On the last episode of season 3 of the grand tour, the theme was the farewell of the Ford Mondeo. The one car that all 3 presenters liked.
Now aside from their trip down memory lane, the change of the car market and the benefits of Ford – my recollection of this car has a different memory.
In mid 1994, I was admitted to hospital while on holiday in the UK. It was a long painful experience but I remember that the Mondeo was the car my father had rented. It was the car that ferried my family to the hospital. It was the car that took me back home after I was discharged.
It’s funny how something like a car, that I perhaps sat in a few times, could bring such a memory. One of the first of my recollections was when waking from my coma, I called my father to ask him to bring me my book which was in the car.
As a photographer, I’m lucky enough to capture a lot of these kinds of memories but somehow for me, it’s other things that evoke emotion and sentiment inside of me.
Music is one such example. One of my foremost triggers is a song. It can be associated to a specific memory or just a timeline. The other day, I heard a song by Atomic Kitten and the company I was with was younger then me and had no idea who they were. Although that made me feel quite old quite quickly, it also reminded me of school days in Dubai and summer holidays abroad. The days of CD’s and the fantastic Now That’s What I Call Music collections. Or for when that wasn’t available, sitting by the radio, waiting for your favourite song to come along and pressing record.
Relationships, songs, celebrations and commiserations can all be related to music. Probably why the Football World Cup has a a song commissioned to be it’s anthem.
We’ve all listened to music when performing a mundane task or even when studying? Why? Well music disengages the brain from mundane and in a way declutters it. Probably why it’s presence helps tasks as such less tedious.
I hope music always remains a part of my life. I hope that they do fill the periphery of my memories.
