It's good to be home

It's a weird feeling being back home. It's definitely a good weird, but weird nonetheless. I guess this is what happens when you live in a different city for so long. Everything is just as I remember it at home, but things are a bit strange and it's taken a bit of time to settle down again.

With the exception of a brief run home at the end of January after TNA when I was barely in the house anyway, I've not been back home the start of the year. I moved back up to Leeds on January 3rd and haven't been back to Liverpool since then. It's only been two and a half months, but it started to feel like a lot longer as the end of semester drew nearer.

One major plus (naturally) is that I don't have to cook every day. I've missed my mum's cooking, I really have. There's a fair bit of cake making going on which I quite like...I guess if anything it should just make me want to do more baking back in Leeds. I think she's on a bit of a mission to fatten me up and add a few pounds to my waistline before I go back. I dread to think what she'll be like when I move to Austria and don't come home until Christmas...

Regardless, it's good to be home. Even though it's been a relatively quiet week and I've not been overly busy, it's been good to take a week and not overdo it with work. That'll all have to change next week though...there's a LOT of work to be done. I've made a steady start on it, but I need to hit the ground running next week. To be honest, the major things that need to be done are the Portfolio submission and a Phonology essay. The Portfolio shouldn't be a major problem and I've done a good chunk of the first task, but the Phonology essay is a bit like pulling teeth. Taking an hour or so to read about 10 pages isn't great progress...but doing that meant that I understood what was going on. Sort of. Oh, I really regret 'picking' that module...

Anyway, I've been keeping myself occupied with work. Remember the company I'm doing my year abroad for in Austria? Well, we had some email communication over a few things earlier in the week, and the topic of part-time work came up again. So I've been doing a bit of translation work this week for them. It's been really interesting doing work and looking at the level of German being used. From what I can tell, it's not too dissimilar to the level we were doing in Applied German Language earlier in the year, and I'm far happier translating into English which all works out splendidly. I've become something of an expert on the ADAC GT Masters championship though! Seven articles all related to that championship in some respect is quite a lot of knowledge to pick up about it. But I'm looking forward to getting some more work from them in the near future and seeing how that goes.

One thing that was really good during the week was going to Beatlife. I've not done any drumming for a few months for various reasons, and I've really missed out on that because it is something pretty important to me. I hadn't been to Beatlife since...well, I think the Southport Air Show last summer was the last time I played with them. That was back in July. That's a hell of a long time to not play with these people.

Going back there was good fun though. I'm amazed at seeing how much people have grown (namely Harley and Matthew), and it was good to see everyone again, have a little chat with people and get some drumming in. If anything, Beatlife is proof that my short term memory is the problem with having a terrible memory. I can't remember what I did a few days ago, but I can easily remember Beatlife rhythms that I've not played for 8 months or so. Maybe it's just because I'm awesome though. ;)

My Facebook page finally made the switch over to the new layout earlier in the week. It couldn't hold out any longer and went over automatically, so I figured we may as well just get on with it. I don't look at my page too often anyway, so if it's a mess, it can be a mess. One thing that's useful though is that I could quite easily delve into the archives of my Facebook page. So I went for a little trip into the archives and looked up some stuff from a few years to see what's what. There are still hazy patches that I don't quite remember after the concussion, so they're where I usually go to when I look in the archives. Facebook offers "high points" as an option to view stuff...but unsurprisingly doesn't have "low points and moments you don't want to look back on". I wonder if that option was deleted during beta testing...

The trip down memory lane was a bit grim though. There's a reason that stuff is in the past and I haven't looked back at it for a while, so maybe next time I want to go into the archives I'll look up things that aren't so crushing for my self-esteem. We choose what we look back on in life.

I said a few weeks ago that things happening really quickly, especially in relation to year abroad stuff. That's all coming true now...Hessie said to me earlier that she's off to Frankfurt on June 8. Obviously, that's a really early point to move out, but that's how things are working out for her. It gets the ball rolling though. I'll be moving out a month or so afterwards...it's all a little crazy.

Crazy is one word for it. Exciting is another. Things are really picking up in life. Short term, the next few weeks are looking good with some exciting things coming up. Long term...well, it's going to be an experience, and it's going to be an experience that I'll be making the most of.