Managed to get to the cinema again last night, when we went to see the excellent “Donnie Darko” at The Orpheus. We have been trying to catch up with this film for a couple of weeks and I have to say that it was well worth seeing. I can only really say that it’s a bit like David Lynch directing a teen/ coming of age type film, with the cheery story of mental breakdown underpinning the whole thing. The film is set in small town America in 1988, interestingly the Director: Richard Kelly uses lots of English music from the ‘80’s so we get to hear Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran, Joy Division and more surprisingly Tears For Fears, sending those teenage American kids crazy. I’m never quite sure why English music was so successful in the states at that time, then again I have no idea if these bands were really successful or were they just hip with the “alternative” kids. Anyway, the film is great and I would recommend it to everyone.

We have been starting to make some travel plans for 2003. We are aiming to go to Paris in April for Orynthia’s birthday. It been quite a few years since we last went, when strangely we went in the February and April of the same year, thanks to generosity of the people who run the Eurostar rail service. It’s a great place and another visit is long overdue. When Autumn comes around we are hoping to head off to Australia to catch up with relatives. Because of the uncertainty with Orynthia’s job we had to forego invitations to several weddings down under this year, which was a real shame. Still next October/November we hope to be swapping the damp and murky English weather for something a bit warmer. If we really get our act together, we hope to append some time in Tokyo on either the way over or the way back. We went to Tokyo in 1999 and had an amazing time, fantastic people, interesting food and the best record shops in the world.

So after a week away from work, I joined the small gathering of people at Redland station for the 07:45 train this morning. Going to work at this time of year is always a bit strange, everyone is on half speed and can’t quite work out why they have gone back to work, when there is very little work to do.

I enjoyed the film last night, it’s certainly not the greatest film that Woody has ever made, but it did keep me amused. With the exception of Radio Days, which I really love, most of his “period” films are merely OK. Before Xmas we made a vague plan to go to the cinema a lot during our holiday, unfortunately the cinema screens in Bristol over the last week have been dominated by Harry Potter and The Two Towers, most of the other screens have been taken up with kids films, so we weren’t left with anything to go and see. It’s shame that all the interesting cinema’s (The Watershed, The Arnolfini, The Cube and The Orpheus) were closed for most of the Xmas period, meaning that we were left to suffer at the hands of the multiplex’s.

It’s strange but I did not get round to doing any reading during the break. So much of my reading time is linked to my working life. I normally read whilst I am on the train, and most lunchtime’s I go to the little café on platform 12 of Temple Meads station for a coffee and a piece of cake plus 45 min reading time. It’s almost as though work just gives me a space to find reading time. Anyway, the upshot of my lack of work last week was a complete lack of any reading. I have started to put that right this morning by working my way through the New Yorker double fiction issue which came out just before Xmas.

Having recorded yesterdays radio programme on The Singing Ringing Tree, we listened to it, whilst we drove down to Banwell to see Mark and Babs last night. Take a look at the previous link, for more information on one of the strangest shows ever shown on children’s TV. We went to Banwell Castle for a meal, with Mark and Babs, the restaurant is located in the gatehouse building and is built is lovely arc shape. I had Duck, which was scrummy! Talking of food, Orynthia is starting to transfer some of her old family recipes onto a website. As soon as it is ready, I’ll put a link on this page so that you will be able to cook some of our favourite Burmese treats. As those of you who have eaten at our house will know, Orynthia is a great cook; the wonderful thing about these recipes is that even, someone with basic cooking skills such as myself is able to make a splendid meal.

As a combined birthday and Christmas present, Orynthia’s mum and dad bought me the wonderful Velvet Underground 5 CD box set, we have both been having a great time working our way through the collection. It’s amazing to think that at the time The Velvet Underground sold hardly any records, yet they left an amazing legacy.

Tonight we are off to see The Curse of the Jade Scorpion at The Watershed, with a few friends. I know that Woody Allen has fallen from favour with many critics over the past couple of years, but I still think that his dialogue is a treat to hear. I guess it may just be part of my obsession with all things that are New York related.

BCFC continue to go well. A 4 -1 win at Stockport on Saturday means that we have not lost for the last 19 games. A pretty good way to end the year.

Very excited about this radio show.

Well here we are again, several days later and several pounds heavier! We have had a good but tiring few days. On my birthday we spent an enjoyable time in the recently opened commonwealth and empire museum. It covers an awkward and potentially embarrassing period of British history, it’s something that has shaped the way that many of us live our lives today, so it is important to look at the past and learn lessons from it. It’s not all serious but was very amused to read about the way our glorious leaders continue to export Opium to China, even though the Chinese authorities begged us to stop. Quite interesting, when you think about our present governments views of the Middle Eastern poppy growers that feed current drug problems in this country. After popping out to visit my nephew in hospital, we headed down to The Bell to meet up with some friends and continue the birthday/Christmas celebrations.

Christmas day itself was a quick trip round see my sister and her kids, then over to my mum before we went over to Orynthia’s Mum & Dad’s place for the meal. Quite a gathering, we all enjoyed the splendid food provided by Orynthia and Crescentia. Fat tums all round; we eventually made it home at around 9 PM, where we promptly fell asleep whilst watching Chicken Run.

On Boxing day City were playing at home against Plymouth, unfortunately the police decided that this would be a 12 noon kick off. As always seams to happen the early start resulted in a drab game, when neither side really got going. The inevitable 0-0 scoreline came as no real surprise after the first 20 minutes or so. Still the first 0-0 that I have watched this season, and it was enough to push us into 2nd place in the league. After the match a few friend came back to our place for cheese, cake, coffee and port. Once again we headed down to The Bell. The plan was that we were going to do onto another bar to see Bristol’s oldest DJ in action. DJ Derek, the OAP king of Ska was meant to playing in a small bar in St Pauls. When we got to the bar Derek was their along with only a couple of other people, whilst some dreadful music was being played. We got our drinks, sat down and then watched in dismay as Derek finished his pint, picked up his umbrella and left the bar. The owners of the bar told us that as most of Bristol had been struck with Boxing Day lethargy, so Derek would not be playing. At least it gave us a chance of an early night, so we dropped Ashton home and made our way back to Redland, stopping only to give Petunia and Simon an impromptu lift to a party.

Today, has been a tidy up the house, eat sensibly sort of day. We have not seen anyone else all day, and that’s been quite nice. Back to normal tomorrow though.

Here is a Christmas card for you all. Thanks to Orynthia's skill.

Well after all that talk of birthdays earlier, it is a real shock to hear of Joe Strummers death. As I mentioned recently, The Clash were a really important band to me and many of my friends, they were a band that educated me, as well entertained and inspired. It’s strange but because Punk was against the idea of nostalgia and was about living in the moment a lot of us feel a bit awkward about the fact that musicians like Joe carried on playing. Orynthia and I went to see him at the Closton Hall in Bristol about a year ago. I must admit that I was worried that I would see an old man going through the motions and that it could all be a bit embarrassing. On the contrary it was a fantastic night. Joe played a great mixture of old and new songs, but delivered each one as though it was crucial that he got his message across to you. It was never earnest and lecturing, it was inspiring and invigorating. On the way into the venue, you walk up a flight of about 60 steps, which are split by a central banister. Imagine my surprising on getting about halfway up these steps, when I was greeted with Mr Strummer sliding down the banisters, seemingly without a care in the world. Music in this country just would not have been the same with this man. Thanks Joe.

Well it’s that time of year, when we tend to spend all our time going from house to house to eat and drink and generally just catch up with people. Yesterday for example, we were out from early afternoon, spending time in 4 peoples houses, eating well and just relaxing into Christmas. Saturday evening was spent with Bob and Karen, as they invited a few friends round for mulled wine and mince pies. It was quite amusing to see the increasing anxious looks on Karen’s face, as the assembled young children got more and more boisterous! On Friday evening we went round to see my nephew Craig, as it was his 16th birthday this weekend. To celebrate, he has sold most of his CD collection and spent the money on an electric guitar and amp. Craig and his older brother Carl have made a couple of amusing tapes in the past, using a two string guitar and the bedroom floorboards as a percussion instrument. The 1st one was a Nirvana inspired noise complete with crowd sound effects. The last one was a tape of songs that they had heard of, but never actually heard! An inspired idea. So who knows what Craig will be able to come up with now?

We are smack bang in the middle of the birthday season here. In addition to Craigs, on Thursday it was Orynthia’s uncle’s birthday, today it’s Steve Dew, tomorrow it’s mine and then on Boxing Day it’s Brucene’s. The week before saw birthdays for Teresa and Gus, so it’s another reason why this time of year is such a busy time of year for us.

We just received a Christmas card from our friends John and Jill, they moved to France in September and was amused to hear that posting the Christmas cards, involves a 2 mile cycle ride to the nearest post box for Jill. Worse still the ride back is all uphill!

Yesterday we finally got round to buying a Christmas tree, it’s only about 3 feet high, but it looks great and it just provides that glorious Christmas smell, that only a real tree can give you. We have a couple more things to sort out today and then Christmas will be with us.

Wow, what a glorious morning. I had to leave for the station at 7:30 this morning and emerged from the house into a thick glistening frost. The sun was just rising and as I walked through Redland Green, resulting in a glorious red sky framing the shimmering beauty of the park as birds skipped to and fro. It was a lovely way to start the day.

