Heart of Gold. Nerves of Steel. Knob of Butter.
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Thursday 30th January23:00Carry On Snowing"Oh the weather outside is frightful, but your tits are so delightful. I could play with them all week and so, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."Yes gentle reader there's been a bit of snow falling round these parts today. No snow actually round my parts, that'd be mad, Ted, but this must be the first time my garden has seen two inches since I gave up nude sunbathing....and it's not the first time my back passage has been clogged up with white stuff, either. Ooh, no missus! You musn't! Well, that's enough of the smutty jokes for now. As I started out saying, there's been a bit of snow falling today. In fact it seems to still be snowing. Or maybe it was just the wind blowing the residual snow out of the trees. It was hard to tell. Predictably, all major transport routes and methods were affected. Poor old Tim texted me about two hours after he left work to say that's he only just got to the outskirts of Cambridge. Not bad for a journey that only takes thirty to forty minutes to complete it's whole distance. Not that he had a great deal to look forward to when he got home (apart from the family, obviously) as they were suffering a power cut at the same time. Hope everything's OK mate. Anyway, it does seem strange that people get caught out every time we have some severe wintry weather, I thought, but then I realised that this is probably the heaviest snow fall I've seen myself for a few years. So everyone who, like me, expected a thin smattering of flakes and the occasional flurry was taken by surprise. This isn't the English snow we've come to expect over the last few years. Mind you, it must be a slow news day in Cambridge when the weather makes the front page of the local paper. Still, I look forward to spending tomorrow wrapped up nice and warm on the sofa with a copious supply of tea and biscuits watching yet more tragic tales of people struggling to and from work. I'll be thinking of you all. Actually, no, I won't. I'll be thinking of whether I can afford to turn the heating up a bit, whether I should nip out to get some more milk before Bargain Hunt or after and whether the duvet or the sleeping bag are more appropriate for my afternoon nap in front of the telly. Ha! Ha!
17:15Just like Leila Khaled saidGood news electropop fans and lovers of all things 80s! At this very moment in time the RadioWaves03 festival is all set to go ahead, sometime in August at a venue to be announced, but there are some acts already booked, so you can look forward to hearing some of your favourite OMD tunes covered by bands you've never heard of. Or maybe you can't. Neither the RadioWaves03 or the Unofficial OMD sites have been updated since November, so maybe it's not on. Or maybe the hosts have just been off partying since Thanksgiving. Who knows?And whilst we're on the subject of festivals - there's a little over three months to go before you can book your tickets for the 39th Cambridge Folk Fest. It's a-happening at the end of July/begining of August this year. Don't bother visiting the website just yet though as there are no details of who's playing available. Of course, once the full list of artists is available you and your festival-going friends could run a sweep on who'll pop their clogs before next year's fest. Ah, if only I'd backed Joe Strummer and not Billy Bragg...That's wishful thinking for you.
