I thought that I would be able to save myself until the end of next week before I dusted down my blog again but I can't keep myself away. I've been typing notes for the best part of 10 hours today and yet my fingers still want more. My back might well say 'no', but my fingers say 'go' - who am I to ignore fingers that can think and talk for themselves? They've got me into plenty of trouble in the past so I've learned to embrace them and go with the flow - there's little point in fighting the feeling any longer. So with that gripping (yes, I just punned) story under my belt I guess it's time to crack on with something substantial. I'm not 100% sure where this post is going to go (which tends to happen when my brain is mush) but I like the feeling of writing something that isn't for revision purposes. However, knowing me, by the end of this post I will have told you all you need to know about the Scots law of leases - I'll try my damnedest not to though!
So Friday might well have been one of the best nights out I've had for a long time - the first time I've been out with my Dad for a while as well apart from football, so that was an added bonus. On Friday night we were at the Clyde Auditorium (the 'Armadillo' for those that way inclined) for an Elvis Costello gig. It's the second time that we've been to see him and both times have been an absolute privilege. To sit and soak up 3 hours (with no breaks) of pure musical genius was something quite amazing. You don't realise it so much at the time but on Saturday morning when I was talking about it with my Dad (we've done little else but talk about it since) we both started to realise just what a performance we had witnessed the night before. It had everything: his brilliant music, a few brilliant cover songs, some damning political statements about the Murdochs, some hilarious audience participation and then a few songs with his little brother's band. There were moments when the whole auditorium was in fits of delight as he drilled out song after song, displaying some rugged and playful vocals before lulling us into a stunned silence as he toned down and produced the most amazing acoustic pieces that I've ever heard live - just amazing. Here's an amateur video from Friday that I found on Youtube:
With Elvis still ringing in my ears, I start yet another week of this never-ending exam diet with lifted spirits and a decent plan in my head of how to get through these last 3 exams. My next one is not until Thursday (hence the reason why I can justify writing tonight really) and so I've got a good amount of time to prepare all 3 before digging in later in the week to make sure I'm completely prepared for Thursday - it's a nice position to be in for the moment. I think it's all about keeping the head at the moment and I think the best way of approaching that is by saying that this is the start of a new exam diet. A week is a long time in terms of exams and I might as well embrace the fact that I've had a whole one to get ready for my next exam.
Away from revision, my weekend has been nice and quiet which is just what I needed at this time. With no outside influences and nothing apart from the usual inane stuff to distract me, I've found it a good neutraliser after a particularly acidic week of exams. Under normal circumstances I would say that I might give my right arm to be finished exams but that kind of thinking is only detrimental to my current reality - you either embrace exams or you go into a mire of stress and other such fun things that I would prefer to avoid.
Certainly there is one thing that I am allowing myself to look forward to, and it's surprisingly not the Champions League final at the weekend - C'MON THE BLUES!!! Excuse me. No I'm trying to keep that at the back of my mind until I get through Thursday but the one thing that I'm planning in my head are the loose ends that I'm going to try and tie up at the end of the academic year. I'm not sure what that quite entails but I have a rough idea that I'm going to be looking for a fresh canvas going into the summer and that there are a few things that need to be tied up before then. Maybe it's not so much tying up loose ends, more opening up new things for myself with which I can have a good summer - the terminology is rough but I have in my mind what needs to be done. That might well be beyond my exams (which, mentally, is a treacherous place to take yourself during exams) but it's so nonspecific that I'm allowing myself it as the my only forward looking thought aside from my next exam.
I realise I've blabbed a bit tonight but coming off the back of another busy day of sitting in the same spot, I felt it was necessary. When this is all over I'll be back to writing better stuff again but for now you'll have to make do with this - wait, was that me looking forward too far again?
Thanks for reading and I hope that you're all looking after yourselves during this most wonderful time of the year - I jest of course, someone has to!
Martin
