#28; Nothing Futile about this Resistance

I don’t know if you guys have noticed this but… I love Muse. i absolutely adore the band. Nothing really gives it away, apart from me constantly going on about them on Twitter, messenger and other places, does it? In all seriousness though, there’s a reason to this rather than me simply going on about how much I absolutely adore the band and the music they produce. On September 14th they release their next album, The Resistance, which will be the fifth studio album following Black Holes and Revelations in 2006, and I’m not gonna dumb down any expressions here – quite simply, I am absolutely friggin’ pumped beyond all matters of measurement for this release. Before the release of Absolution, I was mega pumped. But then before the release of Black Holes and Revelations, I was even more excited than that! But this takes it to a whole new level and I just need this album. Right. Now.

In case you don’t know, us Muse fan(atic)s have already have such a sweet free taste of the album thanks to, what I feel, is an absolute genius idea from the marketing aspect of the band. Basically, the band’s lead singer Matthew Bellamy posted a message on Muse’s twitter account, Musewire, mentioning a treasure hunt. Now, to give a clearer insight into this, not long after the release of Absolution, a US tour provided setlists with new songs being played for the first time with names in anagrams that ended up being various clues leading to special Muse-branded bikes that had worked as a fantastic and quite unique treasure hunt. The band have always had a cryptic element behind their music as plenty of times have songs appeared with cryptic names in their setlists, not to mention stuff on their website and messages within interviews and whatnot. The cryptic element of the band has been revisited in a gargantuan style within the past few weeks though, as Muse quite literally got people from around the world in an absolutely huge treasure hunt which was amazing fun to watch on and read it being solved at Muselive and Muse’s official forums. It went like this…

Muse.mu was put down for a few days and a counter appeared. When the site was back, it had been completely rehauled, obviously in spirit for the upcoming release of The Resistance. However it came showing a new sub-site – ununitedeurasia.muse.mu. The website provided a map of Eurasia, and constant messages displaying the type of language you’d expect to see from a navy/army radio, constantly cryptic and almost alarming in danger concerning their language and the way everything was being expressed, for example:

“FLASH MESSAGE TO ALL USOE AGENTS: ARCHITECTS GRAN AJEDREZ NOTE THAT STATION//COLOSSUS HAS NOT BEEN ACTIVATED.
RECOGNITION OF UNITED STATES OF EURASIA BY USA IS VITAL FOR THE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME OF PROJECT GRAN AJEDREZ.
ARCHITECTS HAVE AUTHORIZED A TEMPORARY EXTENSION OF THE DEADLINE TO PREVENT LOCKDOWN CRISIS LIMITATION MODE.”

Yeeep. That’s what I thought. It turned out that, in various location around the world at specific times, people had to meet up with agents to receive a USB key that would provide a code for this micro-site which, in turn and gradually from city to city, unlock 30 seconds (or more) of the song United States of Eurasia! It was a brilliant, brilliant idea and I honestly have no idea how Muse fans can even begin to be smart enough to get through some of the clues being provided, which related to references from certain books like The Grand Chessboard by Zbigniew Brzezinski. After a week or so, every location had been unlocked, including a special appearance of a USB key in the United States with a message on the site almost screaming at fans to resist this, acting as if it were a trap, that is someone gave in to the temptation of meeting the agent that fans would regret it. It was brilliant! It created paranoia, worry, and mass discussions upon message boards what to do! Eventually, as I say, the song was fully unlocked. United states of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage), at 5 minutes in length.

The first new proper Muse piece in 3 or so years was finally here!! So… what do I think of the United States of Eurasia? There’s a simple way to answer this.

WOAH!!!!!!

