Distinctly Average

Bit of a dangerous title for a blog entry but I'm referring not to myself or my wares, but to the first weekend of the English Premiership. I might be being a bit unfair but over the weekend none of the games really grabbed me and the more I have watched highlights and so on, the more underwhelmed I have become. I know there were some big wins (Blackpool catch the eye) but the games I was really looking forward to all ended as stalemates. I was hoping that Spurs could start off with a win against Man City (and they deserved to) because the constant splashing of the cash is becoming tiresome and I don't want to see that approach continually vindicated. I also can't understand what Shay Given has done to lose his place in the team, although I admit I'm biased towards my fellow Donegal native. And Joe Hart had a stormer, in fairness to him. On top of all that, my fantasy team were average and I'm already languishing in mid-table in most of my leagues. Obviously it's very, very early days, but it's never good to lose too much ground early on. I think I'll have to choose reason over gut and drop Rooney as my captain. It seems as though his World Cup form has carried over into the new season. Maybe my feeling that the weekend's football was average has as much to do with my own fantasy team and another home defeat for Derry City against Cork City Foras Co-op. Thankfully, Monaghan lost too, so we got away with it to an extent. Still, we need to get back to winning ways or risk squandering what was, at one stage, a 12-point lead at the top of the First Division. Oh please next weekend give me better news. A win for FC Seoul at home to Gangwon FC on Saturday would do the trick just nicely.

That'll be the last FC Seoul game I'll be at with my best mate, Robert (for the foreseeable future anyhow), as he leaves for England next week. I have mentioned before in the blog how people are always coming and going in Korea and that your friendship group is ever-changing. I have to say that this week will be different. It goes without saying that I have been close friends with Rob since we were about 13 (and known him since play-school) so it's going to be tough when he leaves. It's hard to put a value on having someone around in this environment who you know and trust completely and don't generally have to worry about how you are around them. I'm glad for him that he's moving onwards and upwards but of course I'll be sad to see him go. The very same week Jessica, a former co-worker, also leaves for England and she's someone I have also been very close to. The following week Kev (my long-time guitarist) and his girlfriend Joanna leave for Barcelona so it's shaping up to be a grim enough time. Thankfully I still have a lot of people here who I would consider to be friends, but the loss of those four is significant.

Saturday is shaping up to be such a busy night of goodbyes that I decided to pull out of the Red Hot Chili Peppers gig I was due to sing at. I feel really bad to let Cheon down at this late stage but there was no way I could miss any part of a night this important. I'm hoping I'll get the chance to do something some other time with Cheon's band. Jim (our drummer) gets back from England on Saturday so we'll hopefully be back rehearsing soon and might play a short show on Friday 27th somewhere. I'll write it here if we do. At the minute, my main focus is on the acoustic night at Rocky Mountain Tavern on Friday (20th). I'll be singing about ten songs with Kevin after sets by him, Zee (The Pines), and Patricia Chamless (Sour Mash). They are all really good singers so I hope I'm not shown up but we rehearsed last Saturday and it was sounding good so hopefully we can emulate that. I'm looking forward to singing at an acoustic gig because, fun and all as the 'rock' band thing is, this is much more complimentary to my voice. If you happen to be around Seoul on Friday night, try to make it along. I think it's going to be a nice chilled-out night with a lot of good music. I'm certainly looking forward to hearing Kev, Zee and Patricia again.

I can't really think what else I wanted to say today. This week I've been doing a fair bit of reading, studying Korean and trying to strengthen my quad in anticipation of maybe being able to walk properly again sometime soon. I've started doing a bit of preparation for my next semester again and I feel fairly sure of what I'll be doing for the first couple of weeks at least. Today, the girls in the office tried to give me money for the lessons that I taught them a while back. Basically, there were crossed-wires between my boss and her boss which led to me teaching the girls in the office as part of my summer schedule, only to find out I wouldn't be getting paid for it. The girls got the money together themselves but I definitely can't accept that because it wasn't their fault at all. The fact is that they probably get paid a little over half of what I do for a lot more work and much less vacation time so I think I can take the hit better than they can. In saying that, I'm going to be so skint next month I barely want to think about it (always the best way to handle your financial concerns...).

What Goes Up

Yet again another week in which it has taken me a while to feel 'normal' again after a heavy (and admittedly fun at times) weekend. People tend to laugh and make light of how 'rough' Mondays can be (and Tuesdays, and often Wednesdays) but I'm a bit sick of it so I'm opting to give my body and mind a bit of a break from alcohol for an indefinite time. I have a lot coming up over the next few weeks and a huge chunk of cash going out of my bank account this month so the timing is good. I know everyone says it, but I'm really serious this time. I know how hard it is in reality; a few drinks with friends, a football match to watch, a plethora of birthdays and leaving parties, singing at gigs, etc., but I really, really need a break - and to see if I'm still capable of taking one.

I used to randomly go off drink from time to time when I was younger. Sometimes it was because I was a poor student, sometimes because I was doing a lot of running and had something coming up, sometimes because Uni or school was particularly busy. In saying that, it has been about four years since I have actually followed an utterance of, "I'm going off drink for a bit" with action. Alcohol and our relationship to alcohol is something I think about a lot but maybe something I'll have a few more answers on in a few weeks.

Now that I'm back in the land of the living I have got back to working on songs for upcoming gigs (Friday 20th acoustic set with Kevin @ RMT, Saturday 21st RHCPs cover band with Cheon @ The Rolling Hall). I have A LOT of work left on one particular Chilis song but everything else should be ok. Hopefully. It'll be a different experience singing publicly without the luxury of a few beers to loosen the nerves but that will hopefully counteract my usual habit of making the odd slip here and there. I used to sing dry from time to time with my old band at Uni, 'Day Release'. I actually just received a few pictures from those good old days, one of which I'm going to add here to show you how young I looked as well as my 'special' taste in shirts back then...

Fantastic, eh? Thankfully I grew out of that phase. Some lucky guy had a field day in a charity shop in Canterbury in the summer of 2006, no doubt. Those were very good times and it's always nice seeing old pictures and having a bit of a blast from the past. Of course it wasn't all rosy but we had a lot of fun, were good mates and I wouldn't really change any of it I don't think. I'm looking forward to sending a video of my upcoming attempt at covering the Chilis to our old bassist Gary (far right in picture) because he's a big fan and was always trying to get us to cover them.

I just picked my fantasy football team for the 2010/11 season earlier this evening. My friends and I choose the league offered at www.premierleague.com and I had a pretty good season last time out. I usually think twice about entering because it can get really competitive and time-consuming but that wasn't the case last season, interestingly, when I was actually doing well and could have rubbed it in people's faces for a change! No doubt I'll be boring you with my progress here as the season progresses.

Well, I think that's enough for one day. I'm going to start reading 'David Copperfield' by Charles Dickens tonight and maybe watch a movie if I can root out something good around here. I'm notoriously hard to please when it comes to films, leading many to mistakenly think that I don't like them full stop. I'll write more later in the week. Your comments here or by email are always welcome.