h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

or: How table tennis is also anything but that

Colleagues playing
becoming friends

Enjoying the game -
the friendships strong enough to appreciate each good shots
and sharing the agony of near misses

A single girl playing with three guys
The undertones - are they there at all? Or do we just act as if they were?
A spice to the friendships?

A wink of an eye there
A tip of a tongue there
Are we playing or merely playing?

She's strong and can handle innuendos as well as anybody there
And a bat, too

The table, the ball and the bats seem to be slowly taking away our pretences
And maybe hitting the tough balls are as much reflex as the thoughts are unconsciuos
And maybe the thoughts miss as widely as we sometimes do with the bats

'Constantly in the darkness
where's that at?
If you want me, I'll be at the bar'

Don't know why the lines hit me
and they certainly ruined a sure smash
Most likely it's just because I love that song
but even then, when I did go to the bar
I just was on an errand

An errand boy for rhythm

And went straight back to the rhythm of the ping pong table
Ping
Pong
The sounds take on their own life
Ping
PONG!

And either Yihaaaa! or DAMN!
Our sounds retake the scene
And in either case smiles around the table

It's good to be with friends
And it's good to feel that the edges of life are still sharp


---------------

Credits:
'A case of you' - Joni Mitchell. Performed by Diana Krall.
'I'm an errand boy for rhythm' - Nathaniel Cole. Also performed by Diana Krall (as 'I'm an errand girl for rhythm').

pOnG
PiNg

I enjoyed that. Got the images and emotions going.

Life is both dead simple and immensely intricate, eh?

A pity we dismantled the ping-pong table a few months ago. It'll be up again surely.

*Goes to dig out the Joni Mitchell records*

I had these images and emotions in my head when I got back to my room.

And then there's only one way to get rid of them...

I actually would like to hear the Joni Mitchell version once - even if I simply adore Ms Krall doing it, vocals and solo piano

Joni Mitchell is very good. Ms Krall I haven't heard. Must be a lapse in my upbringing, or..?

I get rid of images and emotions in long descriptive and explanatory mails to a few friends and leave them confused and alarmed ..

Sometimes I get them out in music and - when I was younger - in paintings.

I've been telling myself for forty years I should write a book - but I'm stuck with journalism. I cannot seem to go any further - or maybe I daren't.

According to Hati's horrorscope my role model for this years is a creative child - so maybe...

Incidentally, I had a lovely drive home from my shopping today - "shortcut" (actually a wee bit longer" down through the forest while listening to "A case of you" in the car.

I must take the bit

Part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time

and use them somewhere...

The short cut, could it be the road with hills?

We always take the road (somewhere between Herlev and Værløse) three or four times goind back and forth even now when the kids are 15 and 18. It's a family tradition.

We indeed live very close to that - on a side street towards one end of it, in fact. (Værløse is right, Herlev is a little off )

But in fact, that's the direct way home - the one I turned off from.

I must visit you (and the road of course) .

We have friends in Herlev, Farum and Birkerød - and I have a cousin near Skovbrynet st. - so you will be 'on the way'