Thank you 💜 I was saying just yesterday that every one of my friends had the carpet swept from under them somehow this year (jobs, debts, immigration, you name it). And that the fact I seem to be the one doing better says loads about the society we live in. I'm angry at how unfair everything is.

Starting to feel there's a microfiction piece hidden somewhere in that last post, and my mission for the rest of the day should be finding it a suitable next sentence. Which is a better mood than I've been in all morning, so you know what, I'm taking the win.

My past few months: like being inside Alanis Morissette's Ironic, stuck at the "life has a funny way of sticking up on you" verse, with no sign of the funny ways of helping you out it allegedly has. Like looking at a bus stop board that says 3 buses are due, but it's been 30 mins and none showed up.

What's the printer you have, by the way, and would you recommend it? And also, what software does it require?

That's exactly the feeling I'd be aiming for. I have a few framed prints of my own photos up in my house, but all ordered from high-street shops, so I can only imagine how much more satisfying it must feel to manage the printing yourself.

Anything you're happy to share in any way that suits you. I always had the daunting thought that home printing = darkroom, and can't believe how long it took me to realise I could - you know - get a printer and photo paper. Big facepalm moment, given how common printers and scanners were growing up!

They look brilliant, both of them (and happy to hear that the tweaks are signs of the progress you wanted). Would love to hear more about your printing journey whenever you're happy to share.

Ooh, loved the Cold Case music choices. There are '80s songs I've downloaded and put on playlists after hearing them there (on the flipside, there's a famous Moby song I still can't hear without thinking of an absolutely haunting Without a Trace episode...good job I was never a Moby listener anyway)

The memory of all this still makes me happy. And, thoughts from my walk home from the station just now: New Born still makes me feel like a teenager discovering music, and Time is Running Out is a damn good "evenings getting darker" song. That's it from me, thanks for indulging my nostalgia thread.

2003 was the Absolution tour, but they played a lot of Origin of Symmetry and Showbiz. It was pure joy. Not even being accidentally headbutted by a guy twice my size ruined my mood. They threw confetti on the crowd during Plug In Baby, and I picked one up as a keepsake - still have it.

Had the gig been, say, on 30 October, I just couldn't have gone. I'd have gotten the next chance to see Muse 3 years later, in Bologna, for the Black Holes & Revelations tour - but would it have been the same? 3x as far, 3x the price, and sure, I liked the album, but not as much as their first two.

So I only saw what felt like a once-in-a-lifetime event with my favourite person because of a tiny happy calendar accident: the gig was on 31 October and 1 November is an Italian bank holiday. I could sleep at my friend's (who lived closer) and didn't even have to argue with my mother. Imagine that.

If you grew up in Middle-Of-Nowhere, NE Italy, in the 2000s, any gig worth seeing was at least 2 hours away. You might go if you had friends with cars, or parents who liked the band / didn't mind waiting until late. If, like me, you had neither, live music belonged to another inaccessible universe.

Anyway, turns out it wasn't a practical joke aimed directly and exclusively at me. 21€ (plus 3.20€ booking fees) bought me a 100% real ticket, and on 31 October 2003, aged 16, I was there, with my best friend, seeing my favourite band in the world. Huge goddamn deal: it was my second gig ever.

Pordenone is even smaller than where I grew up, so Muse playing there (so close to me!) was strange. But not impossibly so: they weren't big in Italy at the time, though the Time Is Running Out video had made it to MTV. I only knew two other people that listened to them because I'd lent them my CDs.

This is the closest I can get to saying Muse played in my hometown, and it was still like 1 hour away. Another continent, in North-Eastern Italian teenager terms. When I saw the poster at my local bookstore, I thought it was some kind of cruel joke.