I’ve visited places where only music used to take me

Yes, I’m working. So just a quick ‘Hello’ and a summary of what I’ve been up to. I’m back in Stockholm after a week in London where I mainly went to attend the “All Points East” festival in Victoria Park. And I still love London. It’s the first place I went to when traveling abroad, I was going to study English for a month in the Isle of Wight. I fell in love with the city and I still am in love with it. The neighbourhoods in London still has their unique character even if the shops are sort of the same as in so many other cities around the world. It might be because of the buildings or maybe the people. Anyhow I had a great time and did a lot of walking, I stayed in Earl’s Court this time which is a neighbourhood that I’ve never stayed in before. It was quite far from the festival but at least on the same underground line as the festival site, also on the same line where Heathrow is, which is a great thing, you can take the underground to the airport and it’s cheap and convenient.

During one of the concerts I realised just how much I’ve changed during these two years that the pandemic has been going on. Yes, I think it’s partly because of the pandemic, because that’s when I started to properly think about what really matters to me, and how I want to live my life. When Sweden lifted the travel restrictions I was out of the country as fast as I could since I didn’t want to sit around, or shovel snow, anymore waiting for the pandemic to end. And I’ve had some great experiences during my nine month long trip during this global pandemic, I’ve spent so much time in the water. Swimming at the foot of a volcano in East Bali! Meeting fishes in the water! Diving 20 meters below surface in the open sea in Sri Lanka, twice! Photographing surfing and temples! So it’s not strange that I’m not as moved by music as I used to be before, because now I’ve myself been to places where only music used to take me.

But what about the festival? Well, it was great! I enjoyed being in Victoria Park which is a nice park. The food was great too. And of course the music was great too. I got to scream sing along to some of the most important songs in my life these last years, like “The Mercy Seat” by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. Screaming “I’m not afraid to die” does something to you I think. The National were great too and the songs “Don’t swallow the cap” and “Bloodbuzz Ohio” have been very important to me, and they were great. Got to see Spiritualized which I’ve started to love these last years, and Sleaford Mods which is a band I sometimes like and sometimes don’t like. This time I loved them! I really like music that’s fast, hard and angry. I does something to me. Maybe get the aggression out, they say that metal music fans are happier than other people. What do I know.

I prefer to go to concerts abroad, not sure why that is but it seems like people like music more in other countries compared to Sweden, or maybe they’re not as reserved as us Swedish. I’ve probably have had my greatest music experiences in The UK. Like seeing The Libertines a couple of years ago in Brixton, after they reformed and started playing together again. The whole audience sang along to the lyrics and knew every word of every song. When the venue in Brixton turned off the electricity to the sound system at the end of the show the whole audience stood up and sang “Albion” without the band being able to play. One of the greatest moments of my life.

Ooops, seems like this is becoming a longer post than planned. The photo I’ve chosen to illustrate the post is one I took when I was staying at a hotel in Brick Lane and also going to a festival, I think it was Desert Fest in Camden. I usually try and stay as close to the music venue as possible since you do a lot of traveling on buses and underground, and by foot, in London. It’s also my best selling photo on Adobe Stock, there’s a link in the menu bar to my profile. I’ve not been uploading any recent photos there though. I’m in the middle of trying to decide which stock site I’ll use, even trying to figure out if I’ll sell more photos on stock sites. Because everything regarding photos takes a lot of time. Starting a business takes a lot of time and you have to make a lot of decisions. And there are so many decisions to be taken. So now I’m still in the process of putting “things” (guess other people call it information) and see what comes out. I function like that, I gather information and then my brain seems to process it while I’m doing other things, like taking care of the laundry.

Besides that I’m entering contests for exhibitions, staying present at social media and even did an ad on Instagram just to see how that works. And, my business might become something bigger than what I thought it would be. My brain is still processing that information, will see what comes out. What I haven’t been particularly good at is attending all of the courses I’ve signed up to, I’ve done some but I’ve signed up to so many and since they’re available whenever I figure I’ll do them sometime. So, that’s what I’ve been doing. What about you?