Take me to the place I love

We're counting down the hours to our mini-break in Sitges this weekend [Madam Arcati and I fly out at the crack'o'doom on Saturday and fly back on Wednesday]! It's "officially" to celebrate our friend Paul's 70th birthday [hence why I call him "Jurassic Paul"] - but it's also unofficially a little treat to round-off our 25th anniversary month.

Speaking of which...

...whoever would have thought that this little slice of brilliance was a quarter-of-a-century old this week?!

All Saints - Under The Bridge

Time flies... scarily.

How can life be what you want it to be?

Three weeks? Try three decades!

As it is my and Madam Arcati's big anniversary year this year (in May), I feel it's appropriate to dip in and out of what was going on the year we met. It will be a regular feature, methinks.

To that end, let's take a mini-timeslip moment all the way back... to 1998!

In the news headlines of February '98: There was a breakthrough in the standoff between the UN and Saddam Hussain as weapons inspectors were finally allowed into Iraq; Mohamed Al Fayed (father of Dodi) claimed that the deaths of Princess Diana and his son were a conspiracy to kill rather than an accident; the Kosovo War began, after a massacre of civilians in the village of Likoshane; the since-discredited study of purported links between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) and autism was published, prompting decades of scaremongering and conspiracy theories; the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair exposé began a tabloid "feeding-frenzy"; 4000 people were killed by an earthquake in Afghanistan; the Nagano Winter Olympics were underway; and we bade sad farewells to Rock Me Amadeus singer Falco [killed in a car crash], national treasure Dermot Morgan (Father Ted) [suddenly, aged just 45], Carl Wilson (founder member of the Beach Boys) and the controversial politician Enoch Powell.

In our cinemas: Titanic; Boogie Nights; The Ice Storm. On telly: The Cruise (the show that made Jane McDonald into a star), Robot Wars, and British soap's first transgender character Hayley Patterson arrived in Coronation Street.

What of our charts this week twenty-five years ago? Slimy Dion had just been knocked off the top slot (to the cheers of a grateful nation) by the simply faboo Cornershop and Brimful of Asha. Also present and correct in the Top Ten were Aqua, Savage Garden, Robbie Williams, Shania Twain, Another Level, All Saints, Will Smith and - erm - soap-star-turned-"singer" Will Mellor.

But, waiting in the wings just outside the Hot 100 was the one that would sweep them all aside - Our Glorious Leader!

Madonna - Frozen

You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be
You're frozen
When your heart's not open

You're so consumed with how much you get
You waste your time with hate and regret
You're broken
When your heart's not open

Mmmmmm, if I could melt your heart
Mmmmmm, we'd never be apart
Mmmmmm, give yourself to me
Mmmmmm, you hold the key

Now there's no point in placing the blame
And you should know I suffer the same
If I lose you
My heart will be broken

Love is a bird, she needs to fly
Let all the hurt inside of you die
You're frozen
When your heart's not open

Mmmmmm, if I could melt your heart
Mmmmmm, we'd never be apart
Mmmmmm, give yourself to me
Mmmmmm, you hold the key

You only see what your eyes want to see
How can life be what you want it to be
You're frozen
When your heart's not open

Mmmmmm, if I could melt your heart
Mmmmmm, we'd never be apart
Mmmmmm, give yourself to me
Mmmmmm, you hold the key

Twenty-five frigging years?!

How did that happen?

Two decades?!

...how on earth did we manage it?!

Madam Arcati and I have reached a milestone - this month (we don't have a set date; the whole of May will do as a celebration) we have been together for TWENTY bloody years...

That, of course, is the reason for our second trip in a year to the delights of the Costa del Sol tomorrow, for a week of unabashed hedonism. Why change the habits of a lifetime, I say?

We've been through a lot, have Tony and I: several house moves (including from Plymouth to London a year after we met), several changes of job, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, and all that malarkey. [Meghan and Harry have all that to come. But they're multi-millionaires so I doubt the "for poorer" bit applies.]

As we're off to Spain, I thought it appropriate to check out what would have been playing there two decades ago this week in May - and I discovered that their Number 1 and ours in the UK were exactly the same. So here she is, the Queen of Fucking Everything herself, Our Glorious Leader Madge - and Thank Disco (Techno? Trance? EDM?) It's Friday!

Madonna - Ray of Light

Faster than the speeding light she's flying
Trying to remember where it all began
She's got herself a little piece of heaven
Waiting for the time when Earth shall be as one

Time flies - "Quicker than a ray of light", indeed.

[See also - our fifteenth.]

Yesterday, when we were young(ish)

Madam Arcati and I celebrate fifteen years together this month! [We don't mark a single date, that much detail is forgotten by both of us...]

When we first met in May 1998, we were both (through complicated circumstances) residents of his home town Plymouth, and both were desperate to get out (he to return to London, me to leave a city whose original novelty when I moved there two years earlier had faded to boredom) - which we did, of course. The world back then was very different - Tony Blair was still "the golden boy" Prime Minister, President Clinton faced shame and scandal, Diana's death was still causing ripples and accusations of conspiracy (mainly from Mohammed Al-Fayed), the Good Friday Agreement on Northern Ireland was signed (yet atrocities still went on), and Posh and Becks were merely engaged.

To mark this significant achievement, here is a selection of the music that was around at that time when everything was new and uncertain (both of us were wary of commitment at the time, and neither expected this to amount to a "relationship"), and our life in Plymouth was a whorl of nights out, pubbing and clubbing...

At Number 1 in the charts this week in May '98 was the "bouncing song" (for that is exactly how our then friend Billy used to dance to it) - Run DMC vs Jason Nevins - It's Like That:

Run-DMC vs. Jason Nevins - It's Like That

The Spice Girls - Stop had gone straight in at Number 2:

Spice Girls - Stop

Our Glorious Leader Madonna had just dropped from the Top 3 with Frozen:

Madonna - Frozen

Still holding on in the Top 10 was Cornershop and the brilliant Brimful of Asha:

Cornershop - Brimful of Asha

The Ballad of Tom Jones by Space featuring Cerys from Catatonia was just dropping down the charts - a song that remains high on our playlist, even today:

Space - Ballad of Tom Jones

And, finally... just arrived in the charts, but one we'd been dancing to for a while - Kylie and Breathe (Sash! Club Mix):

Kylie Minogue - Breathe

Happy Anniversary, darling!