We Be Burnin

I am still not quite sure how Bob Geldof got to be so famous. The only song of his that I can think of was with the Boomtown Rats, and although it's a good song, it was really only one song. A one hit wonder. A stroke of luck. And somehow Bob got famous and found a cause to fight for and has done what he has done. I guess you had to be there to see how he got the ball rolling maybe. Anyway, the reason that I'm talking about Bob Geldof was because I was thinking about how I don't like Monday. Well, that's not quite true. The specific Monday I don't like at the moment is this Monday. Why? Well, I attended a funeral today for my Auntie Jan who sadly passed away on Friday.

I've only been to a few funerals, so I don't proclaim to be an expert on them at all, but a few people were saying afterwards how it was an especially emotional one. I think that this is because it offered a glimpse into the future for some of us. Also Auntie Jan's grandson lost it a couple of times during the service. Not a very cheerful sort of a day at all.

There were some good things though. We didn't get lost or get a speeding ticket on the way to the funeral (this has happened before), there wasn't that awful part where the coffin is taken out of view by the final curtain call, there was some fantastic sandwiches on offer afterwards and the church was very well air conditioned. My pick of the sandwiches would definately have been the tuna ones. I believe they may have had a hint of lemon to give them a bit more zest. Mmmm.

Still, there were some things that I didn't particularly like about the funeral. I regret not taking a seat in the row in front of me because I was squashed in next to my big bum brother. I regret not saying g'day to somebody I never really knew and never really liked but who I haven't seen in 10 years. I regret not being a couple of kilos lighter so that my shirt didn't constrict my windpipe during the service. I regret not grabbing a little service book on the way in so I could keep tabs on what was going down. I didn't like the use of that tired old story about how at the end of someone's life they're chatting with God and he show's them the beach with the two sets of footprints that represents their life and the person questions God about why during the hard times there is only the one set. While I like this story and thought about how it's appropriate and things like that, I'm pretty sure he used the same one at the christening of Auntie Jan's grandchildren a few months ago. Oh well. In all though it was okay. This is actually pretty low of me doing this. Ragging on somebody's funeral isn't cool.

It did make me think about how I'd like to go though. You always hear about how everyone wants it to be a celebration of life as opposed to the mourning of their death, but to actually have a celebration would be a fairly tough thing to do. I guess you could try and bring out a couple of funny stories. Maybe put some balloons up or something. Have a punch bowl. Play some loud rock n roll. Perhaps a pinata. Keep the kids smiling. I guess it's not really something people like to think about. It's fairly hard for me to imagine a world without me in it, but it's going to happen one day. It's really the only one thing anybody can count on in life, that it will end. One day we will all end up in a box and have our lives which will hopefully have been full of love, joy, experience and tolerance reduced to a five minute fact sheet eulogy.

In other news I had a pretty good sort of weekend. I'd planned on getting a little loose which is what I did with the aid of a few friends which was lovely. It was kind of a weekend of twos. I saw the sun come up on two mornings. I had two hangovers. I was bitten by two different people at two different times for two different reasons. I had two trips to Woolworths. I caught two silver service cabs. I got shot down in flames by two girls at the one time. I spent too much money.

I don't regret any of it though.