So, summer's at an end, and I can safely say that I've been making the most of the warm weather, as I have done for the majority of this summer - bike rides, beach time and going on trips with my wife Nicole.
On that note, we had another "rock and roll" weekend on the 6th and 7th, going to not one but two gigs at Mohegan Sun, my first time going to the arena there, and the biggest music venue I've ever been to, I have to say. The first gig was a double header, Counting Crows & Rob Thomas. I'd only heard one Counting Crows song before the show, and I was familiar with some of Rob Thomas' music as Nicole is a big fan of both his and his band Matchbox 20's music. Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of either artist, but I will say that Rob Thomas put a lot of energy and passion into his show, interacting with the crowd and getting everyone pumped, and his songs are very catchy - I think he should've been the headline act, because while Counting Crows were solid, they just weren't quite as memorable in my opinion. Still, it was a good night all round.
The second gig was the flipside, one of my favourite bands, and my second time seeing them, the Deftones. They had Spotlights and the infamous Swedish punk band Refused opening for them, Spotlights were pretty good with their heavy shoegaze-iinspired metal, I wasn't too sure about Refused though, while they were very loud and energetic (their singer had quite the stage presence), they jut didn't quite do it for me. However, Deftones absolutely killed it, they were every bit as awesome as when I first saw them back in '07, I couldn't fault them at all.
It wasn't just music shows we checked out at Mohegan Sun - on August 20 we checked out the TerrifiCon comic convention, my first comic con since San Diego back in 2010, and while this one was on a smaller scale, it was every bit as packed as San Diego, comic book stands, famous faces and cosplayers everywhere, and while it was a little overwhelming it was still a lot of fun.
We also celebrated two friends' wedding on the 27th (congrats to you both, you know who you are), it was a great party, and of course it brought back memories of our own wedding ceremony two months ago - I have to say, it was nice not being in the spotlight.
This month also saw the Olympics, which this year were held in Rio in Brazil - I caught some of it, though I really don't like how like everything else it seemed to get overshoadowed by all the scandal going on. It was also a little strange knowing that the previous Olympics were held in London back in 2012, back in my home country.
I seem to have been getting these reminders of my home country a lot lately, it's been 8 months since I left the UK, and I admit that this past month I've had moments where I've been missing my family a lot. The fact is, that is always going to happen, as anyone who's in a similar position will know, being far away from your loved ones is hard - but that's why I'm thankful for technology such as Skype, I can still easily keep in touch with them. I just hope that both me and Nicole will be able to go and visit them again someday.
On a brighter note, things are finally progressing with my immigration - they finally received my case, 5 months later, about time too, and just this past week I had my background check done up in Hartford, so now I am waiting for that to come through, and then hopefully it won't be much longer before I have my residency card and am able to apply for jobs. That's been on my mind too, wondering about whether I'll be able to cope balancing work and life, but the fact is, I won't know if I can until I'm living it. Ill keep you posted on this of course.
Last but not least, with summer coming to a close, I'll leave you with some summer-themed artwork - if this doesn't make you want to jump into the nearest pool, I dunno what will.
