London, was a breath of fresh air, ironically sucked directly from an old car’s exhaust pipe.
Being in London, it’s as if the whole reality has a different substance, operates on a slightly unusual dimensional plane where interesting things simply keep happening. Where boredom is something that seems impossible to maintain for long. It’s as if, however temporarily, you seem to live in a universe that favours stories. This was not my experience of living in Sweden, where reality seemed to favour awkward loneley conversations you have with strangers while queuing in a supermarket. Then again however, I guess my perception of the whole thing is usually somewhat skewed owing to the fact that when I go to London I always go because I’m seeing people I love and who love me. I make sure I’ve got some central events to work with and as a result, even if I’m like not the AMAZING draw I like to think I am, it’s always a bit of an occasion. This basically means that whenever I get to London, it’s always pretty epic. And take it from me, last weekend was no different.
On the Friday I managed, after 13 hours of traveling, to make it from Dublin to London. I went to my sister’s new place, was blown away by the awesomeness of her McGuyveresque ability to make a place feel like home with a rubber band, a tasteful throw rug and a pipe cleaner.
That night I went out to see Sepalcure play in Plan B in Brixton. I met up with The Brothers Dilke, Joe Seal-Driver, Sougwen and Des Carney. We were a rag tag fugitive fleet, even when the Dilkes peeled off pleading a big night in the pipeline on Saturday. The night was comprehensive to say the least, Sepalcure blew the place apart alongside James Blake and Scuba. We had hilarious emotional highs and lows, dips and curves. Words were said, blows were exchanged and friendships were forged and reforged in the fires of destiny.
The next day, I managed to make it to see another part of my perma-posse, seeing those girls was so intense. It took me about twenty minutes while sitting there with this silly grin on my face to realise what it was. I hadn’t felt as loved as I did there for about a year at least. Sweden may have been many things, but with regards to the quantity of people I made actively think I was completely and utterly awesome, London wins hands down. It was so lovely to see everyone, there was drama, some hard to face, some easy to embrace. That night after I had a sumptuous dinner with some of my favorite peeps in the world we all went out to a party in East London called the “Tronicles of Narnia” where we went a large variety of crazy and had some fucking fun times.
It took me about two days to get home, owing to the fact that all the flights between England and Ireland were cancelled on account of the snow. I was left with a strange feeling that no matter how amazing New York is, I’ll never do as well in terms of people as I did when I was in London.
Here’s a video of my first day’s exploits:
London from Rudhraigh McGrath on Vimeo.
