Holiday Time

I have a week off work. I will be flying out to London on Tuesday morning from Belfast and coming back Thursday. On the Tuesday night I am going to see Will Self. He will be reading passages from his novel 'The Butt.' A far as I can tell, it's a sartical take on multi-culturalism. A man absent mindedly throws a cigarette butt from a balcony while on holiday in some strange land and all kinds of chaos ensues. Anthropological digressions and strange legal ramifications bring out the absurdity of the ways human societies work.

Then I will be going to see Sophia play live on Wednesday night. There will be a full band with a string section. This will be amazing. The first time I watched Sophia play live was at the same venue with the same set-up. (The other time was in Dublin but there was no string section.)

If I won the lottery this is the kind of thing I would do all the time. Fly here and fly there, catching my favourite bands and engaging in all types of 'cultural' activity.

I actually had a laugh during the week. In work we have a lottery synidcate going, it breaks up the day and gives everyone the chance to dream. This week there was a massive jackpot of £110 million up for grabs. One of my colleagues insisted that he would not leave his job if he won this kind of money! He said he would get bored sitting at home and would have to do something.

This kind of thing amazes me. I would have lots of projects going. I would be writing, maybe record another Addendum CD with my fellow bandmates, open a few clubs around the UK and Ireland and become a concert promoter supporting up and coming acts, set up a recording studio, learn how to ride a motorbike and get a few friends to cross North America with me on Harleys. One thing I would not be doing is sitting at home getting bored!

Some of this stuff I can do anyway. It only takes longer. I can still write or arrange to record a new CD. It's just a lot more difficult because of work committments.

Holidays are artifical to that extent. We can do things with a greater amount of ease than we can normally.