been razed to the ground? Yes, she does.) So they sent us to another clinic, a 35 minute walk away, and I was not best pleased. Surely the whole point of a local doctor is that it’s local.

Perhaps because the sun was still shining and we were still in weekend mode, or perhaps because we were nervous and needed to distract ourselves from the needles about to be jabbed into our unknowing one year old, we headed out early in attempt to make a morning of it. We discovered a new playground, ate coconut cake on a bench, walked around a colossal, crumbing cemetery I didn’t know existed. And then, just outside the doctor’s surgery, still early and dragging our feet, I spotted someone I hadn’t seen in 20 years.

I actually recognised her mother first, then noticed her little baby, and only then did my mind confirm it was really her. An old friend from school I’d completely lost touch with. One of the first people I ever sang and performed with, harmonies and all. It was wonderful to reconnect, first out on the street with our babies, so close in age, then later back at home, listening to each other on Spotify, trying to catch up on a lifetime through confessional song lyrics.

So it seems there was a reason why we were sent to that far away clinic!! I don’t actually believe in fate. I do though believe in coincidence, timing and state of mind. I’m not sure I would have looked her way long enough to realise it was her if I hadn’t just spent the whole weekend feeling like I recognise everybody I pass. If I wasn’t so excited to be rubbing shoulders with people again.

Covid is rising in London, I still can’t hug you all freely, but it’s summer in the city, and I feel I’m emerging from a long hibernation, looking outwards.

Apropos of meeting people — after a long time, or maybe for the first time — I’d be so delighted if you said hi or introduced yourself in the comments below… (Does she not see who has subscribed? She does, but she’d love to know who you are, where you are, how you are! Put a face to the email address, so to speak…)

I’ll leave you with Jonathan and this remarkable rendition of That Summer Feeling…

(There’s a surprise appearance by John Cale at the end of the clip — promoting his record Music For a New Society — perfect!)