LOUD & NOISY DOES IT

Another grey day, but I'm spending the whole evening ALONE! Great. I feel I need some alone-time now. There's been a lot going on this week, people around me most of the time, phone calls, stress and demands. I know we had a holiday yesterday - where did it go? It rained away, I think. My BEST Fridays ever consist of swimming my 1000 metres (done it three times this week - yay) - preferably alone in the pool - which I was this afternoon. Then coming home to an empty house, lighting candles all over the living room (totally necessary on a grey day in Norway), pouring myself a glass of wine. BLISS. Tonight I don't even have to cook - there's only me here, and I'm sure I have enough ingredients in the fridge to conjure up a chicken salad afterwards.

But do I lay back on the sofa and relax with quiet music? Or even with no noise at all? Oh, no - heaven forbid. To unwind I need REALLY LOUD music! I'm even known to dance a little on my own here in my living room! I love the Clash, but especially I love Thin Lizzy. Both bands remind me of my years in England in the late seventies, as a student, and the rich music world that really and truly opened up to me there. Not that I wasn't into music before that time - far from it - but the feeling of being so close to the music scene, to the punk and the New Wave movement, to The Ska bands that were everywhere at the time.... it was fantastic. Oh, the sad, sad loss of Phil Lynott.

I took my screenless laptop to the PC-clinic today, and they told me that changing the screen would cost the same as a new laptop. They went on to inform me that my 36-month service deal (which included EVERY repair and cost a small fortune) expired on the 21st January. Talk about bad luck! I tried to appeal to them (Big Mamas trying to get sympathy from young guys - according to my experience it often works) and said: "You can see that I haven't used the repair deal even once! It's only four months since it expired! Boo-hoo!!" But no. No sympathy there. They offered to transfer the contents of the hard disc to my MacBook, but that means going without the Mac for a whole week. Don't know if I can do that. AND it costs a small fortune again! I'll try to think of another solution.

Rummaging through my photos, I found this one from a Harley Davidson exhibition I went to last year. My birthday's coming up very soon - perhaps this could be a fitting and appropriate gift for a Fifty-Something-Who-Still-Listens-To-Noisy-Rock-'N'-Roll? My husband's back from Bulgaria tomorrow night.... hmmm... I think I'll suggest it for him.

And at the same time I'll show him this poem!