Went back to work yesterday, for my first Saturday working in the shop. It was actually a pretty quiet day, many of the cafés and bars on Park Street were closed, so it felt more like a Sunday really. I like the fact that at this time of year it’s really easy to lose track of the days of the week. Today I’m off see Bristol City play Bournemouth, obviously that would normally take place on a Saturday, so tomorrow I’m going to be convinced that it’s Sunday, better make sure that we both remember to go to work. Then when we get back on track they go and throw New Years day at us, so another day off and more mental confusion for a simple chap like me.

We had a gently social time over the past few days. Met up with a few friends on Xmas eve to celebrate my birthday, had to have a late change of venue for our lunch gathering as the place which we had booked, was not actually serving food, although they had neglected to tell us this. Still we managed to find a nice café on Gloucester Road and had a fine time. After the meal a few of us popped into the excellent Repsycho, where we marvelled at their wonderful collection of the kitsch and the classic from the 50’s 60’s and 70’s.

Xmas day itself went really well, we finally staggered home and just about managed to stay awake to watch Belleville Rendez-Vous. Boxing day was a very lazy, apart from a brief trip to the dustbin, I did not leave the house all day, which was fine.

Whilst I was working Orynthia introduced her cousin Caroline (who is spending Xmas with us) to delights of the ladies lunch club at the Boston Tea Party.

Last night we popped round to see Rick and Louise and as is often the way. I found myself engaged in a long an interesting conversation about music with one of Rick’s friends. Having started off talking about “cool” bands like Joy Division, we eventually found ourselves admitting to our Prog Rock and Heavy Metal past’s. We all have our skeletons in the cupboard.

Record of the Xmas period for me, is the latest brilliant album by Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Really inventive, funny and funky, it’s a great record.

Despite a couple of weather forecasts raising our hopes, no sign of any snow here yet. We are long overdue a decent snowfall, maybe this will be the year!

Looking past Xmas, we booked a couple of things to look forward to. Firstly in early January we have got tickets to see the marvellous Ladybug Transistor in London, as luck would have it we were due to visit London on the 9th January for “Tea at The Ritz” (a Xmas gift from last year), amazingly the only gig that the band are playing in the UK on this trip across The Atlantic was scheduled for the night before, so we will be heading up to London on the Thursday in order to catch the gig as well, also pleased as we managed to book reasonably priced (for London) accommodation very close to the venue.

Then on Friday 23rd January the equally splendid Camera Obscura are playing at The Cube, the perfect place to see the band which gave us one of the best albums of 2003. I had a chat with the guy who has been arranging it for The Cube, and it sounds as though he has been having great fun trying to decipher those lovely Scottish accents over the phone, during the negotiations.

We’ve also booked the flights for the Bilbao trip for the first week in February, so all in all we’ve got a lot to look forward to in the New Year.

Although there is no such thing as an Imperial Music Xmas bash, the previous couple of evenings and seen me out and about on a pair of festive nights out.

On Wednesday Orynthia’s company treated us to an evening in the gothic splendour of Ashton Court Mansion. For the first since leaving BT at the end of October, I had to slip into a suit, luckily I just about remembered how put a tie on as well. Orynthia looked radiant and it was quite nice to be in a dressy environment for once.

Last night, the Monday night football gang finally managed to arrange a social night out, mainly thanks to the organisational skills of Scott. Nine of us met for a curry, before somehow blagging our way into the South West Press Xmas party, for a late drink. Scott is about to join the Australia exodus, which many of our musical friends seem to be experiencing this winter. Geoff is already down under for an extended visit, John and Jane head out for a month early in January. Scott and his musical partner Andy Smith have the exotic sounding prospect of a New Years Eve gig in Sydney, then New Years day in Perth, before squeezing in one more show in Singapore on the way back of their whistle-stop trip.

Had a pretty frustrating day today, sitting in the traffic of a grid locked city. I think that everyone must have finished work at lunchtime and decided to drive home. What should have been a pretty quick trip to take my sister to the supermarket, turned into a bit of a marathon.

Tonight it’s going to be the last ever Four Corner’s at The Croft, hopefully a decent crowd will make it a night to remember.

You can see some pictures here of our recent trip to Tate Modern in London.

Had a surprise visit tonight from one of our Spanish friends. Jose is from Bilbao but has been living in Bristol on and off for the past few years. We got in touch with him recently because we are hoping to go to Bilbao next February, so we thought we would pick his brains about accommodation.

He popped in this evening to say that he is going back to Spain for Xmas in a couple of days time, then after a brief return for New Year in Bristol, he is off to start a new job working for UNESCO in Jamaica! I think that he is still a bit stunned by it all, but what a great adventure, one thing does worry him though. I told him that the Jamaicans love cricket. For all his adaptability and willingness to adapt to local ways and customs, the majestic game of cricket has always remained a cause of bemused confusion for the poor chap. He once asked me “How can a game last 5 days, and still end in a draw?” Maybe with that warm Caribbean sun shining on his back the game will make more sense to him then it does in chilly old England.

We’ve had some interesting customers in the shop recently. Of course all our customers are interesting, but some stand out more that others. Last week Julian Cope spent sometime in shop before picking up a copy of the Gonga album. Today we spent a while with Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame, he was in a very chatty and jolly mood, buying lots of goodies. In fact it was a pretty busy day, the Xmas rush really seemed to begin, now all we need it some snow. One of my old BT colleagues also came into the shop. The old team that I used to work with is being merged with another team and it sounds as though things are generally pretty miserable there at the moment, which is a real shame for the people concerned. I am so pleased that I left when I did.

Woke up this morning to a cold and foggy day. In fact the car would not start, I guess due to a combination of cold and damp, luckily this meant that I had a lovely walk through the misty splendour of Redland Green Park. Lots of birds were skipping around, I thought at first that were having their breakfast, but when you think about the ridiculous time which birds get up at, then I guess it would have been more like lunchtime for them.

Once in the shop, it was one of those days when lots of friends happened to visit. In quick succession 5 people came in, the funniest was Darren, more of an acquaintance really. He is one of the many people that we know through Steve Vowels. We watched a few football games together over a glass of wine. He was about to leave empty handed when he spotted me by the door, I was checking the stock situation, so I had pen and paper in hand. It’s been awhile since we’ve seen him so his was unaware of my change of career. He assumed that I had an enormous Xmas list that I was working my through and was shocked to find that I was working in “the best record shop in Bristol”. He kept on congratulating me on my new job and laughing out loud. After a few minutes of banter I’m pleased to say that he left with a couple of purchases.

Tomorrow night we shall be heading into town to try and complete (or at least break the back of) our Xmas shopping. We actually don’t have to buy too much this year, helped by the fact that my sister and her 3 boys have decided that they no longer recognise Xmas or indeed birthdays!

Our final gig in the crazy sequence was great. Belle & Sebastian played lots of different songs from the London show and went down a storm on their first visit to this part of the country. Support act Franz Ferdinand impressed me a lot with their spikey, angular performance. Have to say that they reminded me a lot of Josef K, Scottish favourites from a previous century.

