Localising Food Tour Aotearoa

Teenagers.  They have this ability to appear effortlessly, casually, you-can’t-touch-me cool.  I think I may have once been the same.  This is how I know damn well the casual appearance takes some work, and that for many teens the hormonal waves of emotion can rock back and forth in a highly de-stabalising  manner.  Anyway, I digress.  The one I observed today was no exception.  He was lank haired and in his own little man-boy bubble as he strode through his parent’s DVD shop replacing movies.  He’d served me before.  I was the responsible mother.  He gave one worded, mildly indignant answers to my polite questions.

Today though, his cool-bubble melted into a pool of frothy pink bubbles that rose merrily into the air around him and gave off a lolly-pop scent.  The aura of off-handedness he’d picked up over the years fell away revealing sweet tenderness.  You see, he was picking through his i-pod tunes.  And what did I hear?  Why it was the music of the eighties. Yeah.  That’s right.  It was my music.  It was the music I heavily sprayed my hair too, shaved my arms too (mistakingly) and worked out to apply eye-liner painlessly too.  It was the music that accompanied me through terrifying school discos and embarrassing car trips with my friends and my parents.  It was the music I once dreamed too, and danced passionately too when I was sure no-body was looking.

And today, the cool adolesent paid full homage to my music by singing along whole heartedly to his favorite eighties songs.  He didn’t stop when a new customer walked in.  In fact his joyous singing inspired her to join in too.  And as for me, I just listened.  Partly because I didn’t know the words, but also because I was enjoying yet another quirky human experience.  One that I shall probably forget tomorrow, but one that made life today so much richer.  His singing made my life more beautiful and certainly ten times more entertaining.

You know that saying ‘dance like nobody’s watching’?  You do that.  Dance in the supermarket isles, and in the cafes and on the streets and in your living rooms with the curtains open and in front of your cars with your friends in car parks (ok that one might be quite a big deal, but wouldn’t it be fun?), because there’s bound to be someone nearby who will benefit from your joy.  I know I did today.

Today’s rating: 9/10

365 Days of Fun and Chillaxation (as I raise my gorgeous son and grow my good news website to a subscription base of 100,000 people).  The Low Down on this Blog.

Check out yesterday’s blog.

Tags: Music, Youth