This post is another entry for Manda’s (musicalpoem.me/tag/day-life/) A Day in the Life linkup.

So, it’s February… and unlike last time, I remembered to take some photos today with my camera, so there is much more to see and share.

7:30am:

I woke up. I’m doing well. I have been trying to get up earlier and this is probably my record this week (I have been waking at a consistent 9:30am this week). But why am I trying to get up earlier? The good news is… the good news will await you at the end of this post. So I suppose it’s your call to read up to the end.

Considering I slept at about midnight, and have been struggling to get up earlier, this was quite pleasing. I did, however, remain in bed for over an hour, texting James and sitting with my MacBook, reading up on motivational blog posts and reading email subscriptions. Not that it’s a bad thing, but when you’re doing that kind of thing in bed with your laptop, it’s not really that good either. I did want to get up.

I suppose what motivated me to stop using my bed for things other than sleeping and to get up was the fact that I hate being in bed after 10:00am. Especially on weekends. And now that I’m not working, that’s not really an excuse to be in bed all day. So, the earlier the better, and I made my bed, because I just cannot leave my bedroom in the morning without having made my bed.

9:00am:

So, I made my bed, and then cleaned up in my room a bit. Mostly my side table, because I had bits of paper and notes all over it. In the photos you can see my funky blue rubber clock that I got from Japan, along with two plastic food models from Japan as well: one that I made in Gujo when James and I visited the warehouse where they create the food models, and one that they gave to us as a gift. Brownie points if know which one I made. There is also a little ram figurine, which represents my Chinese zodiac animal.

Here is my wall. Sadly, I took down all my setlists and concert memorabilia a few months back, because my mum wanted me to clean up the wall, and the blu-tack I was using was ruining the wall paint. So I have refrained from putting too much on the wall — just a bunch of Origrami prints (they print your Instagram photos) and a recent Hey Geronimo poster. I suppose simple is better for the time being, but I still need a place for my setlists and other things. Perhaps I will find a nice book to stick them in, or get into scrapbooking.

10:00am:

Pre-breakfast. Well, not really, as it was part of my breakfast. I ate a bit of jelly, and upon peeling open the cup, I actually scraped some of my nail polish off. I decided I would have to fix it up later. I boiled water, and made some Japanese green tea.

Breakfast. Three slices of toast again. These slices are pretty thin. I had two with Vegemite, but because I made the toast a bit too crispy, I couldn’t stand the dryness so I had the last piece with jam. I was replying to an email from Tiffany as I ate breakfast.

11:00am:

Still procrastinating, I finally got the laundry bag out of the hamper and washed half the clothes. I was a bit irritated. Ricky (my cousin who has been living with us) was not home, and he didn’t give us very much notice that he would be staying over at a friend’s, and usually we do the washing on Friday mornings. Great, I got to do it all on my own.

I cleaned the kitchen, wiping down the whole bench and doing all the dishes, clearing the table of cups that were just left on the table. I emailed the editor at Tone Deaf because I had not yet received approval to photograph Lime Cordiale tonight, and it just so happened that we emailed each other at the same time — me asking for clarification, and him sending through the approved accreditation. He replied to my email with “Great minds think alike”, which made me feel a little less silly.

12:00pm:

I had been chatting to James on Skype. He was on campus, working on his Masters thesis. It was around this time that the washing machine beeped and I had to go and hang out the clothes to dry. Fun. Not. The sun wasn’t that scorching, but it made me realise I hadn’t showered yet. When I went back inside, I checked out my calendar on my MacBook and rearranged a few events, as well as adding some. I browsed the internet for a bit, again read a few blogs, and caught up at the TFL boards.

Eventually, I had a nice cold shower. I have been taking cold showers almost since I got back from Japan, and James sort of got me into it. I used to think he was nuts, having cold showers in the winter, but it actually isn’t all that bad (though it is summer at the moment). The reason I do it is because it has quite a bunch of health benefits: helps you de-stress, increases metabolism, strengthens immunity, and quite a few other things that you can find with a quick web search. It’s not to say that hot showers will do the opposite, it just happens to have benefits in comparison.

2:00pm:

I changed into my Grim Reaper shirt that I got from Threadless a while ago, and then put body lotion on my legs and arms, particularly where they got sunburned last week. My dad came back from the shops and brought in the mail, but the MacBook cover I was waiting for still hadn’t arrived.

I had been putting it off since morning, but I turned my desktop PC on and finally got around to importing my photos from the Frightened Rabbit concert I went to last night. I wish I had not put it off all morning, but I was planning to get it all done before tonight, and all uploaded ready for publishing on CBB. I finally got to work on it, and tried to get them done as quickly as possible and most definitely before tonight.