Took my mum back to the hospital yesterday afternoon, so that the doctors could take another look at her shoulder. Pleased to say that everything was OK. Her arm will be in a sling for a couple of weeks, but she is already feeling much better. As we got to the hospital with quit a bit of time to spare, I had the unusual experience of taking my mum to look at coffins! Very handily placed for the hospital in a wonderful shop called Heaven on Earth. The shop sells all maner of fantasticaly kitch religious items, an incrediable selection of old games from around the world and all maner of weired and wonderful stuff. However, this is all a sideline to the main business which provides unusual and very personal methods of dealing with death, from coffins made from Cardboard to coffins that can be used as a bookcase whilst you are still alive, then converted upon you death, its all here. I've never been to California, but it looks that the sort of place that would be quite at home in that strangest of States.

Tonight, its Orynthia’s company Xmas bash. Partners are invited, so I’m meeting Orynthia at 4:30 and then a coach will whisk us away to a hall in South Bristol. Here we will be fed and watered and also entertained. The Dynamo Rhythm Aces are providing the music. They are a very entertaining local band who play songs by the likes of Motorhead, Nirvana, Sex Pistols and Frankie Goes to Hollywood in a sort of Jazz -Jump-Jive style! Think Louis Jordan doing The Ace of Spades and you will be have the idea. They play it dead straight, which makes even funnier. Should be a good night. Then we only have one more day to get through,Friday is the last day in work for both us before, having the week off around Xmas. Fantastic.

We had lots of fun of Sunday afternoon, as wrapped the Xmas gifts and listened to our Xmas CD’s. The best of which was Its a Cool Cool Christmas.

We had a bit of late night yesterday, I know that’s not unusual at this time of year, but this was a bit unexpected. I was on my way home from playing football for the last time before the Xmas break, when I had a call from Orynthia. On her return home from seeing John, she picked up a message from a friend of my mum’s saying, that my mum had fallen over in town and was in hospital. We dashed into the hospital to see how mum was, this was at about 11:00, and mum was not looking too good and was convinced that she had broken a bone in her left arm. We had to wait around for several hours before the doctors had a chance to take a look at her. It emerged that she had dislocated her shoulder. They pumped her full of drugs and popped her shoulder back in. By the time that we had taken her home and then driven back it was gone 4am by the time we crawled into bed! Luckily for me I’m pretty quiet in work, so I was able to take today off. Orynthia made it into work this afternoon, but is exhausted now, so it’s time for an early night. Let’s hope that this is the last bit of misfortune to hit our friends and family this year. It has been a shocking year for lots of people that we know. My sister has had cancer, her eldest son has had a mental breakdown, and Orynthia’s dad has lost the use of his legs. Lots of our friends have had work related traumas. At times 2002 has been a pretty tough year, roll on 2003!

On Sunday evening we went to see the film Bowling for Columbine. I thought it was a pretty amazing film and really does make you think about the climate of fear that so many people live with. The worst thing is that very often, it is an unnecessary state of mind and the likelihood of suffering an attack of some sort is still pretty slim. However fear breeds more fear and pretty soon everyone is afraid to go out and experience real life. It was great to hear "Take the skinheads bowling" blasting out at the start and end of the film.

OK, here we go. As mentioned below here are 20 (well as close as I could get) tracks that changed my life in one way or another. Quite a few records that I have not played for years, some that I may never play again, but all of them had a major impact on me. I’ve put them in a vaguely chronological order

1) Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon. My sisters album, the 1st record that made me really listen.
2) ELP – Pictures at an exhibition Oops! Prog rock!!
3) Thelonious Monk – Round Midnight . It’s a jazz thang
4) Magazine – Shot by both sides. New wave arrives and it’s great
5) Stiff Little Fingers – Alternative Ulster. Blistering angry passionate punk
6) Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning. Fragile beauty
7) The Clash – Complete Control. Could be almost anything by The Clash. Great ending.
10) Black Uhuru – Shine Eye Girl. The excitement of 12”Jamacan dub singles. Hear that bass
11) Joy Division – Transmission. It sounded like music from another world.
12) Siouxsie and the Banshees – Hong Kong Garden. Angular spiky punk pop at its best
13) Kraftwerk – Neon Lights. Electronic beauty
14) Motorhead – Overkill. Is it rock? Is it punk? Who cares?
15) Grandmaster Flash - Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on The Wheels Of Steel. Just amazing
16) U2 – I Will Follow. And I did! All around the UK before they became superstars.
17) Echo & The Bunnymen – Do it clean. Great scouse pop
18) The Smiths - Hand in Glove. Being in a shop in New York whilst 2 guys debated Morrissey's gender! Should we intervene?
19) Elvis Costello – I’ll wear it proudly. He dedicated this to us on our wedding night!
20) Massive Attack – Unfinished Sympathy. Bristol can produce great music
21) Portishead – Glory Box. Bristol does it again.
22) Belle & Sebastian – Like Dylan in the movies. Memories of an amazing night at the union chapel.
23) Cornelius – Fantasma. Crazy cut up music from Japan, It’s music Jim but not as we know it!
24) The Strokes – Last Nite. New York strikes back, it’s 1977 again!

So many great bands and individuals that I have not included, as I said these were records that changed the sort of music that I was buying and watching.

The football on Monday evening was actually really good fun. It was really, really cold, and the pitch did have quite a bit of ice on it, but there is something madly exhilarating about running around in conditions which would cause any sensible person to snuggle up in front of the fireplace.

I have been racking my brains over the past few days. A fellow blogger, Jen from Washington has been writing about putting together a list of the 20 songs, which have had the biggest influence of your life. I normally hate being asked to name you 5 favourite records of all time, or best record of the year type things. Anyone that loves music will tell you that favourites change from day to day. However this question has got me thinking, in a way it’s more about the sort of music that has been a stepping stone to a different part of your life, so it could be something that is sort of embarrassing now, but at the time changed the way you thought about things. Music often opens the door to other area’s it can spark an interest in, films, politics, books, history, food, people and places in fact virtually anything. I think that’s why I am amazed when I talk to people that aren’t interested in music. Although I enjoyed my time in school, it’s fair to say that I was not overburdened with academic qualifications when I left. A large amount of the knowledge, which I have acquired, has been prompted by a musician’s lyrics or sleeve notes, making me go away and find out about the background to a story, which they have been inspired to make music by. Sometimes this can be a very direct link, The Clash singing about Nicaragua, on other occasions it’s a bit more obtuse, say Charles Mingus working with beat poet’s this leads me to the writing of people like Kerouac and Ginsberg and then onto people like Lenny Bruce, from here I go to Jewish history and politics and so it goes on. Of course it’s not just education that music provides me with, it’s the sheer joy that a great song can bring to you, moments wistful beauty that can stop you dead in your tracks or the mad adrenaline rush that a powerful band can give you. How do people live without the contrast’s that music can provide for you? Anyway I’m working on that list, when it’s done I’ll post it here, so that you can snigger at my embarrassing choices.

Just come back from lunch and it's freezing outside. Looking forward to tonights game of football! According to the weather people it could be about -4 this evening! I'll just have to run around more than normal in order to keep warm.

Well Christmas began for us yesterday. My dad and step-mum dropped in for brunch on their way back home to Devon. Presents were exchanged (but not opened!) and then last night we sat down and wrote out all our Christmas cards. In fact I went to bed feeling a bit icky, thanks to licking all that lovely gum on the back of the envelopes. Thank goodness that we don't have to lick the stamps any more, I just love those peel off sticky backed stamps that emerged a couple of years ago.

We had a really nice evening on Saturday, went to The Cube to see some interesting bands and strange films. First up were a 3 piece from London called Florida, I wonder if there is a band in Florida called London? They reminded me a bit of the Magnetic Fields, sparse electronic arrangements and vocal's split 50-50 between male and female singers. On occasions it was pretty difficult watching the band, as behind them a very bizarre Mexican film was keeping us amused, appalled, shocked and guffawing with laughter in equal measures. We saw all sorts, as a Christ like figure wondered through a chaotic landscape dealing with an army of toads dressed in strange costumes (later to be blown up!), and old man removing his false eye (prompting huge squeals from the audience) and lots of ritualistic icon smashing and eating. At times the band themselves were distracted by the film and when everyone trooped off to the bar, it has to be said the conversation was more about the cinematic exploits than the musical ones. Next up were the laconic, John E. Vistic , they played using some Clint Eastwood spaghetti western as a backdrop. Very appt for their country tinged swamp blues. By this stage of the evening the rather potent Polish Vodka (in my case) and Polish lager (in Jane's case) resulted in us giggling at the supreme performance of posing and non stop fag rolling by one of bands guitarists. A very jolly fellow, who managed to get through most of the performance, without playing a note! After another break Munter took the stage to a backdrop of wild tango dancing and strange Japanese snake women! They appeared to be beset by on stage problems, most of which we were oblivious to. However the feeling of increasing gloom which radiated from the band hindered rather than helped the enjoyment of the fragile melodies which make this band stand out from many of their local contemporaries. The other problem that Munter have is that they are a very quiet band, unless people come to see them in particular, the general level of chat at a gig can seriously impede the enjoyment of fans (and maybe the band as well). They need someone to tell the rest of the country how good they are, maybe then people will actually come and listen to band, rather than using it as chance to pay to go and have a conversation. By the time Munter had finished, the curfew time for live music had been exceeded, Florida had been supposed to come back on and play another set, so after an impassioned rant from the band they managed to get enough gear plugged in to enable them to play one more song, before we all drifted back into the bar to appreciate the excellent music (Nick Cave, The Smiths etc) being played by the splendid Grumpy Men DJ collective. Orynthia, Steve and I walked home in a very jolly frame of mind.

