A wave came crashing like a fist to the jaw. Delivered him wings, "Hey, look at me now".

Just thinking back to times gone by.

The first single I bought was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.
I really dislike that song now. I don't like Queen or Freddie Mercury. Never did. I think I bought it because I'd saved up my pocket money, went up town and wanted to buy a single. I probably stood there looking at the charts not knowing what most of the other songs were, so plumped for the one that everybody else in The UK seemed to be buying at the time. It's been lost over time, but I'm sure the b-side was something like "Don't drive my car" and I remember being disappointed because it didn't even have a proper cover; just one of those paper sleeves.

The first album I bought was Kings Of The Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants.
I was really into Adam and the Ants as a kid. I can remember going down to the local disco on a Friday night and begging the DJ to play "Ant Music" until I was blue in the face. It's a little worrying how much I was into them because I can remember buying Smash Hits magazine especially because it had an 'Adam Ant' skull and crossbones pendant free on the cover. The album got played over and over, mainly because it was the only one I owned for a while and I remember being particularly chuffed with the gatefold sleeve.

The first live concert I went to was Ozzy Osbourne at The NEC arena.
My best friend's dad dropped us off at the venue and picked us up after it was all over. I had to lie to my parents and tell them that my friend's dad was going to the concert as well, otherwise they would have never let me go. I was completely blown away by the loudness of the music, the stage theatrics and the fact he hung a dwarf on stage during the gig. He was probably completely off his tits at the time, but that didn't matter to a kid like me. I just loved the whole night, although I can't remember a damn song he played, apart from "Paranoid" of course.

The first car I owned was a Morris Marina 1300.
It was an old knacker, with rust spots everywhere and in a horrible orange colour. I think I drove it for about 3 weeks before seizing the engine up because nobody told me anything about checking the oil and water. As far as I was concerned, so long as there was petrol in it, it would go. Apparently not so.

The first time I flew in a plane was when our family emigrated to South Africa.
I can't remember the total flight time, but it felt like forever. The plane stopped off somewhere to refuel and everybody had to get off the plane while they refuelled and did certain checks. When we all boarded again, my dad had to rush off back to the restaurant that we'd been sat in for a break, because my brother had left his jacket on the back of the chair. I can remember my mum crying when the cabin crew kept saying we would have to leave without him because he was taking too long. He just about made it.

The first film I watched at the cinema was Grease.
I hated it. My mum loved it. I can appreciate it a lot more nowadays, but the memory of me sat there being bored out of my skull for what seemed like four hours still niggles at me. We had to queue around the side of the cinema for about an hour before it actually started. Oh and people could smoke in there too.

The first girl I kissed was called Cheryl.
I always thought it was pronounced with a 'ch' sound, as in 'chips' or 'chisel' and can remember pronouncing her name wrong for months before she actually corrected me by saying it was a 'sh' sound. We kissed behind the Science Block. Our school didn't have bike sheds. She'd been asking me out for ages, apparently because she liked my South African accent, but I kept saying no. For about a year, if I remember rightly.

The first book I read from cover to cover was Lightning by Dean R Koontz.
As a kid, I was more into magazines than books and consequently never finished a book until I was in my twenties. Yes, yes, I know that's bad. I even skipped reading the books for my English Literature exams because I could always find something better to do with my time. Once I'd tasted what it feels like to finish a book in it's entirety, I ploughed on....with more books by the same author, although I never thought any of his others came close. Spookily enough, The Girl cites Lightning as her favourite Koontz novel.

The first job I had was in some engineering Company.
To this day, I have no idea what my actual job title or role was. It was very noisy, very dirty, there were lots of big machines everywhere, they used to design and make things for the Aerospace Industry and everybody used to look like they hated working there. I lasted about six months before realising I could earn more money DJ'ing and would enjoy myself about a million times more.

The first time I got pulled over by the police was for a faulty brake light on my beloved orange Marina.
The only thing that's ever been more traumatising in my life was when my dad used to beat the shit out of me and my brother when we were kids. Because my brake light wasn't working, coupled with the fact my car was so obviously a piece of shit on wheels, the police officer checked every damn thing on my car; lights, tyres, brakes, everything. I had to get the light fixed and show a 'working declaration', stamped and signed by a local garage, along with all my driving documents to the local police station.

The first time I had sex was at a New Years eve party.
It was a horrendous experience and made me wonder just what the whole fuss was about, for a long, long time afterwards. It was a very short lived relationship and made me realise that having sex for the sake of having sex just isn't my bag, baby.

The first time I cried at a movie was my first encounter with The Dead Poet's Society.
Until then, I'd never been moved so much by such a wonderfully poignant story with such believable characters. Although I could never list my favourite ten movies, that one would surely be in there. It still moves me now, but I think the initial magic may be gone.

The first time I published myself on the web was on Livejournal.
I stuck with them for about two years before defecting to Deadjournal and then to Blogger. I had to move my Livejournal and Deadjournal accounts a couple of times because people I knew in real life found them and I hated the fact that I started to censor myself. So far, I've been lucky with Blogger and by remaining anonymous, but should that ever change, I wont even have to think twice about deleting this place.