Tuesday 28th January23:15Eight Mile highI went to see 8 Mile this afternoon. And why not? I can't stay in staring at four walls and a computer screen all day every day till I find a new job - I'll go stir-crazy. Anyway, it's a very enjoyable film and I don't even think you have to be in to Eminem to like it. Eminem himself is very watchable, he has fine support from his homies, the bad guys are BAD, and Kim Basinger still looks great even with no make up on. The plot isn't actually up to much - it's like the rap version of Rocky, except Eminem doesn't get the girl. Well, alright he does, but not in a big Hollywood-schmaltzy way. But, as I said, Eminem is extremely watchable throughout and the set pieces and set-ups are done well. Plus there's a sense of humour running throughout this film, so it never disappears up it's own ass, which it could have done. The only thing I could say is that either every one else in that film is about 6 foot 5 or Eminem is a bit on the short side; not that there's anything wrong with that, I aint no "dwarfist". Still, whatever you think of rap or Eminem, the climactic "battle" scene features some great and very inventive name calling. All in all, it gets the "Free Time" thumbs up in my house.Do you think that at some point in the future, everyone you know will have been on television? I was watching Ground Force on BBC1 last night, purely because it was coming from my home town of Nantwich (well, it's not really my home town but I did live there for about 8 years, which is almost the longest I've lived anywhere). Anyway, the Ground Force team built this garden for a member of a gang of friends, most of whom I didn't recognise, except one for one who was friends with my sister at school. Of course, they've both long since gone their separate ways. So, Liz, I tip my hat to you as you join the list of people that I know who have been on the telly. Admittedly, two of those were on Crimewatch, although one was a policeman so at least he didn't mind being on there... Having been disturbed by reports of the police shooting a man outside The Flying Horse in Clophill (which is probably my real home "town" as I lived there for about 9 years) I looked the place up on the old Interweb. Imagine my surprise to find that this site is actually for a Belgian electropop band. And imagine my further surprise when I find that there's also a band called Deadmans Hill...although they don't seem to be too active at the moment. [Deadmans Hill is just up the road from Clophill and was the scene of James Hanratty's crimes] Anyway, as far as I remember, and the evidence confirms, The Flying Horse is just at the entrance to the village off the A6 and we (my family) used to live at the other end of the village near the Rising Sun pub. Well, we lived in Tanqueray Avenue (which is much closer) for a few years before moving to the other end of the village, to be honest. I seem to remember that there was also The Green Man pub not far from the Flying Horse, and that was the pub my mum used to play darts for way back in the '70's. Sadly, they don't seem to have a website. Ah, Bedfordshire, so near and yet so far. Sometimes I wish I could drive, just so I could get in the car and go for a quick spin round my childhood haunts. Perhaps I should fix up to spend a weekend there whilst I'm still moneyed and unemployed. Mind you, I'm sure that'd be a complete mind-fuck, walking streets that I haven't seen for 25 years....
Saturday 25th January02:30I taught him everything he knows, of course....Ah, the good old Internet - not just there for the nasty things in life, like crack whore mp3s. For a while, I've been occasionally dropping in on the Bushbaby website. You see, I used to play bass in the guitarist's first-ever band, and in his second-ever band too, briefly. That first band, Lost Onus, split up nearly twenty years ago due to the usual musical differences and whilst we've all gone our separate ways, Ben is the only one to be still playing music today. So, from a distance I've been following what he's been up to. And I'm looking forward to seeing him on tour at some point, whether it's in Cambridge, London or elsewhere. But first, a brief history lesson..Late in 1982 (or was it '83?) Ben and his friend Muzz were talking of doing some music together. Like most teenagers, I suppose. I was taking my first tentative steps in music at the same time too and tried to blag my way in on the action despite the fact that I could barely play the bass guitar and didn't actually own one. Well, they fell for the charms of a slightly older man and I was in. So we had a band, Lost Onus, but no songs, no drummer and no gigs. Well we got roped in to supporting another friend's band (mainly, I think, because everyone else refused) but we still had no songs and no drummer. So we hurriedly wrote some songs - well Ben wrote about a dozen and I contributed two and we put them on tape for our first drumer to listen to before the gig. I still have that first tape. I'm hoping it might be worth something one day, although some of the stuff on it probably shouldn't be allowed to see the light of day ever again. Anyway, the first gig wasn't a disaster so we did a few more, getting through various drummers, with Ben and Muzz doing the songwriting duties between them and me occasionally contributing. As time went on we did more of Muzz's numbers and fewer of Ben's, which was part of the reason we broke up. But for a couple of years we were "the undisputed kings of the Nantwich scene". Not that there was that much of a scene (although at our second gig we supported Aquilae whose guitarist/vocalist was the now internationally famous comedian Ben Miller). And that was another of the problems - always playing to the same old faces. We eventually split late in the summer of 1985 and for a while I worked with both Muzz and Ben on separate projects. But the dream was over and we went our separate ways. Muzz went to university in Huddersfield, where he had a nervous breakdown, Ben went to Bristol and carries on being a rock god to this day, and I've ended up as a technical author in Cambridge. Who'd'a' thought it, eh?
