Back to earth...

Coming back to reality after the most amazing quick trip to Brisbane for (squeee) a Simon and Garfunkel concert.

Forty years ago (in the days when the flats I shared with fellow teachers dripped with candles in Chianti bottles and we stirred our coffee with cinnamon sticks, and we ironed our hair to try to straighten it, and had fondue parties) I bought my very first S&G LP (that's a long playing record for those of you who are too young to know such things).

I also used to teach Simon and Garfunkel songs as poems to my English classes and I lurrrved Simon and Garfunkel's music -- the beautiful, haunting harmonies, the evocative imagery, the emotion, the witty rebellion, the youthful angst, the intellectualism. Loved it all.

Never dreamed that forty years later I'd be sitting at their feet -- but we had front row seats in the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Wednesday night (what a shock when the usher led us to the front row!) and we loved every second of their concert -- all the old favourites, plus a few new, with all their fabulous backup artists.

During the applause that brought on two lots of encores, E gave Paul Simon a thumbs up and Paul actually looked E in the eye and returned the thumbs up. Swoon. How intimate is that? It was a night to remember. Occasional notes had been changed to accomodate aging voices (They're 68, after all) but on the whole they sounded as wonderful as ever -- even Art Garfunkel, with all those difficult soaring, high harmonies. Quite amazing really.

OK, count me as totally inspired. I'm back to work today. (Promise!)

Favourite song of the night? By a very, very narrow margin...

For Emily, whenever I might find her...

What a dream I had

Pressed in organdy

Clothed in crinoline

Of smoky burgundy

Softer than the rain

I wandered empty streets

Down past the shop displays

I heard cathedral bells

Tripping down the alleyways

As I walked on

And when you ran to me

Your cheeks flushed with the night

We walked on frosted fields

Of juniper and lamplight

I held your hand

And when I woke

And felt you warm and near I kissed your honey hair

With my grateful tears

Oh I love you girl

Oh I love you