I can’t really believe that we are so close to Christmas. Usually by this time of year, I’ve been out for lots of work related Xmas meals. I have to say that I quite like the fact that nothing like that goes on in the shop. The thing is that we all have a great time in work anyway, so we don’t need to conjure up an excuse for some joviality. I also love the fact that we can give such joy to people. It’s great to sell someone a record which they have been trying to track down for ages, and it’s also good fun helping out all those confused mums who come into the shop with scribbled notes indicating the music that their loved ones would like Santa to bring them. I guess in a way we are just Santa’s little helpers!

At last the chart the world has been waiting for is here! The definitive guide to the best records of 2003, can be found at the Imperial Music website. Did your favourite make the list?

So it’s been a really busy few days. The Strokes gig in Cardiff on Wednesday night was fantastic! They played for about an hour, and were gone without any encore, which was exactly right. Incredibly tight, they ripped through their set as though their lives depended on it. Next time they come to the UK, I fear they will be playing the big stadiums, so this may be the last chance I get to see them – if so, what a brilliant way to remember them.

Thursday night we were off to The Thekla to see 3 of my new colleagues in action, When RLF and friends supported The Bug. Brilliantly inventive electronica, with live brass section and scratching, they were great. As for the videos – Genius.

On Friday we took advantage of our journey to London for the Belle & Sebastian gig, and nipped along to Tate Modern to see the stunning installation by Olafur Eliasson, The Weather Project. His enormous fake sun shining through the artificial haze creates an amazingly restful and calming atmosphere. It was very strange to see people lying on the concrete floor, to all intents – sunbathing, although no heat is generated. One couple even appeared to be having a picnic! Well worth taking a look at, and it’s free!!

After a brilliant Indian meal, we set off for The Astoria, when we arrived the “Indie Karaoke” was already underway. The efforts of the highly entertaining Johnny Seven made for an amusing competition, which was eventually won by a chap pretending to be The Mamas & Papas (no mean feat). When the gig proper started Stuart Murdoch appeared to be somewhat out of sorts, which resulted in a slightly tense atmosphere on stage. The mood lifted after Mick Cooke’s splendid impersonation of Herb Alpert and soon the band were back on top form and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Songs were liberally taken from all periods of the bands career and Orynthia cheerfully pronounced it, the B&S gig she had seen. Let’s see if they can top that on Sunday evening in Bath.

Today I went to City play Barnsley in the F.A. Cup, although we battered them for most of the game, we were unable to get the goal we needed, so the match ended 0-0. At least we are in the draw for the 3rd round, when all those millionaires from The Premiership join the competion, maybe we will get our chance to take on one of the big clubs at Ashton Gate, assuming that we get past Barnsley in the replay.

The following note is taken from the Belle & Sebastian website and refers to the the London gig which we are going to on Friday evening. Could be quite amusing.

"To all of you who made it to the Glasgow Album Launch, you'll know the drill already, however, for those who don't, the support band for the Friday London show is going to be an interactive karaoke affair! The Johnny 7 are going to be the band, and we need you, yes, that's YOU!, to choose from the delectable list of indie karaoke delights below and volunteer to get up on the stage at The Astoria and belt it at - simple really!
If you have tickets and wanna display your vocal prowess, please email and tell us which song you want to sing. We'll then contact you to discuss meet-up points for the night.
**Please note, if you haven't already got tickets, we're not going to be able to get you into the show, despite how much you want to participate, sorry.**
Stuart Murdoch will be your compere for the slot and there'll probably be a prize for the best performance too, so even if you're not up for singing, please come along early to join in the fun and shout loud for your fave.
Here's the list of Johnny 7 approved songs!
Aztec Camera : oblivious
Baccara : yes sir i can boogie
Burt Bacharach : this guy's in love with you
Shirley Bassey : goldfinger (or almost any bond theme)
Belle & Sebastian : legal man
Blondie : heart of glass / denis / sunday girl
David Bowie : the man who sold the world
Camper Van Beethoven : take the skinheads bowling
The Carpenters : close to you
Edwyn Collins : a girl like you
Doris Day : perhaps, perhaps, perhaps
The Delgados : pull the wires from the wall
Dexy's Midnight Runners : geno
The Doors : light my fire
Franz Ferdinand : darts of pleasure
Astrud Gilberto : the girl from ipanema
Mary Hopkins : those were the days
Jacky : white horses
Daniel Johnston : speeding motorcycle
Tom Jones : it's not unusual
Kylie : can't get you out of my head
Julie London : cry me a river
Madness : baggy trousers
Maaonna : like a virgin / material girl / borderline
The Mamas and The Papas : california dreaming
Kelly Marie : feels like i'm in love
The Monkees : last train to clarksville / i'm a believer
The Pastels : nothing to be done
Freda Payne : band of gold
Elvis Presley : bossa nova baby
Pulp : babies
Santana : black magic woman
Dusty Springfield : the look of love
The Strokes : last nite
Supergrass : alright
The Supremes : baby love
Teenage Fanclub : the concept
Thin Lizzy : the boys are back in town
Tight Fit : the lion sleeps tonight
Velvet Underground : sunday morning
Bobby Vinton : blue velvet
Dionne Warwick : say a little prayer
White Stripes : you're pretty good looking
Andy Williams : music to watch girls by
And almost anything vintage by Elvis, The Beatles, The Stones etc."

Lots of dashing around at the moment, hence the lack of entries here. Just time to say buy the new mini album, The Stereo and God by Joy Zipper, it’s a fine thing.

Managed to squeeze in visits to a couple of new restaurants this week.

On Tuesday we went to one30, the latest venture from Chris Wicks of Bells Diner fame. He has taken the brave decision to open a lovely new bar and restaurant at the lower end of Cheltenham Road, which is not the most salubrious part of town. The place itself is really nicely laid out, plenty of lounging space in the bar and a simple yet stylish restaurant area. As Orynthia had eaten at lunchtime, we decided to share a selection of Tapas for £12.50, which was both plentiful and delicious, great value for two people.

Last night one of Orynthia’s colleagues was leaving work. Every one met up at Wall Street for drinks. To our surprise the ground floor has been converted into a pan Asian restaurant, where you order A La Carte or pay £11.95 for a help yourself buffet. We elected to go for the £11.95 option just to keep things simple and it was a good choice. It was the opening night for this place and gradually quite a lot of Orynthia’s workmates made the journey downstairs in various states of inebriation, so it was a pretty good test for the staff. They coped well enough with the traditional drunken British male, so they should be OK in the future.

Well we have almost shaken off our collection of bugs and could both soon be sneeze and cough free.

On Friday we had our chimney swept in preparation for lots of snug winter tea times in front of a roaring fire. We also had a visit from Kev’s dad, he is coming back today to decorate our bathroom for us, which may be a tad foolish, as we don’t yet know what is causing our shower problem?

