BANK Holiday Monday, Diamond Jubilee weekend - it really was a time to roll back the memories.
As the nation hung out the bunting and put on a right royal celebration to celebrate 60 years of the Windsor dynasty, the fast passage of time flashed before you.
Channel surfing on Monday morning, I killed a couple of hours watching one of those old ESPN football classics - this one England versus Scotland, Euro 96 at the old Wembley Stadium.
Remember the year? "Football's Coming Home", the peroxide-haired Gazza with his dentist chair goal celebration, David Seaman brilliantly saving Gary McAllister's penalty, Teddy Sherringham and Alan Shearer up front, with Paul Ince and Gazza pulling the midfield strings alongside Darren Anderton and Steve McManaman, and a back four of Gary Neville, Tony Adams, Stuart Pearce and Gareth Southgate.
Some team, and calling the shots on TV that day was the legendary commentator Brian Moore alongside the forgettable summariser Ron Atkinson.
1996 for heaven's sake - 16 seemingly short years ago. I watched the match at the Twin Towered Wembley Stadium with a warm glow of a wonderful summer remembering when I covered Wimbledon tennis fortnight and then spent a month in Georgia reporting on the Atlanta Olympics. It all seems like yesterday. Where did those years go. Sixteen years from now I'll be collecting my pension - possibly!
In a sense, watching the Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace last night served as another sweet reminder of yesteryear, temporarily packing away the world's current travails. Stevie Wonder - it's not Her Majesty's birthday for heaven sake! - Madness, Robbie Williams, the hula-hooping Grace Jones (what was she doing there?), Elton John, Paul McCartney.
At times, the Buckingham Palace hoe-down evoked memories of the greatest concert ever Band Aid 1985 - 27 years' ago! TWENTY EIGHT years ago. OMG!!! Phil Collins, U2, Spandau Ballet, Paul Young, Dire Straits, The Who, David Bowie, Elvis Costello, Status Quo, Bryan Ferry, Sting and, of course, Queen!
Elton John sang that memorable night at Wembley, including "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" with George Michael, but last night you sensed maybe it was time for Elton to move deftly aside. Sometimes it's best to tuck away the memories and don't bring them out the box again. Elton's creaky performance, along with those of Paul McCartney, Grace Jones and even Cheryl Cole were a salutary reminder of that golden principle - although was Cheryl ever that good?!
I took my youngest son Ross for a walk into the village on Bank Holiday afternoon. Titchfield was beautifully bedecked in flags, and on Barry's Meadow, a small Jubilee Fair was taking place with a host of small stalls, the carnival queen, bagpipers and a load of activities. Children were dressed up, the local Army Cadets were out in force, the scouts were parading, the community came out in force.
The occasion was beautifully undersold and unashamedly patriotic. In Britain's bid to become a multi-cultural society, our own patriotism and identity seems to be questioned as untrendy, marginalised and totally un-PC. Here was our chance to come out of the closet!
For the whole jubilee, surely that has been the stand-out feature of the celebrations. There has been a lot of pomp and circumstance (what is circumstance, does it have anything to do with measuring the size of a circle?), but no hyperbole. With the royal procession down the Thames - didn't the Queen look thoroughly miserable and fed up? - the flotilla and the whole occasion was simple without being over the top.
The Jubilee celebrations followed by the Olympics couldn't have come at a better time, consigning to one corner for a while the republicans and anti-monarchists, allowing those who really do care about their country to show what it means to be British.
It very much reminds me of the summer of 1996 when the feelgood factor on the streets of the nation was palpable.
What a marvellous trip down memory lane - thanks Dave.
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