Do you remember when a year used to be a long time?
For five years I lived on the Isle of Man. A while ago this seemed like a large chunk of my life but I realise now that as I get older and succumb to the inevitable decay that is life (I know, cheery right) this period is becoming a smaller and smaller percentage of my total existence. In fact it's 15% (roughly) of my total 33 years, and that number is going to get smaller.
I often find myself thinking about time in what I suppose you could call a philosophical way. Usually resulting in waves of existential dread. I think about people that used to be a huge part of my life who now years later are like strangers, who the only real acknowledgment of their continued existence I have is through Facebook. I have little to no contact with anyone I went to school with or the best friends I grew up with. I have (some of) them as Facebook friends but in no way interact with them. I do see that many of them are still friends with each other and still in the close knit groups that they were all those years ago. I suppose my moving miles away to a remote island in the Irish sea is what severed my ties with them.
Although my time on the IoM was (now) only a small portion of my life, it's still one of the most important. I like to follow threads back through my life, do the whole thought process of "if I hadn't done that one thing, I wouldn't be where I am now."
But anyway, the point I'm heading towards is; I went back to the Isle of Man!
It had been nearly 3 years since I was last there, just after The Gifted released the album Inside Out we did a small tour and a gig on the island was part of it. The venue being my goods friends Phil & Marie Reynolds' living room. Coincidentally where I was sleeping on this most recent visit.
I've been in my current job a year now and I still can't get used to bank holidays. Having spent 8 years in retail bank holidays were a mythological concept that you heard about but doubted whether such things truly existed. Now in the 9-5 desk job world I now know the truth and it is glorious.
So when I spotted a bank holiday sneaking up on me toward the end of August I decided it was the perfect time for a quick sojourn back to the old stomping ground.
It was awesome to see everyone again and a shame that I couldn't see everyone as it was such a quick flying visit. Thanks to the IoM Steam Packet company who have a monopoly on the ferries and some very bizarre pricing, my Monday ferry coming back had to be at bastard o'clock in the morning or double the cost to return later in the day. On a tight budget I had no choice but to leave early and have less time catching up with everyone than I would have liked. But hey ho, there's nothing stopping me going back again.
Boozes were drank, movies were watched and an insane amount of coffee consumed. Former The Gifted guitarist and also Phil and Marie's lodger Mikie Daugherty and I spent a morning trying to jam out some old Nanaki tracks, another band I used to play with Mikie in. Successfully (kind of) running through the song "Let Me Close My Eyes" was wholly satisfying and left me feeling an overwhelming nostalgia for the old days of being on the Manx music scene.
Marie, Mikie and Myself visited Douglas's finest American style diner; Capone's which hadn't changed a bit in the years since I left and still does the best burgers around, maybe only second to Jumpin' Jack's Diner in Whitby.
I caught up with old friends and former band mates, Mark of Circus World and his army of children, non of which existed when I lived on the island. Dan Ankers, songwriter extraordinaire (seriously check out the song "Freak" by this guy, it's awesome.) Dan played with Phil, Marie and Myself in the band Weirdo along with a few others and was also part of Nanaki for a while. Kelly Mercer also came down, probably the island's biggest supporter of local music and the person who introduced me to Gen who I have been with now for 11 years.
11 years, a third of my total existence.
Time is really at the forefront of my mind at the moment. I know we all go through this, wonder how something can be 11 years ago when it seems like only last week. Time seems to pass so much faster and... oh my god there's that existential dread again. Hello sobering acknowledgement I'm eventually going to die.
Thankfully there's views like this in the world
I often find myself thinking about time in what I suppose you could call a philosophical way. Usually resulting in waves of existential dread. I think about people that used to be a huge part of my life who now years later are like strangers, who the only real acknowledgment of their continued existence I have is through Facebook. I have little to no contact with anyone I went to school with or the best friends I grew up with. I have (some of) them as Facebook friends but in no way interact with them. I do see that many of them are still friends with each other and still in the close knit groups that they were all those years ago. I suppose my moving miles away to a remote island in the Irish sea is what severed my ties with them.
Although my time on the IoM was (now) only a small portion of my life, it's still one of the most important. I like to follow threads back through my life, do the whole thought process of "if I hadn't done that one thing, I wouldn't be where I am now."
But anyway, the point I'm heading towards is; I went back to the Isle of Man!
It had been nearly 3 years since I was last there, just after The Gifted released the album Inside Out we did a small tour and a gig on the island was part of it. The venue being my goods friends Phil & Marie Reynolds' living room. Coincidentally where I was sleeping on this most recent visit.
I've been in my current job a year now and I still can't get used to bank holidays. Having spent 8 years in retail bank holidays were a mythological concept that you heard about but doubted whether such things truly existed. Now in the 9-5 desk job world I now know the truth and it is glorious.
So when I spotted a bank holiday sneaking up on me toward the end of August I decided it was the perfect time for a quick sojourn back to the old stomping ground.
It was awesome to see everyone again and a shame that I couldn't see everyone as it was such a quick flying visit. Thanks to the IoM Steam Packet company who have a monopoly on the ferries and some very bizarre pricing, my Monday ferry coming back had to be at bastard o'clock in the morning or double the cost to return later in the day. On a tight budget I had no choice but to leave early and have less time catching up with everyone than I would have liked. But hey ho, there's nothing stopping me going back again.
Boozes were drank, movies were watched and an insane amount of coffee consumed. Former The Gifted guitarist and also Phil and Marie's lodger Mikie Daugherty and I spent a morning trying to jam out some old Nanaki tracks, another band I used to play with Mikie in. Successfully (kind of) running through the song "Let Me Close My Eyes" was wholly satisfying and left me feeling an overwhelming nostalgia for the old days of being on the Manx music scene.
Marie, Mikie and Myself visited Douglas's finest American style diner; Capone's which hadn't changed a bit in the years since I left and still does the best burgers around, maybe only second to Jumpin' Jack's Diner in Whitby.
I caught up with old friends and former band mates, Mark of Circus World and his army of children, non of which existed when I lived on the island. Dan Ankers, songwriter extraordinaire (seriously check out the song "Freak" by this guy, it's awesome.) Dan played with Phil, Marie and Myself in the band Weirdo along with a few others and was also part of Nanaki for a while. Kelly Mercer also came down, probably the island's biggest supporter of local music and the person who introduced me to Gen who I have been with now for 11 years.
11 years, a third of my total existence.
Time is really at the forefront of my mind at the moment. I know we all go through this, wonder how something can be 11 years ago when it seems like only last week. Time seems to pass so much faster and... oh my god there's that existential dread again. Hello sobering acknowledgement I'm eventually going to die.
Thankfully there's views like this in the world
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| Douglas Bay at Dawn |
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