Last dance with Mary Jane, one more time to kill the pain...

So I've just had the best week I've had in a long, long time, and it's done so much for my morale that I'm gutted it has to end.

I've mentioned more than once that we'd got tickets to go and see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Dublin O2, after deciding against going to the Isle of Wight festival. So, earlier this year I parted with £77 of my family bond (well, a little over that if you count having to fork over for passport photos - which I had to get done twice because the first set were awful even as far as passport photos go) to finally renew my passport, and was granted a week's paid holiday by my Paid Job.

I went to see them with my dad, brother and sister, and a couple of my dad's bandmates were there too (although they had seating tickets - which I don't envy them for in the slightest, given how close we ended up standing to the stage). After a day spent hanging out with dad, sis and dad's partner's daughter in Glasgow doing various things, we made our way to Prestwick and got a Ryanair flight to Dublin - a surprisingly hassle free experience given the poor things I've heard about them from various people. We then met in with the brother (who had flown over from Edinburgh) and, after a bus to the O2 to try unsuccessfully to collect our tickets in advance (box office didn't open until the doors did), we got the Luas back to where our apartment was.

Since we'd got an early morning flight, and we were all soaked from walking from the Luas station, sis and I went back to bed for a couple of hours. When we got up and dressed again, we went for a pub dinner before getting the Luas back to the Point Village to go to the gig. Again, we had to stand outside queueing for ages, in the rain. This makes me glad I downloaded the Kindle software back to my phone when I loaned my actual device to my mam, as it was something to keep me occupied briefly.

But eventually, the doors opened and we went in, picked up the tickets and made our way into the venue.

The venue, first of all, is stunning. Formerly known as the Point Theatre before O2 took it over, it holds a capacity of 14,500 both seated and standing (9,500 if all seating). We ended up near the front, and I still can't believe how close to the stage we ended up being.

Petty was supported on the European leg of the tour by a guy called Jonathan Wilson - who I thought could have been good, but for the obvious sound problems with his set. After he was done I made a mental note to dig him up on Spotify to see if I genuinely liked what I heard.

And then Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took to the stage, and we all went nuts. How exciting to be standing only a few feet away from a guy who's been a genuine musical hero since I was really young. The set list was great, I genuinely cannot fault a single song choice. Last time I had a lump in my throat from a rock show was Paul McCartney nearly two years ago, it was incredible. (More details can be found here.)

The day after, still reeling from how amazing the gig was, my brother headed back to Edinburgh and my dad, sister and I spent the day in Dublin before flying back to Prestwick. We spent most of it wandering around, and in between we visited the Guinness factory. The admission included free Guinness. It genuinely tastes better in Ireland.

I would most definitely go back to Dublin again, but I'd need to save up - it was so expensive. But yeah - it was definitely worth going there for Tom Petty. I hope he doesn't leave it 20 years to tour Europe again, although I'd happily go to America to see him.

On another note, I hope this is the beginning of me blogging more frequently in future. 

Inertia

Update rate this year is going at the very slow pace of once a month. That's pretty bad really.

Nothing much to say though, just been applying for more work and still not getting anywhere.

Oh, and I'm going to see Tom Petty next week. I think I forgot to mention that I renewed my passport at last. Expensive, yes (I mean really - £77?! I know it's for ten years, but that still seems steep), but at least I don't have to think about it again any time soon - well, unless I get married in that time, but given the current state of my love life (by which I mean non existent) I don't think I have much to worry about on that front. Plus, it's one of those shiny new green-paged ones, and the photo on this one is much, much nicer than the one of me on my old one, from when I was 14 and in the early stages of what I like to call my 'ugly and angry' phase. Come to think of it, I wonder if that phase ever came to an end?

I will add more updates as I can think of them.

Country roads, take me home to the place I belong...

Sorry for the severe lack of updates lately.

It was my birthday a couple of Sundays ago (29th), but I didn't do much for it because I went home for the Folk Festival the following weekend. Being out of Glasgow for a bit did me some good - I've been a bit depressed recently, probably mainly job-related.

2 The Folk Festival was AWESOME, though. Highlight: Brother's band covering 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at the club during a late night gig. Told you it was good.

Weight loss update

In keeping with the general lack of updates to this poor blog so far this year, I've not mentioned much about weight loss efforts - or lack of them, even.

