Melancholia

The word 'no', doesn't often get employed in my vocabulary. It was once again missing in action when I walked into the Apple Store and started drooling over the iPod Touch. Oh boy. There really are disadvantages to working for one's IFA (Independent Financial Advisor), he's not going to be very happy with me. He's not going to be very happy with me, especially if today goes according to plan. But that's a story for another day.

Technology is a wonderful thing. But it takes a lot of time to get everything set up. I bought my shiny new toy on Saturday and lost 5 hours that evening setting up iTunes and getting my 26Gb of music loaded up into it.

When it comes to music, I tend to create compilations and then listen to them obsessively, until my mood changes or I find something else to enjoy. I tend to have two types of compilations: mushy and bouncy.

Wednesday evening found me at my laptop re-creating playlists. I thought I do my usual, create two playlists and started wading my way through my music, popping tracks into the appropriate place. I found there was music that I didn't have a place for and I needed to have it close to hand.

In 2006, Boy and I were once again in the flat. It was the end of a difficult relationship for me. I was in the second year of my Creative Writing degree. Boy was leaving his boyhood behind. He was still shorter than me, with gorgeous curly hair. It was the year I started going round on buses and taking pictures of the experience. I had my Samsung YP mp3 player keeping me company. I remember that summer being golden. I got a job at NHS Direct and then my blog started have more visitors who left kind and cheeky comments. KAZ, was one of my first commentors. I can't tell you the gaping hole her absence makes in Blogland.  Inspector Monkfish and The Viking started popping in regularly. I found a blogging labrador cross in Norfolk, who was very rarely cross, called Murph.

NHS Direct became a bit of a nightmare and I realised that if I was to complete my Creative Writing degree, it wouldn't be working for them. It was coming up to Christmas and Alix mentioned that there was a temporary job going in the Independant Department Store where she worked on the perfume counter. That was a broke-ass Christmas. But it was fun, my goodness was it ever. I learnt how much fun it was to be a girlie.

The Viking and I had been talking during that time. The dawn of 2007 brought with it a new relationship. We had an absolute blast. Ladies and Gentlemen, I can't tell you how dear he is still to me, he was so much fun and so loving. How we managed to keep a new relationship so much fun during a time in which I was procratinating my dissertation, working and then having to deal with the death of my beloved Pops, I'll never really know. I suppose being with him taught me, that relationships don't have to be hard work. They can be fun and still be deep. I graduated in the Summer and that was hair-tearingly stressful. I was getting more and more skint and things were changing. I was changing.

Those 18 months are golden to me.

Wednesday evening, listening to the music that was the soundtrack to that golden time, brought everything back. The love, the laughter, the fun, the frustrations. Fantastic snippets: The Viking asking if Hottie and I were an item; the dawn of the Pink, Fluffy, Dressing Gown; long IMs with Inspector Monkfish; blowing the crap out of shit with a tank on Halo 2; playing Hexic on the Xbox with Faithless as a soundtrack; Boy's first gig; handing in my dissertation and the celebration; Hottie lifting cutlery and the pepper grinder from Pizza Express after my degree show; perfume! and lots and lots of it; Alix's wedding; Gertie coming to stay; blowing a month's heating budget in a couple day visit to The Viking; drinking Guiness in Dublin.

The Playlist
David Gray - Nos da Cariad, My oh My, This Year's Love
Faithless - Bombs, To All New Arrivals
Red Hot Chillipeppers - Day Trippin, Dani California
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana
U2 - Until the End of the World, Miss Sarajevo, Staring at the Sun
Jim Croce - Photographs & Memories
Bonobo - Ketto
Royskopp - 49%, What Else is There
Men at Work - Blue for You
Jose Gonzales - Heartbeats
Aim - Cold Water Music
Mr Scruff
Lemon Jelly
Faithless - No Roots (the album)
Rolling Stones - Paint it Black
The Beatles - Norwegian Wood
Rachel Portman - Caravan (from the movie Chocolat)
Bent - Different Hill

There's more, but I'll stop now.

And then there was this.

My dissertation was on the Motorcycle Diaries, and Campbell's the Hero's Journey, the transformation of Che. In the last scene of the movie, there is a slide-show of black and white stills of the people Che encountered on his journey. This is end of this journey and the start of a bigger story. The music is haunting, as are the images.

This says it all really. Enjoy.