I Should be so Lucky was a prompt from last year’s Blogtober, the challenge to write each day in October.
It was, I think, a given that of course I would write about my lifelong love for Ms Minogue and a tale of how what started as a really awful day turned into possibly the happiest evening of my life!
I was a neighbours fan as a kid. My sister and I used to love it, Home and Away too. In fact we loved that Australian drama so much in school hols sometimes we’d treat outselves and watch both the lunchtime and teatime showings. I digress, apologies. The wedding, the greatest wedding of all time can’t even imagine how many times I’ve seen that. I think back in the day I had it videoed. 7 year old me fell in love and it has been a love ever lasting.
Especially for You was the first record I ever bought. I know you’re really meant to make up something cool but I can’t do that to our Kyles. By the time I Should be so Lucky came along our love was sealed. 7 year old me was eager to share this love with her family. My dad told me Pah.. Kylie.. she won’t last two minutes! Now I’m not saying I’m one to like being proven right, but my dad died 25 years ago and I still wish I could tell him she’s still very much around now dad. Told you!!!
Now as a grown woman it’s actually cool to be into Kylie, everyone loved her rocking Glastonbury! Everyone looks at her in the same way as I do (like the loveheart eyes emoji if you’re wondering)
I’m a woman who hasn’t really had an awful lot of adventures. I had babies and a few of them in my early 20’s so I didn’t really get to do all the partying and holidaying and festivalling (I’m working up to all that now the kids are older) I’ve not been to an awful lot of gigs. Then a new Kylie tour was announced for 2018!! She was coming to Manchester and I was a grown up now I could buy tickets to see her if I liked! I was rabid excited, asked around see who wanted to come with me (big fat no one) That’s OK, no accounting for taste. I am Kelly, Queen of the solo date I’ll go on my own… Eeek only a year to wait for it to come around.
It came around, there was weeks left to go… I had my Kylie playlist pretty much on repeat 24/7. Then the biggest mental health crash of my life came about. It was always going to happen, always a case of when than if. I couldn’t go to Kylie, no way. I couldn’t go into a big crowded place, I couldn’t have fun. No way not a chance. Kylie day came round and I just sat, sad and miserable.
My mental health is a fragile thing but it’s always dependable in the way it always gets better. It got better, much better. Things that had laid dormant and raw for years and now been processed and dealt with, trauma quietened. It happened again. A big glittery announcement, a new Kylie tour and this time it was her greatest hits. Her. Greatest. Hits. The 8 year old in me briefly wondered if we could get our hair permed again for the concert (hey we rocked the perm in 1988 what’s stopping us? ) That idea briefly cast aside tickets to see her in Edinburgh… at the actual castle no less were bought and… yeah.. just a year to wait..
Kylie day came around! It didn’t start well. I overslept, I couldn’t find my make up bag and I left my bank card in Manchester Piccadilly. Was I just doomed? Were things always going to stop me seeing her? I was late but I made it, tummy butterflies the whole journey. A bit grumpy about the disastrous morning but it was Kylie day, put the playlist on and cheer up. It was a gorgeous day I had a lovely summery dress on (a very glittery Kylie esque one to change into for the gig!!!) Walking through Edinburgh super super excited, the sun was shining it was Kylie day!! There was all of a sudden a bit of a chill in the air though, I felt really cold. A glance down to discover said lovely dress had burst open flashing the whole of Edinburgh my undies!! Oh give me a break, can anything else go wrong. My chivalrous companion got me a drink sat me down and staved off a breakdown as he hurried off to get safety pins and save my blushes and I held my dress together like an absolute loon. Thinking back now I just smile at how badly my day was going at the time I just felt doomed.
It goes without saying Kylie was phenomenal. Pretty sure our eyes met in a really meaningful way once or twice and I don’t think I’ve ever felt the joy that was tens of thousands of people singing Kylie and just loving their lives in that moment. I kept catching the person I was with sneaking glances at me in the way you do when you take the kids to see something you know they’re going to love so you can’t take your eyes off their excited happy faces! Only I was a 39 year old woman but probably excitable as a kid. So it turned out I wasn’t doomed to never see Kylie. The woman I had spent a good 30 years in love with. The opposite of doomed in fact. I’m not really a everything happens for a reason kind of a person. However being there, On a Night Like This blasting out as the sun set over the gorgeous Edinburgh Castle. That did feel like the most perfect of moments that ever could have been.
Daydreams of a Mum 