A couple of the guys that I play football with on Monday evenings are making me quite jealous at the moment.
Geoff is about to head out to Sydney for his normal winter break, 6 weeks in one the nicest cities in the world can’t be bad. We have had quite a few invitations to weddings in Australia this winter, and it’s a real shame that we won’t be able to attend any of them. Now that Orynthia has a permanent job we can plan a bit more, so we are hoping to catch up the family in OZ next October/November time. It’s something that we are both really looking forward to, as it’s been far too long since we have seen some of the gang.
Even better though are the prospects for Mick. In December 19th Mick and his wife start a proposed year off work to travel around Europe in a camper van. The thought of a year off work travelling around Europe sounds just fantastic. Then again, I can never work out how you even start to decide what you take with you on that sort of journey? What clothes do you take, how about music, books and the rest? If you take a look at Bill and Doreen’s website via my friend’s links, you see the inventory of stuff that they took on their mammoth bird watching world tour and some very strange things they took with them. We always get in a pickle packing for a weekend in London, when we know what the weather is going to be like, what if you are going to be in Norway at Christmas and Naples in June?

Whilst I was watching City win again on Tuesday night (13 games without defeat!), Orynthia went see Badly Sung Songs, sorry I mean Badly Drawn Boy. Although I quite like some of his records, whenever I have watched doing any live stuff on TV it sounds awful. However Orynthia and Babs both had a fine time in the company of the strange woolly hatted man.

If you don’t live in England, you might not be aware that our firemen and women are going through a period of industrial action at the moment. Whilst they are on strike, fire cover is provided by military staff using 30 year old fire fighting vehicles know as green goddess’s. Much has been made in the media of the slow response time of these ancient trucks from another time, in the early hours of Saturday morning; I got my first look at one. Walking home from our team Xmas meal at about 2:30 AM I was initially somewhat confused when a police car drove past my friend Ant and I, with siren blaring and lights flashing, but instead of zooming along the nearly deserted Whiteladies Road it ambled along at around 30 miles an hour. I thought that maybe, they were looking for a specific individual in a none to discreet way. Then eventually from behind us the green goddess lumbered into view struggling like a middle aged over weight jogger, when approached with a small incline. It was not a sight to give you confidence in our safety.

A few moths ago it emerged that Euan Blair the son of that Mr Blair (no not Lionel) was going to be a student at Bristol university, cue much excitement in the local media. Mercifully since the start of the academic year, we have been pretty much Euan free in the local press. All that has changed since when the weekend, when that paragon of virtue the Sunday Mail decided to announce that the Mr & Mrs P.M. had managed to do a dodgy bit of work buying 2 new luxury flats near the University and somehow were able to knock about price down from £270, 000 to £250, 000 per flat. This is at a time when things are selling like hot cakes and everyone else is paying the full asking price. Of course it may just be coincidence that full stamp duty (3%) is payable on any thing over £250,000 rather than the 1% that they will know pay. Very nice saving, when it’s all added up. Mind you it does seam a bit odd that everyone in Bristol now knows where little Euan will be living. Not very clever from a security point of view!

Yesterday we had one of those strange days when we woke up to pretty thick fog, and it never really left us. From my office, I normally have nice views of St Mary Redcliffe church and the edge of the picturesque Ashton Court estate. However for most of yesterday, only the vague outline of the church spire was discernible in the gloom. As the clouds of fog, moved slowly around, huge buildings would suddenly emerge, only to be enveloped again just as quickly. I like the way that the buildings themselves appear to be moving rather than the fog, We still managed to play football last night and I think that the murky conditions must have helped, as unusually for me, I managed to sneak forward and score a couple of goals! Talking of football, what an amazing game for the Reds on Saturday, losing 4-2 with 3 minutes of normal time remaining, they somehow managed to win 5-4!

The first round of Christmas shopping went well on Saturday. It’s strange though, because of the health problems, which have recently afflicted Orynthia’s dad, we have realised how much unnecessary stuff her mum and dad have acquired over the years. Most of it sits unused or looked at, or even thought of for years and years and years. All the while, becoming more of a hindrance to making changes to your lifestyle as the task of moving things around or even out becomes just to much to think about. It has certainly made us think about the stuff that we have in our house, which we no longer need or want. The charity shops and rubbish collections have been doing quite well out of us over recent weeks as we make a determined effort to claim back the space within our house. Anyway, the point of that long ramble is that it has changed the way that we think about the sort of gifts that we will be buying for people this year. A lot of the gifts will have a natural life span, so hopefully, they won’t just go into that cupboard or box and sit there for years and years until no-one can remember how the item was acquired in the first place. Many more of our friends or family will be able to eat it or drink it then throw away the packaging and avoid the clutter that we all can be burdened with.

Been buying lots of music by guitar bands recently, people like The Libertines,D4, Interpol, Radio 4 and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. A lot of it very reminiscent of stuff that we have heard before. Interpol certainly owe a debt to the likes of Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, Radio 4 remind me a bit of The Associates, Gang of Four and PIL. Along with people like The Datsuns and The Bellrays it just goes to show that guitars are back in fashion.

Over the weekend we watched the amazing film “Dancer in the Dark” directed by Lars Von Trier and staring Bjork and Cathrine DeNeuve. I don’t think that I have ever watched such a raw and emotional film as this. The film is shot in very naturalistic style, so much so that after about 10 minutes Orynthia asked me if all the cast were non actors. The film focuses on the plight of a single immigrant mum as she battles with failing sight and a wilful young son in small town America. The bizarre musical set pieces are very unusual and amusing, the end of the film is more harrowing and upsetting than anything I can remember. It’s no surprise that Bjork has said that she does not want to make another film, this looked like really tough emotional work.

I’m still reading “The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen, just over 500 pages into this huge book and it just keeps getting better and better. The individual stories of each member of the immediate family reveal the complex people behind the public persona that they present or which is thrust upon them. All of this is done in a way, which is often humorous as you cringe your way through the mishaps and emotional catastrophes, which they encounter. The book is all leading towards a last grand family Christmas which the mother is begging her errant family to join her for. With Christmas fast approaching it looks as though I’ve picked the ideal time to read this fascinating book.

Hard to believe, but I think it's time for us to start thinking about Christmas! I think that we are going to make a start on the Christmas shopping tomorrow, because before we know it Christmas will have arrived. I can't help thinking about the fantastic time we had last year in New York, we really enjoyed being in a town that was visually part of our Christmas experience thanks to all the celluloid memories we have acquired over the years. Waking up on Christmas morning in our great little apartment on west 18th street, exchanging simple gifts with Orynthia and Ashton, lunch at the splendid Empire Diner and then a long walk along the Hudson river in cold clear intense sunshine. It was a very different kind of Christmas for us, made even more enjoyable for the simplicity of it all. This year, it's back to normal and although you hear a lot of people moaning about the whole Christmas thing, I have to say that for the most part I enjoy it. I enjoy the shopping experience, I do think it's great fun trying to get the right gift for the right person. You can't always do it, but when you spot the perfect present for someone it's a really nice feeling.

We had a lovely evening last night, went over to Orynthia's Mum and Dad's for another get together with Don's brother from Burma. At times, I felt as though I was an extra in the Burmese version of the old Woody Allen film Broadway Danny Rose, as the 4 brothers and 1 sister sat around and swapped tails of teenage high jinks from 50 years ago. The years just seamed to drift away as the stories came thick and fast. Then we enjoyed a huge array of splendid Burmese food (much of it cooked by Orynthia) before heading home.

We had a great weekend in London, it was on of those times when everything just fell into place. The excitement started as soon as we arrived at the hotel, we had booked parking, but this was a new experience for me as the underground car park was accessed via a giant drive-in lift, a new experience for me.

We had discovered the day before our trip that a documentary film called “Standing in the shadows of Motown” was going to be shown twice as part of the London Film Festival. Now my initial enquiries had indicated that the Saturday evening show was sold out, luckily for us we were able to get tickets for the Friday afternoon showing. The film is a long overdue tribute to “The Funk Brothers”, Never heard of them? Well neither had I, but they were the cornerstone of the large collective of musicians that played on all those great Motown records, which were recorded when the label was based in Detroit. Loads of great old footage, combined with interviews and footage from a reunion concert all combined to make an enthralling and moving film.

After leaving the Odeon on Leicester Square, we were able to wander up Tottenham Court Road in a leisurely manner, on the way to our next port of call. This was a small theatre called The Drill Hall, for the recording of a couple of radio shows called “Lloyd Cole knew my father”, an amusing look at the music industry presented by 3 former music journalist’s turned presenters.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast in our nice little apartment and then took the short walk to The Royal Academy, stopping briefly in the always fascinating Japan centre, and to admire the animated clock strike the hour outside Fortnum & Mason. The exhibition itself was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, a few things were nice but the problem may be with us, On our travels over the years, we have fortunate enough to see most of the sort of art that we really like. The problem with this is that it is increasingly difficult to find new things that really excite us. We will keep looking though.

After that we went back to the Japan centre to pick up some food for our late lunch/early tea, which we enjoyed back at the apartment. At about 3.10 pm I was momentarily very confused. I switched on the TV to check for any early goals in City’s cup match against the non-league minnows. I slightly shocked to see a 7-0 scoreline flash up on the screen. 7 goals in minutes, I thought! Before realising that our match had been played earlier in the afternoon. Still a very nice result though.