And now I think it only fair that I pay tribute to all those daft enough to play drums for us in our brief career: If anyone recognises any of the above names and knows where they are now, why not get in touch and I'll come along to play them that original demo tape and scare the living daylights out of them. "The Way" *shudder* - even I think it's terrible and I wrote it!
Wednesday 22nd January23:50Getting Back into That 80s GrooveWell, I was intending to go to see Raving Seahorse, er, sorry, I mean Raging Speedhorn this evening but I went on a bit of a shopping spree this afternoon and ended up spending nearly fifty of your Earth pounds on CD's, and decided that I'd rather stay in and listen to them than spend my night in a shed bemoaning the fact that the vocals aren't loud enough and feeling old as I realise that there are kids there not much older than my nephews. So what did I buy? Well, I'm glad you asked, but you might not be....John Foxx - Modern Art. A compilation of his stuff cobbled together in 2001 to mark the release of a new album. Not the best compilation of his stuff I've seen but only £3.99 in the HMV sale. Kraftwerk - Radio-Activity, Trans Europe Express and The Man Machine. It's Kraftwerk, they're only £5 each from Fopp. What more needs be said? Pixies - Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde. Seminal space-obsessed indie rock from the late 80's/early 90s. Again, a fiver each from Fopp. OMD - The Best of.... There were a few OMD compilations in the HMV sale and this was the cheapest and has 'Genetic Engineering' on it, which is a particular favourite of mine. Gang Of Four - Entertainment! Hugely influential punk-funk band of the 80s. Sadly doesn't include 'I Love A Man In A Uniform', which I once thought was actually called 'I Love A Man But He's Too Short'. And they say your hearing gets worse as you get older..... Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables. Inspired by the revelation that they are touring again (more of which in moment) I bought this classic album. Fortunately, I bought the Cherry Red version and not the Decay re-issue, which is not endorsed by Jello Biafra. As mentioned above, Dead Kennedys are on tour again. Well, not quite. Klaus Fluoride, East Bay Ray and DH Peligro are touring as the Dead Kennedys but Brandon Cruz is doing the vocal duties. Following a a bitter and protracted lawsuit between the Dead Kennedys and Jello Biafra, I suspect there is no chance that they'll ever appear on the same stage again. The official Dead Kennedys website makes no mention of the dispute, but does provide a full listing of their tour dates if you fancy popping along to wallow in nostalgia and bemoan the absence of Jello B. (I just hope they manage to do 'Kill The Poor' better than my former band, The Elephant Men, once did.) On the other hand the Alternative Tentacles site includes coverage of the dispute on the Jello biography pages including the non-endorsement of the current re-issues of DK stuff on Decay Records, and a brisk dismissal of their live album. Methinks this one will run and run. Finally, my mate John sent me this link which has nothing to do with any of the above but is very amusing. It's a classic example of a someone poking fun at the establishment in a manner guaranteed to confuse them. To be fair, both Alan Curbishley of Charlton Athletic and Keith Cooper of FIFA join in the fun. Take a look. No soccer knowledge required.
