The life and times of an expatriated Brit in America…

I guess the title says it all… welcome to probably not the most interesting blog you’ll ever read, but I need somewhere to keep my thoughts, during this most surreal time of my life. So, for the uninitiated, a quick recap. Back In February, this lowly Croydon boy went to the US and met a girl. Things were great, if a bit on the odd side. Let’s face it, transatlantic relationships are odd to start with. This was compounded by considerable further oddness which I won’t go into here. Anyway, oddness was overcome, and after considerable air miles and expense for both of us travelling back and forth across the pond, I decided to make the US my new home. So, here I am. Been here for six weeks now. I am technically a tourist here, but since I popped the question in sunny Las Vegas a few weeks ago (to which she happily said yes), I’ve been getting the wheels in motion to immigrate here properly, with the whole K visa thing. It’s a long, complicated process that takes months. But I’m getting on with stuff while I’m here nonetheless.

So, what else can I say about myself? I hate this part… I have a band back in the UK called 5th Man Down (see link on the right), I play bass – more on that later. We did pretty good for a while, although, with me gone, the band is pretty much on hiatus right now. I am working on bringing the guys out here to the US for some shows early next year. I’m currently looking for a worthwhile musical project to work on out here in the US to keep myself busy, but I’ve resorted to having to do stuff on my own for the time being, just me and my copy of GarageBand. I’ve been playing bass for 15 years, and I do consider myself to be pretty good.

For quite a few years now, I’ve been a bit of a body modification afficionado, with a fair bit of ink and quitte a few piercings around the place. I’ve had loads over the years, but I think I’ve reached that age now where some of them have had to come out. I just want lots more ink now! Tattoos are fun, but they’re bloody expensive. And yes, they do hurt, but let’s not talk about that. I used to keep a blog over at iam.bmezine.com, but, to be honest, I can’t be bothered anymore. There’s some good people on there, but it’s getting to the point where I feel I have less and less in common with some of the people on there, so it’s time to knock that one on the head. Over this past year, I feel I’ve actually entered adulthood, only 15 years too late!

I’m also a geek. I admit it. I was the kid at school who the others only liked because I could help them with their computer studies homework. I was part of the old-skool Amiga demo and cracking scene, and, for a while I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. There’s nothing to sour the taste of playing computer games like working for a games company though, my first post-college job. It’s only now, six year after the job, that I can even look at computer games again! I’m a diehard Mac user, albeit currently confined to Windows hell again after the premature death of my Powerbook. The missus works for a company that makes and sells laptops, so she got me a good deal on a Windows laptop so I wouldn’t be computer-less, but that’s going up on Ebay soon, to make way for a new iMac!

Anyway, enough about myself. Time to get on with some drawing-room blogging…