You would think that buying a CD has lost it’s novelty. It has become a trivial act, which only those who know know of the world of KaZaa, mp3 and broadband. However, there is more to this than meets the eye. I for one, do purchase the occasional CD. Nothing beats being able to have the case, inlay cover, the lyrics and the thank yous by the artist to all his devoted fans. Go into your local record store on a Saturday morning. It will be be busy, very busy. People haven’t stopped buying music. I don’t think they ever will. One of the few albums I purchased myself was in December 2001. Michael Jackson’s Invincible album had been on my Christmas list. However, no one got it for me! (Thanks Santa!) So on Monday 31st December 2001, I went into Reading and the Virgin Megastore, in the Broadstreet Mall. To purchase all the Christmas gifts I wanted and didn’t get (Return To Castle Wolfenstein). It has taken me over two years to actually sit down and listen to Invincible. One of the songs on the album, struck a cord with me, just before I left Leicester to head home for Christmas. However, I never got the chance to listen to the song again, and just remembered today, that I needed to revisit this song, this emotion, this feeling I felt, when the soft voice of MJ filled my room.

Emotions, deep emotions I feel. Emotions that I thought I would never feel, not now, not today. There is a reason why I feel the way I do, and why I feel it now and not some other day. I made a decision. A decision, perhaps which lacked judgment at the time, but was done more with feeling rather than with head. I logged onto Friends Reunited, and scanned my college list of 2000. Now some four years had passed since I had been in the company of some of these people. Some of them, nothing but a name, a face in the crowd and now perhaps more part of my life, for the fact I’m reading their name and trying with great difficulty to recall them. Then I came across a someone, who had only recently added themselves to the site. Shall I take the step? Shall I not? I considered the options and then decided to take the plunge, hoping knowing there was little to lose. Would they get in touch? They did. To my surprise, e-mails have been quite heading in my direction, in quick succession. It is difficult to express how I feel. What makes it so special to get in touch with someone, for the first time in perhaps, four years? What makes it so special, to share sweet memories of days long gone? To be able to see someone again, and know that they shared with you some moments, that can never be taken away. I have been sitting here, thinking about it for some time. I know the answer. They bring life to your memories. By their presence, they can bring you a world of joy and happiness, you thought was long gone and only to be revisited in dreams. Friendship is fragile, for there are those friends that will come and go. There will be those few that remain, for the whole journey. But never stop to make more room for those, who had gone far away, and are back to join you, but this time it is forever more.

Helpless and hopeless, that’s how I feel inside
Nothing’s real, but all is possible if God is on my side
When I’m with you I am in the light where I cannot be found
It’s as though I am standing in the place called Hallowed Ground

Speechless, speechless, that’s how you make me feel
Though I’m with you I am lost for words and nothing is for real…