Tuesday 21st January20:00Ooh, I'm still feeling a little stiff (ooh-er!)At somewhat short notice, I went off over the weekend to help my younger brother (Eddy) and his girlfriend move house. No problem I thought, that'll be a couple of van loads to shift and I can be back home in time for the Premiership highlights on Saturday night. Ah, how wrong I was. It took two days and four van loads and we still didn't move quite everything. It also didn't help that he's moved to a third floor flat in a building with no lift and a trans-dimensional space warp in the stairwell. There were too many stairs for the number of floors we had to climb up. After the second trip I was pretty exhausted but fortunately we called it a day then. On Sunday we were all feeling sore and tired but there were another two van loads of stuff to move and it had to be done. By the time we took a break after the first van load I'd developed the kind of thousand-yard stare more normally associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Anyway, some food and drink was all we needed to finish the job and by 7pm on Sunday night we'd got everything into the flat. I definitely needed a few beers after that and stayed at Eddy's for a second night. All my muscles stiffened up even further and I had considerable trouble getting out of bed. I finally returned to sunny Cambridge on Monday morning. Sadly, as I'd been overly optimistic in my estimation of the scale of the undertaking, I'd not taken a change of clothes with me, so I must have smelled pretty bad by that time. Still, I got a seat to myself on the train and that's never a bad thing.Once I got back home, I decided that a good long soak in a nice warm bath would be in order. And it would have been a lovely treat if it hadn't been for the fact that no sooner had I got into said bath than I was bombarded with telephone calls from my landlord. Great. For about thirty minutes it was like being in a rather poor 70's sitcom, as every time I went to get back in the bath the phone went again. Gah! My ex-co-worker Jack links to this article on his site and I'm afraid I just had to lift it. So if you've already been to his site you can skip this. It's a review of High and Mighty by Keith Bradsher; which is a book about America's love affair with the SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle). It does make some valid points but kind of undermines itself about five paragraphs from the end with the assertion that increasing immigration is the reason for America's driving habits getting worse. Quite frankly, this is racist nonsense. Apart from the fact that it's not only "poor nations" where driving habits are bad - anyone have fond memories of trying to negotiate French or Italian city centres? - the implication that it's the bad "foreign" drivers who are to blame and not the lax licensing system is frankly ludicrous. I certainly hope that this isn't a point that is made in the book. It really does undermine some of the more cogent arguments. Well, see for yourself.
Friday 17th January16:30Good thing I don't have a job to go to.......as I wouldn't have made it yesterday. A combination of half a dozen cans of lager and half a bottle of gin gave me the worst hangover I've had for ages. I obviously overdid the lottery win celebrations as I had to spend most of yesterday crashed out on the sofa recovering. The thumping headache didn't subside till late in the afternoon and, because I was feeling so rough, I decided not to venture out to take in the folk-rock fun at The Portland.Following the clamour for more Una Stubbs-related nonsense on this site, I went off on a web search for suitable material. Surprisingly, for such a well-known actress there's actually not that much about her on the old Interweb, but you can find on this site another scurrillous rumour about the alleged Cliff-loving one. Also here you can find some jokes at the poor lady's expense (as well as a lot of jokes about Lionel Blair). There's also a picture of Una on the www.celebrity-upskirt.co.uk but I'm not linking to that - mainly because it's nowhere near as interesting as you might think. Er, I was going to write something else, but I've completely forgotten what it was. Ah, well, if I remember later, I'll update.
Wednesday 15th January23:00You might win a little but you'll never win a lotto!Wahey! In a little over five years of playing the lottery I've notched up my fourth individual win, bringing my total winnings to £204 for an approximate outlay in the region of £1000. Not a brilliant return on my investment, but probably no worse than if I'd put a grand in the FTSE100 at the start of this year. Anyway, tonight I am £84 richer than I was this morning. What a nice feeling. Hopefully this is precursor to me scooping the jackpot on Saturday night....Not much news on the old job front. Well, there is some news on the old job front - the next wave of redundancies at Convergys were announced today. This wave was announced at the same time as I was given the heave-ho, but as more than twenty-five people were being made redundant in one business area they had to go through a consultancy period. Sadly once again some decent people got the shove, so my commiserations go to Janice and Alex. For what it's worth I don't think either of you will have trouble finding other jobs. I haven't made that much progress on finding another job. I'm kind of reluctant to get back in the water, as it were, especially as I'm enjoying my time on the beach. Sadly though, economic necessities dictate that I need to find a means of supporting myself. My mate John sent me details of these jobs and I'm quite tempted by the Promotions Assistant/Office Manager job. I think the salary might not be that great and I'm not that familiar with many of the bands on the roster, but it's the kind of job I wouldn't mind doing. I probably should have applied for it ten years ago, of course, as I think my age may now count against me, but I might still give it a go. I'm going to sleep on it and see how I feel in the morning. Lastly, I'm going to go out tomorrow night. Apart from the fact that I'm getting a bit stir-crazy from staying in the house all the time, I feel the need to spend my lotto winnings on a ticket to see Raging Speedhorn at The Junction and there are some psychedelic-folk-rock-cum-alt.country bands playing at The Portland Arms. If any of them are any good I'll let you know and provide links on here - except for Of Montreal whose website is hosted by angelfire.com and always down for "excessive bandwidth use".
