The only way is up.....

And relax...

Just made it home after a quick dip in the oceanic climbs of Brighton once more. Interesting meeting today, old faces with a fresh outlook. I'd say that's pretty much the theme of the year so far. I've hooked up with all sorts of people I've not seen for years (literally). Rustling up numbers from the old black book is proving rather rewarding and I've got more Brightonian numbers in my 'livre noir' than any other.

It's over 7 years since i said goodbye to the seaside and headed to the South West for a change of scenery. It's hard to believe I've been gone as long as i lived there. Bristol's a grower though, it becomes more a part of my soul every day. I feel really settled here now, but I've got this absolute knowing that we'll leave here for more rural climbs at some point in the next 5 years. No other reason than the thought of bringing up the kids in this city scares the bejesus out of me. Being a country boy myself, I know I would have gotten up to a lot more mischief with a whole city to go on the rampage in rather than a village surrounded by arable land. I love it in the city, but it's dangerous and danger isn't on the parenting tick list.

Parenting is dominating. It's all my old friends and I talk about nowadays. We meet for the first time in years and talk baby names. We then discuss how we never thought we'd have a conversation with each other about baby names (yes, Kelly we had that chat today, but it's just about everyone who see's me now who remembers Disco Jez is kinda wondering if it's all for real). I can't believe it's all I'm really that interested in talking about either. Metamorphosis is in effect!

Everyone has been so kind about this blog. I often (as I did today) learn about a secret reader, one of the silent ones I could never have guessed about who sneaks a peak in the log every now and then to see what wisdom I've deployed into the wide open space. I guess today there's very little wisdom as it's more of an observational piece, but there's something that all of my old buddies have told me. They think 2013 is my year, they pretty much all believe in me and the way I'm trying forge a new dynamic. 

In the famous words of Otis Clay - "The only way is up baby, for you and me now...." (yes Yazz and the Plastic Population did cover it, but it's not a patch on Otis Clay's less popular version). He sang it like this;

"Well well well, we're gonna make it, we're gonna make it baby.

We've been broken down to the lowest turn,
Bein' on the bottom line, sure ain't no fun,
If we should be evicted from our homes,
We'll just move somewhere else and still carry on.

Oh, you and me baby.

The only way is up, yeah, for me and you now,
The only way is up, baby, for me and you now."

One Love

Jez

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