Home

Today, after 4 years, I moved home from Nottingham for good.  Well, at least in terms of Uni.  I might find myself heading back sometime in a more permanent capacity should a number of pieces fall in the right places.

I've been at home with the stuff I actually need for a while now, but I think clearing out of uni for one last time holds some kind of significance.

I also massively underestimate the amount of rubbbbishhh I've harbored over the last four years and moved from house to house/left over summer after summer in a box under my bed.  This included a random top hat from a night out, some Thai sweets from a course mate, football stickers, and a whole other bunch of crap.

And this gem...

The absolute best chocolate in the world, that is inexplicably sold pretty much everywhere but the UK! A mixture of white and milk chocolate.  Perfection.  It's been done over here, blah blah blah.  Not like this! I lived off these in South Africa and bought a batch of them at the airport to bring home.  This is the last one, that somehow, wasn't eaten.  Hell, when I got home and tracked down the origins of these moments of absolute perfection, I found that there was 'Bring back Top Deck' facebook group.  If it's been to the UK already, I have missed out.  Sort it out Kraft, and push Top Deck.  It is the best. FACT.

I found a big box full of random sentimental things that I didn't want to see all the time, but didn't want to get rid of either, so there in there.  I found 6 cans of baked beans, and about 15 sachets of instant mash potato - which, may I add, is not even that instant.

It took me a long while to peel down all my newspaper cuttings off the wall, before making their debut in my home room here... presented in a new arty clever way.

Tahhh daaaa.  My wall/collage of happy memories.  Which is kinda cool.  And in no way reminiscent of an 8 year old worshiping his childhood heroes.

I've also started rebuilding the other content of my bedroom walls, to make it feel like home.

Various memories of various trips, games, events etc.  I've left a bit of space on the right of the two notice boards as the other one is a bit full now.  But that's something to aim for over the next year or two... to build it up with stuff.

This evening I finally got round to applying for a new loan to cover the one I've had for the last year which I soon will have to start paying back - and be stung by the silly 9.9% interest rates.  So fingers crossed I can pay that off and deal with a much more reasonable 6.9%, which is good.

Off to the Test Match tomorrow, so here's a song from the wee hours of a December morning when Sky put together one of their brilliant cricket montages after one of the Ashes Tests.

Cheers.

Stop clicking your red heels...

"... stop clicking your red heels and wishing for home"

Some lyrics from my undoubted number one band, the words of who's songs have effectively become the soundtrack to my life over the last two years or so since I discovered them on the eve of my 20th birthday as I watched the days' Glastonbury highlights.

The Gaslight Anthem.

Now, it is not my intention to make this sprawl of thoughts an endless prose about them or Brian Fallon, so fear not.

The quoted lyric at the top of the page is from a song called Bring it On, and by pure coincidence features the title of the whole blog.  I pick up certain lyrics of songs at different times, I suppose dependent on whats going on and how I'm feeling, etc... and so, initially picked up 'blue eyes and spitfire' a lot earlier.  It's interesting that the song has such gravitas that it brought me, entirely subconsciously, back to it.

Often, I will have a line or two from a song in mind for a while, and just kind of relate it to things, to try and create a personal meaning, if you like.  The sort of lines you whack on as a facebook status or a tweet, and before long you are flooded with 'gay!' or 'ooooh, who is this about' ... the worst of the lot was when one of my uni friends thought it was a good idea to type the name of an ex girlfriend in massive bloody capital letters in response to a line from an earlier Gaslight record.

Needless to say, I scrabbled online bleary eyed and annoyed to delete the entire status.

It wasn't about her.  I don't think it was about anyone, but rather a general idea.  An expectation that will be about someone... one day.

"... stop clicking your red heels and wishing for home"

Back to that.  I haven't been able to put my finger on quite why this song, and line in particular, hold such power towards me.  I think the clicking of the red heels, in my own mind at least, refers to the power and persuasion some girls can have, by just being them.  The mere fact the heels are red too adds to it.  The clicking.  The clicking.  What does that mean? Something to do with playing on the raw attraction between one and other, a way of getting what she wants.

Maybe.

Wishing for home.

That could be more representative of myself, despite possible opposite meaning in the song.  Home, where everything is and where everything should be.  Recently, I've had a few interviews in London and got quite close to contemplating actually moving there, alone, and being forced to start afresh.  That is not something that I want, but is something that I recognise as an almost inevitable possibility.

Or maybe it's wishing for something that doesn't even exist, in terms of the song at least.  Maybe it's completely and 100% to do with the insecurities and vulnerabilities that can consume us (me?) at any time.

So, clearly I have absolutely no idea and have just used this as a channel to spout some rubbish on my blog.

Cheers.

Werchter moment

I didn't see this actual performance at Glastonbury, but I saw it in Werchter and absolutely loved it.  A stand out highlight, and their album should be a good listen if this is anything to go by.

"... because you used your heart as a weapon, and it hurts like heaven..."

Luis Suarez

Just how good is Luis Suarez?

I just watched Uruguay lift the Copa America, with Suarez picking up the Player of the Tournament award... so so so good.  He completely lit up the second half of last season, adapting and running riot immediately in the nigh-on-impossible-to-adapt-quickly* Premier League, and that was coming off the back of not playing for weeks in Holland.

*absolute rubbish. If you're good enough, it doesn't matter.

£23m.

Absolute bargain.

He is a phenomenal talent, and I can't wait for him to light up the league this year.  People talk about Tevez, Aguero, etc.  But I wouldn't swap any of them (or £50m) for Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz.

I just can't get enough.

I'm backkk

I haven't written on this blog for a while, drifted over to Tumblr for a bit but with a few more people starting up on this... maybe I will use both?

I've had a busy 5 weeks or so... Going to Hyde Park to see Arcade Fire, then the next day going to Rock Werchter in Belgium which was amazing and witnessed the birth of the award winning (in my own mind, at least) Angry Animals! Aha, I've also had a couple of job interviews - coming painfully close to one of them, and now just waiting on a few applications as I look to find some way of beginning to pay off my loan.

Awesome.

I've been to the F1 at Silverstone and enjoyed a 80 minute journey turn into a five hour one on the way home, seen Take That at Wembley with my family and about 60,000 menopausal women... Hosted a bbq, before realising I had no coal... so that soon became an oven-a-q. Umm, what else?

As we approach August, I've only got two more deadlines to go at uni - 3000 words before Friday, and then another by September... after recently carrying my project group through to a 65% presentation grade (18 slides out of 23...), its quite nice to just do some work on my own and not have to worry about other parties.

I shall try and make some more interesting and poignant blogs as time goes by, but that pretty much catches things up.

And finally, back to one of my early blog ideas... a song to finish on.

From the ever brilliant Brian Fallon and his new project, The Horrible Crowes.