Day 0: The Mission

Weird.  I've never owned a domain before.  Now here I am on the internet, writing words that, in all honesty, probably aren't going to reach enough people to justify the £10 I spent registering this domain.  But this isn't about you, it's about me.  I'm big enough to admit that to myself at least.

I honestly couldn't tell you whether the blog is an excuse for me to listen to all my CDs again, or whether listening to all my CDs is an excuse to write this blog.  It's entirely possible this is just a manifestation of a slow burn mid-life crisis which has been festering since I turned 18.  Regardless of the reasons, I've been excited enough by the idea when it popped up on Twitter a few days ago that I've decided to go through with it.  In a year where I've been trying to commit to stuff I start and actually get to the end of it, this might be my final test.  Can I keep the momentum going to write something on here every day it's reasonable for me to do so?

Like all good stories, this one starts with the arrival of a pair of Mexicans.

My partner had invited a friend of hers who was visiting England to come stay in our guest room for a few nights.  Obviously, this necessitated the cleaning of our generally slightly-shambolic-but-acceptable home into a model of modern living and organisation.  In the small room in our house which we call my office (because there's not really a term for "dumping ground for stuff we're not sure what to do with + musical instruments + board games" which is more accurate), I spent some time putting things where they were supposed to go and making neat piles of things which didn't really have a home, which is my general approach to all cleaning and tidying.  If it's in a pile, that counts as clean & tidy in my book.

Note the multiple, very tidy piles on top of my filing cabinet.

Part of the end product of all this what we will call tidying for the sake of consistency (if not accuracy), was that my disparate and often scattered CD collection all ended up in the same place at the same time for what seemed like the first time in 25 years.  A lot of jewel cases had been lost, devoured by the passenger seat-wells and glove compartments of a variety of rattletrap cars I've owned and scrapped over the years, but by and large, here was my collection, such as it is.

188 jewel cases, and about 70 loose CDs all told.

I sat and looked at it for a while, desperately trying to find an excuse not to do any more actual work on a Saturday, and realised that since the age of Spotify (to which I am a huge addict), many of these CDs hadn't seen the inside of a CD player in maybe a decade.  I tweeted about it, as that seemed a good way to waste some time, and I got this reply.

And it stuck with me.  Obviously.

So that's the plan.  Starting from the top left, going down the columns, I'm going to listen to every single CD on the rack, and then talk about it a little.  Feel free to call me a lazy idiot on Twitter when I give up 10 days in.  

Let's begin.