…I really do!
I’m shattered, my feet hurt, and my pocket is in ashes. I’ve spent the day going from personal extremes of too hot to too cold, and not once has anyone offered me some sort of good cheer! (By that I mean free booze, of course.)
So I need new music, something that isn’t churned out by the pop-plastics machine that is the popular music industry, and something different from those artists I’ve listened to over and over for the past 3 years – yes I’ll get their new albums, because I enjoy what they do, but even if they excel themselves above their previous offerings, that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t gain the same sense of satisfaction that I do from discovering someone with an entirely new sound.
I take a bus from a student suburb – the area I will be attending university in a few months time, and where I slept at a friend’s flat following arriving last night. It appears a reasonably affluent area: the buildings are sound and well maintained; the trees and grass in the park are neatly cropped and green; the cars on the street are generally new, clean and devoid of the tell-tale nicks of careless driving; and you can practically see the happy haze of mild hangovers of the few well-dressed, young people (generally all students, or new graduates, I’d wager) who’ve made it out into the streets before mid-day this weekend. I have a light hangover myself.
The job market is a difficult place at the moment, apparently. Though I don’t understand exactly what this means, since now is the first time I’ve been seriously looking for work – this is my only experience of the professional job market and I have nothing to compare it to, so to me it just seems that it’s always this difficult. A “Recruiter’s Market” is the buzz word I’ve heard from everybody…
Nine years and two weeks to the day and only this morning do I discover a wonderful phenomenon! A day that – all around the universe, wherever they go – people with a passion for humour celebrate by carrying a towel. To work, to the shops, on the bus, into school, out on treasure hunts – they carry around this sign of nomadic freedom and preparedness for unpredictability. There are parties and treasure hunts, and the only requirement and dress code is that you bring your trusty towel!
Why?
International Towel Day!