Friday evening was spent at Four Corners, lots of people were out and about including fellow blogger Paul Baxter. We have a good chat about the mysterious world of blogging, why we write and why people read them as well. No major conclusions but it we had a good laugh.

Saturday saw my sister coming out of hospital after her recent op and a cracking win for Bristol City against 2nd in the table Barnsley. Maybe we can start to put some real form together now, please!

During the rest of the weekend we have both been working on the end of year chart for Imperial. The web site is virtually done, the poster printing is going to be done by Katja’s company. With a bit of luck, it could all be sorted by next weekend.

Not many updates lately, most of my time in front of the computer has been spent on the end of year chart for the shop. We have made lots of progress now, thanks in the main to Orynthia’s web skills. Getting the chart printed up for the shop is proving to be a time consuming project. I took some staff pictures for the website today, which turned out to be quite amusing.

Other than that, I have fallen victim to the cold bug, which is doing the rounds, and Orynthia is still trying to completely shake off the flu. Ric should be coming to look at our leaky shower tomorrow. We both have the day off which is nice. We will be entertaining the esteemed Mr Ian Green of Fuzz Against Junk tomorrow evening before heading down to Four Corners with him. This week Monday night footie pal Scott Hendy will be joining the 3 wise men on the decks, should be good.

Looks like we might be going to see The Strokes in Cardiff at the start of December! Later that week we will be seeing Belle & Sebastian twice. Looks like the Xmas rush has started.

Oh no! Woke up this morning to find the kitchen covered in water. Looks like the shower is leaking!!

As soon as had I finished writing yesterdays entry, the heavens opened and the wind ripped most of the leaves from the trees. Leaving a lovely squelchy mess all over town.

In the afternoon, I meet up with my one and only cousin Robert. Even though for most of our lives we have lived no more than about 50 miles away from each other, it must be at least 20 years since we have seen each other. My sister Susan and I met up with him at The Watershed and spent the next couple of hours comparing notes. It was amazing to discover how much we had in common, hopefully we will be able to keep in touch, now that contact has been re-established.

Sue goes into hospital for another operation next week, she should be in for about 4 or 5 days, leaving 2 of her teenage boys at home together. Amazingly the two lads have not spoken to each other for about a year! I can’t imagine how they can live like that. Maybe next week they will have to break the ice as Sue won’t be around to act as an intermediary between them.

The Holly Golightley gig last night was a bit disappointing. The band seemed to lack a bit sparkle, so we made our way home before the end of the show.

Tonight we are off to a bit of party at Ceri and Simons and then aiming to end up at the latest Grumpy Man evening.

It’s strange but after only 2 weeks, Thursday now really feels like Friday used to. I’m enjoying working 4 days a week (who wouldn’t?). It has been a busy week, on Wednesday night we went out straight from work for some tapas with Mark and Bab’s before heading off to see The National at The Louisiana. I really enjoyed the band although some of the other reactions from our friends were a tad mixed.

Last night we meet up with Ashton. We were finally able to give him his 45rpm T-Shirt for his 45th birthday. We bought it for him about 11 months ago, pleased to say that he loved it. Then Mat and Helen joined us, before heading into The Fleece to see the divine Martina Topley-Bird in action. What a wonderful voice she has, also love the lose and laid back, blues edge which she has bought to her music. Marvellous stuff.

Looks like the Imperial Music end of year chart will have a web presence, when it is finally compiled. It may even have staff photos on it, so you will be able to see the guys that I am working with. So it looks as though the new digital camera will come into it’s own then. Actually it’s a lovely autumn day here today, so I might try and take some pictures of the neighbourhood in all its golden leaf glory.

Over the past few days I’ve revisited South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami. It’s a really beautiful book. On the surface it’s very simple and understated but it captures the uncertainty of seemingly successful man brilliantly. It’s much more straightforward then most of his work, but is still well worth a read if you have the chance.

Looks like we may be off to a few gigs this week. On Wednesday it’s The National at The Louisiana, Thursday it’s Martina Topley-Bird at The Fleece and on Friday it’s Holly Golightly at The Croft. I also have got to try and catch up with my one and only cousin as he is studying in Bristol for a few weeks. Have to try and do this before my sister goes into hospital next week, which is going to be tricky!

It seems like the people of Bristol aren’t drinking enough at the moment!

It sounds like our favourite fortnightly Friday night out – Four Corners at The Croft, is under serious threat because the bar taking aren’t high enough. It’s true that on some occasions the place has not been packed to the rafters, but when it is busy people tend to be dancing or watching the band, rather than rushing to the bar to get blasted. It will be a real shame if it does close down, it’s always a really social night out for us.

The same is apparently true of The Albert in Bedminster. The Albert is a pretty basic pub, which has built a brilliant reputation for the Jazz and Folk nights, which it puts on. The landlord Ian has attracted some of the best names in the world of modern Jazz to this small pub. However the recent rise in property prices in the Bedminster area sounds like it has prompted the owners into thinking that they could make a lot more money by converting the site into expensive flats. Of course, there is obvious financial logic in this, but the reason why Bedminster has started to become popular is because of places like The Albert and The Tobacco Factory, sure they would all be worth more split up into tiny units and sold for stacks of money, but then the people that live their won’t have anywhere local to go to, so a previously vibrant and interesting area becomes a sleepy suburb again. The curse of gentrification I guess.

We surprised ourselves yesterday. We actually managed to get a radio/cassette fitted into our new car for exactly the amount of money we hoped to pay AND within about 30 minutes of leaving the house. We thought that having a cassette player installed might be a problem as every one wants CD players in their cars these days, but we were pleasantly surprised. We have enough problems locating CD’s, which are spread around the 4 players in the house, without wanting more being suck in the car. Also we don’t have the technology to allow us to burn CD’s so the good old mix tape is fine for us. Of course in a few weeks the car will become littered with unmarked tapes as we load it with our latest favourites.

A bit of a spin on the American "Most wanted" playing cards can be found here
I've spent some of my day off doing homework! Mark wants a list of my fav 30 albums of the year, for the grand, Imperial Music end of year chart. It's hard work you know!!

Well that’s my first week in the shop completed (ah the joys of a 4 day week!), and what a great week it’s been. As expected all the people in the shop are great to work with, I really enjoy chatting with the customers, and when we are doing the behind the scenes work, there is always some interesting music being played. As expected, the holes in my knowledge of dance music are clear to see, but in time I’m sure that come. I’m really lucky to be working with Jay who has an outstanding knowledge of Hip Hop and Ralf who knows his electronica inside out. So lots to learn, but what a great subject.

As hoped it’s a pretty sociable place to work, quite a few people have come into the shop, then again most of them are regular customers. After the barren couple of years in the dessert of the Temple Meads area, it’s great to be back in town again. Park Street is a brilliant area to work in, lots of great shops and interesting people, and yet I can still walk across the road at lunch time and sit on Brandon Hill, admiring the view as I eat my lunch, with the Squirrels running around at my feet.

Had a chance to go the swanky invite only Dazed and Confused party tonight, but as Orynthia has only returned to work today after her recent illness, we thought that a night in would be a better option.

