I've had this compulson in my mind that I need to purchase The Beatles - Rubber Soul on vinyl, and specifically to pick this up around the time that I'm moving in with my partner (next weekend). I've been listening to this album a fair bit recently, and it's most likely this compulsion is that this record simply reminds me of this moment - and I want to have something material as a kind-of calendar item to mark the moment.
I've never lived with a partner before. I've never been in a relationship before that's in anyway as healthy and positive as the relationship I'm in right now - and I know the same is true for my partner as well. This weekend I made no plans at all, to free up my time to do nothing more than throw out a bunch of old stuff and pack up what I'll be taking with me when I move in with her next weekend. No plans, other than a plan to sort out my sh*t, and here I am booting up a terminal to tell this story here rather than do what I set out to do...
-=~ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ~=-
In the time since I started writing this post, I booted up a web browser, changed my address to my new place across a bunch of services (banks etc), and also... launched discogs.com marketplace to purchase Rubber Soul vinyl from a trader on there. I placed the order and put the address as my new place - both of us are now on route there: myself, 38 years old and happier and more content than at any moment in my life, and a Mint edition 2012 re-pressing of the classic Beatles album on 180 gram solid vinyl. Right in this moment, life is sweet.
There's a grey sky over London, I'm stood here looking out of the bay window across my little street in this neighbourhood in South London. Bare winter branches on the brown-yellow trees that blend in with the old brickwork houses. Smokeless red chimneys and old TV antennas on the rooftops, and darker clouds looming on the horizon, looking like rain to come. I've got a streaming service hooked up through my soundsystem and I'm blasting some classic tunes, while I muster the energy to get on with my big clear out.
There are places I remember, all my life, though some have changed. Some forever not for better. Some have gone and some remain ~ Paul McCartney, John Lennon
~ flow