So, can you see me, somewhere in there?

I’m really glad the Pet Shop Boys are releasing their O2 Arena concert on DVD and live CD; it will bring back such good memories from a gig I almost didn’t make it to (London was pandemonium as pre-Christmas snow fell unexpectedly).

Highlights will be: More than a dream, Go west, Kings Cross, What have I done to deserve this?, It’s a sin and Being boring.

This was the night I fell back in love with West End girls and I jumped up and down a lot during It’s a sin. I think I might be very visible on the DVD during that one. Erk.

I saw Rome in five days, and travelled to Naples for the remaining two in the week I spent in Italy. These images have been scanned from 35mm prints (hence their size) and favourites include the Roman mopeds, the spiral-ramped entrance to the Vatican Museum and the image of Jonathan looking out over the clouds over Naples from the crater of Vesuvius.

I always support this commemoration because the fight against HIV and AIDS is as important as ever, and HIV is not going to go away anytime soon. Even if, as this year, I’m personally unable to wear a red ribbon throughout the whole day, this website always wears one and links back to the World AIDS Day homepage.

But recently I have been reflecting more on the importance of this. Over the past couple of years I have found out a couple of very good friends have been diagnosed as being HIV-positive and whilst, on the outside at least, I am the open-minded, liberal lad who tries desperately to ‘be there’ for anyone who needs it, the feeling inside is wholly different: The thought of my friends living every day with this vicious, incurable virus is, quite frankly, bloody terrifying.

In short, my own stigma, fear, prejudice and lack of real knowledge come right to the surface.

Which is where my friends come back in. By experiencing their determination to live with, combat, disregard, whatever, their status I discover that living with HIV and AIDS is no longer what it used to be and in doing so I realise my friends truly are here for me as much as I can be here for them.

This has been a difficult post to write.

Restart (rē-stärt’)
v. tr.         To start again or anew: restart the blog after it stalled
v. intr.     To begin operation again
Synonyms: assume again, carry on, come back, continue, go on, keep on, keep up, occupy again, pick up, proceed, reassume, recommence, regain, reinstitute, reoccupy, reopen, repossess, retake, return to, take back, take up 

Nuff said. 

Plan is to write something every day for a month, then reassess where I’m at and where I want to go with the blog. It’s been a while, I can’t say that my confidence hasn’t deserted over that time but hopefully I’ve found my voice again and have something to say. 

Firstly, a little about my current surroundings: It is beautiful here. I’m in Nafplio (or is it Nafplia? Or Nafplion? Οr even Ναυπλιο?) for Claire & Paul’s wedding. They wanted a stunning setting and, boy, do they have one. I’m not great about booking holidays for myself, mostly because I want perfection and I’m a little scared about having to settle for mid-priced, second-best, but this place has confounded me. It is cheap - for €63 I have a large double en suite, lounge and kitchen in a quaint boutique house off a quiet backstreet in the centre of the town at Pension Acronafplia - and the town is jammed with gorgeous cafes, tavernas, boutiques and small, shady corners in which to chill out with a long, iced coffee. Despite my almost-forced reluctance to treat this trip as a ‘proper holiday’ I am finding myself relaxing into it very well indeed.

It hasn’t been without hiccups, though. I arrived in Athens on Wednesday evening and game enough as I would have been to hire a car here, I wasn’t about to attempt to navigate single-handedly 200km cross-country, in the dark, with no idea of even which direction to set off in. However, my overnight stop there proved somewhat of a false economy. The last-minute hotel, which was cheap and basic enough and which I booked solely on the rather dubious lastminute.com rating system, was located right across the city from the airport and I paid way more in a taxi than I would have liked to get there. I awoke on Thursday with no inclination to even try to see anything of interest, my sole priority being to get back to the airport to connect with a coach to get me here. At least I had the time to take the vastly cheaper Metro option.

This is the first time I have really travelled on my own; the amassed receipts prove that this is a pricier way to see the world and, having no-one else with which to bounce around itinerary ideas, I have certainly not experienced anywhere near the best of Athens. As I have already noted, I’ll just have to come back (not alone).

But now the wedding celebrations are in full swing. Claire & Paul’s friends are, naturally, a diverse and gregarious bunch and it’s nice to be able to meander around Nafplio’s streets and bump into relative strangers with whom I have already shared a meal or a coffee. These relative strangers include six people I haven’t seen or heard from for 15 years when we all left school, and meeting these guys again has been a particularly interesting experience; people I remember as teenagers are, like myself, now mid-30s adults with partners, houses, children and careers. We are all grown up and have, variously, settled into our own lives embracing or denying our dreams along the way. I suddenly feel confronted by my own years, but it is comforting to be able to describe achieving my teenage ambitions before turning my life upside-down and embracing a career neither I, nor especially they, even contemplated I would take.