Monday 13th January23:45Say Cheese!Ah, marvellous. Always let them see you smiling as you die, I always say. Alright, I don't. In fact, I don't even know what that means, but it's just a bit of a preamble to the fact that Tim and Jack both sent me these pictures (about 70KB, if you're daft enough) of me from the Christmas party, which have been posted on the Convergys intranet. Isn't it ironic? Or just a sad reflection that no one looked too closely at my hands in either picture? I neither know nor care. All I do know is that it cheered me up no end. Might not do the same for you though.... Anyway, I've also now swapped my profile picture for that lovely one of me and my cheeky grin.
Eeh, it's expensive registering as unemployed. It cost me thirty-three of your English quids today to go up to the Job Centre and hand over the requisite forms. It wasn't the actual getting to the Job Centre that was too expensive but the visit to Fopp afterwards. As ever, they're piling it high and selling (most of) it cheap. Their punk and metal stuff seems relatively pricy but they have a better selection of stuff than anywhere in Cambridge, I reckon. Minutemen CDs, anyone? Anyway, I bought the following - none of which Richard would approve of:
Sunday 12th January15:10NWA shot my hamster!They did, I tell you. I only listened to Straight Outta Compton twice but that was all it took to persuade me to get a gun and blast the defenceless rodent to kingdom come. So, Mr R.S.P.C.A., Mr Rolf-to-tha-H-to-tha-A(rris), it's not me you should be prosecuting, but them. No, of course I'm not using them as a convenient scapegoat. Mind you, it's easier (and cheaper) to blame gangsta rap than it is to address the real issues.Interestingly, although gun crimes have increased dramatically in the last year, the official crime figures show that your chances of being the victim of crime are about the same as they were twenty years ago. And, as further analysis of those figures here shows, gun crimes account for just 0.03 per cent of the total offences in the UK. Of course, the increase of gun crime combined with the fall in other offences does make it slightly more likely that you might be involved in a gun crime, but the fear of that threat seems to far outweigh the likelihood of it actually happening. Please, don't have nightmares. And now for something completely different, as some comedy ensemble or other once said. Need more Carry On film info? Then check out this site for more stuff than you can shake a stick at. Cheers Kev for that link - I've also put it in my list of favourites on the right there. And here's another new link which leads to a fantastic site containing My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable - a cartoon strip series based on karate; My New Filing Technique Is Unstoppable - filing-based office humour; and Get Your War On - post-9/11 humour, red in tooth and claw. All probably not work safe, especially if you're working for an American-based corporation. Personally, I've been a fan of the ..Fighting.. strip since I first encountered it in Bizarre magazine (definitely not work-safe) a few years back and I was delighted to find it all available on the old Interweb. And now I've shared it.
