Just gone 10.30 pm Tuesday nite. Coming up towards the end of Jan. Didn't start drinking till quite late tonight; when I did it was when Tamdin got back from the clinic just before 8 and by 9 we had both had 2 large gin and tonics each. 2 large gin and tonics. Don't drink so much when Tamdin is not around but when she is then I could be looking at an average of 4 nights a week. Minimum. Think myself it is a little bit too much but when you are living as a couple it can be a bit difficult to always turn around and say no when the other feels thirsty. In fact most of the time I am ready for one anyway, never in the day but when evening comes around it is a different story.
The effect from gin usually is a little bit of a delayed one. You can be buzzing for a good 1/2 hour or so after you have finished but then it hits you. Just in fact begun to write this up after waking up in my chair in the lounge after having fallen asleep watching the news. Just nodded off. Some shit going on the tube about super casinos and the next thing I know it is nearly 10.30. Just couldn't keep my eyes open. Tamdin has already taken herself off to bed. She was done in over an hour ago. I guess we never over-indulge but at the same we make sure we have enough. For example if we open a bottle of wine then the chances are that between us we will finish it. In fact there are no chances, it is a stone cold certainty. If we have a beer then it will be at least 2 big bottles each. And if we have gin then like tonight it will at least be a couple of large ones. When Tamdin is away and I am here on my own then I really try to stay off the booze completely. But like I said when we are both around it is a different story. Booze, booze, booze. Guess at the end of the day we are not so different to countless millions of other folk in this country. Just trying to get through the winter in one piece. Well I guess talking like that can make it sound like some kind of excuse. At the end of the day it is just down to habit. Once you have got the taste for some alcoholic refreshment in the evening time then it is tough to turn the tap off. The prospect of sticking to a fruit juice can suddenly seem like a lousy stinkin' deal.
Well I have to say that just over a week ago I bought my first ipod. Guess the fact that I hadn't got round to buying one and didn't know what it was that I had to do to get my music on one was bugging me. In fact if truth be told it had been mildly bugging me for some time, somehow adding to the long dark list of things that I fear only exist to expose my inadequacies. My severe inadquacies as a justifiable human... So after coming back from India this time I made the promise to myself to do something about it. And lo and behold I have done just that and got myself podded up. The result is that I have now spent a good few hours over the last week burning all kinds of music from my rather extensive CD collection on the hard drive of my laptop, and then from there I can transfer the music files onto my ipod via the Apple itunes programme. It is all rather simple really, not too complicated at all and it has only involved one return trip to the Apple store in Oxford Street to sort out a minor technical problem before I was completely up and running.
Now I have realised that I should have got a bigger ipod as the ipod nano that I bought for 159 quid has already nearly been filled and I haven't even started to really get going yet in terms of compiling playlists and stuff like that. At the moment I have been concentrating on getting a lot of the rockier CDs in my collection onto the laptop and from there onto the pod. So there is a lot of Purple, Leppard, AC/DC, Hendrix, Free and Zeppelin swilling around at the moment. Don't really know if I enjoy listening to my music any better though. Guess it is early days and I will just have to see how things go. But the danger is getting lost in the things which really should only be secondary to the actual experience of listening to music... like sitting in front of the lap top for hours and dreaming up various complilations to make into playlists. In fact it can get very addictive sitting in front of the screen dragging things from here to there and then never actually going away and listening whatever it is that you are expending so much mental energy on trying to put together. Very strange. Another activity to add to the very many these days than leave one feeling rather unsatisfied.
In the end there becomes this quest you become involved in for the perfect playlist, the compilation of tracks from my music collection that will simply hammer into the ground all that had gone before and that will leave anyone whoever happens to listen to it completely and utterly flabbergasted...some hope...no hope. But it won't stop me wasting a few more hours on it yet. In fact to pass on a little secret in the ipod playlist department I have to say that I think the trick is to keep the compilations reasonably short. Between 12 - 15 songs that take up an hour or just over is really more than enough.
Getting tired now. Been writing for the best part of 45 mins and that is probably enough for me. Guess that is another secret...never write for too long. Never stay until you are scratching around for things to say, like a loser. Keep it brief and don't be afraid to fuck off out of it when the thoughts dry up. Good time now to hit the sack and let then remains of the gins from a couple of hours ago swim round and then out of my system. In fact the best way of putting a cap on all this instead of going on and on is to post it.
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