Caravan

Something a little different here. I quick review of a song that I've recently re-discovered. I need to get it off my chest more than anything!

 

Album Filler?

I'm sure that a lot of us have listened to albums time and time again, waiting for the good 7 or 8 songs of a 14 track album to come on, with the songs in between just seemingly being there as filler songs. I'm also quite sure that one day, for one reason or another, one of those 'filler' songs will all of a sudden stand out on the album and it'll become, in your opinion, a hidden gem. A song that isn't really mainstream, will never be a single, and will, like you thought earlier, have just been listened to as part of the album and not really a song in it's own right.

These songs tend to stand out when you are in a particular mood. The sound of the song, not always the lyrics, seem to fit perfectly with the way you are feeling. I'm talking about all sorts of songs here; happy feel good songs, sad songs, reflective songs, destructive songs, euphoric songs. Whatever it is that you are feeling at the time.

I'm 99% sure that you've all had a similar feeling/song at some point.

For me this song hit me out of the blue, it really did. I often listen to albums throughout, mostly albums that I've neglected and/or forgotten that I have. I listened to 'Think Tank' by Blur completely without any stops/starts/pauses for the first time in years. It couldn't have been a more different listen to when I originally listened to it around 9 or 10 years ago.. It was Great.

There were a couple of songs that stood out to me as I listened. But I'll mention just the one for now.

 'Caravan' being one on the reflective personal hit list. The caravan in the song can refer to many things, depending on the person. In my understanding it refers to the distancing of the wagon (caravan) that we're all a part of.

 

 

 

And for those of you who prefer a more stripped down version of the song, which in some ways is a lot better, there's this one:

 

 

 

 

 

'And when it comes, you'll feel the weight of it, the weight of it...'

I mean the 'caravan' that is referred to in the song can relate to anything that we are generally part of and maybe trying to escape from, and after the initial escape, feel the comeback or 'weight' coming down. Whether it be alcohol, cigarettes or drugs.

I believe that Albarn wrote the song about Graham Coxon who,  after a long period of strained relations in the band, was finally forced to leave. The 'weight' that the song refers to could relate to a commitment by a person, and the weight of it will be the pressure of trying to keep that commitment. In the way it was written it could be clearly linked to Coxon's alcoholism and the commitment of trying to recover. And so the caravan is also a metaphor for whatever he was lost from. The band? His friends? Society in general?

It's a very subtle song and easily missed when listening to album for the first time. Like the rest of the album, the song has electric undertones and quite simple guitar work (Coxon was the guitarist before he left, leaving Albarn to fill the gap with simpler guitar melodies and more involvement of other instruments).

So to wrap it up I think that it's fair to say that this sing is a great song, albeit rarely heard of.

 

 

Loui

Suits Me Just Fine

How are we all moving on from the fact that the world didn't end last year? I was convinced! Though if you look around the town I live near you 'd think it had ended about 30 years ago.

Anyway, this is going to be an interesting year if nothing else.

I already feel a bit lost this year, which is probably why it's taken me nigh on three weeks to do anything remotely creative. Apart from work I'm not really sure what to do with myself. I'm spending far too much time on the internet just passing time away during the week. Then before you know it's sunday night again (I would mention the weekend in more depth but I simply can't remember it, other than that it's two nights spent in various pubs in which bad decisions are made more often than not) and it's back to work monday morning. Which suits me just fine.

I only realised recently that I'm a very mood orientated person (mood swings are apparently just one of quite a few side effects of diabetes). I've always been quite grumpy, but now I seem to swing between 'care free' happy to 'I don't give a shit' down. Which isn't the same thing, believe me.

I'm currently in a job that was originally only supposed to last for just over a year, to cover a year out from uni. I'm enjoying it more than I thought and considering how my last year at uni went, I'm a hell of a lot happier. I have no idea whether I want to go back to uni or whether I'd be able to stay on in my job if I chose not to go back, which is looking quite likely (I've already mentioned how I didn't quite suit uni earlier) and so a lot of things are up in the air at the moment. Which is why this year is going to be interesting. I could either carry on being happy in my job, be half assed in my next degree at uni (which would be a waste of two years might I add) or I could be out of a job and uni by October.

Very inspiring new year post I'm sure...

A Drink or Two...

It's my last day at work tomorrow for a couple of weeks, apparently due to some holiday that people keep going on about...

I can't wait! I've not taken a day off since I started this job, well, apart from when I was off ill for a week ( from dizziness to overheating and being extremely tired several times a day doesn't qualify as a holiday! ) and I'm actually looking forward to some lazy days that will probably be full of Christmas films and various alcoholic beverages.

I actually finish at a self given time around dinner ( that's 12pm to proper folk ) so that I can go home and get ready to spend the rest of the day in the great city that is Manchester. It's the first of two probably large drinking sessions with people from work.

The 'Lads'

The first, which is tomorrow, will be with all the lads from work, and by lads I actually mean almost middle aged men ( I'm the youngest male employee by at least 10yrs ). The train journey isn't a particularly long or eventful one normally. But this one is quite an odd one. I'm not catching the train alone, oh no, but with 2 out of the 3 directors of the company. This is no reason for me to be worried as they're quite hands on directors, and by that I mean that they're in and out talking to everyone on a regular basis, rather than the type of directors who are rarely seen but only ever heard of. I find that trains are generally quite quiet as it is, let alone a trainee attempting to make conversation with his highest superiors. It's just a strange situation to be in, and one that will not likely happen again. We'll then meet the rest of the 'lads' at a bar in Manchester and spend the rest of the day fuelled with drink and banter.

