This holiday period has given me a lot of reflection time. Too much. I managed to sprain my foot on Christmas eve and haven't been able to walk unaided since. I blame a mixture of ice and gin. Unfortunately, the ice wasn't in the glass. Inevitably, the start of a new decade will always get one mulling over what has or hasn't been achieved in the last one. I saw the year 2000 in at the Millennium Stadium with the Manic Street Preachers and a few close friends. Those were the same friends with whom I spent Christmas this year. A thought that makes me go all warm inside. In fact, it surprises me. In a good way. Not that I haven't made any since then! Some dear, lifelong friends have been made, especially during college and my time in London.
Living in London was a major part of the 2000s for me. It seems all musicians live in London at some point in their lives. In hindsight, it was a frivolous move and it backfired on me greatly. I think I was trying to escape things that had happened and thought that meant physical distance rather than anything else. Nevertheless, my first year living there, in Archway, was one of the best years I've had thanks to the new friends I made. The fact that I was having a bad time in college doing my Masters and had little to no money, having a great bunch of housemates made up for it. That year was followed by an incredible Summer working in Aberystwyth. I say working, and technically it was, but it was mainly fun times with fun people which I'd absolutely love to do again. What I didn't realise was how quickly these happy times would disappear. I decided to stay in London for another year despite not really being able to afford it and move in with a friend in East Dulwich. What a disaster. I could barely afford my rent, so I rarely left the flat. My flatmate was often staying with his girlfriend so I was alone for a lot of it. I read a lot that year! Luckily, I did manage to get some decent work for around 3 months on a UK tour of a musical. This helped financially for a while but eventually it ran out. When our contract ran out, I finally decided to move back home to Cardiff. I do think it was the best decision I made in the 00s.
So here I am, a year and a half later and much much happier. Even though my job isn't really what I want to be doing, I can manage comfortably only working 3 days a week in school and freelancing. I'd like to move out, but it makes financial sense at the moment and isn't as bad as I once thought. Living with my mother after 7 years of not was a struggle at first, I'll admit but has worked itself out slowly. I've also made some great new friends in the last year thanks to Twitter. It's unlike any other social networking site I've used in that most people are normal. Mostly. Some of my other friends think it's a bit weird that I meet people 'off the internet'. They can't see past facebook. Unfortunately, some people still believe that everyone on the internet is some axe-wielding nutter. Twitter, fingers crossed, seems wonderfully devoid of them at present.
So, post game analysis is over. Things I want to achieve in the next 10;
- Be fitter
- Know more
- Write stuff
- Get proper career
Achievable? Hopefully.
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