Friday 10th January20:50Where does the time go?Blimey, you go out enjoying yourself for a couple of minutes and all of a sudden three days have passed. Good thing I don't have a job to go to anymore - I'd never have time to fit everything in....On Wednesday I went to the Job Centre to collect the requisite forms and make an appointment to register as unemployed. I should have done it before Christmas but I really didn't want to face it - having been unemployed before I know what a soul-destroying place the Job Centre can be. Plus the terms of my redundancy were quite generous so I don't actually need to rely on state benefits for a while yet, so there's not much incentive to sign on. Still, if they want to give me some extra cash, then who am I to refuse? And after having to wait three-quarters of an hour before seeing a clerk for two minutes and collecting the forms, if they don't give me some money I'll be a bit miffed. After leaving the Job Centre I called into ex-work to pick up my redundancy cheque and had lunch with a couple of ex-colleagues in one of my favourite Cambridge pubs, The Portland Arms. I'm not entirely sure why I like this pub, after all it does have a bit of a rundown air to it, but the staff are friendly, the beer is always decent and the food is fairly good too. Plus they put on a wide range of bands on in the evening. If it was located about three miles closer to my house, it'd be perfect. Me old mate, John gave me a ring on Tuesday night to tell me that he'd picked up a Rutles album for me in the HMV sale. Bolstered by this news and the fact I'd just put a large amount of money in my account I called into the Cambridge branch of HMV on Wednesday afternoon. I was immediately put off their sale by the fact that one side of the sales rack had been filled with absolutlely no regard for alphabetical order, and I couldn't be arsed to spend an hour looking through it in case there was an MC Tunes CD going cheap or some similar bargain. So instead I picked up the latest Fat Wreck Chords sampler CD, a Golf Records sampler CD and Man On The Moon, the Andy Kaufman biopic, on video. I haven't gotten round to watching the video yet, but I have listened to the two CDs and as far as I'm concerned they were excellent purchases. Of course, if you dislike ska-punk (Golf) or American punk (Fat Wreck) you'll probably hate both. A rather more long-standing (or should that be long-suffering?) mate, Kev, came down from Grimsby to see me yesterday. As he also doesn't have a job at the moment, we went out for a large number of beers. We weren't too adventurous in choice of drinking venues, I'm afraid, spending the entire night in The Regal, but they do food, the beer is cheap and there's always a lot of totty to ogle, so it suited our sad old man purposes. You can always guage how the evening is going by what you're drinking, and whilst it looked bad when Kev had a coffee after his curry, we finished off the evening sharing a jug of "Monster Reef" cocktail, or "Green Slime" as Kev christened it. I don't think any of the laydeez were impressed but by then we didn't care. We got back home in time to buy some more food, gin and a bottle of tonic from the Spar and I fell asleep as Kev watched Blade and Carry On Screaming, neither of which he'd seen before. This morning I cooked up a fairly full English breakfast for the pair of us before sending him on his merry way back to his wife and two kids. And his appointment at the Job Centre. I then crashed out to recover on the sofa for most of the afternoon. (Oh hold on, that sounds like we're having some sort of clandestine gay affair but we're not - he's not my type. And he's a crap shag.) I think I should have been using this afternoon to apply for some jobs but I felt as rough as a badger's arse.
Tuesday 7th January22:30TV programmes you'll never see...Inspired (or perhaps not) by a brief drunken conversation with my little brother over the festive period, I've come up with a list of a few programmes that you might wish to have seen instead of the dismal fare you were offered and a few that you definitely won't see on your screen in the near future. Yeah, TVGoHome will probably do this a lot better, if they ever get round to updating any time soon. Anyway here we go:Roy Walker's Goodbye Mr Chips - "It's a good guess but it's not right. Just say what you see. There's Mrs Chips and she's waving..." Bait - Gritty drama starring John Hurt as a fishing tackle shop owner, who uses an unwitting mother and daughter to deceive his fiercest rival as the Thames and District Angling Association league competition reaches it's climax. Ciao Graham Norton - over-exposed celebrity homosexual Graham explores the gay hotspots and gets the brush-off (ooh-er!) whilst camping it up in Italy. 100 Greatest Nazis - five plumb new depths as they take their apparent obsession with the World War II to a horrifying extreme. In the first programme of the series, Lemmy argues the case for Himmler... Tipping The Velvet Uncut - BBC2 demonstrates it's commitment to public service broadcasting by screening this uncensored celebration of sapphism. Warning: Contains female nudity. Wahey! Krakow Graham Norton - over-exposed celebrity homosexual Graham explores the gay hotspots and the history of the trade union movement whilst, surprisingly, camping it up in Poland. I'm a Celebrity....Get Me a Career! - A dozen people that you vaguely remember impinging on your consciousness at some point in the last twenty years, but have definitely never done anything that could be remotely described as "useful", run around screaming at their agents about how they can "barely afford enough cocaine to get out of bed these days and what the f**k do I pay you for anyway." I Love Last Week - the same Z-list nobodies that populate the above programme eagerly queue up to spout vague platitudes and blatant untruths about the culturally significant events of last week. Expect to spend the entire programme shouting at your television. Slough Graham Norton - over-exposed celebrity homosexual visits the gay hotspots and finds himself getting beaten up by some townies whilst camping it up in the town "made hip" by hit BBC2 comedy show The Office. Speaking of which..... The Dole Office - Ricky Gervais returns as hapless incompetent David Brent, who has made a "career change" and is now employed as a benefits clerk for the DHSS. Expect comedy capers. Ooh, it really is just like work!
