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.
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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