This weeks pick ups: Buck 65 – Talkin’ Honky Blues, Josh Martinez – Buck Up Princess, Ladybug Transistor – Ladybug Transistor and the Rough Trade 25th anniversary compilation CD.

So the first day in Imperial Music went ok. It’s came as a bit of a shock to my legs though, they are used to loafing around not really doing very much, suddenly they find themselves being used all day, and I am just about to go and play football, so I guess that they will be pretty sore later on. On the up side, I feel much better for not having to sit in appallingly slumped manner, looking at a computer screen all day.

Spent most of the day working out what sort of music goes where in the shop. The wonderful world of dance music has many sub genres, most of which are a mystery to me, still I guess that will come in time. After that I spent quite a bit of time working out where the music is kept behind the counter, Then suddenly I was let lose on the public and found myself dealing with a till, a credit card swipe machine and chart return reader before I knew what had hit me. I think everyone got the music they wanted and the shop got the money it required, so hopefully everyone is happy. Just for the record the big seller’s today were the two new Ryan Adams CD’s. Why he has to release two on the same day I really don’t understand?

Last night I went to see The Raveonettes at The Fleece. Orynthia was meant to be coming as well, but she has been caught by the flu bug, which is doing the rounds and did not feel up to it. The band made a big old racket, but never really let go, consequently the large crowd was somewhat muted. The best Raveonettes songs are still the ones, which sound like Jesus, & Mary Chain out takes.

So that’s the BT career finished then. Had a lovely last day, so many nice people taking the time to see me off, and as for the digital camera, what a fantastic leaving gift. Thanks everyone.

Also wanted to say that The Lucksmiths gig in Bath on Thursday night was brilliant. What great songs, and beautiful vocals. Why don’t more people know about them?

Last night's Fuzz against Junk gig was a disappointment. They missed the drive and exuberance of Steve Dew on drums, although Keith did his best to replace the irreplaceable, it was just not the same. The other problem was that the expanded FAJ line up just seemed to be too unwieldy. Never mind the forthcoming album is good, so we can concentrate on that for a while. They are playing again on Friday with The Egg at Fiddlers, but we won't be able to get to that one.

One of Orynthia's colleagues is a huge fan of The Egg, so much so that he is going to dash away from a black tie ball, in order to catch their set at around midnight. I really hope that he arrives in his suit, I love it when people wear inappropriate clothing to things. A few years ago, several of us decided to sympathise with a friend of ours who had to go to evening games at the city ground wearing suit (he had to come to the ground straight from work). So there we were, sitting proudly amongst the leisure wearing masses, looking like a group of off duty hit men. Suits on, ties flying the breeze. We did get some strange looks from the people around us, as sartorial elegance is normally frowned upon in footballing circles.

I'm never sure which is the worst scenario, go to an event dressed to the nines (or as close as I can get to that!), only to discover that everyone else is in jeans and T shirts, or looking like a weekender when the rest of the gang are ready for an Oscar party. Dress codes are one of the changes that I am going to have to get used to over the next few weeks. My current job is a suit and tie sort of affair, can't quite see that being suitable in the record shop somehow. I do quite enjoy getting into a suit and dressing up for the right occasion (such as the Dexys gig on Monday), but wearing a suit day in, day out does take the edge off those situations. Part of me has always yearned for those long lost days from the pre 1960's period, when a man would not dream of stepping from the house, without his brogues on his feet, wearing an immaculate 3 piece suit and trilby perched upon his head.

Last night we witnessed the triumphant return of Dexys. The band were on top form, and Kev prowled the stage, looking for all the world as though he was a benevolent dictator from a small south American country in the 1930's. Passionate performance, interspersed with customary on stage chat of the "So Kev tell us ….." which all worked perfectly. This review in The Guardian sums it up.

Today I cashed in my rail season ticket, as I will no longer be using the train to get to work. I also had my last lunchtime visit to the little café on platform 11 of Temple Meads station. For the past year or so I've spent the hour between 12 and 1 in the café, reading a book or The Guardian whilst enjoying a large coffee and a piece of splendid home made cake for the bargain price of £1.99. The memory of their splendid Cherry cake, Flapjack and Bread Pudding will live long in the memory. I'm not really sure what the situation will be with regard to lunch breaks at Imperial, whilst it's true that Park Street is well blessed with trendy cafes, somehow it just won't be the same as popping in to see the pleasant old couple that run the place.

BBC Radio 6, what a great station. Where else could I hear the glorious Take the skinheads bowling by Camper Van Beethoven at 5pm in the afternoon? Magnificent.

I’m starting to get very jealous of our friends Jon and Katja. Next Tuesday they are off to New York for their first visit. We’ve been chatting with them about their forthcoming trip for a couple of weeks and yesterday afternoon, we compiled an email telling them about some of our favourite things to see and do. Later we popped round to see them and bizarrely I found myself thinking that we were going rather than them! I’m sure that they will have a great time, how could they fail to, it’s the best place in the world. Jon’s even playing a solo gig at Arlenes Grocery on November 11th as part of the IPO festival.

We had a very hectic and social weekend, Four Corners on Friday night, followed by a party at my friend Jackie’s house on Saturday night. We made full use of the extra hour, by staying up until 4am. Didn’t really mean to, but as usual in Bristol, getting a taxi home on a Saturday evening was virtually impossible.

You must try this!Go to the splendidiser section of the site. enter your URL of choice, why not use this page and enjoy!

Last night I watched a wonderful programme on the BBC radiophonic workshop. It was a unit which provided all the strange and spooky electronic music for BBC TV and radio shows from the late 1950's onwards. This was in the days before synthesisers and samplers, so they had to invent new ways of making music, mainly by using banks of tape machines, which they loop or cut up to create the desired sounds. The most famous example of their work in this country is the theme music for Dr Who, but the programme was packed with examples of their work, many of which bought back very distant memories of TV viewing in my youth.

Much of the music still sounded amazingly contemporary and inventive and it was interesting to hear about the flood of complaints which some of their "music" attracted at the time. It seemed that things were never quite the same once more sophisticated machinery became available to them. The lack of equipment prompted amazing ingenuity and creativity which was sadly lost when things changed in the 1970's. A few months ago the BBC broadcast a play focusing on the enigmatic Delia Derbyshire, one of the most creative members of the team, it charted he disillusionment with the changing face of the BBC, which prompted her early departure from the team. It also focused on her delight and amazement when years later she was hailed as a inspiration by the likes of Stereolab and Aphex Twin.

The pleasure I took from watching that programme, was a stark contrast to the sadness I felt earlier in the day, when I read about the death of Elliott Smith. I became aware of his work when Elvis Costello mentioned the Either/Or album in his list of albums of the year for 1997. I picked up a copy, which took a couple plays before the full scope of his talent crept up on me. We then saw him supporting Belle and Sebastian in Nottingham, well heard rather than saw, as he was sitting on a chair, so I only really saw the top of his hat. We also saw him hanging around at The Bowlie (although he was not performing), where our friend Stuart had a brief chat with him. The subsequent albums were good but he never became the star, which he was tipped to be, in hindsight that appears to be down his determination to remain his own man, coupled with the drink and drugs problems which I was unaware off before yesterday's shocking development.