In the evening, we caught to the tube over to East End of London to see BMX bandits and 3 other bands in a nice venue on the edge of Spitalfields market. Before the gig, we had a bit of a walk round this most interesting part of London, including a walk down Brick Lane, where every shop is an Indian restaurant, complete with hawkers outside trying to tempt you in with special offers and the promise of fantastic food. Having just eaten it was quite easy to resist, our favourite the guy who proudly proclaimed that his restaurant had no special offers, only special food.

On Sunday, we had time for bit of general shopping and lunch before the drive back to Bristol.

After a couple of fairly manic weekends in Bristol, we thought that we would give ourselves a bit of a treat this weekend. Both of us have managed to get Friday off work, so we are heading up to London for the weekend. Managed to get a bargain on the cost of an apartment right next to Trafalgar Square, so we are right in the centre of things. We have a few plans, as always London offers a large array of contrasting entertainments, and it’s just up to us to make the right choices.

I forgot to mention that I’m currently reading Jonathan Franzen's amazing novel “The Corrections”. The book should be compulsory reading for anyone whose parents are starting to lose control of the lives that they lead, It’s a brilliant, funny, moving and thought provoking book.

Last night we went to see Baxter Dury in action, he is the son of Ian Dury, and him and his slightly oddball band put on a brief but very entertaining performance.

Well, what have we been doing during the past couple of weeks; while our little iMac has been out of action? Quite a few of you will know that we have been pretty busy with health related problems on both sides of our families. It’s been a pretty hectic and worrying time, pleased to say that things look as though they may be settling down a bit now (fingers crossed).

Apart from that we managed to sneak out, on bonfire night to see The Boggs. Mark and Bab’s came round for some food before going to the gig and they bought a box of fireworks with them for our pre gig entertainment. Our resident pyromaniac, Orynthia put on a splendid show, as we all oohed and ahhed at the right moments. The gig itself was a strange affair, imagine the scene, church social club with no stage, plays host to super cool New York band, who are best described as the band that could do for Bluegrass music, what The Pogues did for traditional Irish music. It has to be said that the singer has a slightly “difficult” vocal style, but the energy of the band won most of the crowd over, long before the night was out.

Also managed to catch one of Steve Dew’s many bands “Fuzz Against Junk” at The Cube, where an evening of improvised madness entertained the crowd. We made another trip to our local cinema last Friday to see the creepy and uncomfortable “One Hour Photo”. An excellent film, with superb use of colour and sound. Never before has the blandness of the American shopping centre, been so well captured, and made to look so beautiful, in it’s simplicity.

Because of the extra time commitment that we are going to have to make to our families, we decided that we should get another car for running about in. Yes, we have the lovely old Fiat 500, but even at it’s best, it is not really the trouble free, easy driving car that we need. In typical Thomas fashion, we went out the other Sunday, looking for a little run around and fell in love with brand new Citroen C3! We booked a test drive, but within a day, our needs had changed and so it’s back to the hunt for a cheep 2nd hand small car. Probably another Fiat Cinquecento to add to Redland motor museum!

The iMac is fit and well again! Will write more soon.

Well we had a pretty wild weekend from a weather perspective. Gale force winds ripping through the south west. No damage to our property, but I was due to play football yesterday, that was called off, thanks to the weather. Still it meant that we had a nice quite day at home. We have got a few problems with our computer at the moment, so Orynthia spent part of the day trying fix that without any joy. So if we are a bit slow in responding to any emails, that's why. We don't seam to be doing very well with electrical things at the moment. Our Digital radio has also stopped working, so we had to take that back on Saturday. The trouble is that they aren't expecting another delivery until December! At least we can pick up most of the digital radio stations through our TV Digi box but it's just not the same.

We made our 2nd visit to the splendid Wagamama's restaurant on Friday evening, 9 of us went out, a combination of family and friends and we had a really nice evening. The place was packed, in fact because of it's no reservations policy we had to queue outside for a little while. It's quite strange to see long queue's of people outside a restaurant in Bristol, I guess things will settle down in a few weeks.

On Saturday evening we walked up to the Orpheus cinema to see "Insomnia" the latest film from Christopher Nolan, the man behind the inspired "Memento". Once again Nolan plays around with the conventions of time, as the Alaskan setting covers the landscape in 24 hour daylight. Al Pacino, arrives in town as a man with problems. The lack nocturnal rest bite takes it's toll on Pacino's character, as his life starts to unravel, due to the prompting's of cold and menacing fugitive, played by Robin Williams. The film was good rather than great, just missing a certain spark.

The reds go from to strength to strength, another good away win this weekend (our 5th league win in row!), has consolidated our position in 3rd place. Two home matches to come, so let's see if we can keep it going. The draw for the 1st round of the FA cup was made over the weekend, we have picked up a very interesting game. Away to a team called Heybridge Swifts! Never heard of them. Could be very embarrassing if we come a cropper!!

Well we have had some fantastic news this week. After months of contract work at Sift, Orynthia has been made a permanent member of staff. This really is wonderful, not only because it's a great achievement on Orynthia's part, but also because it takes away the anxiety that would inevitably arise as the end of each period of employment would approach. No more buying of the paper to look through the job adverts, no more time spent preparing CV's for job applications. It's really great news, it also allows us to plan a few more things, as we don't have to worry about Orynthia's contract coming to an end in a few weeks.

To celebrate this exciting news, Orynthia has managed to pick up the cold that I was suffering with last week. Now of course, I shuffled around the house feeling sorry for myself, thinking that I was going to die. Orynthia on the other hand eats a hearty meal to fight off the bugs and goes to work as if nothing has happened.

I picked up a couple of excellent CD's yesterday. The writer and broadcaster Charlie Gillett has put together a series of 5 double CD's, each showcasing the musical heritage of a particular American city. The one's I picked up yesterday, cover New York and Chicago. The New York one starts in the 1930's with the like of Cab Calloway and Charlie Parker, travelling through the subsequent decades we encounter the likes of Billie Holiday, Clyde McPhatter, the Chiffons, Bob Dylan, Suicide and Queen Latifah plus many other less well known artists of the 40 track selection. It's the sort of collection that makes me want to have a family party and watch as the differing types of music engage or enrage the various generations. The Chicago one is in the same format but with more blues based music, so here Jimmy Reed and Sonny Boy Williamson start the party rolling before we bump into people like the Staples Singers, Jackie Wilson and Curtis Mayfield amongst others.

The other day Orynthia was clearing the pockets of an item of clothing, which she had evidently not worn for a little while. In the pockets she was surprised to find several small pieces of paper with exotic sounding names written upon them. Her initial confusion then gave way to the realisation that she must have harbouring the remnants of one of our football sweepstakes.

Anyone that has ever watched an important football match in the company of Steve and me, and a large gathering of likeminded people, will be well aware of the benefit that the sweepstake can bring to watching the dullest of games. We try to go for unpredictable occurrences, so that everyone who has a player’s name in their hand really does have a chance of winning something. We normally like to have prizes for the first and last people to score. As that keeps the interest up for the 90 minutes, in addition we always have a prize for the first player to require medical treatment, sometimes the first or last player to be booked. For matches that have a particular historical theme, we may throw in the name of player from a previous era that could be mentioned in the commentary. For instance, if England were playing Germany, it would be quite normal to pull the name Geoff Hurst from the hat, even though the esteemed Mr Hurst has not kicked a ball in anger for well over 20 years. It just takes a mention from John Motson and your initial stake money will be heading back to you quicker than you can say, "some people are on the pitch….".
My favourite though was in a F.A. Cup final a few years ago, when we decided to acknowledge the age old tradition, of the lid of the F.A. Cup being used as an item of natty headwear by a member of the victorious team. This time the excitement of the sweepstake would not been concluded until someone could claim a pound, because their man had placed the valued piece of silverware upon their sweat stained skull. That particular year Manchester United won the trophy, which was duly passed around the excited players. We oohed and aahed as the lid suffered a succession of near misses. At last it reached the often profligate Andy Cole, he raised the lid towards his head…. The owner of slip of paper bearing Mr Cole’s name yelled in anticipation, only for the typical Andy Cole moment to happen, he actually managed to miss the top of his head and crash the lid into his ear!! Groans and laughter all around the room. Credit though to Andy Cole, he was able to compose himself and at the second attempt managed to crown the cranium, as we all collapsed in fits of laughter.

Anyway, on a rather macabre level we did think that it would have been highly amusing if Orynthia had been found murdered, whilst having the name of some of the worlds finest footballers in her pocket. Obviously this list of names, in true Agatha Christie style, would provide a convenient list of suspects for P.C. Plod to work his way through. You can imagine the conversation. "Now then Mr Ronaldo, can you tell me why Mrs Orynthia Thomas would have a piece of paper in her pocket, bearing your name, on the night she was murdered?"

