{"id":242,"date":"2023-09-15T13:06:18","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T13:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/?p=242"},"modified":"2024-02-24T16:37:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-24T16:37:20","slug":"the-seven-year-hitch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/?p=242","title":{"rendered":"The Seven Year Hitch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A couple of weeks ago I took the train to Belfast. The train is part of my studio, if I can get a seat with a table. I have a new camera and I wanted to try it’s video function out at a music gig, Grainne Duffy was playing and I really enjoy her music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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( https:\/\/spaces.oca.ac.uk\/wallet6\/2023\/07\/01\/another-train-journey-another-perec-book\/) The music was great, but the camera gave me a jittery video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, we were in a bit of a heat wave. In June there are many music acts in Belfast and the streets were crowded, full of Saturday night revellers. I was rushing to the main station, the starting point on the journey home, to make sure I got a seat. I passed two pretty girls at the entrance, One was a real Norma-Jean in her white dress (https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fIh6HDeXKGY<\/a> ) and had been enjoying her martinis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had arrived at the station very early. We weren’t allowed on the platforms, so crowds buzzed around the barriers, and it was all in good humour. Norma-Jean and her friend arrived. Everyone watched as N-J tottered around, beautiful, drunk and dangerous. Her friend chatted with the station staff, and the crowd watched N-J and wondered if that beautiful girl and her precarious, gorgeous dress would remain together much longer. She took a deep breath, tried to focus, and spotted a victim – me. We had a little waltz, I held her up, high fives, a kiss and she was gone. Her train had arrived and her friend took her away. Good-bye, Norma-Jean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belfast on a Saturday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journey home was uneventful, and relaxed. Someone started singing an ABBA song. Before too long many in our compartment joined in and were singing for most of the journey. I could still read my Perec as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On an earlier train, full of teenagers coming from their gig, a boy was severely beaten up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago I took the train to Belfast. The train is part of my studio, if I can get a seat with a table. I have a new camera and I wanted to try it’s video function out at a music gig, Grainne Duffy was playing and I really enjoy her music.… Continue reading The Seven Year Hitch<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","category-pandoras-box","category-wallet","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243,"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}