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May 02 2012
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Life

Another absence

So, aside from a post that spoofed the whole Samantha Brick furore about a month ago, I’ve again neglected this portal. So, in as brief a summary as I can, here’s a guide to where I’m at:

Guildford People: Still going strong. You’d think this week would be a busy one for me because of local elections but the only one taking place in the borough is a county council by-election in Worplesdon. Therefore, things are fairly quiet this week whilst everyone else goes to the polls.

Music writing: Busy busy busy. I’m off to see Dry The River tonight in Camden and there might one or two other gigs to attend to this week. Next week is the Great Escape in Brighton. This will be my forth (!) time down there and there are some bands that I’ve got marked down as essentials. My Tumblr is now acting as a feed for all of my music writing so if you want to see what I’m writing, go there and follow me.

Hopefully I’ll blog about proper things soon.

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Feb 14 2012
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Life

Too busy to properly blog

The last few weeks have been quite busy so I’ve had no time to write anything specifically for this blog. Having said that, things have happened both in terms of work and non-work stuff.  I’ll try and summarise this as best as I can.

Work: I’m dividing time between Guildford People, Musical Chairs and all other writing deeds quite well at the moment. There’s not much to complain about really apart from the usual freelance ballaches.

Film: Not seen too much recently although Blue Valentine and Inglourious Basterds are next up on the DVD pile. Me and my better half also saw The Muppets yesterday, which was all-round feel-good fun. I’m convinced that Man Or Muppet will win the Oscar for Best Song even if it’s essentially Bret McKenzie just re-writing I’m Not Crying.

TV: Borgen finished about a week and a half ago. The second-to-last episode was thrilling and set the whole series up for a barnstorming finale. That never happened. It seemed to run out of steam about halfway through and the conclusion was rather unsatisfying. Still, it was a brilliant show overall and I eagerly await the second series. At the moment, Inside Men is proving to be really intense and sharply written. I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds.

Music: I’ve had lots of it to listen to. My favourites of the year so far include Tough Love by Pulled Apart By Horses, The Lion’s Roar by First Aid Kit and Put Your Back N 2 It by Perfume Genius. I’m also currently listening to The Shins’ new one, Port Of Morrow (for review purposes) and that’s turning out to be quite brilliant as well. I booked my Bestival ticket this morning and am already counting the days until I get to see Sigur Rós again.

Keep an eye out for something more coherent at some point (when I’ve got time).

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Jan 23 2012
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Life

Tax return

I now have to do one and last Friday I did one. Because of the nature of my current work situation it’s been fairly easy to calculate how much I owe in tax for a while but I still hate doing it. Why do I hate doing it? Because the form that HMRC set up is full of questions that require me to do a double-take.

For example, I know that I am really a self-employed worker. I do my own invoices and such so there’s no other bracket I could fall under. Despite the fact that deep down inside I know all this to be true, the wording of the questions regarding this fact had me doubting my own mind because they were so hard to understand. It should be pointed out that I am not someone who is an expert on financial matters and I don’t keep up with financial news that much. I imagine someone who was the polar opposite of me might have a better understanding of the questions.

This got me thinking…how many others out there are in my position? How many other people who recently graduated from university and went down the freelance road are having to do this for the first time? If you are one of those people please leave a comment about how you found the whole experience and whether or not you found it daunting or otherwise.

I guess what I’m asking is this: am I really that thick?

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Dec 16 2011
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Life

Taking a break for the holidays

The tree that currently sits on our coffee table

No sooner have I found my feet again when it comes to maintaining this blog I am taking a break for the Christmas and New Year holidays. It’s been a weird one for me on a personal level and I’m quite amazed to see the finishing line in sight. Over the winter there will be a few sporadic Guildford People updates and some planning for things I’d like to try and do next year but mostly it will be a period of total relaxation.

Normal blogging service will resume sometime in the first or second week of January. For now though, have a very peaceful Christmas and happy New Year.

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Dec 13 2011
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Life

24 hours in Manchester

Over the weekend I went to Manchester to see Manchester United play Wolves in the Premier League at Old Trafford. I’ve been supporting them since 1996 so I’ve been waiting to see them for a long time and was very happy that I finally could go t0 the Theatre of Dreams. This also came just after the humiliating exit in the Champions’ League thanks to Basle. My main concern was that we’d struggle to get past Wolves and that we’d probably just squeeze a victory. Infact, when the first shot of the game came from them with just under a minute played I got worried.

In the end we thumped them 4-1. This was exactly the performance I wanted to see at such at such a legendary stadium. The first half was full of glorious attacks by United with Nani in particular being outstanding. His brace of goals was well deserved and Rooney also seemed hungry – he also got a couple.

The atmosphere was fantastic and it confirmed to me that the reason that some naysayers think that Old Trafford doesn’t make any noise is because the sound on TV is considerably low. There seemed to be an endless supply of chants from down the years emanating from the stands and it really added to a fantastic atmosphere.

This was taken about mid-way through the second half I think on my pathetic camera on my pathetic phone

Other than the game I didn’t get to see too much of Manchester unfortunately. It was also a Saturday so there were plenty of people looking for Christmas presents. Going to shopping centres is one thing, going on Saturday is another…but going so close to Christmas is quite scary.  We went to a nice restaurant in the evening where we sat opposite the pass to got to see lots of tasty steak being cooked. I’d probably like to go back at some point in the future to explore the city further but this was still an enjoyable weekend.

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