I will be open and say it – it was NOT what I was expecting whatsoever. It’s so much better than that!! The song opens softly, almost recognisable in comparison to the piano of Beautiful by Christina Aguilera (why do I know that?) with Bellamy’s softly spoken vocals accompanied by strings slowly sending the song along. It’s a very calm introduction, very soothing with the lyrics reminiscing the romance within 1984 by George Orwell, a struggle to overcome wars and barriers with a cause gone insane no matter what the protagonist of this song and their partner do. It’s a minute or two in where the jaw really drops though. Just as you get used to this… BAM! Why split these states, asks Bellamy, before launching out (in full Freddie Mercury falsetto) WHEN THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE? with an explosion of sound, guitars squealing away, and a massive smash of drums whilst Bellamy finally screams out! Woah! It’s for me after this where the song truly comes to life, as the band bellow out the most wonderfully arabian-nights sounding section of the song, Bellamy tinkling away on a piano with the orchestra still in full strength simply adding to this wonderful combination, a middle eastern chant of song going along with the rhythm and a snarling bassline under all these layers just add to make this wonderful and hugely unexpectedly sound. The lyrics continue the paranoia of a controlled society - “You and me fall in line//To be punished for unproven crimes” with the constant mention of 'they’ referring to the controlling state Bellamy is obviously screaming out in protest against. The verses fit wonderfully with these middle-eastern instrumental section, but once the final part of USoE arrives, boy does it arrive in fashion. Once again fully utilising the power of Freddie Mercury (why do people moan at this? The man was a legend!) this section of the full United States of Eurasia (+Collateral Damage) ends making a huge amount of attention, with the band shouting out “Eura…SIA! SIA! SIA!”, Dom smashing away on an almost rebellious-sounding anger of drums within the background, Chris’s bass jumping up and down to the simply unignorable vocal screams and it’s just a pure climax of emotion. The best thing about it is that this is only the beginning for the added on Collateral Damage, where as USoE cools down after a vicious attack of rebellion towards a controlling state, the song settles down to end with a 2 minute piano solo of simply Bellamy himself covering one of Chopin’s songs and adding his own personal touch to it to create an elegant, beautiful and simply stunning ending to a song that feels so angry and so frustrated. Accompanying the piano are the sounds of children playing, enjoying themselves and the return of those strings that make USoE so wonderfully unique, simply adding to the atmosphere of this outro, before they simply disappear in a sudden, the children begin screaming in the background and the sound of a missile rushes through your mind all whilst Bellamy’s piano simply strolls past at a snails pace, continuing it’s elegance when a state of panic is obviously occurring in the background. Collateral Damage is a beautiful, beautiful outro that really adds to a song that seems to angry and fed up of society only to be followed by a massive juxtaposition in a piano solo that seems so far away from the world that it simply ignores the troubles it is surrounded in.

So… that’s the first song from The Resistance. Please watch the video at the bottom of this page, it is the full song, United States of Eurasia(+Collateral Damage), that I honestly think everyone deserves to hear. It’s a wonderful song and if you’ve known Muse for a long long time, take all expectations out of your mind and just enjoy because you’ll hear nothing like it at the moment in modern rock bands. Based on USoE, the album should be pretty incredible. Even better is the news that the opening song off the album, Uprising, will be debuted on August 3rd on the Zane Lowe show (Radio 1, 7:30pm), something that I will undoubtedly be checking out in a fit of excitement.

September 14th cannot come quick enough.

#27; F1’s Expansions into the Unknown

As a Formula 1 fan it’s been easy to notice the shift in geographical location over the years from classic Formula tracks like Montreal, Imola and others into new territories for the sport, particularly the shift in focus towards a rich Asian continent for the commercial right holders to take advantage of. Formula 1 is slowly creeping out of Europe, which still is the prominent location of fan-base for the sport. It’s a shame because some of the tracks in Europe are fantastic – look how we lost Spa Francorchamps for a few years, yet saw it return with one of it’s iconic corners trampled for a new chicane that look the fun out of the bus stop. Sadly it seems no track in the sport is safe, no matter how historic or iconic they may be, and you can consider this a rant at the shift in focus to these new locations.

Obviously I have nothing against such countries as China, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and another new locations to the Formula 1 world. The problem I do have is the soulless, barren landscapes they seem to be developed in, combining with tracks that provide no real sense of entertainment where they should be the pinnacle of motor racing. Why is it we always hear these comments from drivers that say… “So and so is a first rate facility, it’s state of the art” and so on – yes, well done, you’ve made a fantastic facility to show off the fat cats behind the curtains, now how about someone work on making tracks that actually benefit us fans? The tracks need top rate medical facilities and need to be safe, no doubt about that. To simply destroy every that Sid Watkins, Jackie Stewart and many other safety personnel over the years have created for F1 would be a catastrophe, but the fans don’t need to know about top class facilities. I feel they want a track that provides excitement, one with history, passion and commitment to the sport with fans that will come to see the race no matter the local heroes in the sport or not.