The weekend went well and we managed to do everything that I hoped that we would. Unfortunately, I seemed to have paid the penalty for too many late nights, I managed to go to work on Monday and indeed play football that evening. After that my body just said NO! Woke up on Tuesday, with a throat that felt like I had been swallowing coarse grade sandpaper all night! I’ve stayed home from work for the past couple of days and am feeling better for it.
I’ve used the time to watch a couple of old Spike Lee films. Firstly on Monday I watched Mo’Better Blues. I have played the soundtrack album to this film pretty regularly over the years but it’s been a while since I’ve seen the film I’d forgotten about the way the film bookends itself with the childhood sequences. Great music, good film. Today I finally made my way downstairs at about 11:30 and after a quick bite to eat, I settled down to watch Do The Right Thing. This is still an amazingly powerful film about the way different races get along, or don’t as the case may be. As always with Spike Lee a great soundtrack does not just add to the story, it’s an integral part of the tale. No easy answers at the end of the film and indeed the conflicting quotes from Martin Luther King and Malcolm X give us few clues to the way forward. I think that in many ways. That is the strength of the film. Nobody in the film is right all the time; foolish words and deeds quickly contradict the good things they seem to say or do. Some people just try to get along, which is we can do. Great music, Great film

On Tuesday evening we watched Clockwork Orange thanks to it’s first ever TV showing this weekend. It’s really difficult to view a film like this with an open mind, after so much hype and comment over the years when it has been unavailable in the UK. We both agreed that after the first 30 mins we could have quite easily have turned off as the catalogue of appalling violence, looked to be heading into cul-de-sac. Once our narrator is caught, things started to become much more interesting and it was amazing to see the connections with present day debates on law and order, and the treatment of offenders. Also it was a brilliant portrayal of the sort of political opportunism, which we though was a new invention. A thought provoking and original film, even after this length of time, still very relevant.

I’ve been reading Toby Young’s, How to lose friends & alienate people. A splendidly acerbic account of his period working in New York and the amazing lack of success, in his working and personal life. On the few occasions that I have seen or heard Toby Young On TV or radio, he has always come across as epitome of the English upper class prat. To his credit, he makes no effort to cover up the worse traits in his character and you can see why people failed to warm to him. However from the way he tells it, he makes a pretty convincing case about the lack of humility or human caring that these very high flying people have in their lives. It may well be the same in London but this book should leave a few people squirming. Then again it’s quite interesting to read the reviews of the book on Toy’s website. Virtually all the American reviews, seem to accept that, this is the way life is, and question why Toby Young would bother pointing out the incredible self importance and lack of comradeship in his short lived contemporary’s. Whilst the rest of world finds all very amusing. The other thing that really comes across in the book, is that people only want to know you, if you are of some use to them. A friend of mine, who is pretty successful in his field, has said to me how much he hates New York, although its somewhere that he has to go fairly regularly, he always does it for the shortest amount of time that he can. Now as someone who loves going to New York on holidays I have always found this strange, but reading this book confirms the impression that my friend has given me. Everyone wants a slice of you or is your best friend when you have something they want, if you don’t have what they want – move over!

OK, if you live in or near Bristol and enjoy food, you MUST go to Sawadee, a newish restaurant at 223 Cheltenham Road. It’s the only place in Bristol that you can buy Burmese food (only 1 dish so far, but it’s great) as well as Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Laos, Indonesian Malaysian plus the more usual Thai, Chinese and Indian. The amazing thing is that all the dishes cost just £5.99 for wonderfully tasty, fresh, authentic food. We went there last night, with a few friends and every one was very taken with the place. Only our 2nd visit so far, but I’m sure that we will be going many more times.

Tomorrow evening we are off to see McAlmont & Butler at the Anson rooms, the start of a busy few days. On Friday night we might go to a club called Level because Grant from Massive Attack and Geoff from Portishead are doing DJ sets. Then on Saturday evening, we are hoping to have a meal at the newly opened Bristol branch of Wagamamas, before we head off to see cheeky scouse mop tops The Coral. If we were a few years younger, we may well have gone onto Blowpop where our friend John Stapleton has booked the intriguing DJ Krush. I can’t see that happening though. Then on Sunday, Orynthia’s mum & dad are coming over for lunch. Not much sleep to be had, but it should be good fun.

Autumn is starting to head towards us, although the sun is still shining it’s starting to get a little nippy. Whilst walking along the lovely tree lined Redland Grove this morning, a sudden gust of wind sent loads of golden leaves tumbling to the ground. It will soon be time to get out those winter jumpers out.

I have just finished reading Atonement by Ian McEwan. Another fascinating read from this most English of writers. His work often reminds of a line used by Pink Floyd on Dark Side of the Moon; "Hanging on in quiet desperation, is the English way." He is better than anyone else I have read at capturing the stuttering, ham fisted way in which we stumble around trying not to "do the right thing" without causing offence. Ultimately ending up trapped in a morass of hidden turmoil, all because we did not want to cause a fuss or make a scene. Atonement is a superb read, hopefully about an England that is in the past, but I’m not so sure.

Orynthia has been off on a girls weekend, to celebrate a friends 40th birthday. In her absence, I’ve not really done too much. Saw the reds in splendid form yesterday, as we thrashed Chesterfield 4-0. We were a bit worried before the game, when we found out that Chesterfield had never won a league match in Bristol in over 100 years of the them trooping down here to play City and Rovers. Added to the fact they had not conceded a goal in their last 5 games, it looked like one of those sequences had to end. We all thought that this would be the time for them to break their duck. Pleased to say that they were never really in the match, and not for the first time this season, our boys really did play some great football at times.

We went to Bath on Saturday evening with our old friends Ian & Maria. Sad to say that we had a rather disappointing meal in the Bistro Papilion. The food was ok, no more no less, but truly miserly portions left a rather bad taste in the mouth, if you’ll pardon the pun. I’ve known Ian for almost as long as I have been alive, back to pre school days in fact. Back at their house Ian delighted Orynthia by producing an old school photo of us, taken when we were about 8 or 9 I guess. I was wearing a rather fetching skiing jumper, which Orynthia loved. I guess the winters must have been colder back then after all.

On Sunday afternoon, we went to a house warming party. Now the gathering and people were all lovely, but for me the highlight of the day were the bizarre noises emanating from the just behind the garden wall! Let me explain, the house is located virtually next door to the stadium that Bristol rugby club and some other football team use. On Sunday afternoon Bristol were taking on Leicester, in what turned out to be a very keenly contested rugby match. So as we were sitting in the back garden our conversations, would suddenly be taken over by the noise of about 6,000 people getting quite excited. Whereas football crowds tend to have general noise and then a sudden roar as the ball is smacked into the net, the nature of the excitement in rugby is the long build up towards the final crescendo, as the crowd cheer their man or team on the 40 yard push to the line. This all leads to a strange sort of elongated growling noise, in place of the short, sharp, shout that I have been used to being part of at football matches. It was all rather strange and I must confess I found most enjoyable.

After the party, we went off to see The Divine Comedy in action, supported by Ben Folds. Here was another chance to study differing styles of showing appreciation by making noise. I’m not sure if Ben Folds had bought many Americans along with him, but it was really noticeable that his fans (and there were many) did a whole lot of whopping and hollering. Whilst the Divine Comedy audience, were much more in the fevered but polite applause, school of approval.

Actually managed to have a fairly quiet week this week, although we find ourselves going out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening’s.

Last night we went to the surprisingly lovely Seymour’s club in that most hidden away and splendidly named part of Bristol "The Dings". I wonder what happened to "The Dongs"? We went to see our friends in Munter once again; they were playing as part of a night of entertainment provided by Black Heart Studios. Munter were their usual brooding and magnificent self. Then the real fun started, the next band up, were the oddly named John E. Vistic. A strange country rock sort of band, fronted by an pointlessly tall bearded man in a slightly dodgy 3 piece suit, topped off with an oversized trilby hat. This man (who may well be called Marcus) entertained us with some high quality between songs patter, delivered in a fine American southern drawl. Odd, given the fact that at all other times during the evening, I would have guessed that Severn Beach was about as far west as his birthplace could have been.

Anyway, for glorious contradictions, they were knocked firmly in 2nd place by the final band of the evening "Zen Hussies" Dressed like Django Rhienhards’s Hot Club combo from the 1940’s they amused, bemused and confounded in equal measures. At times sounding like Jazz version of the Bonzo dog do dah band, singing songs about bouffant hair styles one minute, Battenberg cake and Arctic Roll the next. For 25 minutes they were sublime, then it did become a tad predictable. Most entertaining never the less.
The between band entertainment was provided by some of Orynthia’s work colleagues. The self-styled Grumpy Man playing the sort of music that is normally the domain of those who prefer to wallow in the music from the windswept, lonely side of the street. You know the sort of thing, Nick Cave, Tom Waites and the like. The only problem with them, was that that their wildly grinning, excited faces, in no way matched their Nom De Plume, as they joyfully stormed their way through every record in the male menopause collection

This evening we had one of the first signs of the impending autumn. It came in the form of a smell. Not a bonfire or the rich aroma of damp leaves slowly rotting on the grass. No, this was the true indication of chillier nights on the way, the smell of dust burning on a heater that has not been used for the past 6 months. Now anyone that knows us, will be aware of our fastidious approach to housework. We do make sure that it is done at least twice a year!

A strange coincidence occurred last week. I heard of two people who suffered from burglars breaking into their houses. Now this is both unfortunate and distressing, the strange thing is that in both cases the women of the house are pregnant. It makes me wonder if gangs of cat thief’s (on both occasions, the entry to the house was through a small window) are hanging around outside pre-natal clinics, waiting to follow the expectant mum’s to be, back to the home, in the hope that they will forget to shut a door or window due to hormonal changes taking place within their bodies. Forget stock market fraud, this is the true face of sophisticated crime. Then again, as I said at the start, I’m sure that it is just coincidence.