Conversely, I am also enjoying the freedom of being able to lock my door and spend time in my gorgeous hotel room chilling, reading, watching films and dozing without feeling like I’m depriving myself of holiday ‘experiences’. It is this freedom which has taken my reservations about this trip; all the cost, socialising, old-faces and Greek heat, and made it feel like proper Jams-time.

Was hoping to get started writing about my trip away to Greece last night, but my hotel’s Wi-Fi was a little, to put it best, fragile. Having arrived last night and stayed in the centre of Athens I’m now back at the airport waiting for my driver to whisk me to Nafplio, my ultimate destination, having seen absolutely zilch of this historic city.

Oh well, I’ll just have to come back.

Meanwhile, I’m remembering that most people you have to spend time with at airports are the sort of folk you’d really never want to see ever again, aren’t they? Especially Brits at airports.

Being a devoted Twitterer myself I was interested to stumble upon the associated Twitter stream which Richard keeps from inside the cab itself, updated with a plethora of idle thoughts from the cab rank, interesting fares and even running traffic reports. An innocuous question on my part led to a brief conversation today, which in turn led to Richard rediscovering his own London Conversations. It was my first example of randomly striking up a shared interest via Twitter and it’s a shame Richard doesn’t yet advertise his identity on the side of his cab (mooted here earlier today) or I would do my level best to stop him on his travels and ask how he’s enjoying the musical soundtrack of our City.

Earlier today, sister Rosie called from Pompeii, having a great time and enquiring about places to eat in Naples, my favourite Italian city. The enthusiasm, very evident in her voice, started me thinking about my trip to Italy in the summer of 2006, when Stu and I began in Naples, saw Pompeii, crossed the countryside to stay in a 17th century palazzo in out-of-the-way Venosa before heading southwards to sunny Puglia. I have spent the evening creating a new gallery of photographs taken on that trip whilst trying to keep my envy at Rosie’s obvious delight in her current trip far from reach.

I hope you enjoy the album.

This is my copy of Saint Etienne’s latest single, Method Of Modern Love/This Is Tomorrow. It is hand-numbered 268/1500 and signed by Pete (Wiggs).

This is my copy of Saint Etienne’s latest single, Method Of Modern Love/This Is Tomorrow. It is hand-numbered 169/1500 and signed by Bob (Stanley).

Sentimental was released in 2005 and, although Tanita Tikaram is one of my all-time favourite artists, I have never really given this record a decent listen. If it comes on as part of a playlist, I’ll either flick to the next track or relegate it to the back of my attention. 

Seventh Tree has been out for a year now, and I finally came around to buying a copy about six months ago after I read many good reviews and heard sections of the haunting, but formidable A&E. But I didn’t even play this album for the first five months (despite loving the cover - what a fantastic image) and despite the reviews largely mentioning that this was a total departure from previous work, I simply couldn’t move the more traditional ‘Goldfrapp sound’ from my head enough to give this a go.

But I met with friend Jay at the weekend and we had the chance to catch up on life and, of course, music. Jay has been reading the No Repeats posts and had quite a bit to mention, from wondering to why I don’t like Tori Amos to really getting me fired up again (in a good way!) about Kate Bush’s Aerial album. He’s a fan of both Sentimental and Seventh Tree and he inspired me to get back to them. It didn’t occur to me then that they’re next to one another on my iPod and so they might play together this morning.

And that’s really the whole point of the exercise - to catch stuff that I might otherwise skip over and really take the time to listen to it.

But I couldn’t let tonight pass without recognising that Nobody Does It Better than Carly Simon. You’re So Vain is on in the next room and, tonight, that couldn’t be a more perfect song to hear.

Which is why I enjoyed hearing I’m Not Scared by Eighth Wonder this morning. Anyone who’s anyone in my life should get that I’m a massive Pet Shop Boys fan. But it’s difficult to find Pet Shop Boys-produced stuff which walks the line of trademark-style versus distinctive artist-sound well.

But I’m Not Scared walks this line perfectly. Had it not been on this morning at 6am I would have cranked the volume up and sung along. Altogether now:

I, I, I, I, Uh oh ohh, I, I, I, I

I’m not scared…