Home, Home Where I Wanted to Go -- Coldplay

It's been a very long time, and I'm not sure how good this explanation will be, seeing as it really has nothing to do with music, but here goes.

I decided to bite the bullet in February of 2007 and uproot myself and my things from Hong Kong to California, a place I had never really lived in before, but at the time, just that it was in the United States was good enough for me.

I was a bit nervous thinking that I was leaving behind some sort of glamorous life that I hadn't quite noticed and/or appreciated for something akin to working in a salt mine, but I was done in Asia. It was time to settle down and put down some roots and no proximity to Thailand, however close and not even the rent-free life I was living would be enough for me. I wanted to be home with like-minded people, get a job where I could be promoted, drive a car, meet lots of different people, have a deeper understanding of everything around me.

In any case within a matter of weeks landing here, I found a car, house, and job in that order. And life has been treating me really well. I wonder sometimes if I should say I'm lucky or I've finally been blessed. With the passing of my grandfather in November, maybe my cheering section got a little bigger, who's to say?

I wrote in here earlier that I wondered if listening to sad music makes one sad, it was like the whole chicken vs. egg riddle. I think now it certainly helps to have things in your life turn around and get a break every now and again. Everyone who really knows me how unhappy I was in Hong Kong because I had this massive goal of finally breaking through the bubble and going home and that meant saving a heap of money, given I gave myself less than a year to do it, and that meant no frequent shopping trips or dinners out...the CDs I bought were my only real luxury, my way of keeping sane.

Anyways to cut to the point of why I'm writing about this in my music blog, it's because I noticed that my music tastes have changed a little more since I've been here. Sunnier, happier stuff. Muse and Radiohead, while I still quite appreciate them, have gone way down my Last.fm charts. I've been listening to a lot more of bands like No Doubt and songs like Len's "Steal My Sunshine." God, I looove that song. It's poppy and it reminds me of a sunny day spent at the beach where you get to just chill out, but there's a place in my heart for that sort of thing. And "There She Goes" by the La's is also something I can not get tired of. Maybe what these songs have in common is that I was able to listen to them for the first time in high school and at university, a time that no matter what, always gets tinted in a rose color hue because of the distance of time attached to it.

Anyways, I'm just hoping this mood will continue, and I'm just happy to be using the word Home as often as I have been lately.

Jeff Buckley 1966-1997 10 Years After

This should speak volumes alone. Rest in peace, and thank you for the music you gave us during your short time here.