City Stylin' #17

Mark: We met at Rock City in 1998. She’d fallen down the stairs, and I was really drunk. She spotted me on the dance floor, thought I looked nice, and that was it. We fell in love over a can of Red Stripe, the rest is history. We’re tee-total now. We used to like a good drink, but hangovers and children do not mix. After a while, you don’t miss it at all. 

We’ve been talking about renewing our vows, so maybe we could go to Paris next year for our twentieth anniversary. Every year we say we’re going to do something; we were meant to go to Paris for our tenth, but then we ended up having another child. There’s not going to be anymore of them though. Not in the world, obviously. Just for us.  

Geraldine: When we met I was working at that shop next to Ice Nine, it used to be called Zeeky. It was a health food shop downstairs and a vegan café upstairs; now, there’s often dead chickens hanging in the windows. I remember thinking Ice Nine was the best shop ever, and I loved all the tie-dye – I was a bit grungy at the time. I went in there the other day with our nine-year old when we came to the Pride march. She loved it and would have cleared the shelves. It’s one of those shops that I still think is pretty cool, even if you’re not into that sort of thing.

We had a child-free day today so we decided to leg it out of the house. It happens very rarely, but it’s nice to have breakfast in Hockley, mooch around town and enjoy the freedom. We’ve not been away with the kids yet this summer, but we’re going to London for three days. I haven’t been there since about 1980, and the kids have got so many plans – I’d have to sell a kidney to afford it all.