77 :Lady Jaynes Blog

Hi, Lady Jayne here! As I write this it has just hit me that Miguel and I have now been friends for nearly two decades, well in that time I can definitely say we were known for different things which made us quite the duo –

1. Random phrases and the weirdest sense of humour (‘hi ho silver!’ for example became a word we would shout whilst throwing our beloved friends’ possessions across the sixth form centre (proper little delights weren’t we!)

2. Pool times. These times were among some of my very favourite. Miguel, myself, Lady Velvet and Big Girl made this our weekly ritual for well over a year. Lady Velvet and Big Girl would make like most normal 17/18 year olds and go into the big pool to swim lengths in a calm and sophisticated manner before slinking into the jacuzzi to end their visit. Miguel and I however, well we had our own let’s say ‘unique’ routine. We would start off by more or less monopolising the jacuzzi (I mean we left room for others, but as anyone who knows Miguel and I can imagine, people would walk towards the jacuzzi hear our voices – usually midway through an impromptu rendition of a Disney classic  and practically dive à la Tom Daly into the nearest pool to escape from us!). We would then head to the toadstool or ‘waterfall’ as we preferred to call it and pretend to be in a JLo music video with said ‘waterfall’ crashing over our heads singing ‘Ain’t it Funny’ and ‘Jenny from the Block’ (whilst probably looking more like extras from the programme Benidorm than the naughties queen of pop herself). After a while we would decide to grace Lady Velvet and Big Girl with our glorious presence in the big pool and demand that we all sang the Baywatch theme tune whilst racing each other across the pool, which usually ended up in one of us, as you do, swallowing water and half choking.

3.  Perhaps this is the thing that Miguel and I were best known for, much to the annoyance of our poor long suffering friends – ahh yes the Miguel and Lady Jayne all nighter! Our friends each had their own unique bedtime routines after a night out all mostly involving food from questionable vendors with even more questionable hygiene standards a small chat and off to sleep. Miguel and I however, would roll into the room and by the hour become more and more hyper and giddy. It was our thing and we loved it. Big Girl’s duvet could usually be seen moving as she giggled along to our jokes yet didn’t want to encourage us to stay awake for even longer, Dinger would stay up the longest joining in before eventually falling asleep, Terrapin would be oblivious as she seemed to have an uncanny ability to fall comatose within around 5 seconds and Lady Velvet would try to say we wouldn’t get a lift home if we didn’t calm down (but alas she loved us so we knew we would be in her car the next day headed home listening to Scooter and merrily eating from one of the many haribo packets which lined her car like delicious edible air fresheners).

It is just that, our night time antics which reminds me of one particular night at Miguel’s house. As usual Miguel and I followed our end of night routine, which consisted of going to the chinese takeaway, getting our honey chilli chicken with noodles and heading back to Miguel’s house. What usually started as two friends sharing a chinese in Miguel’s living room more than often transcended into something akin to a scene from a David Attenborough documentary as we poked each other with forks for daring to cross the invisible half way line towards the other person’s chicken. This particular night we headed up to bed at around 2am and continued to laugh and talk into the night. Miguel’s mum, who was always so welcoming and patient despite two teenagers making a small racket in her house, began to walk towards Miguel’s bedroom. Sensing this may have been to tell us to keep quiet, as we heard her open the door, Miguel and I, without any prior discussion both appeared to have the same plan – we flopped down on to the bed, lulled our heads over to the side and pretended to be asleep (with snoring sound effects for realism included). Jennifer, upon seeing this, burst out in a fit of giggles and in a soft voice said to us “I know you two are awake I just heard you”. Miguel and I continued our façade as his mum chuckled and said “Goodnight you two, now go to sleep” and went back to bed. That was the thing about Miguel’s mum, she was always laughing and friendly. Even with us awake until all hours we would drag ourselves out of bed and go downstairs the next morning and be greeted by a big smile and the question “Well, how was your evening?”, Jennifer was truly interested in how her beloved son’s night had gone, every detail and all the silly stories he had to share, her face would just light up as he spoke.

I remember when I found out the news that Miguel’s mum had passed away, nearly everyone commented on how close they were and that they were like best friends. The thing about this is it’s something which was always so beautifully obvious, even in our teenage years. Whilst most teenagers reserved their weekends for friends, chasing boys and nights out Miguel would often say “Sorry not tonight guys, I’m sitting in with mummy” – they just adored spending time together. I remember we would often bound into Miguel’s house, greeted by a big smile, a warm “Hello Dory” and the common sight of Miguel and his mum, glass of wine in hand, commentating on reality shows in true Terry Wogan style laughing away. Miguel often writes about his mum as a proud lioness and that she definitely was, yet what we could also see was a little lion all grown up who was, as his mum was to him, her number one fan and biggest protector. How truly special their bond was.

Thinking of night time and Jennifer laughing as she watched Miguel ‘sleep’ that night I can’t help but think of all the moments she watched him sleeping as a Mum wondering what he would become and hoping all of his dreams would come true. And yet I get the feeling from the very first time she did she already knew she was holding her best friend, her confident and her greatest joy.