As in Leaving On A....
When I was 18, I decided to go on a gap year. I really decided who I went away with in a bit of a panic. Anyone else I knew who was taking a year out before uni had arranged it already. So panic set in and I applied for the first thing I saw. Thankfully, it was brilliant. Before we left, we went on a training course on a little island off the coast of Scotland.
My favourite favourite song, at this point in time, was Leaving On A Jet Plane by Peter, Paul and Mary. When getting to know everyone else on the course, one boy, who was probably the most fun ever, revealed that his favourite song was Leaving On A Jet Plane!
Omygod, no! That's my favourite song! No, it's my favourite song. Omygod, we've got the same favourite song! This is like fate! It's totally fate. I love the version Bjork did. Do you remember it? No, I didn't know she'd done a version. I like the one by Peter, Paul and Mary. Wow. Same favourite song. This is amazing. We're like so best friends.
And so we went on our gap years, me to Africa, Joe to China. And we spent a few years being here, there and everywhere. Until finally, inevitably, we both ended up in London. And we are still good friends, in fact we met for dinner last week.
And there have been various songs that epitomise different times in our relationship. For example, Cool by Gwen Stefani and Goodbye My Lover by James Blunt will always transport me back to the time I spent in Beijing with Joe, around the time that both of those songs came out. On the day I flew home, we walked down a quiet road near his hutong singing loudly and when I got in a taxi to leave, the unfairness of constantly living so far apart really got to me.
(Us pretending to be fabulous pianists in a hotel in Beijing)
And now we live at opposite ends of the same tube line in the same city! Although we're no longer 18 and no longer act as if we're on drugs that make you hyper, I knew that song meant something when we discovered it was both our favourite!
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