I had what I believe to be a Proustian moment this week.
For those who haven’t read Proust (and that includes me) a Proustian moment is when you are in the moment of doing something else (in his case eating a Madeleine cake dipped in tea) which then suddenly catapults you back in your past and unlocks a memory.
You might think “Calm down, Marcel, it’s just a fucking cake” as Proust savours his Madeleine cake and tea combo (Hobnob biscuits were yet to be invented) but it’s not about the cake, per se, it is because it sparks off a happy memory of his Aunt and his childhood.
My involuntary memory was not evoked by eating cake but by an impromptu visit to the Body Shop on Oxford Street. I was seeking refuge from the fiercely hot sun by patronising shops to luxuriate in their blissful air con. Front of store was a display of their new banana range. Banana isn’t really a thing I want to smell of but I decided to smear a bit of the body butter on my arm anyway.
The scent was more pleasant than I was expecting and not actually that banana-y. It was definitely familiar though and then I placed it.
It reminded me of a cocktail I used to have when I was a student. It was called a ‘Big Wednesday’ and was made of vodka, Malibu, Midori, pineapple juice, orange juice and coconut syrup. You’ll see banana is absent from the list of ingredients, which is odd. You could buy this delightful concoction in a bar/restaurant called Old Orleans (I don’t think they’re a thing anymore) and they occasionally had 2 for 1 cocktail offers.
As I walked down Oxford Street, furtively sniffing my wrist, the smell took me back. I was 19. I was thin. I was with one of my best friends. We were having fun. We had just finished our first year at University. We had gone for cocktails! We were so grown up!
University did not get off to a good start for me as I was so homesick. I loved my course and I loved learning (geek) but I didn’t settle in as quickly as I expected and I missed my boyfriend. I got on with the others in my halls of residence but I hadn’t really met any new friends. I nearly didn’t go back after the Christmas holidays and Mum suggested perhaps I tried to transfer to a course nearer to home. I said I’d go back and give it one more try.
On that first night back in the New Year a girl who I usually just acknowledged at the pay phones (as we queued patiently to weep for as long as a stack of twenty pence pieces would allow us) popped her head into our kitchen and then said did I want to come and watch a film with her.
That girl is still one of my best friends now. Our drinking habits may be slightly more refined these days but we still have as much fun as we did over twenty years ago when we first met.
I was actually on my way to meet her when this Proustian moment occured and I kept thinking I must get her to smell it and see if she got the same association. Of course when she turned up I was so excited to see her and we talked incessantly that I forgot all about it.
Here we are in July 1996 with our grown up beverages:
yousaythatnow 