It is 8pm Saturday.
My companion and I are eating some awesome pizza, salad and fried spiced potato in a restaurant on the Via Vittorio Veneto.
It is a balmy 18c in central Rome.
The topic of Top Five comes up.
Top five books, are easily dealt with, though my choice of Robert A Heinlein’s ‘Glory Road’ as number one brought a puzzled glance.
I chose to cheat at the top five films; went in very low with ‘Groundhog Day’ and followed that with a stratospherically high ‘Intacto’, then quickly followed with ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, ‘A Matter of Life And Death’ and floundered around for a number five.
But the top five albums?
Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ was an easy first place. Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ was equally easy. And then ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd. Then quickly on to ‘The Final Cut’ by, erm, Pink Floyd and suddenly, I realised, we had a problem.
My companion, sympathetic and quick-witted, came to my aid with a ‘You could have every album by Pink Floyd as one of your top five’.
Phew!
Crisis averted.
We finished the wine, talked more, left the restaurant and walked, arm-in-arm, through the far-too-warm-for-November-night-time-air and headed, slowly, through the trees and the people towards the hotel.
And as we walked and talked, I tried to figure out if ‘Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust’ would be my number two or number three album.
Behind ‘Everything Pink Floyd Have Recorded’, obv.
Sounds like you’re having a good time.
Good for you!
But, Robert Heinlein?
Not ‘Transit’ by Edmund Cooper?
As much as I do love Edmund Cooper, I don’t find anything as re-readable as Glory Road. But there would be something by Mr Cooper on the list, that’s for sure.
I like that you’re having intelligent discussion while drinking wine, unlike my friends and me whose drunken discussions involve such highbrow topics as ‘David Mitchell – would you or wouldn’t you?’ and ‘if you could put five people onto a doomed space mission, who would they be?’.
Oh V, I’m disappointed in you. David Mitchell? Really? That’s a ‘no’. And five people onto a doomed space mission? My question would be how critical is the success of the mission?
No need to panic Bren, I was in the ‘no’ camp. His hands are too small, men with very small hands are creepy, fact. The mission is definitely doomed, they are going to burn up on re-entry. They are doomed….