On Integration and Working For The Man

I must apologise to some of you as it would appear putting this entry together took longer than I had anticipated and some you were already starting to get impatient. To my great surprise, people are actually reading this. This was meant as a sort-of day-to-day account of my life here in the big city with perhaps a handful of readers (parents, siblings and a few friends perhaps) but the response has been quite overwhelming, to be honest. Nothing compared to the short stories and poetry I write as my 'alter ego' (roughly 3.000 readers) or my actual job (400.000 readers and counting) but still, it's always nice to feel appreciated. The virtues of a smart title I suppose.

Anyway, I just finished my third day as an official member of Bleacher Report's Breaking News team. During those three days I've shouted obscenities at my laptop, watched far too much cricket, completely ruined my back (more on that later) and nearly broke the screen with my copy of Our Mutual Friend. Breaking news is hard.

It's also incredibly fun. Frankly, I absolutely love my job. I love creating a piece from scratch, playing around with the words and crafting a smart, thought-out bit of writing that resonates with people. It's why I gave up being a surf coach (who in their right mind would do that?!) and became a writer for hire.

Describing the thrill of pressing 'publish' and watching the read-counter go up is almost impossible. Thousands of complete strangers reading your words, your message, all of them just a couple of keystrokes away (and trust me, folks are quite keen on venturing into comment sections these days). There truly isn't anything like it. I take pride in my work, my creations, as essentially that is what every single article boils down to. With every word, I'm creating something.

In fact, I should be doing my tax forms right now, but I felt like writing some more. Hey mum, hey dad. Hey there little brother. I hope you're all doing great and that you know how deeply I care about all of you, and how badly I miss you. Things have gone a bit quiet, but they always do when I leave. I know you still think of me and you're just a single phone-call away.

Ah yes, my back. As the search for a flat turned out to be a lot harder than anticipated and I was running out of time I ended up moving into the first available flat that wasn't a complete dump (I like it here btw, so no worries. Shepherd's Bush is just central and lively enough for me) and the place happened not to have a desk. I was planning on getting one immediately but as it became more and more likely that I would be leaving London without working a single day I kept putting it off, and as a result I was left without a desk when the assignments started coming in.

I ended up working from my floor/bed for two days, which I do not recommend to anyone. As I left my masseuse back home, my back is still trying to recover (quite unsuccessfully I'm afraid).

London is treating me just fine. I'll be meeting a few more collegues later this week and we're currently in the midst of trying to organise a get-together for St Patrick's Day (my dear friend Sam, who is part Irish, has told me saying 'St Patties' is quite offensive. Because he's a poofter) although I have been invited to spend St Paddy's in Cornwall with some of my surfing friends. I haven't surfed since the summer as I couldn't bring myself to it after everything that happened, but as none of you actually know what happened, that might be a story better left for some other time. Or not. Probably not.

Someone crafted me a list of things to do before you can officially think of yourself as a Londoner (I don't think I ever will) and I'm coming along quite nicely. I've shouted abuse at complete strangers, complained about the bloody tourists in Picadily Circus (not a pleasant experience, but our headquarters happen to be on Marlboro Street) and have looked at a can of beans and some fishfingers and considered that to be a good meal. Good for me.

Other than that, not much has changed. I'm still not sure about my outlook here and the dark clouds are still hovering firmly above my head (figuratively speaking, the weather has been excellent down here). One could say I am yet to be immersed in the true London experience, but I'm quite certain that may yet be a while. As of right now, my days pretty much consist of working, writing short stories, reading and eating yoghurt and fruit salad. And television, obviously, it's me after all (that last HIMYM was sh*te). I found a decent, surprisingly cheap gym just around the corner, so I have that going for me.

I'm not quite sure all of this is progress, to be honest. They say life only has one speed, and one direction. Life moves forward. But does it, really? Do we not spend most of our time standing in place? Is the illusion of progress simply a fantasy, a lie we tell ourselves in a pathetic attempt to justify our daily routine?

And if so, is that really such a bad thing? The only tangible difference I can see between my current life and the one I was leading a month ago is the fact that I'm currently trying to spend my day doing something I love, and something I want to do.

People seem desperate for explanations and solid reasoning behind their every move, their very existence. Afraid of doing something pointless or spending a day in which they did nothing to advance themselves in this world. But there's a certain beauty in pointlessness. There's 7.5 million people living on this little piece of land we call London, and they're all convinced they're going somewhere. Some of them are bound to be wrong.

Maybe I'm being crazy, or me again (possibly worse). Not sure I'm making any sense, and I'm probably wasting your time. And I wouldn't want to do something as pointless as making you think about the pointlessness of it all, right?

Is that even a word? And if not, squirrel/shotgun/coining it. Streets ahead.

Goodnight y'all.

(PS: I really hope you took my advice on Friday Night Lights. Since my last update, I've started watching again. All of it. Possibly because I was out of episodes of White Collar/Modern Family/Parks and Recreation. But that's not the point. Best. Sountrack. Ever. I could hit this blog with post-rock songs all day. But I won't. Still, if you liked Explosions in the Sky, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1L1rQYGatw ).

Song of the day: The Head and the Heart- Rivers and Roads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2J-0EtsCpo