When the Cheshire emerges...

I visited the iTunes store to try and redeem a gift card and noticed an ABBA special for their 40th anniversary.

Among the albums I was really surprised to see ABBA Gold but with the word Oro. I am way behind the eight ball - I had NO idea they recorded the album in Spanish. AMAZING.

Sampling the songs as you do, I couldn't believe how happy it made me feel when I heard the music. Fernando was beautiful - it sounded so natural. This came as a surprise to me because of my history with Spanish speakers - but ahead of my trip to South America, where I plan to have some Portuguese and a small bit of Spanish up my sleeve (it will happen, learning tools are ready to go), hearing familiar songs in a language I don't understand was both weird and wonderful.

I would actually buy this.

I guess it's proof of ABBA's massive firepower, that the group's songs bode well in more than one language. Their creativity pays off to anyone with a common understanding of love and life. On trying to find out if they all speak Spanish (I don't think so), this comment on a forum from 'Gniblett' really got what I'm trying to convey:

It is bad enough trying to remember the lyrics of a song in your native language but to do that in a foreign language, with all the feeling and so clearly that the words have deep meaning with no hint of it not being their native tongue. This has always amazed me .... as one who grappled with French at school and failed dismally. 

In fact ABBA's English lyrics are more easily understood than many today who were brought up speaking English as a first language.

Amen to that.

***

On another note, I found out the Australasian version of ABBA Gold is different to the rest of the world because Ring Ring, Rock Me and I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do were bigger singles here. I've always wondered why people loved Super Trouper... guess I never knew it as a kid because it wasn't on my album. Go figure.

Conduct in public bathrooms can be a mystery to some and a fascination to others. The context depends on the situation but more often than not revolves around female toilets; whether it's males trying to debunk myths or the ladies discovering something out of the ordinary.

Work toilets are among this. I made an interesting observation last week when I made a visit to my employer's bathroom.


I go in and see one toilet is occupied. Fine. I go in my cubicle, and notice the whole time I'm in there I can't hear boo from next door. And I was in there a decent amount of time.

On coming out to wash my hands, she emerges. It was a visitor to our office and saying hello to be polite were the only words I ended up speaking to her during her stay. But I couldn't help but think about why you would go to such effort to be quiet when you're not even a regular worker.

I don't get this phenomenon in general. No one is deathly silent in the toilet without trying. Surely it's not healthy. To be honest, I don't know how it's done. And I don't get why - no one cares, we do what we have to do and that's it. It's like sneezing - who gives a rat's bum if you're loud, as long as you have a tissue. Geez. Rant over.

With a lack of blogs coming your way, you can probably tell I've kept myself quite busy lately. Working as hard as I feel I do, I come home not wanting to do much more than cook and then crash on the couch to watch TV.

Because of this I've realised more and more that I'm working for the weekend. Whether that's a two-day break or split shifts it doesn't matter, my days off are becoming precious commodities. And while I haven't been able to get out on the road or even do the real touristy Darwin things like I thought I would, I'm still making the most of my spare time.

A large part of that has included nights out. I've done a few different things, from gigs to birthday drinks - but it's the amount of clubbing (Darwin-style, where anything goes) I've done that's surprised me. I knew I still had something in me after Dubbo purely because my time there had provided somewhat of a hiatus from heavy bouts of nighttime madness. But going out just about every weekend here has made me feel 19 again - like my energy has fully returned after some time.

Look at this! I mean, I'm not exactly old but I feel this is a decent achievement. I guess why I feel like my youth's back is that I'm just really enjoying myself while actually maintaining stamina. This weekend was big in that I went out Friday, worked Saturday, went out bigger that night and still socialised for the bulk of yesterday. And I felt alright in hindsight.

Talking with friends, I know by the mid-20s going out hard loses its appeal to a lot of people. And that's fair enough, we all look for different things. For me, to know I still have the energy to do it is a positive. I think the climate and chilled lifestyle here has a bit to do with having that - it's warm all the time and you want to stay out, and there's people nearly always willing to do something. This is just something that suits me extremely well right now.