Minute44 - Dan Schonhaar

I’ve realised that I’ve not really been putting any personal content on here for quite some time and realised that it was about time. I’ve not been up to anything spectacularly good over the last few months, Mr. Reed has moved out and landed a very good Job in near Sheffield as a product designer and that has meant I’ve been living on my own for the most part. I’ve been with Nat for a several months now and it’s going really well. All my friends are buying houses and having kids it seems… I don’t know if this is out of the ordinary but I have no desire to do either of those things at the moment. I’m enjoying living the no-commitments life and taking each day as it comes.

So yes, after several months of living at my current abode following the departure of Mr. Reed, I’ve made arrangements to move. I’m actually moving to Somercotes, a few towns over to live in my Grandad’s house. Due to his current situation he won’t be living there for at least one year so I will be renting the place for a very reasonable price. I’m super excited about the move and although I absolutely love living in this house, the move will do me so much good. Not least the £200 a month I will be better off.

The house will need some work to make my own but I imagine I will be able to make it work without too much hassle. It’s waaay bigger too. It has three bedrooms, the smallest of which will be used as storage and the other two, of a similar large size, will be used as bedrooms. It is furnished as well, and although most of the furniture is old fashioned it does include a full leather reclining 3 piece suite which is rather snazzy! I get the benefit of a full dining room too, meaning I can cook for people and not serve them dinner on a sofa! Speaking of cooking, the kitchen is smaller but as I like to be alone in there it shouldn’t matter.

One thing I am super excited about is that at the end of the street is a small skate park which means I’ll hopefully be able to get back into skating and get in shape! Every time I see my board I remember how much fun I used to have skating. Me and Gaz used to skate in three different cities about every weekend, abusing the Trent-Barton Zig-Zag bus ticket. Every so often I ride around a bit and ollie a few things and get my fakie heels and shove-its back but its just no good with nothing decent to skate…. well, the mini-ramp, rail and bench next to my new house should change that, at least I hope. I’ve never been into sports or, quite frankly, been any good at them but I’ve always loved skateboarding and despite not being any good at it used to put my all into it as I enjoyed it so much. During college I used to hang out with the guys at Pie Skate Store and regularly skate with them even though I couldn’t hold a candle to their skill. It was just a really friendly crowd of people.

Along with my move I finish paying for my car in May which frees up about £100 a month for me also. That’s good because, it seems, a friend of mine from Canada, Dan Bolton will be coming to stay with me for a couple of weeks around that time. I’ve not seen this dude in as near as makes any difference 10 years and I’ve known him since I was about 5 years old. The last time I saw him he was going through a goth type phase but now he seems like a good guy who likes a beer… he should love it here. I’ve not seen anyone from Canada since my last visit there in 2005 so it should be awesome. Speaking of people from Canada, I found out yesterday that a girl I had recently gotten in touch with, Vanessa Crawford, a 19 year old second year student at Carlton University Ottawa, passed away in a car accident early Wednesday morning. It was a great shock to me and my deepest sympathies go out to her family and friends in this difficult time. My mum has been friends with Vanessa’s parents for over 24 years, since she got her first job in Canada after moving there. The accident also claimed the lives of two of Vanessa’s friends and my sympathies are also with their friends and families.

On Monday I got to see Henry Rollins in Wolverhampton. He is touring his “Provoked” spoken word tour. I’ve been loking forward to this since before Christmas and am still super excited about it. I’ve borrowed a Sat Nav from work to ensure that I get there in a decent time. I’ve been thinking of setting off early and maybe spending some time in Birmingham during the day as I’ve not been there since August. I won’t have that much money but I’ll see if anyone wants to catch a beer or something. If you’re in town on Monday afternoon, give us a text or something!

I will, hopefully, not leave it so long before another personal entry. I do enjoy writing them. If I didn’t feel so stupid when I saw myself on film, I would Join Viddler and do regular video blogs for you but I do… so that’s that idea out the window. So until next time, ta ta!

Dan