On Friday evening, we took our first trip for about a month down to The Croft to see John, Ian and Phil whipping up a storm at the latest Four Corner’s evening. Consequently, had a bit of a late night, so enjoyed a nice lie in on Saturday morning. Got up with just enough time left to have breakfast before heading off to Ashton Gate to see the reds in action against QPR. An exhilarating first half ended all square at 1-1. Tellingly we missed two very, very simple chances and lost both of strikers through injury in the later stages of the half. QPR started the second half in very determined mood, and with more than a little help from our unbalanced side, they stormed into a 3-1 lead. We never really got back in contention after that, so our 100% home record has gone. After 10 games we have won 5 and lost 5, looks like we could have another season when we are unable to take points from the top teams in the division.

Saturday evening, Ashton came over, then the 3 of us went into town to meet up with Mark and Bab’s for a quick drink and bit to eat. Then onto that most intimate of venues The Folk House, to see The latest version of Fuzz against Junk, a country band from London called Redlands Palomino Co and McDowell in action. All were enjoyable in different ways.

Whilst Ashton was here, we were able to show him our latest digital gadgets. Along with our Digital TV. converter, we recently picked up one of the first portable digital radios. It’s great, as well as being able to pick the often excellent BBC Radio 6, we can now pick up XFM the London based Indie station and BBC world service, plus a plethora of other stations which I have not really got my head around yet. Anyway, we got a call from Ashton to say that he went this afternoon and bought one of the Digital TV box’s. We should be on commission!

Another busy week draws to end, and here we are heading into late September and still having lovely summer days. Forgot to say in my last entry that we spent part of last Saturday doing a few f the buildings that were open as part of the open doors day. For those of you that don’t know what that is, I’ll tell you. Basically a lot of interesting buildings that you can only access if you work in (sometimes, live in) are open to the public. It’s a good chance to have a nose around all sorts of interesting places. It’s been going in Bristol for quite a few years, so we have seen most of the places that we want to. This year we limited ourselves to just 4 places, Royal Fort House, nice Georgian house, with crazy plasterwork and fantastic grounds. The Old Baptist College, only a small part of this Elizabethan style building was open, but they had some fantastic stained glass windows. Bristol Grammar school, mainly to see the imposing gothic great hall, as Orynthia pointed out "very Harry Potter / Hogwarts (is that right?) sort of hall. Then finally, The Georgian house, which is open all year round, but have not visited for many years.

This week we met up with our friend Jon Collins for another trip to the Cube. This time we saw a rather odd film called Christie Malry’s own double entry. We went mainly because the film is based on a story by B S Johnson , an experimental British writer that Jon bought to our attention a couple of weeks ago. The film had some interesting moments and Orynthia loved the soundtrack, which was written and performed by Luke Haines. It was a shame that we did not go last Friday as Mr Haines was performing some of the songs live as part of the evening’s entertainment.

On Wednesday, it was down to The Prom (after having some fine food from Burma and Laos in a new restaurant) to see the lovely Munter in action. It’s been over a year since we last saw them play and although the vocals got a bit lost at times, they are still a band that show real potential for great things. They play again in a couple of weeks, when a trumpeter will join them as well. Strangely at that gig, the DJ support is being provided by some guys that work in Orynthia’s office. More proof that everyone in Bristol knows everyone else. It really is just one big village.

By the way the Banana Yoshimoto book Goodbye Tsugumi was fab. If you don’t know her stuff, you should!

Well, the Elvis gig was great. He played for 2 1/4 hours , hardly pausing to draw breath between songs. Loads of the old hits, coupled with a healthy chunk of newer stuff, it all came to an end with a haunting and compelling version of "I want you". The gathered collection of balding heads and old bones, managed to last the pace surprisingly well.

Last night we had a very strange evening! Over the past few years we have developed a liking for that strangest of musical forms "Northern Soul". You know the thing great old soul records from the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, which can only be classed as Northern Soul, if they completely failed to sell any copies at the time. Anyway last night we went down to the splendid Grand Atlantic Hotel in Weston Super Mare for our first full on Northern Soul night out. One of the other distinctive things about the scene is the highly individual dancing style that has grown up alongside the music. In it’s earlier years when most of the following were of younger years than they are now, this would include lots of spins, high kicks and splits. Sadly Most of the crowd that were out last night have left those days far behind, we did catch a few whirling dervish type spins and I did see one high kick out of the corner of my eye. In the main it was mainly lots of sliding rather than stepping, the speed and fluidity of which is greatly enhanced by the copious amounts of Talcum powder spread across the floor. A lot people turned up in regulation "60’s Mod type gear, I can’t recall the last time I saw so many people wearing suits whilst not being in work. The other odd thing is that people don’t really dance together, they are all off in their own little world as they wizz around the floor. The next one of these events is in December, I guess that we will be back for more having brushed up on our technique.

The Red’s continue to go from strength to strength, yesterday we manage to record our first goals and points away from home this season. A 3-2 win at Cheltenham Town, has taken us up to 2nd place in the league

Well, tonight we get a chance to see how the knees of our generation are getting on. Elvis Costello is in town, and for the first time in many years he is playing in a “standing” venue. Will the 30 and 40 something’s be able to last the pace or will we need to be rushed off to emergency seating half way through “Pump it up”?

Played football last night in the midst of a tropical downpour, some excuse for my shoddy performance, I haven’t played for a couple of weeks and have been trying to shake off a cold. Then again it could be that my body rejected the appalling colour combination of green football shirt under orange T-shirt, with a red training top finishing “The Look” quite nicely.

I’ve finished reading “About the author” and it’s the sort of book that could make a pretty good film. The problem with reading it as a book is that you have too much time to wonder why our protagonist keeps making such monumentally stupid decisions. I’ve now moved onto another favourite author of mine, Japanese cult writer Banana Yoshimoto and her latest UK release “Goodbye Tsugumi” Less intense than the writings of Haruki Murakami, her books contain a dream like quality which I find compelling.

Last night we went to the newly re-opened Cube cinema , and the good news is that, it is fantastic. The new entrance means that they now have a beautiful little garden area where you can relax with a drink or piece of home made cake! Better still, you get a nice view of one of those New York style external iron fire escapes. You know the sort of thing, the good guy would jump out of the window onto to slatted iron balcony, before dashing to the drop down ladder at the end, to get to the next level, and so on for the next 7 or 8 floors until he hot foots it down the rubbish strewn back alley before the bad guys can catch him. I fully expect an interactive season of '70's cop films with the audience having to leg it as gunfire ring's out through the auditorium!

I have really missed the Cube during it's enforced absence, the breadth of it's programming its quite extraordinary. And the news that they are selling cake's as well just tops it off. When we were in New York at Xmas, I spent my 40th birthday in the splendid New York Film Forum , which is much bigger version of the Cube (but without the quirky music gigs), whilst there we able to enjoy the interesting home made cakes and drinks that they sold, which include that classic old New York treat of a chocolate Egg Cream . It's is very strangely named as it contains no Egg or Cream! Still it all helped to make the viewing of Dial M for Murder in 3D an even more memorable event. One of the great joys of New York to me, is the fact that you can see films from any era, in the way they were meant to seen rather than on video or DVD. If any of you are ever in New York (and as sensible intelligent people I'm sure that you all intend to be at some time), I really would recommend a visit the American Museum Of the Moving Image , I know its in Queens and that looks like it's a long way out of Manhattan, but the subway takes you real close! As well as being a fascinating museum it also shows an astounding array of old movies. When we were there we saw a bizarre version of Alice In wonderland from 1933 which featured Cary Grant as the Mock turtle, W C Fields as Humpty Dumpty and a hilarious Gary cooper as the White Knight. Guess what, they also have a nice cafe. It all comes back to food in the end!

I'm spending today at home as we are having a new boiler installed, any excuse to have a day off work! Due to impending boiler work, we had to clear the kitchen, consequently we have had to a bit of eating out. Friday night, we went out for a drink with a few of my work colleagues for a drink, on the way to the pub we walked through Queens Square which having one of a series on Friday jazz gigs. Well the music sounded quite nice and we were tempted by the food that available. Some nice looking Sushi and various food cooked on a grill by the people from Mud Dock. Typically, in the midst of an otherwise splendid summer the sight of an outdoor music event in Bristol brought the rain. In fact by the time we reached the food stall the rain was heavy for us to consider eating outside. So we went off to the Spyglass, a newish restaurant which is based around the idea of having a your food cooked on a barbecue. The restaurant is split 50-50 between a boat and the harbourside. I think that if the weather is fine you can sit in the open air whilst enjoying fairly cheep and cheerful dishes. However as the rain was pouring down the awnings were up and the gas heaters were on.

On Saturday, I went to see City in action. We managed to keep our run of home wins going with a 2-0 win over a dour Tranmere side. A deserved win, even if the penalty which broke the deadlock was more than a little contentious. After the match I met up with Orynthia at the Arnolfini before to going to watch the excellent Argentinean film Nine Queens . Full of twists and turns, it kept you guessing right to the end. We did sound real bargain eating before the film. Using a couple of the take away food stalls on the centre, we has some delicious Falafel’s followed Banana and chocolate Crepe’s - total cost of £10 for the two of us.

Sunday was a bit of a family day, catching up with people on both sides of the family then ending up at Orynthia’s Mum and Dad’s

After the thrill of reading The Chosen, I quickly read through a easy reading, wise cracking crime caper called The Burglar In The Closet by Lawrence Block – OK but nothing special. Now I am engrossed in a book called About The Author by John Colapinto. An interesting read, we follow our hapless narrator after telling a big lie in order to make it as an author, I don’t know how things are going to end, but I feel that it won’t be too good for our man.

