Friday fings…

Friday again at last. I’m double booked tonight. There’s a monthly social at my new workplace. I wasn’t going to miss it. It’ll be the best opportunity to get to know everyone. I’ll be leaving the car at work today. I’ll deal with collecting it tomorrow.

Happy Hour is an hour early tonight as in the USA their DST change is a fortnight before ours. Given that the work shindig starts straight from work, I’d imagine I’ll be a little tipsy quite early. The rest of them intend to be. Not that it matters what they do. Should make for an interesting Zoom sesh tonight!

Sat in my car at lunchtime and it’s positively balmy right now. 18 degrees. It’s amazing how much difference the weather makes to my mood. I’ve said it all winter, I WANT MY SUMMER!!! Finally the first hint of it. (Big long sigh)… Today is the first day in weeks I feel kind of ok. Jebus it’s about time! It’s amazing what a little warm sunny weather can do for my mood. The forecast shows it’ll be warm for several days. I hope so. If it is I’ll get some gardening done. It’ll be a lot of work but if it’s sunny, I won’t mind.

Saturday afternoon. The work social went well. I think I bonded with one or two of them. I certainly had fun with them. “Fun”… Still a strange concept, over two years on. How should I define “fun” now? Anyway, we had our meal and moved on the the pub a few doors down. Omg, it was at least half full of kids. It felt like it anyway. Many times while I was there, young ones were turned away at the door. We had started drinking around 3pm at work with our “Desk beers”. I was leaving the car at work so I had two before we even left. At the restaurant the beer was flowing as much as the food. Once at the pub, I must have had at least 3 pints in the first hour or two. That was seven so far. The crazy thing is, I wasn’t getting blotto. I wasn’t drinking weak beer either. After another pint and various semi-drunken conversations, another new guy at the company kindly got his girlfriend to give me a lift home when she came to collect him.

I had two big bottles of beer in the fridge when I got home, just in time for the Happy Hour. I cracked one open as soon as I got in. Shortly after this, my musical compadre unexpectedly came around for a social and to watch the show with me. It’s so nice to share the experience with someone, and with someone who gets it too. Once the show was over, I joined our usual after party Zoom meeting. I introduced my musical compadre and they welcomed him in true Headcase fashion… They took the piss. We had an absolute ball. It must have been around four am by the time he left. After another hour or so, we finished up and we all went to bed. Three weeks running now, I’ve stayed up until five am or so, and you know what? I’m glad I have. We know each other so well now, we have many deep and personal chats and also such a laugh, it’s probably my only source of real soul food now. Apart from the music and my long chats with my musical compadre of course.

The weather is still nice and looking to stay that way for a while. I really couldn’t be arsed to get the car. Slightly hungover and tired from last night, I didn’t think it wise anyway.

Sunday morning. I awoke early again this morning, same as last week. Weird. 5:24am. Again, I dozed for a while until I got bored and got up around an hour later. Surely it can’t be this easy to reset my body clock after my Friday night? Never used to be. I’m loving having my whole weekends back, despite missing my vaccination centre job.

I need to get my car from work. I was going to borrow my Princeling’s bike but I can’t be arsed to ride that far, so I decided to do something I haven’t done for many years… Take a bus ride. I have my headphones charged and it’ll be nice to be driven for once. There’s something about watching the world go by on a train or bus. My Lady and I always liked it.

Sat in my dressing gown, listening to that meditation playlist I made for the garden in 2020. I probably shouldn’t to be honest. It’s already got me in a weird headspace. Taking Mr C to the local shop did the same thing yesterday. We rarely walk that way these days, for this very reason. It’s still triggery as hell, and given it’s been over two years now, I doubt that will change any time soon. Looks like I’m stuck with that trigger. It didn’t help that all the Magnolia trees were in full bloom. My Princeling nearly killed the Magnolia tree in our front garden last year. The thought occurred to me while looking at the lovely flowers that my one still has no growth. My stomach flipped. Has he killed it after all? When Mr C and I got home I had a close look at it. There are one or two growing shoots, around a few inches long. My stomach flipped. The relief was almost as breathtaking as the fear of the tree being dead. The strength of my reactions took me by surprise. Clearly I’m simmering again.