Of course can all point the finger at Hermann Tilke’s track layouts, which for me have been consistently dull minus a few exceptions in Malaysia and Turkey (more on this later though), but it would be unfair to simple point the finger at one man when he’s simply doing his job on the orders of others. The commercial rights holder that looks for these new locations is a man you may have heard of, Bernie Ecclestone. Yeah, you know that guy! Of course, these new Middle Eastern and south Asian countries have bags upon bags of wealth to throw at Bernie and his commercial rights, and there can be the argument that Formula 1 may need to open it’s arms to new markets, new audiences and expand upon it’s influence but what is these new markets of fans are simply not interested? You study the attendances of Turkey, Shanghai, Malaysia and their attendance records in races have been substantially lower than anything we would see in the main European market of Formula 1. The following diagram shows how Formula 1’s calendar has changed in nearly 20 years:

 

There is a huge difference on locality for Grand Prix in just this relatively short time span. Yes, the main European audience is still kept in mind but for how long, I ask? In the future, we’re expecting to see Grand Prix entries within the Formula 1 calendar from India, South Korea and closer to home in Europe, Bulgaria as well as rumours of United States and Canada regaining their Grand Prix events. But it just astonishes me at times that the commercial holders that negotiate the contracts seem to turn their back on loyal audiences and loved tracks simply for the hope of better money and ‘top class facilities’. Yes Formula 1 needs to be in a modern environment but why not support the locations they feel need improving? It just saddens me to see places like Montreal and Silverstone kicked off simply for stupid reasons.

I don’t like Hermann Tilke’s tracks, I’ll be honest. Bahrain is one of the most dull experience on a Formula 1 calendar ever created I feel and it’s very harsh to criticise anything for me, but it’s simply just a dire environment. There are a few tracks that Tilke has created that create a fantastic spectacle – Turkey has that infamous turn 8 that goes on, and on and is a huge challenge for the drivers, and the track itself has it’s great moment. I also have a soft spot for Malaysia as it’s a good track personally, not an amazing track but one of Tilke’s better designs. The problem is, these tracks still remain in countries that just don’t have the passion you see in the main European audience and it definitely shows on television, as watching a Grand Prix with empty stands at times can be disheartening. It happens in European tracks at times too, for example Valencia and Hungary stand out for me as usually disinteresting tracks with audiences nowhere near maximum capacity (although Valencia has only been around for 1 year, I really can’t see an improvement in 4 weeks time). We shall see what the future brings though.

Formula 1 is ever changing, there is no doubt about it. Rules change from year to year it seems, drivers swap about teams and both leave and exit the sport, and as you can see, tracks come and go. I’m a very traditional, possibly old fashioned, person as I’m sure you can tell from this and for me I just want to see the sport, the pinnacle of motorsport as they say, at the best tracks because that’s where the fans want them to be, and I’m sure the teams do too. What atmosphere can a sport achieve in a desert environment with no relief, landscape changes, atmosphere and relative support? It may seem a little greedy to be annoyed at these additions to the calendar but it’s something I can’t ignore. Hopefully I’m not the only Formula 1 fan who can’t help but wonder at these sort of things as time goes on.

#26; Music Review (Muse, Absolution)

With just a few more weeks to go until Muse unleash their fifth studio album The Resistance upon the world and their adoring fans, I decided to review my favourite Muse album ‘Absolution’. Released in September 2003, it explores Muse’s fear of the world ending, areas of atheism and romance as well as bringing in genres of classical music, jazz and various other surprises along the way. If you know me well, you will know I absolutely adore Muse but I have approached this review with the upmost feeling of non-bias towards the band and enjoyed/reviewed the album for the music it contains rather than the music that I like. Hopefully it’ll be up to your standards, so… enjoy”

1) Apocalypse Please - Opening with a drumming beat of footsteps gradually progressing in their volume, a striking piano riff storms upon the listener into the song. “Declare this an  emergency” screams Bellamy, and you can definitely feel the sense of urgency not only being sang out in despair but from the song itself musically. Whereas the title takes reference to the classic film Apocalypse Now, this song feels in a different world – it almost screams in pain that the end is nigh, an apocalyptic cry from Bellamy on vocals accompanied with the piano works wonders for the song personally. It opens the album with a taste of what to expect in the next 50 minutes or so – loud, brash messages thrown through bass lines, drum-riffs, pianos, synth, the likes. As an individual song, it works. As an opener it works even better. Excellent! 84%