I was happy to see that Lime Cordiale would be playing early tonight, so I wouldn’t be out too late. I was expecting this since I knew the venue had another event later in the night, but it was nice to actually see confirmation from the band via Twitter.

4:00pm:

I didn’t remember how long I had been working on my photos, but it certainly was not more than two hours. In fact, I think I sorted through them pretty fast. Normally it takes me at least a few hours to get through a bunch. I hadn’t finished yet, but I did one cull. Unfortunately I only cut down from 537 to 202 photos at this stage, but I thought positive, “at least it’s a step and I’ve gotten through the hard part”. I can’t tell you how liberating it feels to have at least done one round when it comes to going through photos. I snacked on some plain ice cream while I went through the first round, but when the clock struck four, I realised it was dinner time.

Dinner, you ask? Yes, dinner. For the past month I have been eating dinner early, and not eating after 6-7pm. What they say about eating dinner early is true — I have in fact slimmed down quite a bit. Of course, I’m skinny to begin with, but I’m looking a little more fit! So, 4:00pm has been my dinner time for about a week. It might sound strange, but I have also been eating a lot for breakfast, so while that probably equates to only two meals a day with a small snack in between, it works well for me compared to a lot of other eating habits I have tried to adopt.

Even though I thought about dinner, I actually didn’t go and get it. Oops.

I returned to my photos, determined to finish them. I finished them by the time my mum got back from work — it was almost six o’clock. By then, I had cut down to 72 photos. It was hard, as I had about 130 that I was so happy with, but any more than 72 photos makes the galleries on the website a bit sluggish, so I had to be ruthless as hell when cutting down my shots. Here are some of my favourites.

6:00pm:

With my photos done and uploaded and ready to be reviewed and published, there was no more for me to do. I cleared the imported photos off my memory card, ready for tonight. For dinner, I ate a bit of white rice and fish, and a small piece of a glutinous cake that James gave me the other day.

Dylan also messaged me and said he could not make it tonight, due to some family issues. I was a bit gutted, since I was looking forward to catching up. James said he could give me a ride home instead if I didn’t get back too late. Win-win situation right? Band finishes early, boyfriend isn’t sleeping yet. LOL. I walked to the bus stop and made my way to the city.

7:45pm:

I finally arrived at the venue. There were some issues with my bus being a bit late and the trains being delayed. Thankfully I was still on time, and the doors hadn’t opened yet. Some guy complimented me on my grey Louis London band shirt with, “Awesome shirt!” The first band, Ocean Alley, started playing at 8:00pm. They sounded a lot like Lime Cordiale, not as fun though.

9:00pm:

Lime Cordiale set up on stage. I gave lead singer Oli a huge hug. These guys are heading to America soon and won’t be back for a few months. It’s nice to be able to see them before they go. They played a lot of new songs, including Spider Legs, Written You Off and Not The Same. Not to mention songs from their latest EP, including one of my absolute favourites, Famous. It was a bit disappointing that they didn’t include any from their last EP, and I guess I still hope to hear Claudia one day again, but that one’s a rarity really.

I love Lime Cordiale a lot because they actually have a lot of songs that are really good. There is always variety in their music. They just don’t like playing their older songs as much, but they tend to play a lot of new ones.

10:10pm:

Lime Cordiale finished up and I made sure I grabbed a setlist (one that wasn’t all stepped on). Fantastic show, and great to see a bunch of people getting up on stage for the last song Bullshit Aside too. I remember when Jess and I got up on the stage last time and the crowd was so huge you could hardly see the band. People didn’t seem as keen this time, though everyone was dancing right up to the end.

I told Oli I had to go, and he lifted me up and swung me in the air a little bit. I said I’d send him some photos later on and, well, of course, safe travels and take care. I really hope they don’t like America enough to stay there forever and never come back! I was going to steal a poster from the wall when no one was looking but I decided not to. I asked the security guard if I could have the one outside… but he said they needed it up there for promotion, but I could take a photo if I wanted.

Later I found out I got half a poster on the back of my setlist anyway.

When I got to the station I had just missed a train. I walked around hoping to buy a cold beverage but the tea shop in the station was closed, and I didn’t feel like walking out onto the street again. I did a round through the supermarket, but then decided to just wait for the train since I had a water bottle to drink from anyway.

11:00pm:

The train was delayed because it got stuck somewhere down the track. James picked me up at the station and we drove to my place, and talked for a couple of hours. I felt kind of upset about something, but knew I would be better in the morning.

Oh, so what’s the good news hey? I got a new job. I will be starting on Monday. Of course, that constitutes waking up early. I’m a little nervous, having been out of a day job for a couple of months, but I am looking forward to getting that routine back again. Bingo for fresh starts! And more on work another day, of course.