They'll call me freedom, just like a waving flag

Greetings, my idle minds. It's tiime for the first proper post of 2010. Popular perception would be that May is a bit too late in the year to begin, but really, just look at what I call this blog and it all starts making sense.

The past few weeks have made me realise that I can do just about anything if I set my mind to it. The catch is, the mind has to be convinced beyond a measure of doubt. But once an idea takes firm control, even if I try to push it behind it pushes back itself out, makes itself heard, and doesn't take a break till the deed is done. I CAN talk myself into just about anything -- the long conversations in my own mind are testimony to that -- and that's not always a good thing. What follows is, of course, the refusal to listen to anybody else but me. Stubbornness.

After all that faff, the facts. I quit my first job, after nearly four years, last month. Many attempts were made to make me stay on -- it was flattering, I admit, to be given a sense of such importance -- but like I said, once an idea takes over, it sees me through to the logical end. And it was. The end, that is.

So I decided, a break will be good. I wasn't really looking frantically for another job, I just applied to this one place that I had been wanting to join for a while, and when it looked like it wasn't likely to work out, I thought nothing of it.

Holiday time. Bangalore, an old friend, and my mission in the city -- to break all drinking records. Accomplished, and how.

The one and only job negotiation continued, with me in my characteristic procrastination mode. Finally I turned them down. A day later, they called back to say I would be given what I wanted. And so, two weeks of break time later, I'm back to the working life. Magazine life is much different from newspapers and so far, so good.

For someone who used to stay up all night and sleep at dawn after watching the sun peep out, now I live in a totally different timezone. And I have to say, it's a very refreshing change. Partly due to alarm at my growing beer belly, and partly because it's just healthy, I wake up and go for a morning walk. When I step out of the house, music in my ears from my constant companion -- my i-Pod -- and look at the empty streets, I feel happy. It's a good way to start the day.

The drive to work is rather long, but if you were to look at me when I'm in my car -- bobbing my head to music, singing my favourite songs loudly, laughing at some of the memories a few bring back -- you would think I'm having the best time ever. Even on the way back, after long days at work, as soon as I sit in my car and put on the music, the energy returns. I can feel people around me in other cars looking at me, wondering at the weirdness (sometimes I eat while driving as well, when hunger strikes), and that makes me laugh even more.

So now I'm one of those people who follow the 'early to bed, early to rise' maxim. It's a new feeling, and I like it. Of course, the weekends, with the late nights, the 'high' spirits and excessive foodie indulgence, bring it all back to square one.

The football season has ended, but the tensions continue. Transfers, next year and the rebuilding we'll have to do at Liverpool, possble injuries from the World Cup, etc etc. The sadness and badness which stayed with my club this whole season shall be ranted about at leisure on the other blog.

But I'm really looking forward to the World Cup. I know I can expect a lot of depression since it's a given my teams (Germany and Spain) won't be able to deal with the jinx of my support, but while the wait is on for the tournament to begin, I can dream.