2) Time is Running Out – Arguably one of the poppiest songs on the album, it remains to this day as one of the Muse’s most loved from the fans. Created by a fantastic backing bassline and the clicking of fingers creating the tempo, the song continues the ‘end of the world’ feel originating from Apocalypse Please. It’s certainly a massive distance away from the riffs and distortion of Muse’s previous album, but TIRO will get stuck in your head when you hear it. The bass and the drums are what make the song so fantastically addictive – you hear those notes shoot out at you from the bass as soon as the song starts and it runs the entire length. A little overplayed since the release of Absolution but still a definite highlight and one song that has stayed in Muse’s back catalogue of excellence with the fans for a long, long time since it’s first play. 90%

3) Sing for Absolution – After two electrifyingly momentous songs to introduce fans to Absolution, the record gets it’s first slower song in Sing for Absolution. A dreamy, almost galactic feeling cry of forgiveness that contributed to the album title obviously hears the trio back on piano with very little guitar, much in the same way Apocalypse Please did, but in a far slower, softer context. Bellamy’s vocals works wonderfully with the piano and synth in the background in keeping the pace of the song interesting enough to work but not dull enough to simply see the song getting skipped. Lyrically, it’s a highlight for me because of how strangely well it works as a love song - “There's nowhere left to hide, In no one to confide, the truth burns deep inside, and will never die” – yes it’s simple, but it just goes beautifully with what the song is expressing musically. By the end, after a calm, relaxed intro, the song ends on a louder, angrier tone with heavier guitars and Bellamy almost screaming his way into the outro. Underrated but not brilliant. 82%

4) Stockholm Syndrome – Heavy guitar. Huge bass riff. Gargantuan drums. I can’t think of enough expressions to sum up how massive, how wonderfully huge, how expansive Stockholm Syndrome truly is. The lyrics are nothing to write home about (although ‘This is the last time I’ll forget you!'' makes me want to scream it out in sheer delight"!) but for a song that prides itself on heavy guitar riffs and a bassline that could crack a safe, it’s easily one of the angriest romantic songs you’ll hear. Stockholm Syndrome really is completely brilliant though. From the moment the guitar opens the song to that massive outro of sheer headbanging glee for you rockers, I simply cannot criticise the song in any way or any form. Even the length is perfect, as I personally dislike songs that are less than 3 minutes in length and anything in 4/5 minutes length, for me, is just about right and the criteria matches for Stockholm Syndrome. Plus the guitar riff is up there with Muse’s best. Is this Muse’s best song ever? Arguable. Is this the best song on Absolution? Oh Yes. 97%

5) Falling Away with You – Wow. What a comedown after the mountainous reaches of screaming caused from Stockholm Syndrome. FAWY can fit into the category of romance once more, expressing the deprecation of the world around a person in love from the feeling of falling away with them, obviously. It’s a lovely song – the chorus is simple but works well enough. Musically, its simply guitars and drum tapping that take the song by it’s hand but it’s surprising to hear how non-existent Wolstenholme sounds on the bass, a shame for a man of his talent. I would probably say that this isn’t the correct genre for Muse as whilst the song does work, you just feel like it’s kind of feels like filler. 70%

6) Hysteria – In much the same was as Time is Running out, the bassline absolutely helps make this song a classic Muse tune. It has snarling guitar bashing throughout and cymbals crashing like a menacing ocean but that bassline you hear nonstop just absolutely makes Hysteria. It’s surprising how short the song is, especially whilst listening – time absolutely flies through it’s 3 minute length but it’s short and very sweet, with a gorgeously paradisical guitar solo towards the end. The solo actually feels contradictory to the general frustration portrayed through Bellamy’s lyrics and vocals - “I want you now!” he screams out, yet the guitar solo sounds as if the song reaches a complete different level of pleasure once it finishes. Definitely a highlight of Absolution and of Muse’s complete portfolio. Excellent bass. Excellent sound. Excellent Hysteria. 95%

7) Blackout – This is a strange one to analyse. It sounds like a song drifting down the Venetian canals on a summer afternoon with an orchestra guiding you along, with the song consisting of a string orchestra creating the main ballad whilst Bellamy softly sings along to simple cymbal taping. Being a love song, it ticks the boxes of a romantic cliche but it’s a lovely song without a doubt – just feels at times as if it lacks a little pace. It could be argued that the slow pace of the song makes it better to the context in which it’s sang, which it definitely adds to, but it’s a little out of Muse’s comfort zone. Although the solo with the electric synthesized guitar is the true highlight of the song alongside a cascading choir of violins and other strings. Lovely, but perhaps a little too lovely. 76%

