Today’s blog continues both my life story and how I ended up interested in writing.
We take a little jump to when I was 18 years old. Having broken up with a long-term girlfriend, I travelled to an Israeli farm for six months, to be honest, mostly for sex, drugs and rock and roll!
I had other reasons for moving to Israel, one being my Jewish roots, another was having the urge to travel, but let’s face it, the biggest reason was more excitement in the form of the above.
That excitement arrived in the form of a girl called Sheryl.
It was the first few days of my being on the farm when they threw a party. Rightly or wrongly I was disappointed with the girls there. Then another girl turned up late. She was a babe and totally unsuited for farm work. She had smooth black hair, a pretty face and a gorgeous body. I was smitten at first sight. So smitten, in fact, that I persisted until I finally got off with her, despite a dangerous six-foot Canadian also being after her and warning that he’d kill me if he saw me near her again.
After that we started going out regularly. We smoked pot, had plenty of sex and, as they say, generally rock and rolled. From smitten I unwisely fell head over heels in love, instead of enjoying things while they lasted.
I remember one event that really showed just how much she meant to me. I always loved dancing, but the wildest horses known to man wouldn’t have been able to get me dancing in public. One night at the local disco, after a hot day milking sheep, she wanted to dance. “No way!” I absolutely assured her. So off she went to dance with a tall Israeli hunk. Watching them groove caused sweat to dampen my shirt and my heart to race with fear. I thought I’d die if I lost her. It took that threat of terrible loss to finally get me onto the dance floor.
I’ve been happily dancing ever since, much to my wife’s delight.
In the end she got chucked off the farm. I followed her like a love-sick sheep to another farm where she dumped me in the very early hours of the morning for an older man who had 6 boutiques in Brighton!
I was crushed and it took much longer than it should have to get over her rejection. All in all, she wasn’t good for me – but boy did I enjoy the four months we had together!
Love has been a big, important part of my life. It’s something I dive into rather than skate around. I do try to get that across in my writing and poetry, in fact half of my first poetry book is dedicated to love. It’s such an important part of our lives, whether through heartbreak, falling head over heels in love, or the many shades in between.