So yesterday saw the release of the new album by The Strokes and the career spanning DVD from Belle and Sebastian. Two very different bands, both however have their home on the newly rejuvenated Rough Trade Records. Back in the late 1970's Rough Trade was at the forefront of the burgeoning independent record label seen, which exploded in tandem with punk. I must say that it's great to see the label in such good health again with the likes of The Libertines and British Sea Power also doing well for the label.

Last night was the first cold session for the Monday night football. I've always enjoyed playing in the cold weather, once you get past the initial "What on earth are doing out here…" and start running around it's fine. It also tends to prompt a faster game, as everyone is running around like lunatics in an effort to keep warm. Sometimes when the weather is too warm the games can become a bit languid for my liking, of course the main reason I don't like the warm weather is that the slower game is often more skilful and I was never blessed with the greatest amount of finesse. I much prefer running around like a nutcase and lamping ball into outer space!

Next week is looking pretty busy! So far the schedule looks something like this: Monday - play football, Tuesday - Dexy's at the Colston Hall, Wednesday - Fuzz Against Junk + Damo Suzuki (former member of Can), Thursday - The Lucksmiths at The Porter Butt in Bath, Friday - Last day in work, leaving bash, Saturday City V Sheffield Wednesday, Sunday - The Raveonettes at The Fleece, Monday - Start new job at Imperial Music, I also have of couple of farewell breakfasts, to squeeze in so it's fair to say that it's a pretty hectic time at the moment!

So there I was in the car showroom, struggling to act like the responsible 41 year old that I am. I was there to pick up and pay for our new (new 2nd hand, not new - new, you understand) car (yes another Fiat Seicento, which won't surprise anyone that knows us) when the dreadful moment arrived, the salesmen passed the phone over to me saying the bank just want to verify that you are the owner of the debit card. Fine, I think I know my mothers maiden name, I know my full name and at a push I could probably guess my date of birth, What can go wrong?

The first question throws me completely, "Other than utility companies can I tell them any other direct debits that we have on this account." Instantly I freeze, then suddenly inspiration comes and I mention a charity direct debit which we have, I radiate a warm glow of satisfaction. The follow up question comes and it's the banker "What is your mother's maiden name?" Bingo! I pass the phone back to the salesman with confidence, only to hear him say "Oh no, that's a shame" not really the response I was hoping for. The sales chap hangs up and tells me that my bank have rejected the transaction and that I need to call them.

So I'm covered in confusion, and convinced that not only will I not be able to take the car home, but worse still I'm going to be arrested for credit card fraud and whisked away to Staple Hill police station for the night. So I do the only thing that could save the situation, I call Orynthia! Whereupon I realise that the direct debit information I gave, actually comes from the other bank account which we have, hence the rejection!

A few minutes later, Orynthia calls back to say that she has spoken to the bank, they are not able to do anything without the trader being on the call, so Orynthia gives me all the information she can think of regarding the account and the (ever so patient) trader calls his people again. Eventually the moment of truth arrives and the phone is passed over to me. This time the first question is the "mothers maiden name…" one, I answer and then I get asked the direct debit question again, having been primed I can now answer this one. Then disaster, they ask me how long I have had the account?

I'm sure that once you get past 30 everything that has happened previously, appears to have taken place in the last 3 or 4 years (if you can remember it all!). Question - When did you first see Nick Cave. Me - oh about 4 years ago, actual answer 1985! When did you go to Milan - oh about 3-4 years ago, actual answer 1992. See what I mean. So this sort of question just throws me completely, and I tell the guy on the other end of the phone that I have no idea. He won't take that as answer so, we get into a conversation where he is trying to get me to guess at a date. The best I can come up with is that I know that I did not have the account before we were married, so it's some time since February 1987. "So", the guy say's "we can say that you’ve had the account for 15-20 years?" No, I reply, it's 17 years at the most but it might only be 4 or 5 years. We go on like this for a while and eventually, I think that the chap starts to pity the poor senile person that he is talking to and just seems to give up trying to get a definitive response out of me. He asks me to hand the phone back to the trader and after a nervous minute or two he gives me the thumbs up, and the deal is done.

I drove off into the early evening sunshine, with a relieved smile on my face.

Orynthia and I were talking about scrapbooks last night, in particular the fact that my Grandfather used to keep a scrapbook which I found fascinating as a child. He would cut out all sorts of things from newspapers, sports news, articles on the changing face of Bristol, the occasional polemical comment feature from the national press and assorted other bits and bobs.

When I was young, I found it amazing to read through these scrapbooks, it really sparked an interest in the city I lived in, and this has stayed with me ever since. Thinking about it now I'm curious to know why my grandfather started to collect these fragments. The books started off in the mid 1960's when he would have been well into in 50's. I know that he was forced to give up work well before that, due to ill health, so I guess it was a way of filling the hours. This was in the days before daytime TV, not that he was ever very bothered about TV from my recollections. He would groan his way through Top Of The Pops, with my sister and I, watch the occasional game of football with me, and laugh his way through various 70's TV comedy shows.

He was always a keen reader, and my happiest memories of visits to stay with my grandparents in the country, are of sitting on a bench, in front of the elderberry bush, in the seemingly huge back garden and reading my way though the endless supply of detective fiction that was available in the house. If I was thirsty, I could reach across and pump up some water from the well beneath the house.

Anyway I still wonder why he started to keep a scrapbook at a relatively late stage of his life? Orynthia and I started the conversation because of a section in the Andrew Collins book "Where Did It All Go Right". Apparently his grandfather used to keep folders of cuttings and assorted bits and bobs, and one day Andrew Collins found a folder full of stuff about him, which must have been a bit strange. I don't think that I ever made it into my granddad's book, but once my father was asked to comment on a football match by the local paper, and that was added to the scrapbook. I remember reading that several years after the event and being very impressed, of course these days the Monday edition of the Evening Post has masses of oh so witty, text messages, regarding the weekends entertainment. Somehow they just don't carry the same weight as my fathers comments from all those years ago.

In many ways, web logs such as this are the current equivalent to the scrapbooks of yesterday. Many blogs are crammed with links to other peoples favourite articles and writers. It's nice to think that I'm carrying something on which my grandfather started.

The view from our house

So only 15 working days left before my change of direction. Starting to get very excited about the upcoming changes!!

In true Bristol City style, what should have our easiest game of recent weeks ended up in a disappointing 1-1 draw on Friday evening. Still it was nothing less than Petborough deserved. So even though their equaliser came in the last minute of the match, no City fans could complain about bad luck.