8) Butterflies and Hurricanes – I can’t stress enough how epic this song feels. Really, an absolute epic. It slowly builds up from simply vocals and orchestra, but begins building into this gargantuan sounding of modern classical music, as completely contradictory as that sounds. The pace of the song runs beautifully, with a Formula 1 racing-style pace as it rushes along building more and more noise with piano, bass, drums, more orchestra, backing vocals, brilliant!! In contrast to other songs, with their apocalyptic or romantic message, B&H is incredibly optimistic and upbeat - “Best!! You’ve got to be the Best”! – again going in tandem with the pace of the song fantastically. The entire song is broken into two parts, if you will, by a piano solo by Matt Bellamy that could be confused with such composers as Chopin or Rachmaninov. The solo is elegant, managing to keep that pace that the song build up to towards this climax but adding a modern twist upon the world of classical music. It’s a very brave song, considering how much it mixes Muse’s modern sound with traditional classical music, but my god does it work. 94%

9) The Small Print – We jump from the inspirations of classical music to a sudden in-your-face classic rock song that goes back to the lyrical bias of desperation and anger that has been seen earlier in the album. The Small Print’s musical foundations are built from Bellamy’s heavy guitar and a crunching bassline from Wolstenholme that see TSP simply scream into your mind. We also get a bit more insight into the atheist beliefs of Bellamy and the band through the Small Print, something that goes into deeper thought later in the album. However the Small Print is a pretty good song – nothing hugely memorable but loud, brash and heavier than anything else on Absolution minus Stockholm Syndrome. 80%

10) Fury – To this day I’m incredibly upset about Fury. Basically, the song only appeared on the Japanese version of Absolution, and was scheduled to replace The Small Print worldwide until Dom/Chris outvoted Matt to keep TSP on, and leave Fury off for Japan. The reason why it upsets me so much is that Fury is simply sensational – and yet millions of fans worldwide may not get to hear it because it was simply released as a B-side to a single rather than on the full album. Fury has such an exotic feel about it for me, with the rhythm screaming out arabian nights-style themes with that gorgeously epic bassline that stands above Bellamy’s softly spoken vocals. At just under 5 minutes, it’s reasonably lengthy but, for me, has one of Muse’s must genius choruses. Again Bellamy almost innocently sings out against a song that creates so much power in it’s sound, with the chorus hearing the guitar run back and forth through notes, whilst Bellamy himself sings out against his sins in the hope of no God hurting him for his actions. If it were on the full album worldwide, it would rival Stockholm Syndrome for me. It’s an absolutely mind-blowing song I feel, it creates such an incredible aura and sense of powerful in the way the song conveys it’s message of sin, and just such a highlight that every Muse fan should hunt down. 96%

11) Endlessly – Absolution takes a turn towards the genre of Jazz as endlessly is a calm romantic entry towards the album. It’s an extremely simple song in comparison to some of it’s neighbours alongside it in the album, sounding something you’d hear in a jazz club on a Friday night from a small band rather than the over the top, apocalyptic end of the world paranoia that Muse have achieved in various other songs on the album. It’s quite conceptual in that aspect for the band because it’s so different to a lot of their other stuff – the bass feels so non-existant and the drums sound so stripped down, but it has this wonderful synth in the chorus that mixes with these aspects to create the chilled atmosphere the song is obviously striving for. Bellamy’s vocals work once more with the romantic message being conveyed and it’s a lovely little song, just feels kind of out of place on the album. The mini-solo with the organ is absolutely lovely though but again, sounds very out of place. 69%

12) Thoughts of a Dying Atheist – The song that inspired the name of this blog, huzzah! ToaDA is another fast paced entry into the album based off the guitars and bassline more than anything that, as previously described, seen to absolutely fly by in terms of time. It explores once more the religious aspect of the band’s beliefs in terms of their fear of death and the afterlife that so many religions describe, as the title of the song so easily describes. It’s a great little song though, again just being a typical rock song rather than falling into a particular genre of music elsewhere. Once more we get a guitar solo from Bellamy that adds to the length and breaks the pace in which the verses and choruses seem to come out at, and the fear of death and being an atheist in wonder combined with the constantly moving pace helps makes the song a valuable addition to the album. 83%