Luckily the pleasant summer weather continues, which meant that we had a nice Bank Holiday weekend. Football on Saturday was great, a really young City team put on a grand display to beat Wycombe 3-0. Hopes were high, only for then to come back to earth, following a 2-0 defeat at Plymouth on Monday. Which means that after 5 games, we have won all our home matches without conceding a goal, conversely we have lost all our away games without scoring a goal. It looks as though mid table obscurity awaits us.

On Sunday we caught up with John, Jane and Mark Stumbles for lunch at the Hope and Anchor, before Orynthia and I took a walk down Jacobs Wells Road to look at the outrageously expensive new flats that have sprung up along the harbourside, including Bristol’s 1st £1,000,000 flat. We decided that they weren’t quite right for our bank balance or us!

On Monday, we went to our local cinema, The Orpheus to see The Guru. Did not think too much of the film itself. However we did like the fact that it was only £5 for the pair of us, it was a bit of a bargain night out, We do really The Orpheus , it’s a pretty ugly building but it has a really pleasant atmosphere. I often think of the time when they had some problems with the heating in the cinema, strangely it seem to synchronise with the films that were showing, so during Apocalypse Now the heat resulted in the Audience feeling as though they too were trapped in the steamy jungle heat of Vietnam. Then again, I recall another film set in the depth of winter (although frustratingly, the name of the film escapes me) when we sat in heavy overcoats, as our teeth chattered along with the soundtrack.

Well, I finished reading "The Chosen" on the train journey home last night. It really is a magnificent book. Although story is set the seemingly, narrow confines of the conflicts in the world of the orthodox Jews in a couple of New York blocks. It is a book that touches on many universal themes, families, conflict, support and the ability to be your own person whilst trying to comply with the expectations that others have of you.

As I sit in front of this computer once again, the glorious summer sunshine is streaming in through the windows. I’m off to see City play Wycombe this afternoon. Our plans for the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend are pretty fluid. Hoping to catch up some friends and there is bound to be food involved!

The imminent arrival of September means that at last we will have some bands to go and see. We have tickets for our old favourite Elvis Costello and Mcalmont & Butler (new LP is great). We are also looking forward to seeing a local band with the splendid name of Munter, which features a couple of our friends. It’s over a year since we have had the chance to them in action and we and a lot of our friends are really looking forward to seeing them again.

Long time, no write. This is mainly due to the mammoth "24" watching that we undertook. Managed to watch 17 and 1/4 hours of the series between last Tuesday night and Saturday evening. Then on Sunday the final 45 minutes wrapped the series up. I have to say that I really enjoyed both the show and the madly intense way of watching it. We did manage to sneak in a bit of socialising in between shows, notably at a surprise 70th birthday party for Steve Vowles mum on Saturday evening.

I am really enjoying "The Chosen", although it covers some pretty heavy Jewish themes in is written in a way that really pulls you in.

We went round to see Ed last night, he is off to Winchester for 6 months, whilst working on a new contract. To celebrate his employment Orynthia made one her trademark cheesecakes. We managed to eat about 1/2 of it and left the rest for Ed to finish off for breakfast!

I had a pretty tiring day today, due to a meeting that I had to attend in Bedford. The journey back was pretty frustrating as I think I must have stuck behind every Hay truck in the south of England, Still another glorious sunny day, it’s been quite strange to see so much of central Europe disappearing under massive amounts of water.

Well, with only a week to go before the series ends, we have got ourselves hooked on the TV show 24. BBC choice are showing all the previous programmes over the course of this week. So last night we found ourselves watching the 1st 6 shows and I am well and truly hooked. It is going to pretty intense viewing for the rest of the week but I quite like watching it all in a huge rush. Quite a few of our friends have been going through the agonies for the few months and now we are starting to understand what they have been talking about.

When not watching TV, I managed to complete The Sandcastle and I did really enjoy it, in a sort of "old black and white movie on a rainy Sunday afternoon" sort of way. Following from that I have started reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Just before we went to Cornwall Mr Potok died and I read a couple of obituaries, which made him, and his books sound very interesting. For some reason I have always been interested in the Jewish New York experience and the articles made great claims for The Chosen, so imagine my delight when I found a 2nd copy for just £2 in a magnificently overstocked 2nd hand bookshop in a small town called Wadebridge in Cornwall. The book is interesting because it looks at the tensions between different strands of Jewish communities, whilst placing those in the context of New York towards the end of World War 2. When seen through the eyes of a teenage boy coming to terms with his place in this society, it makes for a fascinating story.

Our friend Felipe went back to Madrid on Tuesday. It was really good to catch up with him again during his latest visit to Bristol. Lets hope that its not too long before we see him again.

Well the football season got of to a hilarious start, City winning 2-0 against a comically brainless Blackpool who managed to get two players sent off in a couple of minutes and then concede a goal by sending their keeper into our penalty area for a free kick, we get the ball break away and score from about 45 yards into an open goal. Generally low quality football buts lots of laughs.

Went to Ceri and Alan’s lovely house for a party on Saturday evening. Lot’s of BT people and strangely lots of young men in blue shirts.

This morning we went to a great exhibition at Bristol museum based on the Dan Dare comic strips. Loads of great ‘50’s futuristic graphics and it was quite a shock to see the amount of merchandising that was associated with the Dan Dare image. I tend to think of mass market product tie-in’s being something that was created on the back of things like Star Wars. However it’s clear that those crafty business folk knew what they were doing way back in the late ‘50’s – early ‘60’s, Everything from replica rockets to kites and jigsaw puzzles, it was all there. We met up with our friend Simon and his son Thomas in the museum. After seeing the stuffed animals and birds, Thomas announced that he would like Simon to stuffed when he dies. We thought it was quite a good idea, imagine inviting people back to your place and being able to show them your dead parents and maybe grand parents!

After the museum we went round to Heather and Spiders place for a nice get together with 9 other people. Some nice food, drink and conversation on a very relaxed Sunday afternoon.

Back to work tomorrow.

Well, we are home from our little trip to Cornwall and very nice it was too. We had a really lazy time of it. On our way down we stopped at the Bakelite museum a splendid little place, absolutely overflowing with a marvellous collection of vintage household bits and bobs. We were in retro heaven. They also sell the most amazing small caravans. Although they are newly built they look like little Art Deco masterpieces, Very cute indeed. On the Monday of our trip we went to the much-talked about Eden Project, which was only about 15 miles from our hotel. The place itself looks absolutely amazing, it’s the perfect 1960’s vision of the future, I was slightly disappointed that we weren’t made to change into sci-fi style unisex clothing before we started our journey around the domes. We stayed for about 5 hours before out feet gave out on us. Whilst at the hotel I spent most of my time reading. I took an ancient Iris Murdoch novel called The Sandcastle with me. The book is set in a fairly posh but austere English private school and follows the tormented life of one of the housemasters. The pleasantly old fashioned ambience of the hotel made it very easy for me to take the mental journey back to this England that has vanished for ever. The setting for the hotel was absolutely stunning, built atop a rocky headland with it’s own beach, when the tide was out. A series of magnificent sandy bays and coves each with huge cliff’s behind them made for some spectacular walking as the weather lurched between glorious sunshine and the equally glorious misty and moody conditions that Cornwall can through up in an instant.

Back in Bristol in time for the start of the new football season. City take on Blackpool tomorrow afternoon. No new faces to look out for on the playing side but I’m really looking forward to the start of the season.

Our new sofa came today and it’s fab. Our journey back in time to 1950’s continues with this amazingly simple piece of furniture designed by the god like Robin Day.

Well it looks as though summer has really arrived; yesterday the thermometer hit 100 degrees (F) in our back garden. Now for Bristol that’s pretty warm. Playing football tonight could be hard work. I guess I might spend a bit more time in goal than average if it is too warm. As I sit here typing this, the windows are thrown open and the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelly swings through the air. The album is "Swing ’35 – ’39" one of my Dad’s old LP’s which made it’s way to me after he decided that CD’s were the only thing for him. I love the wonderfully relaxed jaunty tone that this music provides, it is amazing that it still sounds so fresh nearly 70 years after it was recorded.

On Friday evening we went to see the excellent French film "Read my lips". The film features some very interesting use of sound, the female lead in the film is partially deaf and we get to hear things in different ways as she plays around with her hearing aids. The film was riddled with the influence of Alfred Hitchcock – never a bad thing in my book.

After the film we met up with a few friends for a quick drink outside The Ostrich. Thought that we would sit outside and had the strange spectacle of watching a young lad running down the road pursued by a large dog. Then a few seconds later a policeman in bullet-proof vest came running along shouting at the youth "Police dog handler with dog. Stop now" Now logic dictates that no matter how fit you are, you can’t outrun a police dog, but having started to run it must be really difficult to actually stop and wait for the dog to leap towards you. We have all seen those police display teams in action, when they set a dog on a man with a hugely padded arm (I often thought that the dogs must think it’s strange when they get to chance someone with two arms of the same size for the first time), and the dog wrestles the man to the ground. So if you are the one being chased it must be well neigh impossible to stand still and wait for the dog to treat you as tonight’s helping of Pedigree Chum. Anyway stop he did, although we could not see the immediate outcome of that but we did see him being driven away by one of the three or was it four police cars that eventually arrived on the scene.

