Bye Bye 2006...

So, 2006 has been and gone. It has been a weird year – definitely more downs than ups but still with higher highs than I’ve had in a very long time. I had big plans to publish this post on dec. 31 to finish off the year with some thoughts on it but, as usual, life got in the way. but jan. 4 isn’t too bad though, right? :D

It’s been a really long year and I think I’ve come a long way with certain parts of my life and with coming to terms with certain things, but I know I have a long way to go considering how things are playing out at the moment... despite all the confusion and mind-all-over-the-place, 2 main things have defined 2006 for me: music and india. Without them, I wouldn’t have made it...

All the gigs, all the live music, and all the CDs purchased were really just a continuation of the last 4 months of 2005 in paris. Going to India, on the other hand, was one of the most random decisions I’ve ever made but also one of the ones that I’m the happiest to have made, regardless of my reason for doing so.

I want to do a few ‘best of 2006’ lists but before that, month by month, this was my 2006:

january

• the end of semester 1, hated the goodbyes to the amazing semester 1 erasmus people because I knew semester 2 would never match up...

february

• gig madness: The Subways, Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, and Death Cab For Cutie in less than 1 week :S
  

march

• Dauphine did its outmost to kill me with work while ALL other parisian unis were rioting, protesting, burning cars, and preventing teaching. Even when locked in at mcdonald’s on Boulevard St-Michel after the riot police lost control outside, there was work to be done.
  
• Group work with 18 people = horribly difficult. Group work with 18 people of which 14 are french = my worst nightmare. Yep, cultural differences and work habits ruled supreme at this point.
• my distractions from all the crap: snow patrol, the futureheads, and hard-fi

april

• spring comes to paris (finally!!)
• mid-terms, presentations, case studies, and reports in french - putain!
• 1st trip to la flêche d’or
• The Kooks impress me, Graham Coxon makes me miss home, and The Flaming Lips mix music and politics with a propaganda spectacle of bombs going off and children dying on the screen behind them to show their anti-bush stance – it brought down the mood they had built up for an hour and a half beforehand so ive chosen to ignore that part and convince myself they ended like this:

may

• a bit too much drinking and partying for my own good. Even fell asleep on the nightbus home one night and woke up somewhere in the suburbs south of paris with a driver who didn’t know a word of english – scary as hell and made me realise how lonely you can be while surrounded by millions of people.
• India trip booked!! Needed to escape europe and my dissertation and attempt to regain sanity
• emo-fix with Panic! At the Disco, not buying into the radio 1 hype with Orson, realising that swedish music is so much more than ABBA with Shout Out Louds, first, last and only no-smoking gig experienced in the french capital with the fabulous Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and a well-stolen (but stolen nonetheless)  sound with She Wants Revenge

june

• au revoir, paris!
  
• 3 gigs in 4 days for a musical goodbye with style: Guillemots, The Kooks, and The Cooper Temple Clause – you all well and truly rocked my world...

july

• quite possibly the best gig of the year: Wolfmother @ london astoria
• hello bangalore!! bonding with wicked new mates, riding rickshaws, being ripped off by rickshaw drivers, 1st experiences with sleeper-buses and indian toilets, sleeping 9 people on a boat for 2 = least comfortable nights sleep ever, nearly poisoning myself and shaun with mosquito spray, pissing off magazine editor by taking extra days off

august

• business cards are the DEVIL! Rave magazine takes revenge for days taken off work
• my 1st ever interview: Hugh Harris from The Kooks (argh! journalism is hard! people mumble on the phone! but still pretty exciting to say you’ve interviewed the kooks :P)
• 22nd birthday!! pitchers of kingfisher and free popcorn at a retro-bar with Bob Marley, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin playing in the background
• independence day bus-chaos, tsunami-hit beaches, indian karaoke, TGI Friday's and bowling, 15hr train rides, caught in monsoon rain (twice), no diet coke but lots of kingfisher
• bye bye bangalore...

september

• back to edinburgh, back to uni
  

october

• NME presents The Klaxons, liquid room presents The Cooper Temple Clause, and Oxjam makes a difference
  

november

• uni deadlines
• The Blood Arm and The Sunshine Underground fill cabaret voltaire and help maintain my monthly gig-attendance average

december

• home for the holidays
  
• lots of love for The Pigeon Detectives and The Duke Spirit, no love at all for The Films
• oh yeah, and the 2nd time I spend new years in edinburgh also becomes the 2nd time they’ve had to cancel the hogmanay street party...

bring it on, 2007...