The Shining

I spent the day outside of London today. On my way back into town in the early evening, I had to take the slow train because all the fast trains were delayed. So I sat by the window and popped my iPod on and got ready for a long two-hour ride back home.


It was rainy and the sky was overcast. For about half the journey I was listening to the same three songs on repeat,* each of which seemed to perfectly fit the mood of the English countryside on such a wet yet pretty day. Brooding yet peaceful - both the music and the view.


About halfway through my journey I decided to stop listening to the same songs over and over and put my iPod on shuffle. The first song that came on was one I didn't even realize I had. It's the remix of a song I know and love, but I'd never heard this version before for some reason, despite its being in both my iTunes and iPod. The song was Badly Drawn Boy's "The Shining (The Avalanches Good Word for the Weekend Remix)" [download]. It's amazing when you hear a new version of a song that you already love, but that does it even better. It's so very familiar yet so very new at the same time. It was like when I first heard the Postal Service's remix of Feist's "Mushaboom". Anyway, the song immediately put me in such a wonderful mood. And I swear, as unrealistic and clichéd as it's going to sound, just as the song burst open (nearly a minute into it) the bushes whizzing by my window suddenly ended and opened up the view, to this...


The shining, indeed. And the best part was, I was absolutely alone in the train carriage. This was another one of those beautiful, perfect London moments. And I really needed it too. I've been in a real funk lately and this was exactly what I needed to bring me out of it. Sometimes it really is the simplest things in life!

And since it's been exactly one year since this picture of me studying for exams in the library, I thought I'd throw this picture in just for the fun of it. One year has gone by incredibly fast.


By the way, these pictures were taken with my Sony Ericsson. If only I'd had my real camera!

* The three songs on repeat were (not a big surprise if you read my last post): "Release Me" by Oh Laura (listen), and "Gotta Have You" and "World Spins Madly On" by The Weepies (listen).