Greenday lyrics, home again, pottering, and pondering...

[annwfyn]

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

Am I the only person who thinks this is a happy and feel good song? I play that song when I'm feeling down about the good things that have gone wrong, gone away - the relationships that end, losing people to death or to distance - the pieces from my past I can't get back. I play it and I remember that I was happy at the time, that that which felt good once was worth it, just for that happy moment.

It's the song which says that it's OK if the guy you spent a night kissing on a sofa never bothered to call - there was still that wonderful evening when everything felt great. It's that song that says that never being able to go back to Nepal doesn't matter when if I close my eyes I can still see the Himalayas.

I sometimes suspect I may be hearing this all wrong, however.

Anyway. Back to reality. I'm home. I've had a good night's sleep and am now pottering around jet lagged to hell and back but I think mostly happy. It's odd. Australia almost feels like a dream in some ways - oddly unreal. I can't quite believe that it's Tuesday now, and on Saturday morning I was walking through Melbourne after a night of drinking and watching the sun come up. Foreign countries always feel like that - like they belong in a different world. I've still got a lot of bounce in my step, though, and a distinct lack of tension along my spine. I'm also pondering the extent to which I am a different person when I'm away from home. Mike's often said I was a lot more laid back in the US - he never really saw the KABOOM-y Sally until he came to visit the UK. How much am I shaped by my environment or is it just that holidays are easy places to be this more relaxed and cool person? Is it just a lack of pressure? Longer and more meandering entry later.

For now, lunch and then a food shop. Real life is waiting.

Comments

[bringeroflight.livejournal.com]

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

I've always seen it as "something sad has happened, has changed, but I'm thinking about all the good times that happened before, and the fact that it's the right change to happen, which is also a good thing in the long term. But I'm going to mope while talking about the good times for a bit."

It's the song that makes me smile when I'm down but doesn't actually make me less down.

The song that actually moves me from down to feeling reasonable is the eels "Grace Kelly Blues"...

*ponders*

[vilenspotens.livejournal.com]

It's a feel good song in a way. I tend to view it as "This has happened, you need to deal, but it all works out for the best in the end despite the unexpected nature."

I like to live like that, believing that wherever I am, it is the place I need to be. And yeah, is also a song I play when I'm down. It usually works.

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

It is a feelgood song, or I think so anyway. I know what you mean about holidays. Even just a weekend away makes me so much more relaxed because while you're there you don't have to deal with work or food shopping or real life at all.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

Struff happens. It's not perfect, but it makes you who you are. It's ovcer now, time to move on. It was a good memory and let it lie there.

Bittersweet more than happy. It's better to have loved and lost... that sorta gumph.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

It was a good memory and let it lie there.

Are you one of those people who tends to believe that the past should be left? I tend to wallow in nostalgia a lot at times - I get these really clear memory flashes sometimes when I can just see, smell, feel, a moment from the past.

It's very odd.

It's why I tend to try and hold on to the good memories as well as the bad as much as possible.

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

I believe you should always remember. Memory is all we are. But sometimes you have to draw a line under something and stop living it. You have to know when something is over, know when to give up.

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

In relation to your previous post (which I can't be bothered to find) tomorrow will be pretty much taken up with packing. Assume I tag along in the background with whatever daft thing you do next.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Ah...OK. Tis a shame - would have liked to see you.

You said stuff from Warwick has arrived in my absence? What kind of stuffs? And what is the plan for this weekend? Presumably I also need to get myself and hopefully jez sorted for music festivally kind of things.

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

Yes. We've got the campsite passes and stewarding timetables through. I'll call once I finish work. Plan is to go up Thursday evening. Really simple journey. Erm, not sure I have your number if Jez is still using your usual phone. Email me with it? elleclegg @ yahoo dot co dot uk

[wildrogue.livejournal.com]

Hold that thought. On discussions with Scott it may be do-able. I'd really like to. I'll talk to you tonight.

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!

Oh - and jez now has new phone, so mine and jez's numbers are back to usual - I'm on my normal and he's on his old mobile no. If that makes it easier.

You get what everyone gets...

[melsner.livejournal.com]

Sadly, that Greenday song reminds me of Neil Gaiman's Death. Maybe because the graphic novel had the same name... But it does have the same kind of message...

There's also an episode of ER where someone sings it at a funeral... I suspect it's a song that makes a lot of people think of death/change/passing in a relatively healthy way.

Hrm. I wonder if Greenday ever talked about where the song came from, inspiration, etc...

[melsner.livejournal.com]

Mike's often said I was a lot more laid back in the US - he never really saw the KABOOM-y Sally until he came to visit the UK.

To be fair, you never had major surgery while visiting the US, either...

And some of it is my unfortunate tendency to be a corax in real life. When you told me stuff, I'm not quite sure it occurred to you that I might meet those people and thus didn't warn me, "Oh, don't tell them that their significant other likes sex with fruit."

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

It sounds more apologetic to me - saying sorry to someone else, and hoping they enjoyed it while it lasted, but you have to go &do something else now.

Why can't you ever go back to Nepal? Is it a visa thing?

[annwfyn.livejournal.com]

Nepal...it isn't that I can't. It's more that I know there will always be new places to go, and there aren't really many people I know there any more. Still miss it, but I suspect that going back would spoil the memories.