Totems & Talismans

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Guinness - circa 1973 - still unopened
  
    Over the years, I've either lost, given away or had stolen many things. Considering I've moved house no fewer than twelve times in my life, I suppose that's to be expected.
    One particular and valued thing we managed to lose permanently; twice. A friend of mine from art college, Jim Fenwick, painted a picture for our wedding in 1979, which unfortunately got lost in our move to North Wales the following year. We told Jim, who duly painted us an exact replica of the original painting 'With a View to a Room I Am' which then, twenty years later, got lost in our move from Brynbella Cottage up to our first place in Rachub. Having lost touch with Jim and not wishing anyway to tempt fate a third time, we chalked it up to experience and let it be.
    One thing that I have managed to keep with me over the years, surprisingly, is an unopened half-pint bottle of Guinness which I bought in Brum in 1973 and which cost at the time 11½p.
   Over the years it's taken on an almost totemic quality, like an artifact from a bygone era - in this instance the pre-barcode era. It's been with me through three art colleges, those twelve house-moves and innumerable career changes for forty-seven years and has served as a talisman of continuity in my life, probably because of it's sheer ephemerality and very unlikely longevity.

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