(Re)collection

A few years back, I found myself in a Weatherspoon’s pub at Leeds City Station. I forget what I was doing there, presumably I was about to catch a train and had some few minutes, or hours, to spare. Gorgeous Lizzy and I sat on stools, (this is hazily recollected) sharing a table with two middle-aged Yorkshire women, the path between student and local temporarily open. I had just bought a book called ‘Beyond the Binary’ and it was sitting temptingly on the shiny pub table, waiting for hungry eyes to devour words and thoughts and theory. The lady on our right noticed the book and harped up, ‘Beyond the bin – ary? What’s a bin – ary? Well I never, you young people today!’ ‘It just means opposite,’ I replied, probably a bit smug.

I probably thought I was really intellectual and informed then, now I just know I’ve got a lot to learn and theory never got anyone anywhere, apart from a mental hospital. I still have the book, I looked at it last night as I got into bed. Its blue cloth cover and gold embossed print stared across the room into tired eyes. It has lost its appeal, and I realised with amusement that the only association I have with this tome is Lizzy and I in a smoky pub in a train station, waiting to go somewhere, anywhere, nowhere…