2018 has
been an interesting year of ups and downs for me, just like it’s been for
everybody else. I’m not at liberty to talk about a lot of it as there are
things I deliberately keep quiet about on the internet now, but I will go over
some of the most significant changes:
Probably
the most salient of them was the fact that I moved out of my Mom and Dads after
nearly 33 years and rented a flat in Wolverhampton with my girlfriend Kirsty. It’s
been a very positive experience for the most part; with my routine shaken up
somewhat, I managed to re-adjust to life quite quickly and I’m enjoying it. We’ve
got a good landlord, a decent amount of space and a useful location, and while
it is supposed to be temporary while we save up some money to buy a house for
ourselves, we’ve done a pretty good job of making the flat into a home.
With that,
and the responsibilities that come with it, herald a number of changes. Some of
the things I’ve been doing with music and games have had a massive slowdown, or
stopped altogether. I won’t be returning to the Black Country Roleplaying
Society for a long time, if ever, and I don’t get anywhere near as much time to
go to hobby game shops anymore. Painting and playing at home is an option, but
not one I choose to indulge in very often simply because of the faff involved;
I might try to rectify that in the coming year. I’ve also slowed down the
number of video games I’ve been playing and buying, the latter of which at
least is beneficial! There just isn’t the time to play very many of them.
As for
gigs, that’s slowed down a lot too. A couple of years ago I was wandering
around telling everybody I was in five bands, and while I’m still technically a
member of all five bands, none of us are particularly busy at the moment. The
Fakes operate on an “As and When” basis, Raphaella Kornarskis tends to have
short runs of gigs that we work really hard for and then leave it for a few
weeks or months, Cherry Bomb is still ironing out the act, The Revolt do a couple
of gigs a year but no more, and Wolf Country seems to have fallen by the
wayside as other aspects of our lives have got in the way – though I am hopeful
we’ll pick it up again in the future. My solo gigs have also ground to a halt;
I do the occasional charity one when I’m asked but I don’t go to open mics
anymore. There was no point where I decided I was never going to do it again,
and I’m not saying I never will. It was more a case of noticing I hadn’t done
any for a while, thinking about some of the reasons why and realising that it
fit the changes that had been made in my life.
I guess
the number one reason for all of this is time. In the past, if I wanted to do
an open mic, or go to a gaming afternoon, I could just do it. Now, it requires
the same kind of planning and deliberation more appropriate for a NATO
airstrike, in order that I might avoid the kind of casualty rate involved with
a NATO airstrike. The lack of spontaneous decision-making sucks a lot of the
fun out of gigs, hobbies, NATO airstrikes, so they rarely happen anymore. It
tends to be just video games for me now, so that I can just pick them up and
have a play.
Still,
2018 had a lot of changes for me in ways I never expected, so we’ll see how far
we get into 2019 before I get another surprise! We’ll take things as they come,
and see what happens.
And, because
sadly I have to say it, that bit about NATO airstrikes was a joke. I was
joking. I am in no way affiliated with NATO, have no authority to authorise an
airstrike, and would not take any recreational value from doing so.