I fell massively by the wayside with swimming, mainly because of having to conserve funds for Christmas (should've made getting a membership my new year's resolution...oh well). The healthy eating also went south because I could never get near the kitchen in the previous place (but I will not divulge the details of this issue on a public blog). Then Christmas came and that was that - I piled a lot back on again.

I've taken baby steps to get fit again. For late shifts I usually walk to my nearest station, which is a good half hour usually (and that's supposed to be the daily minimum of exercise required I do believe). I am trying to swim a bit more often, but my nearest pool's a bit of a distance from me - then again, I have been known to walk up there as a warm-up, swim, then get the bus back. I've also been going on long rambles round the southside, from my end at the top of Queen's Park down to Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, then cutting back up through the smaller streets and making my way back up Kilmarnock Road and home. Not sure of the exact distance, but it must be a couple of miles at least.

Needless to say, I stopped updating the app on my phone with regards to food consumed, exercise being done and weight being lost. However, last night, while struggling to sleep I decided I would finally bite the bullet and weigh myself at long last.

When I'd last weighed myself, probably in about October or maybe November, I weighed 14st 2lbs. When I weighed myself last night, I was 13st exactly.

I know, I'm pretty gobsmacked as well. And I'm still not the weight I should be for my height. But hey - it's an improvement on my weight last year, which I think could have been anything up to seventeen stone (I'm actually ashamed I let it get that bad...*shudder*). It now also brings my BMI score to 29.37, meaning that I fall under the 'overweight' category as opposed to 'obese'.

I still have some way to go, though. I reckon I could lose a stone by August, when my cousin's wedding comes round. Ambitious I know, but I'm willing to try - I've come this far.

'Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs' Launch

I'm long overdue the chance to plug a literary event on here (even though I probably barely get enough traffic to justify it).

Basically, Rodge Glass, my ex-lecturer, current Cargo colleague, fellow southside resident and general all-round good guy, is launching his shiny new novel 'Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs' on April 4th at Mono in Glasgow at 7pm. Entry is free, drinks are reasonably priced (or they'll be cheaper than Edinburgh at least), and it'll just generally be awesome.

End plug.

Sunshine

For once, the nice weather in Glasgow has coincided with me having some days off from work. Not a bad thing, eh?

I'm getting back into swimming, but with the days being so nice I've not wanted to be cooped up in a building, so I've been doing a lot of walking. I've been walking from my flat all the way down to Pollok Park (which must be at least a good mile), then from there cutting up to Kilmarnock Road and back. It's been a good way to get an idea of my surroundings. It's weird, when I first moved to Glasgow from Shetland in 2006 I had a small pocket of the city centre that I never left. But now I'm so much braver - even though I'm still a bit of a naive country mouse at time - and as a result it feels like Glasgow gets a little bit smaller all the time.

I'm currently taking full advantage of Spotify to properly get into Iron and Wine's back catalogue. Not much else happening really.

'Hello everybody, I'm Dr Cheeks. I've been away for a while, so I'm a little behind.'

I decided probably one of my favourite ever Simpsons quotes deserved to be in here, because it is semi appropriate. I've not updated in too long.

Well, to be honest, it has mostly been due to the issue with the laptop. However, this has been rectified and I now have a shiny new Samsung. Hooray!

This long absence from the blogosphere (god, my journalism theory lecturer would be proud of me using that word) means that I've not updated about something really, really important that happened to me lately: namely that I've moved again.

I know, I could put a gypsy to shame. But the west end situation didn't work out, and so, after looking into costs, I decided I could afford a reasonably spacious flat all to myself in Strathbungo (or so the letting agents told me...everyone else says I'm in Govanhill, but you've got to admit Strathbungo sounds a lot nicer. The Paid Job colleagues mercilessly take the piss out of me for this). I'd been wanting to come down to this end for sometime to be honest - it's cheaper, the arts scene in Glasgow seems to be migrating down here (and fair enough), it's actually better connected transport wise...I could go on. But mainly I could afford my own place, and after the experience with my last place I appreciate it muchly. It's not cheap, but it's still awesome.

Anyway...so we at Cargo recently held the Margins Festival, which went amazingly well. There's a restructure going on at my Paid Job, which makes me feel like they're trying to push me out, and...well, I can't think of much else. All I can say is, for the most part, I'm a lot happier than I've been in some time.