On Saturday we eventually got round to ordering a new sofa, it is a design by the great Robin Day that was first available in 1957, It is a classic, simple design that would be right at home in your local’s beatnik pad. We are very excited and to make it even more exciting Habitat were having a sale this weekend so it was 15% cheaper than we expected. It arrives next Friday, the day after we return from Cornwall.

Oh dear our intellectual credentials are in tatters! Last night Orynthia and I joined forces with our friends, Jon Collins and James Thomas to enter what is apparently the longest running pub quiz in Bristol. We met for a pre quiz meal at splendidly cheap and cheerful "Indian Fast Food", where the heat of my Chicken Jalfrarzi certainly should have woken up my brain cells. Although the turn out for the quiz was not exactly huge, our lack of ability to memorise the innermost details of a Monopoly board combined with an almost total lack of knowledge of the animal kingdom, meant that we finished the competition battling for the booby prize for finishing 2nd last!

Good news for the quirky side of Bristolian nightlife. At long last The Cube is on the verge of reopening. For those that don’t know of The Cube it is a small independently run cinema (and much more) on the site of the old Arts Centre Cinema in Kings Square. It was the home for an amazingly eclectic mixture of the wilder side of the film and music world. The place has been closed for a year due to fire in the Chinese restaurant which The Cube shared an entrance with. We have had some great nights at this fantastically down at heel cinema. It is due to reopen at the end of August and I am really looking forward to it. Often you took the walk along the long corridor into the building without really knowing what you were about to let yourself in for; always interesting, often chaotic it was a shinning star in the Bristolian entertainment scene.

I’ve been reading an excellent article in the New Yorker magazine, which talks about the problem of over qualified, over ambitious people being pushed too far, too quickly by companies who think that the way to succeed in this wonderful corporate world is to get lots of lovely newly qualified MBA’s, pay them huge sums of money and keep promoting them before they get a chance to understand what they or the company are doing. The article went on to point out that many of America’s top performing companies are those that actually have people at the top who have worked their way gradually through an organisation, rather than people who have stormed through like a whirling dervish, having no true grasp of what they are doing because they are incapable of seeing the true impact of the decisions they make. Now I am not an ambitious sort of chap but I do know that the bits of BT that I have been involved have only worked when we have had people in charge who aren’t just concerned with the next big promotion and added share options. Mind you, one aspect of the current stock market crash that I have enjoyed is the crumbling values of these share options which we were told were a gilt edged "can’t lose" bonus. My My, don’t I sound bitter and twisted today!

During the weekend I read charming piece on P G Wodehouse in The Guardian. It reminded me, what a joy it is to read the sparkling prose of the great man. Since the start of the World Cup my reading habits have fallen back to magazines and newspapers rather than books. Time to rectify that and Wodehouse is the man to kick start the reading campaign.

Well the end of busy weekend is here. Once again Ashton Court was the normal mix of average bands and lovely people. We had a very social time amongst tens of thousands that turned up. No major musical treats, my highlight of the weekend was watching people career down the hill, in front of the Academy stage thanks to a track made from bits of cardboard on Saturday evening. A wonderfully haphazard collection of individuals speed towards a metal fence at high speed. Most of them managed to loose their balance and crash to the floor before eating the metal! The sun shone for most of the weekend and we even managed to eat some food which we had not tried before, It was a French sort of stew thing made from Potatoes, Bacon and Cheese which was cooked in an huge pan, very tasty and filling. No Jerk Chicken for us this year but a new West Indian restaurant has just opened on Whiteladies Road, which is excellent news.

Said goodbye to our new friends from Korea today, We spent sometime with them on Friday evening and it was amazing to see the kids playing hangman in English. They have only been in England for a year and the youngest of them is only 7 years old. They were a really nice family the husband is a producer and director of TV programmes in Korea (he works for MBC). Maybe one day we will some of his work on English TV.

Anyway, we are both exhausted, must be all that fresh air, so I think it’s time for bed.

Well the summer looks as though it has arrived and with the 2 day Ashton Court Festival approaching this weekend the timing couldn’t be better. Last Sunday we had the unusual experience of a Thomas visit to the country! On Sunday we visited Slimbridge, home to many thousands of birds who live in close proximity to water, so we saw masses of different types of Ducks, Geese, Swans and Flamingos. Although the birds are free to leave the whole did have the feel of a zoo, so consequentially the initial excitement of seeing so many birds soon gave way to a sort of pleasant "Oh look, there’s another rare South American Duck" type experience. Much more exciting was a trip around the outlying parts of the reserve. We clambered into a trailer attached to a Land Rover were driven out towards the Severn Estuary. For the next 90 mins or so we were able to see a smaller but much more interesting array of wild creatures. The highlights of which was a magnificent swooping aerial display by a Buzzard and later watching a wonderfully bored, fully-grown Hare siting quietly in front of a gate which we were waiting to drive through, eventually it bounced away into the next field. Whilst on this trip our group of about 15 people were guided by a couple of rangers, both of them lovely guys who’s obvious love of their job shown through, as they excitedly pointed out features of the landscape to us. Fantastically knowledgeable and yet completely free of ego, if only all strands of work could produce people who are at the top of their profession and yet have no desire to flaunt it.

During the World Cup we struck up a friendship with a Korean family living just around the corner from us. Now if you watched any of the Korean games you will know that during the tournament it looked as though everyone in Korea was wearing a red T-shirt with the rather strange slogan "Be The Reds" written on it. On Saturday morning the whole family (Mr Choi wearing his recently acquired red T-shirt) came round to present me with a splendid Bandanna with the slogan emblazoned on it underneath the Korean flag. This was passed to me in an amazing box made out of paper in a sort of Origami style by Mrs Choi. A really lovely gift, sadly they are heading back to Korea this Sunday, so we won’t really get a chance to know them.

I love this What time/date is it?. Boy that guy works hard! best viewed in IE I think - but what do I know?

It’s a strange thing but I have found a couple of new TV programmes, which have become "must watch" slots in our week. The 1st of these by a couple of weeks is the splendid Six Feet Under, which always starts with a wonderfully haphazard death (man killed in giant food mixer, former porn star electrocuted in the bath by her pet cat etc) and then goes onto show the attempts to provide the sort of funeral that the family and friends of the deceased want to see for their dearly departed. We also get to watch the painful process of the family who run the funeral parlour business trying to co-exist, when they should not really live in the same state let alone the same house. It’s made by the same people who made American Beauty and it shows. The other show is The Job, yet another show about New York cops. Pleased to say that the emphasis is drawing out as much humour as possible from gleefully acknowledged stereotypical cops, You know the sort of thing, the elderly overweight Irishman, the wisecracking lead man who is not quite as sharp as he thinks he is, the two innocent newly recruited Latino cops (one of whom has not said a word in the 1st four shows, as far as I can remember). This has all combined to produce quite a few laugh out loud moments, which comes as quite a shock after years of drab TV.

Well the Lambchop gig was just fantastic. The Fleece turned out to be a perfect venue for a band on top of their form. On this occasion, Lambchop were a 6-piece band rather than the 12 (I think) who came to town last time. We were treated to a much more varied show this time around; we even had the unexpected spectacle of watching Lambchop "rock-out!" on a couple of occasions. The intimacy of the venue seamed to suit the band much more and the joyfully exuberant response from the crowd appeared to really delight the band.

Just got back from visiting my Dad in Devon, Orynthia was driving, so I managed to relax with my eyes closed whilst listening to Storytelling the latest Belle & Sebastian CD. Now I must have heard this album at least 60 times in the past 5 weeks or so, and still I love it. I really think that it contains much of the band’s best work. Songs like "Big John Shaft" are just glorious. Also blessed with some beautiful instrumental tracks, it is that rarest of all beasts, a CD that I find myself humming and whistling along. I am not normally known for vocal outbursts whilst listening to music. So something pretty special must be going on here.

When we were coming back into Bristol, I decided that if I was a writer, I would try to write something where all the characters have the names of Bristol suburbs. You can guess the sort of thing; Bradley Stoke and Lawrence Hill go into town to meet up with that well-known communist Red Cliff. Later they spend some time with a couple of girls, Hen Grove and a couple of foreign students; Cot Ham from Ireland and Be D’minster from France. Then they go back to Lawrence’s place where he has a blazing row with his dad Bart(on) Hill. Phil Ton calms everyone down etc.

Following a recent attack on a small child by a Fox, The Guardian did a nice
piece on inner city wildlife today. I think it's great that the very rare
and strangely named Black Redstarts can be found on some industrial
wasteland within walking distance of Canary Wharf. Now these birds are rarer
in the UK than the Golden Eagle or The Osprey. Less than 100 nesting pairs
in the country and wisely they have decided that they would rather live in
the heart of the city than waste its time moping around in the dull old
countryside. I was talking to Orynthia about this the other day and I think
that I have worked out why I don't like the countryside. We are sold the
idea, that the countryside is a wonderful place where we can relax and do
anything we want to do, in this glorious open space. Now when I was younger,
I would see a nice green field and would immediately think, wow - what a
great place to go and play football, Upon rushing into the field, I would
discover that the grass was knee high, the ground was full of lumps and
bumps and most likely covered in cow dung as well. In other words useless!
Nowadays the ideal use for a nice green space today, is of course, a
sumptuous picnic. If you can succeed in finding a piece of land where the
aroma of the dung does not knock you senseless, you can bet that you will
need an industrial strength roller in order to get the grass down below knee
height. Now compare this to city, where the parks and public spaces are full
of neatly trimmed grass which just demand to used by human beings. Maybe the
wildlife of the UK has finally worked out that it's time to move into the
city!