Photographic memories
The ex missus always had this incredibly anal fixation about not having clutter around the house. Personally, I like having my umpteen books, CDs, DVDs etc on display (books especially as it makes me look more intelligent, until you get up close and see that they’re mostly TV and film reference books, or graphic novels with a bit of Brookmyre, Fleming and Anne Rice thrown in), but she hated it and so stuff like that was relegated to the spare room and the loft. Anyway, she applied this ‘sparse is best’ philosophy to other things as well. Including photographs. Or, more specifically, photographic negatives (yes, there was a time before digital cameras).

Her logic, essentially, was “We’re never going to split up; we don’t need to keep the negatives for all these fantastic holiday snaps. They’ll only get scratched or covered in dust”. Fair enough, but I did consider the possibility of wanting to get some reprinted. However, she was adamant, and like a total spaktard I went along with it.

Of course, the rest is history – we did split up, and the only memory I have of some truly fantastic holidays we had are just that – memories. Not a single piece of photographic evidence is held by me. Not the first time we went to Florida and got completely theme parked out. Nor the subsequent trips where we decided to travel down the East Coast to the Keys and back, our grand tour of California and Nevada, including a helicopter trip into the Grand Canyon for breakfast; swimming with dolphins; skiing in New England; and catching the Hong Kong skyline at night, to name but a few. The latter of which were taken on my fucking camera, at a time when she was actually shagging someone else and therefore she probably had it in mind to leave anyway. And yet she still insisted on ditching the negatives when we got back.

OK, so maybe not priceless in terms of material value, but as far as stunning memories go, it would be nice to have a visual reminder.

So the moral of the story is, no matter how strong you think a relationship is, when it comes to photographs, ALWAYS get a spare set. In my case, I may eventually see them again due to her impending shuffling off this mortal coil*, but I really wish I’d put my foot down and insisted on getting a second set of each batch of photos.

*Not meant to sound callous or anything, honest. Merely a statement of fact. I bear no malice at all.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 19 Aug 2008, 12:20, 5 replies)

To echo the thoughts of others on this QOTW
If any future Mrs Me asks me to dump anything of sentimental value, including photos which may or may not include ex-girlfriends, my collection of wires and guitar strings, porn, astronomy books, or the like, I'll be telling her she can stick her collection of handbags and shoes up her chuff.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 19 Aug 2008, 12:48, closed)

Hur hur hur
"anal fixation"

*giggles more than is necessary*
(Bazongaloid, Tue 19 Aug 2008, 12:57, closed)

I might have known
you'd lower the tone al. You and Tourette's will get on like a house on fire on Saturday...
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 19 Aug 2008, 13:04, closed)

you can have photographs coppied
without the negatives... just a thought.
( Prof UnderCover evitable, Tue 19 Aug 2008, 17:14, closed)

True
but there's hundreds of them - it'd cost a small fortune.

I'll just wait until she pops her clogs and hopefully get them back that way.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 19 Aug 2008, 18:09, closed)