'Let's Spend The Night Together'

I think anyone who has had to witness my packing methods can attest to the facts that:

1) I truly truly hate having to decide what goes into a bag; I would rather leave without anything and 'deal' with it later.

2) If anyone else is in the vicinity I will do my upmost to get them to take over the responsibility and when they refuse I will continue to say "but do you think that I have everything?" a hundred times.

Today I packed up my room in London and I'm just going to say that lucky no one was there. 

I get very overwhelmed deciding what to pack, what to cull and what to do with the other hundred things that are obviously not coming to Europe with me.  Well to be honest, I don't exactly own a lot of things, but if it doesn't all fit into one back pack it stresses me out.

But I succeeded and my room does resemble a prison cell much more now. 

Like my mother, I refuse to throw out a book, but somehow I've ended up with a zillion of them and I have no idea where I accumulated them all from. (Well, a couple were a present and I [legally, well kind of...] took some from work, but otherwise I have absolutely no idea how they came to live with me.)  But they got comfortable and I feel bad getting rid of them.

So I’m going to give some away to friends, take as many with me as I can carry, and give the rest to charity.  But I am trying to mission through as many as possible before I leave so I don't feel like I am giving them away unloved.

Keith Richard's ‘Life’, is one of my books, and it is such a good book.  Or it could just be the shock that this man actually remembers last year, let alone growing up in the 50's and everything after.   Dad took me to see the Rolling Stones for their 'A Bigger Bang’ tour, and I loved and respected their music and there may have also been a little bit of swooning over Keith (Oh come on, I know he looks like a leather hand bag, but rock and roll is still sexy).  But I said my goodbyes that night knowing that they MUST be on their last legs...  

So although Keith Richards in not a literary genius, it is an interesting look into the history of the Rolling Stones, but mostly I'm impressed that he was able to write it all down.  

I started reading it months ago and forgot that I never finished the last 150 pages, so tonight I’ve been trying to finish it.  (If I don’t finish a book that I start, for some reason it ends up making me feel a little anxious, like I forgot to put underwear on.) Plus Keith still had 20 years to update me on. 

Problems started last week though when my light bulb blew, causing the trip switch to send all 4 of my housemates into darkness. Now that wasn't too much of a problem, I still have a lamp and some little hanging lights.  The problem is that I haven't yet bought a new light bulb and then tonight my lamp blew too. 

So in my dark and bare jail cell of a room I have been drinking, smoking too many cigarettes and reading ‘Life’, I think Keith would be pleased with that...

Keith in a more civilised environment