On Saturday evening I met up with Pete and a couple of his mates to watch the England – Turkey match in the Kellaway Arms. It was a perfect reminder of the all the reasons I have for not watching games in the pub. People drifting in front of the screen, constantly, moronic comments from people around us, then a blazing row erupting between a couple of women who were about 3 feet away from me. It was an education, of sorts! Still England played really well and got the result they needed to put them into next summer’s European championship.

On leaving the pub straight after the end of the match, I nipped home to pick up Orynthia and we went down to The Cube. Another very enjoyable night at this wonderful little place. First up were Empress, a new band to me, a two specialising in quiet, sparse soundscapes along the lines of Aerial M or Smog, interesting without being great. Then after a short break the vastly increased line up of The Pastels took to the stage. A different points of the evening 9 people were on the stage including on lead / rhythm guitar, rather than his normal bass, the lovely Gerry Love from The Teenage Fanclub. Have to say that I was very impressed with the new look Pastels. Some gorgeous, brooding new instrumentals being the highlight for me. Apparently these were from the soundtrack to a film called The Last Great Wilderness.

On Tuesday, we will be back at The Cube again for the film Jeremy Hardy Vs The Israeli Army.

If you ever travel around Bristol by bike, on foot or via public transport, then this journey planner is a brilliant thing. Unlike some route planners, it includes routes that cars can’t use. So if I want to know the quickest route for walking from our house to Park Street, this will give me a route, which goes through the park at Redland Green.

Tomorrow night were off to Glasnost to help celebrate Helens birthday. The food is usually great, so I guess we will be adding a couple of inches onto the ever-expanding waistline.

I’m reading The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster. Without reading all his stuff, I have been a fan of his work since picking up the New York Trilogy why back when… TBOI is proving to be a very intriguing read so far, which is in stark contrast to Koba The Dread by Martin Amis. Honestly, I really tried to read it, but it is written in such a slapdash yet heavy-handed way that I just could not manage the whole thing. If ever a book need the attention of a good editor it’s this one.

If you like the Go Betweens or you like hair, then you have to read this it’s a bit scary!

Last night Petunia came round for some food and chat before we headed down to The Fleece, for some rock n’ roll frenzy! Well not really frenzy, but a top night out anyway. 1st up and very early it was, so the audience was the proverbial 3 men and a dog was Adam Masterson. Must admit that I’d never heard of him or his band before, they growled their way through a set of Springsteen pastiches, with all the charisma of a week old cabbage. Maybe the songs are good, but on this showing it was impossible to tell.

Next were new scouse fav’s The Stands. Only about a month since we last saw them headlining at the Louisiana, they ripped through a pretty short set, with the usual aplomb. We liked them even more than usual, as we were able to pinch their seats, when they got up to play. Thanks lads.

Headlining the show was the often erratic, sometimes brilliant Shack. Now few bands have had a tougher time of it than this lot over the last 10 years or so. Yet somehow they are still able to turn out wonderful, tender and touching songs, which often hint at the troubles, they have seen. A genially tipsy Michael Head, seemed to have arrived with no real set list, and was more than happy to engage in banter with the audience and take any requests, which were thrown his way. This willingness to have a go resulted in several songs being aborted well past the countdown! Yet nothing could spoil the atmosphere and no sooner had one song collapsed around the band, than they would launch into one of the seemingly effortless, gorgeous Jazzy, psychedelic, folksy pop songs which make them such a cherished band. The last time they came to town it all went a bit wrong and ended with smashed guitars and barely contained paranoia ruining the gig. This time it was smiles all round and the crowd drifted into the damp Bristol evening with a definite skip in their step.

Before City’s exciting 2-1 victory over Swindon this afternoon, I was chatting to the following people outside The Nova Scotia public house. Graham, who travelled from Naples Italy, Steve, who travelled from Hamburg Germany, Simon and his son from Winslow approx 120 miles away, Richard from Birmingham approx 70 miles away. I felt rather lazy to only have driven about 3 miles to the match. Still we all enjoyed the spirited 2nd half performance and the win that takes us above Swindon.

Great result for Bristol City last night, the 1-0 win at Plymouth followed on nicely from the draw at QPR on the weekend. So 4 points gained from a couple of very tricky away games and we now find ourselves in 7th place, with a home game against 5th placed Swindon coming up on Saturday. Dare I say that maybe, things are starting to look up?

I had a chat with my soon to be new boss yesterday, and it looks as though I'll be working 4 days a week in Imperial Music on Park Street from Monday 3rd November. I'm really looking forward to it. It will be great to get away from endless spreadsheets, interminable internal emails and starring at a laptop all day. It's strange really that I should get so excited about a huge cut in wages, but what is really amazing in the number of people who have said to me that they would love to do what I'm doing. I guess it's a bit of an adolescent dream to work in a great indie record shop and that at 41 I should be doing something more sensible. But why should I?

Whilst in the shop I picked up the new Rufus Wainwright CD, the "best of" Dexys Modnight Runners compilation, a great double CD compilation from Domino records and the new single from Camera Obscura. As we went down to The Bell last night, I've only had a chance to skip through a couple of them so far.

The Domino release is to celebrate 10 years of the label, so lots of great tracks both old and new can be found here. Dexys are the sort of band that people either love or laugh at, I think that if you ever saw them live, you loved them. The early gigs with the fantastic attack that the brass section provided were tremendous, I managed to see them couple of time in those days and they were awesome gigs. However those show's paled into insignificance when compared to the "Projected Passion Revue" show which I saw at the Old Vic In London before the 2nd album came out. The brilliantly menacing string section, which emerged from the existing band played a selection of spellbindingly intense new songs. It remains one of the greatest gigs I have ever seen. Sadly the Too-Rhy-Ay album which later emerged was a pale shadow of that performance and for years Dexys just seemed to mean "Come On Eileen", the curse of wedding disco's for years to come. One more beautiful album came out and then it went wrong for Kevin Rowland, well it looks as though he's back on form and I'm certainly looking forward to his return to Bristol on October 28th.

On Sunday we are going to see the inconsistent but occasionally brilliant Shack and The Stands at the Fleece. It's our first gig for a while, and heralds a run of gigs by The Lucksmiths, The Raveonettes and of course Dexys over the next few weeks.

Finally, Our friend Jon and his Modesty Blaise pals are taking part in the extraordinary looking International Pop Overthrow festival in Liverpool in the middle of October. Even more exciting, Jon is playing a solo set in New York when the next IPO festival takes place in November. Masses and masses of bands playing short sets, it all looks very strange.

Had a great time at Four Corners on Friday evening. Loads of friends were about and it turned into one of those great, unplanned social events. Often the best times are had when things just happen under their own steam and this was one of those occasions. It was topped of when we bumped into Darren, an acquaintance of ours who is a photographer. He had been doing the photos for the opening of some dodgy sounding new bar/restaurant in town. Funnily enough, one of the people at Four Corners had escaped from the same opening bash and gleefully told me how appalling it was. Darren confirmed this as he entertained us with stories of the Minor celebrities, TV soap stars and “glamour” girls on display. Anyway it helped our tipsy walk along Stokes Croft pass very quickly. Before we knew it we home, without picking up the customary Kebab roll on the way!

