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I'm going to do the meme because it seems ages since there was a good ol' viral LJ memetic. I'm going to cheat through because I realised yesterday that next month will be 20 years since I first lived in London.
20 years ago
I was finishing my 2nd year at university. I did badly in my exams because a) my grandad died an hour before one of them and the funeral was held during another and b) I did very little work in year 2. My parents told me that if I wanted to come home for the summer, I'd have to pay rent, so I decided I might as well pay rent somewhere other than Doncaster. I rented a room in a house owned by 2 gay men in New Cross Gate, near where the big Sainsbury's is - apart from the big Sainsbury's wasn't there then, it was just wasteground. I had run out of grant, had no discernible skills to get a job, and hadn't taken a student loan out that year, so I had no money. I lived on my overdraft, fruit from Lewisham market and what had been left behind at my student house in Sunderland (lentils, beans, supanoodles). I walked or fare-dodged everywhere, and turned up at gigs before the door-staff did. I had an amazing time.
In October, I went to France pour une année scolaire. Whoever said youth was wasted on the young was spot on.
10 years ago
I had just celebrated my 30th birthday. I was living in West Hampstead with David, working at a consultancy, which I hated, as I'd only previously worked in the charitable sector. In September, I left and started working at a deaf school in Clapham, so it's almost 10 years since I started working part time. Fosca were still promoting Diary of An Antibody, and we played Bush Hall at the end of that year as part of the Strange Fruit Festival. This blog was on my now defunct website and the nearest entry I've got to today's date stated my reasons not to go to festivals:
1. I need 8 hours sleep per night and without that I turn into a raging hellmonster.
2. Camp to me is a feather boa and a Hello Kitty handbag. Not a tent.
3. I like to be able to go to the toilet when my bladder is full and not have to anticipate it 20 mins in advance. I like a fresh bowl. I like to be clean. I’m still traumatised by having to piss into a bucket during childhood camping experiences.
4. I like fragrant smells. I don’t like incense and sweat.
5. I like peace, quiet and solitude. Crowds, unless viewed from a stage, bring on anxiety attacks.
6. I don’t like drunks/stoners/e-freaks.
7. I like to be able to go home when I want, not when the coach driver says I can.
8. I like cooking with a full range of kitchen equipment; I don’t like soggy noodles or £5 vegeburgers.
9. I don’t like bands; not continuously anyway.
10. I have a very short…
11. …attention span and would be clamouring to leave after 2 hours.
5 years ago
I was living in my flat in Stoke Newington with David and working at my current job. I had been to New York for the first time and went to Berlin for the second and third time in the autumn and winter, the latter with Fosca. On 20/6/08, I went to a pub to see a footie match.
1 year ago
The same. The nearest entry to today's date is going to see Jay-Z in the rain.
Yesterday
I woke up with the most appalling nauseous menstrual headache and had to go back to bed for two hours. I took some codeine and ate some bran flakes and went to work, where I immediately felt better, strangely. In the evening, David made huevos rancheros with sautéd potatoes and chard for tea, and we watched Coronation Street and Parks & Recreation. I read some of my book.
Today
I took annual leave as part of my NY resolution to take a day off per month and had a shiatsu treatment in Finsbury Park. I cycled back and have been on the PC ever since.
Tomorrow
I'll go to work and will probably go out with Tanya in the evening.
1 year from now
I would like to have a summer holiday in 2014.
5 years from now
I would like to have a cat and to have gone out of Europe (the West Coast of the US? Mexico? Japan?)
10 years from now
I will be 50 and will have killed myself by overdosing on HRT.
20 years ago
I was finishing my 2nd year at university. I did badly in my exams because a) my grandad died an hour before one of them and the funeral was held during another and b) I did very little work in year 2. My parents told me that if I wanted to come home for the summer, I'd have to pay rent, so I decided I might as well pay rent somewhere other than Doncaster. I rented a room in a house owned by 2 gay men in New Cross Gate, near where the big Sainsbury's is - apart from the big Sainsbury's wasn't there then, it was just wasteground. I had run out of grant, had no discernible skills to get a job, and hadn't taken a student loan out that year, so I had no money. I lived on my overdraft, fruit from Lewisham market and what had been left behind at my student house in Sunderland (lentils, beans, supanoodles). I walked or fare-dodged everywhere, and turned up at gigs before the door-staff did. I had an amazing time.
In October, I went to France pour une année scolaire. Whoever said youth was wasted on the young was spot on.
10 years ago
I had just celebrated my 30th birthday. I was living in West Hampstead with David, working at a consultancy, which I hated, as I'd only previously worked in the charitable sector. In September, I left and started working at a deaf school in Clapham, so it's almost 10 years since I started working part time. Fosca were still promoting Diary of An Antibody, and we played Bush Hall at the end of that year as part of the Strange Fruit Festival. This blog was on my now defunct website and the nearest entry I've got to today's date stated my reasons not to go to festivals:
1. I need 8 hours sleep per night and without that I turn into a raging hellmonster.
2. Camp to me is a feather boa and a Hello Kitty handbag. Not a tent.
3. I like to be able to go to the toilet when my bladder is full and not have to anticipate it 20 mins in advance. I like a fresh bowl. I like to be clean. I’m still traumatised by having to piss into a bucket during childhood camping experiences.
4. I like fragrant smells. I don’t like incense and sweat.
5. I like peace, quiet and solitude. Crowds, unless viewed from a stage, bring on anxiety attacks.
6. I don’t like drunks/stoners/e-freaks.
7. I like to be able to go home when I want, not when the coach driver says I can.
8. I like cooking with a full range of kitchen equipment; I don’t like soggy noodles or £5 vegeburgers.
9. I don’t like bands; not continuously anyway.
10. I have a very short…
11. …attention span and would be clamouring to leave after 2 hours.
5 years ago
I was living in my flat in Stoke Newington with David and working at my current job. I had been to New York for the first time and went to Berlin for the second and third time in the autumn and winter, the latter with Fosca. On 20/6/08, I went to a pub to see a footie match.
1 year ago
The same. The nearest entry to today's date is going to see Jay-Z in the rain.
Yesterday
I woke up with the most appalling nauseous menstrual headache and had to go back to bed for two hours. I took some codeine and ate some bran flakes and went to work, where I immediately felt better, strangely. In the evening, David made huevos rancheros with sautéd potatoes and chard for tea, and we watched Coronation Street and Parks & Recreation. I read some of my book.
Today
I took annual leave as part of my NY resolution to take a day off per month and had a shiatsu treatment in Finsbury Park. I cycled back and have been on the PC ever since.
Tomorrow
I'll go to work and will probably go out with Tanya in the evening.
1 year from now
I would like to have a summer holiday in 2014.
5 years from now
I would like to have a cat and to have gone out of Europe (the West Coast of the US? Mexico? Japan?)
10 years from now
I will be 50 and will have killed myself by overdosing on HRT.
