Living on The Edge of the World

I just wanted to write a post with that title. It doesn't really mean anything to me or my situation but it does sound grandly isolationist, also reminds me of a line from the Bob Dylan song "Joey" that has always summed me up:

"Always on the outside - Of Whatever Side There Was"

I am always on the outside of whatever cliques are going on, always the weird or abnormal one, but if I wasn't I wouldn't be me. I suppose there is a little jealousy in not being included, but it doesn't mean I don't enjoy life. Also not being included does not mean being excluded, which can be very hurtful.

So why am I writing this?

I am still on holiday and actually relaxing and I wanted to get this title down.

Also it's an excuse to share the latest lovely release by Panda Bear "Buoys",though I have apparently bought stuff from them before (see here) and this is the great thing about keeping a blog, you can use it to remember things that you had forgotten, but I'm pretty sure it was Panda Bear Meets Grim Reaper which I will revisit when I get home.

Time for bed soon

Ain't Friends Just The Best

This post is not about anything in particular. You may know that I am a "man of leisure" at the moment (for leisure substitute volunteer work, interviews, traveling , networking , organising things, and generally not having a lie in but managing a bit of catch up TV, and possibly finally getting my Garageband / Alesis Dock / iPad set up so I may be actually be able to record something in the spare time that is taken up with everything else in this list) . The thing is having things to do does make you appreciate sometimes having some time to yourself.

Yesterday was really special though, a sort of leaving do that turned to an extremely chilled and brilliant catch up with five really great friends I've worked with over the last seven or eight years, and a commitment to doing more of these with the friends who couldn't make it. Starting off with a trip to a couple of record shops with Chris we bot visited Reflex and RPM but didn't get time for Beatdown and bought stuff by newish bands such as Panda Bear and Alvvays. Jon got a seven inch vinyl single by White Lung who I've never heard of as well as some nice beer glasses.

Dat Bar Decor

We then met up with Darren, Neil and Jon is the Central Bar before a leisurely visit to a few Newcastle pubs including The Town Wall, The Forth, The Stand , Dat Bar (where Neil sample some 7.2% lager that they wouldn't sell in pints) and finally finishing at The Head Of Steam. Darren told me that I was getting a subscription to Rough Trade as a leaving present from my team and colleagues (plus an Amazon Voucher , because like 'em or loathe 'em you can't go wrong with an Amazon Voucher and Steve and Sara's has already gone towards my new Samsung soundbar / subwoofer).





It was just amazing to spend a day doing nothing in particular, enjoying each others company, catching up and committing to doing this on a monthly basis. One of the great things about social media, email and mobile phones is that it is very easy to keep in touch these days if you want to. Next week I have my dad's 80th birthday and his present is going to be to get him online, so that will be great fun.

Oh and the cheery on the top of yesterday's cake is that my phone is temporarily reconnected while they sort me out with a proper tariff.

I was trying to think of a decent piece of music to go with this and the Steve'N'Seagulls just presented itself, uplifting , great fun and impressive , sort of like yesterday.

All in all and absolutely brilliant day and looking forward to a lot more like this