I think that's enough for now. Happy viewing. Monday 6th January23:50Age of InnocenceIf only we'd known then what we know now. My second favourite TV channel, five (as I believe they're now known), showed Thunderbirds Are Go! the other day. This is, as any fule kno, the Thunderbirds movie. Apart from the now dated Animatronics and the implausible life forms on Mars, it also featured a fantasy scene set in the Swinging Star nightclub on the Moon. Nothing too remarkable about that but the house band were The Shadows, whose puppet Hank Marvin looked more lifelike than the real thing, and who were backing one "Cliff Richard Junior". Yep, that's right, son of the late Sir Cliff. Of course the film was made in 1966 when Cliffie was still a-dating the laydees so perhaps it seemed plausible back then.... Nowadays Cliff has apparently gone into semi-retirement and concentrates on overseeing the wine production at his vineyard and releasing the occasional piece of God-bothering blather, er, I mean, his traditional Christmas single.
Friday 3rd January20:45Tip of the Day (Slight return)Should one of your colleagues return from the United States of Whatever bearing the gift of a bottle of Samuel Adams Triple Bock please take a moment to read through the Tasting Notes instead of simply pouring the contents into a glass and taking a great big swig. Should you go for the big swig approach, don't be surprised if it feels like your face is about to explode.The Triple Bock, an ale brewed with maple syrup, fact fans, is that rare breed - a beer that must be sipped. And not in the bad sense. At a mere 17.5% ABV it's one of the strongest beers around, and certainly the strongest beer I've had for a while. And I decided to toast the New Year with it. Once the blood vessels in my face had settled down after the first initial big swig I settled down to work my way through the rest of the glass and very nice it was too. Thick, dark, fruity, woody and maple syrupy (unsurprisingly) and definitely a beer that you need to take your time over. Cheers Mickey, it was very much appreciated. And should you be off to California at any time, I'll let you have the bottle back as you can get a cash refund on it.
Wednesday 1st January 200320:30All is quiet on New Year's Day...It's certainly quiet in my house - that last-minute run to the off-licence for more beer had the predictable outcome. Too much booze consumed and I've been feeling rough all day. I've only got myself to blame. Still, reclining on the sofa all day, drinking tea, has given me a bit more time to consider what to write today. Not that that's any guarantee that it'll be interesting...I was surprised to learn that almost 17% of people who make resolutions manage to keep them for more than a month. I didn't think it'd be that many, to be honest, as most of the people I know make unrealistic resolutions and then don't change their behaviour patterns to accomodate these resolutions. Still, why make resolutions to change your life only at New Year? If there's something you want to change you can decide to change it at any time. But given that most people seem determined to only make their life-changing decisions at the New Year, here are five questions that you maybe should have thought about last night:
1. Why am I resolving to change this aspect of my life? Bleedin' obvious questions really, but at least asking yourself these will help you understand a bit more about why you're making the resolution and what you have to do to keep it, rather than abandoning it by the middle of January. Personally, I made a number of "New Year's Resolutions" about three months ago. I'm still in the process of figuring out the hows and whys of how to achieve a couple of these but I now have a sort of life-plan that I am working to achieve. And this is the first time in my life that I've actually had some direction, rather than drifting along on the currents of chance and fortune. Soon the world shall see my power. Mwahahahahaha!!
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