So I walk down the the bus stop. I’m stood waiting for the bus, smoking a cigarette. A lady with dyed hair and piercings comes along to get the same bus. Out of the blue, she randomly asks me if I’m a musician… The question threw me at first. Say what now? No one in the Ham has ever asked me that in eleven years of living there. Not only is she also a musician, but a Metal head too. What the actual fuck? Excuse the expletive, but I’m genuinely blown away. I cant emphasis it enough. I got rather excited. After all this time, a human to jam with. My musical compadre has to get in on this. This is just mental.

Of course, there is a chance she is a psychopath in disguise. It’s always a possibility. Back around fifteen years ago, when I was still banned from driving due to my Epilepsy, I had a bus pass. It was my only transport. There was a lady that spent most of her day on the bus, going back and forth on the same route for hour’s just so she could talk to people, bless her. She had a mental disability of some sort and most people took a dislike to her as she was so forward. As I bumped into her on the bus regularly, I took the time to talk to her. Wouldn’t hurt a fly. You wouldn’t think so upon first meeting her though. I have since tried not to judge a book by it’s cover. I’m trying not to get worked up over it. I mean, I’m not used to strangers complimenting my purple hair in town still, never mind outright being asked if I’m a musician by a stranger. We were both going to town, so we continued the conversation on the bus. Guitars, amps, music production, basically everything I’ve been up to musically for the last two years. She clamed to have 25 guitars. She also claimed that she designed amps. Now then… There was a time when I would naturally have called BS on all of it, but the last year has also taught me that you do meet people that do special things. My colleagues at the fire station are a good example. One was a close friend of Charlie Whiting and Michael Schumacher. I’ve seen pics. It DID happen.

So now what? We automatically exchanged numbers which unnerved me somewhat later. Of course, the only plan was to jam some tunes but still, that was quick. I know this person about thirty seconds and I have their number and she has mine. Since when the fuck did that ever happen? Metal heads… We always get excited when meeting a fellow Metal head. Quite aside from being a musician too. AND only a few streets away. With an Ibanez Jem, and who plays and Ibanez Jem? Steve Vai… Wtf is this life up to now!!!???

We go our separate ways when we get to town, and there’s a forty five minute wait for the bus I need. Sod it, I’ll walk. I have no exercise at all now so it’ll do me good. It’ll give me time to process what just happened too. As if my last two years haven’t been surreal enough, the Cosmos throws another curve ball at me. Makes a bloody change for it not to be a traumatic one. I mean… First time I get on a bus in possibly as long as a decade and that happens.

I get my car and do my shopping. Once home I get stuck in to the house and garden. Time for the lawns first hoover of the year as it’s been dry for some time. I tidied up my climbers and a few other things before it cooled down. I spent the rest of the evening watching the Grand Prix, and what a Grand Prix it was too.

Monday. Still tired from the weekend, getting up was a struggle. Plodding along through the inspection of many circuit boards, randomly a trigger song came on the radio. Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone you loved.” I had to get away from it. I haven’t heard that song for a very long time and for good reason. It kills me. I went to the loo and freshened up for a minute, then went back. It surprised me that I didn’t burst out into tears. Inside, I was screaming, but I didn’t let it out. My mood was lifted however, when my agency app pinged to tell me I had been assigned three shifts in April at the Ding vaccination centre. Up and bloody down…

So, it’s been an interesting few days to be sure. I need to try and chill for a few days. I have a lot to process. Life, music, finances changing (again) and more besides. I’ll go pop if I don’t offload a bit. Robb has just gone live so I’ll kick back for the rest of the evening with… You guessed it… A beer.

How new.