13) Ruled by Secrecy - Sadly even the best things in life have to end, and closing Absolution is the truly magnificent Ruled by Secrecy. Opening with a sombre piano and the exasperated vocals of Bellamy almost nasally singing about change in the air alongside a basic bassline and simple drum tapping. The opening minute or two makes it seem as if this loud album, constantly screaming out in frustration then switching to a more personal level at times, is ending on a low key with RbS but just as it feels the song loses all kind of pace musically, it crashes into a sea of piano, cymbals and basslines smashing together to create a hugely effective dramatic exit. Once the song turns into this huge song, it really adds to the atmosphere and cries of despair that previous songs had done so well to create and makes Ruled by Secrecy such a sweetly beautiful and yet screamingly desperate song to end with. It slowly builds down after the crash back to a sudden ending and echo to leave Absolution in the memory of it’s listeners. Fantastic outro for the album and a fantastically beautiful song in it’s own right. 91%.

So that’s Absolution by Muse. If you’re wondering, the average percentage turned out to be 85% (with Fury) or 84% (without Fury), which are both in general is a very fair scores I feel considering how much I love the band, and how totally unfair and biased it could have been! Hopefully the review was fine to read too as if this turned out to be moderately successful, I will indeed other music albums from other bands in the future. Concerning Absolution, it’s still easily my favourite album but nothing is perfect – everything is bound to have flaws. Perhaps you will feel I have been too easy going on some songs, or perhaps not critical enough but that’s the thing about opinions - you can never make everyone happy! I do absolutely recommend this to any real fan of music with an open mind that appreciates all areas of rock – whether it be slower, more romantically biased, general rock or those who prefer an over the top symphonic approach to music, it accommodates to all audiences and the entire albums flows so beautifully well. Muse’s next album, The Resistance, is out on 14th September and is already being called Muse’s ‘biggest and bravest masterpiece’ by different media outlets, so it does make me wonder… how excellent must it be to beat Absolution? Only time will tell my friends.

#25; It’s not quite Autumn but it’s more than Spring

So it’s the typical British summertime rolling out once more it would seem – in a season that should bring sunshine, warmth, colour and clichés of a summer variety, we once more seem to put up with the usual stuff.  I’ll admit we’ve had some beautiful days so far this summer but that’s the thing – I’m having to say ‘some’' rather than mostly! See, our summer seems to be full of cloudy clouds, showery showers and generally generic weather, 3 descriptions that I’m sure will blow you away with sheer visual oomph. To get myself out of this non-descriptive summer we seem to be experiencing once more, I’ve decided to remind myself of everything that makes me look forward to the summer and gets me back in the mood of the lovely few months they should bring…

• Cornettos! OK not necessarily Cornettos’ themselves but ice cream in general. yes we’ve had the massively inflated prices of 99 Flakes contradict their actual name but Ice Creams and summer go together like peas in a pod! Whilst at Goodwood with that beautiful blue sky horizon I can’t even begin to tell you how many Ice creams I treated myself to, pure heaven. You just simply can’t go a summer without ice cream. Yum. Also, you all know secretly Strawberry Cornettos’ are the best ones. 
• Blue! No, not that absolute drivel of a band. No, not the Blue Man Group although they are kind of cool. I mean those glorious blue skies that stretch for miles and miles with the whispers of clouds stroking through their gentle views. Bliss! Absolute bliss! It’s not something us British folk tend to get treated with so often throughout the year it feels. Plus it means lovely weather of course which is always welcome. Just the colour blue itself looks so relaxing in the sky. I almost put tasty there, but I think that’s the though of Cornettos’ getting to my mind. Blue Cornetto sounds wrong.
• Relaxing! It does feel like the summer is the time of the year when everyone seems to take a step back and just chill for a bit, or so in my experience. I have no uni work to necessarily worry about, it’s a fantastic opportunity to travel and go see people and laces, books to read and catch up with, there’s lots of good music to look forward to and listen, again with the ice cream, and it’s just such a relaxing time compared to the new education beginnings of the Autumn, the Christmas stresses of winter  and the general springyness of Spring. Actually Spring’s quite nice too… but Summer is more Springier. If you get what I mean.

It’s quite wierd really because despite all this loving for the Summer, I do prefer the winter. I love the cold and the festivity and, as I am completely wierd, I find rain very relaxing. But the summer, when we get it, is absolutely brilliant because it is just relaxation central with the surrounding of bright, wonderful colours, that gorgeous breeze that brushes past and just a few months of chilling out to a cold drink and good music. When we get it, of course. I think I’ll just remind myself of this entry when the skies go grey over the next month or two…