30 July - NOTW or was it the Mirror?

Went to see Chicane recently. Poor lambs, they (or I should say he, as it’s one person’s band) want to be taken seriously as regular pop/rock songwriters now that the super clubs and superstar djs’ no longer appeal. But the crowd (in a regular live venue, not a club) was just waiting for the old hits. They dropped a few throughout the set but really saved the best ones till last. By that point it was too late to dance really to ‘Don’t Give Up‘, ‘Saltwater’ and others (I was not a major fan). And it’s like ten o’ clock on a Friday hardly dance hour is it? So it seemed silly to see people punching the air but I was jealous of a few couples next to me who were turning to each other with that love recognition sing, the look straight into each other’s eyes as if to say ‘Oh my god baby, do you remember when we danced to this in… (insert name of club/bar/beach in Thailand, Ibiza, Bali and so on). I don’t have many memories like that as never had clubby/hedonistic beach boyfriends. Or rather, there was Craig and the full moon raves but have no idea what the music was back then. Early 2000. Could look it up I guess. No major tune apart from endlessly repeated Café del Mar compilations in our little hut, falling asleep to Groove Armada or some such. Makes sense at the time.
Anyway, all this to link to the following. A few days later at work ….

I've worked at my present place for a year and for 8/9 months have sat opposite this great girl called DE. She's the one I go to the gym with often and generally the one who gets everybody out for things like stupid karaoke, stupid pole dancing and lunches galore. She’s 30 something, lives in Essex, loves Big Brother and Vicky Becks, but I forgive her.

She saw me nodding my head to music and asked what I was listening to … It was Chicane, I was checking them out on Myspace as a reminder. I said ‘Ibiza clubby old stuff, chicane if you remember them’. I further added, darn that I never went to Ibiza in all these years considering I used to know Mr Tong and Mr FBS. DE said she went for a crazy hen w/end a 8 years ago with her friend S. and because S.’s friend is Rav Singh he put them on guest lists to all the clubs and they had a grand old time. My turn to say 'My friend CH knows Rav Singh really well too !!! (and we sold him some gossip years ago when he was at the Mirror or NOTW or the Sun who knows. It was hilarious, we got free Reading tix and cash for some frankly innocuous gossip). DE replies ‘I think I know your friend CH then, she was with us at the hen w/end and going on about this guy R she'd just met.

If you ever need proof that some people gravitate together no matter what jobs they do and that the pool of people you know/meet is small and you’ll meet them all, this is it. I was chief bridesmaid at CH’s wedding to R. only a few years ago and we’re best friends. However, after frantic exchange of emails to CH and S to tell them respectively I work with someone who knows someone who was at the same Ibiza hen w/end… it emerges that CH and S have not been in touch with each other for a long time. However Rav is about to get married to I don’t’ remember who now…