Maybe as a result of Friday night’s fun Saturday was a very quiet day. This was a good thing for me, as on Sunday morning our Monday night football gang had another of our occasional “challenge” games. Pleased to say that we came out on top again, with a 4-3 victory. We probably should have won by more, it’s good to keep the run going, and we are yet to lose one of these Sunday games.

On Friday we heard that one the great indie stalwarts, The Pastels are going to be playing at The Cube in October. Never been a huge fan of the band, but this time they will joined by Gerry Love from Teenage Fanclub, so it’s a must see.

October is starting to look very busy indeed, a few gigs and lots of social stuff, culminating in my leaving work on October 31st. Trying to think of decent place to having a leaving bash is giving a bit of a headache. Apparently a new ‘80s theme bar has opened in town. It could be a good “ironic” choice; after all I did start my illustrious career back in that strange decade.

Back in August we went down to Devon for the wedding of Ric and Louise. Orynthia has started to put a website together with some of the pictures of that lovely day. You can find it here.

I was given another advance copy of an album on Monday night. It’s in a slightly different vein to Belle and Sebastian though! This one is by young local heavy rockers Gonga. My friend Geoff is involved with their record label and mixed a few of the tracks on the album as well. It’s like the great lost Black Sabbath album, to my ears it’s hard work to listen to the whole thing, but taken a couple of tracks at time it’s good fun. I have to point out though that Orynthia absolutely hates it!

So what is going on with gigs in Bristol? First of all next Monday’s gig by The Rapture gets cancelled. Then The Pernice Brothers also pull their upcoming November show. We are starting to take it personally now!

In more positive news, we were delighted to get hold of a promo copy of “Dear Catastrophe Waitress” the new album by Belle and Sebastian, which is due out in a couple of weeks. It has to be said that it’s a bit of a mixed bag. The good news is that Trevor Horn has not turned then into one of his super lush pop bands. The sound is actually quite stark for much of the record, with the vocals very much at the forefront.

I have to say that I love the opening track – Step Into My Office Baby, mainly for it’s wonderfully quirky musical arrangement. I think that the experience of working on the soundtrack to Storytelling must have had a big impact on the band, as this the opening of the song sounds like TV music from some 60’s carton, something like The Pink Panther. Next up is the title track, which on the first few hearings is not particularly strong. Luckily the next track – If She Wants Me, is one of the best ones on the album, a lovely arrangement with super little guitar solo, quickly followed by a gem of an organ solo.

Piazza, New York Catcher has the feel of a folk song. At first I thought the tempo was all wrong, but it’s growing me now. Asleep On A Sunbeam has lead vocals from Sarah Martin initially before Stuart Mudoch joins in. It’s another grower. I’m A Cuckoo does share a melody with a certain Bob Dylan to my ears and has a very 70’s vibe to it. Northern soul is a big passion for several members of the band, and You Don’t Send me, bears witness to that, very nice it is too.

If I’m A Cuckoo showed signs of someone else’s work then, Wrapped Up In Books, owes a heavy debt to the Farmers Boys version of Out In The country. Lord Anthony and If You Find Yourself Caught In Love are plaintive ballads, with the later featuring a rousing workout for the string section. The song Roy Walker has been around for a while and has a bit of a 6th form am-dram feel to it, but its gonna fill the floor at those indie disco’s. The album closer Stay Loose is a strange one, staccato guitar and a bit of a 1979 new wave chorus don’t seem to fit too well on the Belle and Sebastian shoulders, so to my ears it’s a disappointing end to the album. Still further plays will no doubt bring further changes in my opinion.

Fans of Belle And Sebastian should pick up a copy of Under Achievers Please try Harder by fellow Scots Camera Obscura. It’s a bit of a gem, when it comes to 60's infuencend indie pop.

Another disappointing performance from City on Saturday resulted in a 1-0 home defeat, and a mediocre 12th place in the division is not what we were looking for.

Managed to a bit more cycling this morning when Orynthia and I went up to The Downs. I was fine as long nothing came within 50 feet of me. As soon as that happened I started wobbling like a drunkard. Still have to keep trying.

I’ve had confirmation that I’m leaving work at the end of October. I’m very excited!

On a lighter note than the entry below, I should mention the amazing Vodka drink which we had in one of the local restaurants in Vilnius. It was a bottle of Vodka, which came to the table completely encased in a square block of ice, which was 1/2” thick! A great way to keep your Vodka cold as you worked your through the mountain of food which was presented to you.

As part of the festival a large free “pop” concert was held by the river. We arrived as a smiling young Lithuanian lad was just about to launch himself into a cover version of “Song 2” by Blur. To hear it sung in Lithuanian was just the funniest thing in the world to us at the time.

One our favourite parts of town was Uzupis take a look at this link for more info on one of the quirkier parts of town!

Whilst we were in Vilnius, I was lucky enough to read a brilliant book called Café Europa – Life After Communism by Slavenka Drakulic". Jane read it whilst John and her were in Hungary and thought I would enjoy it. It’s a brilliant collection of essays, in which she discusses her and her family’s life in Tito’s Yugoslavia and the effect that the fall of communism had on her and indeed many parts of the former Soviet Union. It talks about all manner of things from the big issues to the very small.

We have been lucky enough to travel to the Russia, Hungary and on a couple of occasions the Czech Republic. Consequently we have got used to the fact that Eastern Europe is very different to the west. It was however Petunia’s first trip to this part of the world and I think that she was quite surprised at the fact that some of the people (mainly the older ones) could be extremely taciturn and stone faced, even when encountering her naturally bouncy good nature. Drakulic’s book has an excellent chapter on why people behave in that way. Also on why people who escaped the civil war in Serbia, could still dream of returning to a war ravaged land, when given the option of comparative luxury in Sweden. The whole question of race and nationality and what it means to be European is also explored in fascinating but very human detail.

I must admit that it made me ashamed of my lack of knowledge of the recent troubles in the former Yugoslavia. I never really understood what caused the real divisions, in that part of the world and if I’m honest I still don’t. All I know is that the rampant nationalism, which came to the surface after years of being held in check by another form of oppression, is just as terrifying.

So credit to the people of Lithuania and indeed Latvia and Estonia, they look as though they have managed to undertake some huge changes in recent years without falling pray to the violence that has bedevilled so much of the region. The obvious problem is the power vacuum that is left when a puppet regime is toppled and it’s not hard to see why several former communist officials are once again in positions of power, although with very different agendas. How do people learn to govern and lead themselves after years or decades of being told what to do? The parallels with the chaos in Iraq at the moment are all too obvious.

Further thoughts on our Lithuanian adventure.

First of all, I’d like to give a plug to the people who arranged the trip for us. Take a look at Lithuanian holidays for all the details on the sort of trips that they can arrange. This was a bit a bit of a step into the unknown for us, and the company were very helpful and flexible, when it came to meeting our requirements.

