End of an Era

Tonight is my last night staying in a hostel. I've been here just over two months, so needless to say I'm really, really, really looking forward to leaving.

Funnily enough, I think I'm going to miss it. Okay, so I'm not going to miss sharing a room with five other smelly, snoring bastards. I'm not going to miss having to lock my valuables up every night, nor will I miss waiting for a bathroom to become vacant while busting to go to the loo.

However, there are a few things I've enjoyed. Primarily, it's actually been a lot of fun having so many people around. Take last night, for example. Rather than come home and just sit on my bed (there's no lounge room here), instead a bunch of us had organised a trip to the Slug at Fulham for a night of drinking and debauchery. Which is precisely what happened! Then there's the Sunday afternoon gatherings at the pub, the Friday nights out on the town... there's almost always something to do. Having thought about it, most of it seems to involve abuse of the liver. I never used to be like this - what happened?

But all good things must come to an end, and there's a few things I'm really looking forward to that I'm going to put into practice as soon as I'm out of here. Number one on the list is getting myself in shape! Since I've arrived I've been eating, quite frankly, like a bit of a pig. That's going to change, I plan on changing my diet significantly to include as much fruit and veg as possible, and little to no junk food (oh, I'll miss it).

Then there's the exercise. Aside from my daily walk at lunch time to get something to eat, I've been doing very little in this department. Again, this is going to change. I've never noticed it all that much before, but I'm starting to become a bit porky and I really hate it. In the rehearsal rooms we go to, one whole wall is lined with mirrors - and the last thing I want to be is the fat bass player, which is what I see every time we go there. Even Dave and Alessio were giving me shit about it the other night.

For this, I've decided to hit the gym - ah, yes, that old chestnut. The thing is, I'm really sick of having a bulging belly and I swear I have bigger boobs than some girls I know, so much so that I feel embarrassed walking around in tee-shirts (which comprises 99% of my current wardrobe). I hate bulging in the wrong areas. Really hate it. This is going to change. I'm also considering buying a bike, but I'll see how I go over the next few weeks once I'm in my new place.

That's number one on my list of things to do.

Next on the list is to buy a new bass and two new guitars (I want a nice acoustic as well as an electric), then to get my butt practicing as hard as I can to become brilliant(er). I've actually surprised myself quite a bit with my latest band, I'm actually pretty pleased with some of the bass lines I've been coming up with - but I can do better (I know I can, simply because I hum them in my head all the time).

I must be doing something right, at any rate: while I was at the FLA gig the other week, Felicia was telling me about Dave and Alessio's previous attempts to find a bassist - apparently they went through around 15 others before I popped up. She said it's because Dave is really picky about who he plays with (which made me feel pretty damn good!), but when I asked him about it he said it was more to do with the fact that the others simply couldn't play a note to save their lives, or were just wholly unreliable. I am neither of these things, so I've lasted - and I plan to keep lasting.

I've also had a simple acoustic pop song running in my head the last couple of weeks that I'd like to work on. This is what happens when I spend an entire week listening to the Wonder Stuff!

What's number three on the list then? Well, I haven't made it that far yet, to be honest. I'll let you know if anything comes up.