mars

remember the time, back in august 2003, when mars was the closest ever to earth? my friend and i were walking down a dark street in suburbian Tokyo, when we saw it, big, bright and red. i told my friend, and she didn’t believe me. she hadn’t heard. our conversation went something like this:

friend: no way!! you’re kidding!!!
me: no. it’s really mars. it’s the closest it’s gonna be to us in hundreds of years. take a good look.
friend: oh. my. god. it’s mars? fucking hell. it’s really mars? no way! this is fucking amazing!
me: (i’ve been looking at it for a whole month now, so i know it is, but i’m actually quite happy to be reminded, cos tonight is one of the 3 nights that it’s the very closest) isn’t it?
friend: oh my god, i’ve got to tell tommy! (she calls tommy) tommy, look out the window! (tommy’s obviously not that keen) no tommy, listen to me, you’ve got to look out of your fucking window. it’s fucking mars! (tommy apparently looks out) yes! it’s mars! i’ve just been told. can you believe it? it’s mars! it’s fucking mars! isn’t it totally awesome??? (conversation with tommy ends, she looks back at me) wow. i didn’t know. this is so fucking cool!!
me: yeah. it is.

it was a hugely funny conversation. then, about two or three weeks later, i was walking back home from work with another friend, and had kind of forgotten about mars. i look up in the sky and just under the moon is a little bright spot. and i think, shit, does the moon have a new satellite? totally excited, i ask my friend what’s going on, what’s that, do you think it’s a satellite, or maybe a UFO (yeah, i know, got a little carried away there), and she says, it’s mars. didn’t you know this is the closest it’s been to Earth in years and years? and me thinking, oh yeah, mars. i’d forgotten… still, it was hugely impressive to watch it being just under the moon, like it was hanging there. a couple of hours later, it was off the side of the moon. i wished i had my camera on me…