Life's too short not to spoon out the jam jar

An evening in Leytonstone, so far out my shoes pinched at the thought of it. But the two of us tracked down the pub that seemed to have been plucked from the north and winched in among little cottage-like terraced houses along a back road. The pub was putting on a band. An aging Irishman with lambchop sideburns introduced Dan of Green Gables. Two thirds of a favourite band (The Wave Pictures - every song has some sweetstuff in it I swear: jam, ice cream, marmalade, sugar and syrup. A sweet-toothed set-up) have brought in Dan on violin to create this side project. They sound like The Wave Pictures, but Dave is on acoustic rather than electric, Franec is on mandolin, and the violin escalates it all to mesmeric heights. I was wholly in a trance throughout 'I Saw Her Hair Between the Trees' (and not only because the title bears resemblance to my favourite O'Hara line). One of the most beautiful things I have ever heard and only two feet away as we sat at a little round table - big enough for only a couple of pints - right up close. Franec and his round face of cheek and beard, and fast mandolin hand. They told jokes between songs to fill time as they were worried they didn't have enough material. I must stop falling in love, and falling in love so frequently and completely. Dan with his secret-smiling and shy not-quite-looking-at the audience, and occasional spontaneous foot stamp as he raises his bow. I'm a sucker for wool grandad vests. He struck me so truly, I think, because he was merging inside my head and in front of my eyes with a character from a just-read novel. Finn from The Magic Toyshop, also red haired, who dances to a fiddle, and with whom I also fell in love. Only one beer and all drunk on folk in Leytonstone.