Sunday 06/12/09

I’m always keen to try new things and do stuff I wouldn’t normally do, expanding my horizons and becoming a more open-minded person as a result. This week, however, I didn’t do anything new. Rather I saw The Living End, who hail from Melbourne, for the 4th time this year, and the 8th time in total. I know real fandom doesn’t normally begin until you hit double figures of gigs, but I’m rather a fan of this lot. So, unfortunately, is every ex-pat Australian in London.

The gig, at the Kentish Town Forum, was great. The only thing to let it down was the obnoxious, mainly Aussie, crowd. More than simply drinking too much and barging into folk in the crowd (which is to be expected at any gig), in the toilets they complained about the ‘fucking poms’, which I considered a bit unfair. If Great Britain is so shit, why the hell did they fly 10 thousand miles to live here? Clearly the Australians care more about rats than they do the country of their ancestors.

The gig, though, knackered me out. I had to work the next morning. Going to the toilet and then Cramer getting his coat from the cloakroom after the show meant we hung around outside the venue waiting for much longer than we had hoped. All this resulted in getting home at about 1am. I got up for work the next morning at half 6. I was not much use at work. Christmas is still weeks away and haven’t given myself the opportunity to look forward to the new year break. Because I’m lazy I haven’t booked the time off yet. That can only come back to haunt me.

Also pressing are decisions about my future in general, further than the new year. The flat purchase is still going, though painfully slowly. I should work in the mortgage business as they are clearly shit at acting on decisions, too. Judging by the progress, I’ll have a wife and 8 kids (6 from previous relationships) by the time it all goes through. And I’ll then have to sell it immediately because my catholic-sized clan will be too big for the first floor studio flat.

I also need to decide about education. I realised a while ago that I would get nowhere, or no further, in the world without some further education of some sort. This was in juxtaposed to my brief experience of university, which left me fairly cynical towards degrees and students in particular. I think I’ve solved one of these issues by going for a home study degree, something like OU, I’m unsure I have the discipline nor do I know exactly which course to do. However, it wouldn’t cost me anything and may further my (somehow already interminable) career, though would take half a decade to complete.

It really is confusing and a darn sight less trivial than which pub I can go to in Maidenhead next. At least it would be something different.