YEAR ZERO!!

"I used to have a home with a roof and a bed...but i traded it in..." - Kate Is Great by The Bouncing Souls

So yeah this week has seen my transition completed to being a Professional Bum! Wednesday was my last day at L&G, and my leaving do...but unfortunately i can't remember much of it. Many drinks were drunk at lunchtime, then i went back to work for an hour, answered some final emails, said goodbye, then headed back down the pub.

i know we had a curry. Don't remember eating it really. next thing i can remember is waking up at my hotel. I think we had a good time! thanks to everyone that came along, i hope we can do it again soon.

yesterday i spent most of the day booking my round the world trip at STA travel in Kingston. So far i've booked the following - New York (need to book internal flights for San Diego, Vegas and SF), LA to Fiji, island hopping in Fiji, Brisbane, Fraser Island, greyhound bus to Melbourne via Byron Bay and Syndey, flight to Perth, then Singapore and Bangkok. I still need to book some extras for Sydney and Thailand.

the evening was spent playing my first gig as a homeless and jobless person at The Fighting Cocks in Kingston. was an excellent night, playing with three brilliant bands and getting to hang out with lots of mates. check out Slow Science and Porches for more info, both bands played blistering sets and made me grin like an idiot.

in two days time i go to Chicago...more to follow.

2 Days To Go

On Thursday, i sold my flat and moved from Sutton in Surrey to the south coast, to Chichester in West Sussex. Selling my flat has been part of a bigger plan to take some time off, do some travelling and try and get to do the things i want to do for a change (as selfish as that sounds). the only way i could do it was to sell the flat. And now i've finally moved out.

My last day was weird. After emptying the flat of the last pieces of stuff (tv gear mostly), i had to hang around and wait for the new owner to pass the keys to. Must admit i didn't really want to do this, as i didn't want to see them again, it just felt weird to me to pass the keys to the new owners. I hung around for an hour, but they never turned up. Eventually i made the decision to just hand the keys over to the Estate Agent, and get the hell out of Sutton. Sitting in my empty flat (that no longer belonged to me) felt decidedly bizarre. I couldn't help thinking whether i'd done the right thing, coupled with thinking about all the mad shit (and mad people) that had happened in the flat over the last 12 years.I had a big mad trainer-obssessed scotsman stay with me twice for a couple of months at a time, who would randomly jump on me when he got bored (Linz, you are a heavy fucker!). I had a housefull of lesbians stay with me on more than one occaision. Me and my best mate Lisa once annoyed the downstairs neighbour (a mad old lady) by playing Bruce Springsteen so loudly, she came upstairs and called me a "sly little cunt". Rollerskating lesbians. Drunken New Years Eve parties. Singstar. People wrestling in the front room. Touring punk bands staying over after a gig. Friends randomly decideding to come and stay for a week so they could get away from work. Cooking lessons from my mate Jackie. Days of watching non stop horror movies.

I know there are madder households - most of the time, the flat consisted of me and my Xbox. But i had fun there, and it served me well. I know i will miss the place a lot - but i won't miss Sutton, or my job.

I now live by the seaside. And on my drive down after handing the keys over, the further away from Sutton i got, the less weirder I felt. By the time i'd seen my bank balance, i'd forgotten all about leaving my flat behind. I have 2 more days of work left, and i'll be professional bum i wanna be for the next year.

Flat 9 The Mount - you were an ace place to live. I hope the new person has as much fun as I did.

That Band Were Incredible! Really?

Last week, i finally managed to get to see THE COMPUTERS again. I haven't seen them for a while, so was itching to get to see the new stuff live and see what they'd be like again. I got to see them at The Boiler Room in Guildford, and some random little lunchtime gig in Brighton, and i have to say, they were incredible both times. While watching them in Guildford, i realised how much i need to see these guys do their hardcore-meets-rocket from the crypt racket, and how much they kick my arse when i do see them. and then i got to thinking...wow, i've been to some dull gigs this year.

it makes me laugh that on every forum about every band, someone (or most people) comment about how "such and such a band were incredible" - and its always the same people that say it. Now, EVERY band can't be incredible ALL THE TIME. thats just impossible. Over the years, i've lost count of how many gigs i've walked out of to sit at the bar cos i'm bored shitless, although i must admit, i haven't done this in a few years cos i don't do as many gigs as i did anymore. but i think its hilarious. some gigs i've seen this year, the bands have been "pretty good". some have been "alright". some have been pretty dull to be honest. but i can count on one hand the amount of INCREDIBLE gigs i've been to this year, and still have fingers left over. I'd be happy to see people saying such-and-such were "really good" or "pretty good", but i just can't agree that any amount of DIY bands playing up and down the country (and major bands for that matter) are always "incredible". everyone has off days. and this week, The Computers proved a point to me as to what incredible actually means.