APPRECIATION TIME….

One of my favourite days ever and I didn't even know it….. so much love for everyone here

Hey its Pete, time for another personal post, they seem to build up and have to be set free every once in a while… so here goes…

I've just returned from a trip back home to Birmingham for a couple of days, …..I say home because I was born there, we don't live there anymore and I've had a bit of sadness in me since we left…. now call it the onset of spring and warm weather, the longer daylight hours maybe?... I don't know, but I had a rush of overwhelming happiness today. Nothing spectacular happened, I took a walk around the city, I had a hair trim, I spotted an amazing new vintage shop, had a chat with the owner for a good half hour about how amazing it was and then went to Pret for my favourite tea, the dude behind the counter recognised me and said "shall I put the milk on the side for you to do it yourself?" ….  for those that know my tea nazi ways this is awesome customer service…...then The Shins song New Slang came on, the one that Natalie Portman plays to Zach Braff in the doctors scene in Garden State?
its sort of THE song I remember from when me and Emma met…. so right there and then, as I was adding the milk to my favourite tea, in my home town on a warm, sunny spring day with The Shins playing…. right then I got all teary, it stopped me in my tracks completely… I was overwhelmed about just how amazing life felt and that my feelings for my home town were so deep rooted in me that I cried happy tears…. thats some pretty powerful shit right there. The power of 'Home' of feeling a sense of belonging, I never knew I felt it until then…. I knew I liked living there, I liked the sense of familiarity about the place and the memories it held for me...but I'd totally taken it for granted for so long it never occurred to me that it was part of me and made me who I am….

Then I got to hang out with my parents all afternoon and we talked and we laughed and we talked a whole lot more and in this stupidly fast and precious life I stopped for a few moments and I thought "these guys are amazing!" the life they have led together, the stuff they have seen and been through has been wonderful and terrible and life affirming and soul crushing and back around again, but they have lived it…… Then another thought……"I am never going to stop appreciating this!" this life is huge, its a gift, its for sharing… interacting with fellow humans and being alive no matter what, in good times and bad times, it is the THING that drives us all……

Now here is that song in full for you…