Red Alert! – it’s a heatwave

Pool party Austria summer

We are currently in the midst of a heatwave here in Austria. And yes I know, I do tease the Austrian folk about how much they complain the second the temperature goes over 25 degrees, but I have to say, this heatwave is a good one. It’s been consistently over 30 for more than a week now. And while that may be fairly ‘normal’ in Oz, it only tends to happen once a year here (if we’re lucky) – and it’s only June!

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Shuffle that iPod Classic!

Following on from my post last week about my obsession with music, I undertook an experiment. I attached my iPod Classic (with its 4584 songs) to a speaker (using an actual cord because it was invented before Bluetooth), and I wrote down the first ten songs on shuffle… just to see how eclectic the mix would be. I must admit I was nervous… there’s a lot of crap on there… but I think it went pretty well. And here’s the big reveal, from 1 to 10.

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My obsession with music & playlists

iPod Classic

Everything I do has a soundtrack. I hate sitting in silence – be it in the car, eating dinner or working – if there’s no music playing, I’m just ever so slightly edgy.

I understand that plenty of people find it difficult to concentrate with music on – but I’m the opposite – I find it difficult to concentrate without it on. There are some situations where silence is required, but for me, they are very few and far between.

I consider my taste in music to be epic. And I consider my music collection to be extensive. Extensively epic, obviously (this is my blog, I can write what I want). Of course most of it sits in what one might call the ‘alternative’ sphere – and in that sphere I’m quite mainstream with a bit of quirk on the side. I don’t really do hip hop or rap or jazz or classical or metal or dance – my passion sits in what I might call light alternative. To demonstrate, here’s some of my favourites: The Living End, Birds of Tokyo, Bloc Party, Radiohead, Nirvana, The National, Muse, Ballpark Music, and the list goes on.

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Mixed Tapes – the technology has progressed but the concept stays the same

casette tape

Having my first year in Austria free meant I had a lot of time to devote to my many hobbies: dog walking, writing, exercising… but of course a lesser-known hobby of mine is making mixed tapes. And even if I do say so myself… I consider myself quite good at it.

I started off very young… mixing cassette tapes off the radio: sitting for hours in my room with a tape in deck… waiting patiently for my favourite songs to come on and pressing play at exactly the right moment (kids these days have no idea!). As I got older, I progressed to purchasing tapes and mixing them together on blank ones… and of course making custom-printed covers for them on the computer!

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