 

The Rest

After friday is officially declared a day of recovery, saturday brings the official office Christmas party. This not only includes us 'lads' again but also all of the girls who work for the company and is to be held in a very upmarket hall. Which, after no more than 20 seconds of thinking, works out at something daft like 12 girls to 1 guy. From that alone it's obvious that this party will be the polar opposite of the 'lads' day in Manchester, and everyone will be relatively well behaved, especially as wives and partners will be tagging along.

I'm looking forward to both days, the large difference in attitude, dress code and etiquette being a major factor...


No doubt there will be a post of findings and, knowing me, regrets soon to follow.

Loui

Nottingham State of Mind...

I hadn't intended to post anything today but seeing as I'm in a particular mood I might as well. I'm quite a melancholic person at the best of times, but today has been a strange one.

I left university a few months ago to take a year out, and seeing as I had a job lined up ( lucky I know ) I had no wish to be at uni any longer than I had to. Alot of people I know really didn't want to leave. To be honest I think my time at uni was misspent. I very quickly got tired of nightclubs and most of the bars in the city and so spent most of my free time in the local pub. This free time naturally got less and less as the years progressed and I had more work to.

Around this time last year was that time when, as a student, my funds were dwindling and I had a deadline or two in the coming week before the Christmas break. Normally near a deadline me and one of my flatmates would usually be sat in the 'living room' getting the work done at a steady pace until the sound of birds could be heard outside.

 For one reason or another one night I stayed in my room to do work ( probably because my drawing board was particularly difficult to use on my lap ) and decided that I was going to get the best part of it done that night. As it was nearing Christmas, the nights seemed to merge into one. This was made worse due to the fact that I hadn't left my room all day ( as was often the case when a deadline was being counted down in hours rather than days ). I'd often spend alot of time staring out of the window at the rooftops and streets below, mostly due to a lack of concentration.

The Song.

It'd reached that time of night when you could hear other people going out into town which I acknowledged as being around 10:30pm. I kept my head down and carried on drawing. I had my media player on shuffle, which was rare at best, and a song came on at an early hour that I'd only heard a handful of times, usually in the local, and never really thought much of it. But for some reason it caught me as I was having a bit of a gander at what was happeing outside. Which, at 3am, was absolutely nothing. The lyrics stood out and I vaguely related to them.

 

 

 

I'll Get to the Point.

 

The song is about the pride of returning to a hometown or city. But I heard it a bit different. I was hearing the lyrics as a longing for going back. This is what initially threw me, I'd never missed home before and I knew that I'd be home pretty soon. But even sooner than that was of course the deadline that, after about 3 more listens and an hour of contemplation, I didn't get done that night.

 

Ultimately, I have to be in a strange mood to listen to that song. It reminds me of my longing to get home, but then getting back home and nothing being the same as it was before. Why I was in this mood today is a mystery, maybe because I'm a year older and I've had a lot on my mind, or maybe because I've spent the day nurturing a severe hangover. Either way, I hope tomorrow is a lot simpler than today!

 

Give it a listen and see what you think.

 

 

Done

 

 

HbA1c

Before I get started this is by no means going to be a diabetes awareness Blog, but from time to time the subject will be quite prominent, and today was a good diabetic day, if ever there was one!

HbA1c is another name for Glycated Haemoglobin, which is a type if haemoglobin that is measured to find the average concentration of plasma glucose over a period of time. In this case it was 8 weeks after my first diagnosis, but it's usually done every 3 months.

I'll skip all of the scientific stuff and basically say that the measurement is used to indicate the average blood glucose levels and how well they've been managed since the last check up. Seeing as this was my first check up and the first test since I was in hospital I didn't think they were expecting much, and I had no idea what to expect at all.

After various introductions and niceties she hit me with a number.

59

Now this meant about as much to me as reality TV. I didn't know what the hell it meant. I remember thinking 'It's above 50, so is that above average or below?  Am I slowly killing myself through neglect, or am I a master of change?'

It turns out that the number is kind of converted into a simple percentage, which turned out to be 7.5%. This also meant nothing to me.

The Doctor said that it was an 'excellent' start and that I should keep it up. Being quite the pessimist I decided that she was being patronising and so didn't believe her ( even though she was quite lovely ).

She went on to say that non-diabetics would  normally have a reading between 4.9% and 5.9% and that a good diabetic would have a reading of 6.5%. That extra 1% that I have increases my chances of a hypo which, in all honesty, I've been having a few of recently.

But on the whole is was a good 8 week effort, considering the drastic diet change and the masses of injections. No doubt the Christmas food and drink will alter my levels for at least a month anyway!


Loui

12.12.12. Oh, And A New Blog...

Well here we go, my first ever blog...

I've been itching to start a blog for quite a while and never really found the time until now. And seeing as today is a 'unique' date (12.12.12) I thought it would be a good time to start.


My name is Loui, I'm just about to turn 22 and I'm from a sleepy little village up north ( no I weren't born here and I'm not inbred, though by looking at a few other folk around you could understand the questioning ) which is generally quite quiet and trouble free.

I've been told many times, usually by docs, that I should write down my thoughts in order to better get through the day, whether it be post it notes, a diary or even draft text messages ( odd suggestion I know ) so I thought that a blog might help. It does. 

I've fairly recently been diagnosed as Type 1 Diabetic, which is inconvenient to say the least and has changed my life considerably which will unfortunately only get worse as time goes on. This is probably the main event that has encouraged me to start writing things down.

This blog will most likely be a series of thoughts and ramblings about things that cross my mind, things that have amused me, my life experiences and finally, ideas about various things creative .

I look forward to more blogging in the very near future!


Loui