I do not go to Majorca

To Lancaster. An old pal is putting on an acid house reunion at a club I used to go to infrequently.

The cheapest way of getting to Lancaster from here is to fly to Manchester via Majorca, then if you can wait around a bit in Manchester, there's a train from the airport to Lancaster for £5.90. After I took the screenshot here, the air fare came down to £38.

I couldn't be bothered with all the testing palarver though, and found a lift for £20 each way on a car-sharing site. It was a long journey, five hours in a little van, but he was chatty and had an interesting sound track, where white people sing serious songs of self-analysis. I'd have preferred silence but I realise that that is a horror to many.

He drops me off at the motorway junction and I walk up to Kirsty's. She shames me with her hospitality. "Would you like a bit of [homemade] Gruyère quiche?" Raw spinach in a lemony dressing. My youngest is there, the drummer, hugging me with her bony body.

"You know that rave you're going to? Are there any tickets available?" I was lit up. "I don't know, let's see," excited that she might be able to come with me. She wears trousers. Pale blue. Stylish and flimsy, but I was hoping for the Mondrian miniskirt. It feels a bit like going out with a new girlfriend, except we've had three children and we're a hundred-and-eighteen put together.

We get the bus to Morecambe and get in the club. Kirsty has had half an e; me, a third of an acid blotter. I shove my remaining drugs down my pants, which is a good job as we are made to empty our pockets on entry.

I sold a couple of e's but spent the evening dancing with a mysterious but pleasant feeling in my perineum. When I got back to Kirsty's, I discovered it was the plastic bag with two e's in them that had slipped down to my undercarriage.

The place was not quite full enough, but friendly and tactile. Me: "Is that your daughter?" Him: "No, it's me girlfriend." Wide-eyed stare, trying to to stop saying, "you fucking lucky bastard."

Dancing with Kirsty. Fleeting moment of thinking "why the fuck did I throw this one away?"

The Morecambe Male Lager Courtship Dance, which consists of a man in a T-shirt and shorts going up to a well-dressed girl and standing with his legs wide apart and spreading his arms. "Look at me, I'm Morecambe's gift to women." Then everyone on the dancefloor moves away and opens a space around him so that he might get the message.

Chatting to strangers. Arms around waists, sweat everywhere. A finger up to covid and its worrying subjects.