I’m growing to like this portable life. I’m sitting on my bed, evening light streaming off the hill outside me, listening to Daniel Bélanger’s album Rêver Mieux, Powerbook resting on my lap. The Bélanger’s an interesting beast; he’s Quebecois, and a friend who’s just spent a year abroad in Quebec lent me the album. It’s best described (without lending you a copy) as a peculiar hybrid of Air, David Gray, and Four Tet; mellow electronic Francophone singer-songwriter. Delightful. Oh, and nice packaing too. It’s also interesting listening to something which isn’t in my first language, or even my second or third (much the same kick that I get from MC Solaar), and yet I know how bits of it work, and as a musician and a scholar of literature, I get the way it sounds; lyrics, after all, are chosen not just for meaning but for sound as well.

I’ve been noticably absent from here for a while, mainly due to exhaustion after a first week at work, and having to tend to our garden – small, but overstocked – in the absence of my father. Normal service has now resumed. Work (IT support for a school) progresses slowly on, and I’m doing my best to fit everything else around it. Right now I really need to sort my floor, as I still haven’t quite finished tidying everything away after my return from University.

Last night I realised I probably ought to get back to the blog or it was going to stagnate like the last one, but I only had time to make some notes on what I was going to post. The easiest thing to do was to paste in those notes, and expand on them. Ah, the joy of unordered lists.

• God I love the lark ascending. First of the 2003 Proms last night, and I caught a brief snippet of something half-familiar, entirely electrifying. Had to leave, but sat and watched, mesmerised by the intertwining violin and oboe, and remembered that classical music will always have a place in my heart. When I found out it was the Vaughan Williams, everything clicked.
• Work It’s taken a while to get back into the work thing, and as I’m no longer a student any more, I had to fill out a P46 and enter the world of grown-up tax. Still, I’m settling down again, and getting used to nine til five. And it’s a pleasant atmosphere to work in; a good night out bowling with the team (and I did quite well for once) and several lunch hours playing Warcraft 3 against each other have all reminded me how important good company is. (Warcraft 3, is, incidentally, superb; perfectly balanced, far more subtle in the difference in races than ever before, genuinely subtle, and genuinely fun – the first strategy game – in fact, the first new game – I’ve enjoyed in ages. And it works on my Mac.)
• Biking – My. Girl. Friend. is a keen cyclist and whilst I’m not as mental as her at times, two years riding at Cambridge have reminded me that it’s a form of exercise I rather enjoy. Also, borrowing her father’s Orange P7 has also proven the importance of a (relatively) good bike, so I’m scouring local ads and eBay for deals. Nothing flashy; just a moderately good bike. I’ve always bought such cheap, crappy things before, and though I don’t plan on becoming a bikenut or cycling to work, it’s an area I’m looking into.
• T3 gets a 12A. The world is going to end. Enough said. When the latest installment in the Terminator franchise gets passed with a freaking 12A, I’m not sure what the world’s coming to. Not searingly violent Arnie-action, that’s for sure.
• Six Feet Under is brilliant. This is pretty self explanatory, but despite Brenda’s turns towards madness, I’m loving the new series of Six Feet Under. It’s possibly the funniest thing (to my twisted, scabrous sense of humour) on TV at the moment, and it works because it’s really funny about really unfunny things. I’m not watching much TV at the moment, but there’s always time for this.

OK, I promise to keep things briefer next time, and try and keep my posts on the small side of things. And, if I’m lucky, make them more interesting…