I think I may be going crazy. I’m sure I’ve written about this before on here, but can’t find it, and it’s annoying me. Charlotte mentioned it on Friday, so I must have told her, but I can’t find any record of where or when. It’s an important story – important for me, anyway – so I think I’ll tell it again. I’m not sure why, but I feel compelled to record such things. To me the more we explain to eachother, the more we know. Either way, today this is on my mind.

One of my favourite songs is the theme from toy story ”you got a friend in me”. I know it’s cheesy, but these days hearing the first few bars of that song just makes me turn to mush, and I think the explanation of why it does so is one worth telling. Mind you, this’ll make me sound like a wimp but I don’t care.

Music, probably more than all other art forms, has the ability to transport you; it can jog memories, trigger emotions. It can have a profound effect on the soul. I think this is why it is such an important part of film. ”You got a friend in me” takes me back to Paris.

It had been a long, wonderful day. Me and Charlotte had spent the day in eurodisney; it was quite wonderful. We had been on every ride – we had managed to skip every cue, to Charlie’s great amazement and jubilation. It was, however, time to go, get the taxi to the airport, and come home. Dusk was falling, and we were making our way to the exit. I suddenly heard the theme from toy story play, and I began to well up. I knew I couldn’t cry in front of c, but in that moment, I was eleven again.

It was 1994 again. In the easter of that year, my parents had taken us to Disneyland California. That trip forfilled an oath of my father, made before I was born, to take his children to that place. It also fulfilled a wish of mine, for at that time I was very keen on all things concerning Disney. That day, too, had been a long, great one, and it was time to go. We were crossing the car park on the way to our hotel when I decided ‘no’. I didn’t want to leave, and made my views known by slamming my breaks on and starting to cry.

The tears came again this summer, almost. This time, my reluctance to leave was mixed with admiration and gratitude for Charlie, as well as fondness. It was entirely appropriate that a song about friendship came on, sealing the melancholy happiness of that moment in my memory. That song will forever remind me of that day, of charlotte, and of the moment she made me feel like I was eleven again. This time, though, I fought the tears back, as I’m too old for that. But they were, in a way, tears for the passage of time. Again, for paradise lost.

And as the years go by

Boys, our friendship will never die

You’re gonna see

It’s our destiny

You’ve got a friend in me

Charlie told me on friday she’s doing this song as part of a Disney medley at school, which is how I came to be thinking about it. I’d certainly want to see that, I just hope I don’t ball my eyes out.

God I’m becoming a wimp.