The place itself is lovely, loads of quiet lines and cobbled streets provide a mass of happy wandering time, and the fact that the old town area is really quite small means that it’s pretty tough to get lost. Masses of little bars and restaurants are able to offer very affordable refreshments, giving you time to catch up that all important people watching.

The memories of the old Soviet years are still fresh and I would really recommend a trip out the huge TV tower on the western fringes of the town, where you can see a very moving collection of photo’s and articles relating to standoff between Russian troops and the local people back in 1991. 14 people lost their life in one of the key points of conflict, which helped to move the country back to freedom. After that you zoom up to the revolving restaurant to enjoy sweeping views over the city.

Before our trip I knew that Basketball was the most popular sport in the country, however I didn’t know that the European Basketball championships were being held in Sweden during our stay. Amazingly the Lithuanian TV coverage was being hosted in the bar attached to our hotel. Even more amazingly Lithuania went on to win the competition, beating France in the semi finals, then Spain in the final. That game finished at around 11pm on the Sunday evening, then the whole town just went mad. Every pilled onto the streets and pretty soon the place was full of wildly exuberant cheering flag waving people. It was high five’s all round for the next couple of hours, great fun and watch USA they gunning for you in the Olympics next year. I understand that that last time round they lost to you by a couple of points. It’s quite amazing that such a small country can produce a team like that.

We ate all manner of foods whilst we were there, including beaver stew. All very hale hearty, resulting in a few additional pounds for all of us!

Well we are back home. Lot's to write about but not tonight. Once again having updated when abroad, the page looks really odd (all links gone!), so I'll try to sort that our first.

Having a bit of a lazy day today. Only managed to get out of our place at about 2:30 this afternoon, after an long sleep and a slow brunch. I forgot to mention how fab our apartment is. It's huge and fitted in a very sleek and stylish way. Looks like it could be in Wallpaper magazine or elle decoration.

The old town here has lots of great little bars, it's fair to say that we have been enjoing the local produce. Luckily no major hangovers so far. Last night we went to the opening night of a huge new exhibition in the contemporary art centre. Loads of people, were out aall smoking like mad and enjoying the free beer. It's strange but the old town area seems to be full of young people, whilst the larger new town is full of old people. Most of the people we have spoken to have been really nice, friendly and helpful, although we have run into a couple of older ladies with the more traditional Eastern Block idea of service.

For us English everything is really good value for money. Food is very cheap and filling, travel is amazingly good value. The other day we went to Europos Parkas which is about 20km outside Vilnius, although we had somewhat different cost on the outbound and homecoming trip it cost us about about fifteen pounds for the three of us to make the whole trip by taxi. The park itself was a great experience, we were there for about 5 hours, saw some very interesting things. Well worth a visit if you are in this part of the world.

On a less happy note we went to former KGB prision. A very bleak and depressing place, but an essential part of the recent history of this country. It's amazing to see the way people were treated. It was a pretty sombre way to spend our morning but fascinating all the same.

Well here we are in glorious Vilnius. What a fantastic place. I won't write much as the keyboard is a bit strange and we have been drinking a lot of Vodka over the past few days! Everything is amazingly cheap here. A 3 day festival starts on Friday lunch time, so that should be fun.

One new thing for me. After 41 years, I have, for the very first time been able to ride a bike! Very strange indeed. Nobody warned me about the sore bottom part of the deal though!!

Off for more food and drink.

Way too much rushing around going on this week. Enjoyed The Stands on Wednesday night, then last night Orynthia’s company held a 7th birthday party. Nice people, strange food!

Tonight it’s another birthday party, this time for Bo. It’s going to be a 50’s themed party, so Orynthia has a chance to wear one of her great 2nd hand dresses. As I’ve completely failed to get a hair cut over recent weeks, I think a large quiff will be the order of the day for me.

Then somehow we have to be packed and ready to leave for Lithuania at 9am on Saturday morning. I may be able to update this site from our apartment, if not I’ll be back here around September 17th.

On Friday evening we managed to catch up with our friend Bob Jones for a couple of hours, sadly his wife Karen could not make it, but we had great chat for a couple of hours. Back in the mid to late 80's Bob was working in Bristol best record shop, and was involved in putting on gigs in Bristol with various friends. We laughed as he told about the negotiations that went on, as they tried to tempt bands down to Bristol. It was around the time that the Creation Records, C-86 sound was taking off in the indie music world.

They put on a whole series of gigs under the name EEC Punk Rock Mountain in the George & Railway pub. I now work about 50 yards from this sadly derelict pub, it came to light recently that The Vaseline's (so influential for Nirvana) played their first ever gig at one of those nights. Bob was saying that bands only cost around £20 to £30 pounds to book and they would often bring a support band with them. As a member of the audience, we were always entertained and the memory of the free sugar mice has lasted longer than the memory of some of the bands!

I think one of the last straws for Bob was when he promoted a Primal Scream gig in Bristol, when the band in true rock & roll style proved to be very awkward. It was a mid week gig, yet the gentlemen of the band were in no rush at all to play to the expectant crowd. Poor old Bob was virtually begging them to come on stage, and of course we were all asking Bob "When are they coming on". The poor chap was being driven mad by it all. Eventually they deigned to join us at around midnight, consequently most people gave the band around 15 minutes before heading tiredly for the exit door.

I don't think that Bob bothered too much about putting bands on after that. Too much hassle and not enough fun was the problem. Bob and his friends were never bothered about making money, they just wanted to bring bands to Bristol, that they wanted to see. It was really part of the whole indie ethic. Then suddenly and unexpectedly Oasis became the biggest band in the country and the people behind Creation records were being invited to a cocktail party with Tony Blair. Inevitably it all went wrong, good bands got dropped unless they sold thousands and thousands of records straight away, bands weren't really nurtured anymore and the charts went back to being appalling collections of manufactured, over choreographed, stylist driven bands. The good news is that behind the scenes, lots of people are involved in music because they love the thrill of a band connecting with an audience in a small sweaty room. There are still lots of great bands out there and thanks to things like digital radio and BBC radio 6 in particular we probably have more chance of hearing some of these bands than we have before.

Tomorrow night we are off to one of those small sweaty rooms, The Louisiana, to see The Stands. They are a band who are obviously routed in the school of Dylan and The Byrds, but who also have enough individuality to create some special moments of their own. We have also just found out that 2 of Orynthia's favourite bands, The Lucksmiths (Australia) and the Aisler Set (USA) are playing some very rare UK gigs together in Glasgow and Edinburgh in October. Looks like a perfect excuse to take advantage of the cheap Easyjet flights from Bristol to Scotland!

Forgot to say that I finished reading "Everything is illuminated" last week. It is a strange book, but one which is worth persevering with as the final chapters are very touching. I've started reading the stories of John Cheever, he is not an author that I know much about, other than the fact that he had his work published via the New Yorker for many years. Looks like I'm in for lots of mid century American angst, as I work my through the nearly 700 pages which make up this collection.

We had the excitement of a fire drill in work this afternoon. It's quite strange, our building is a large open plan office, on 5 floors with a large atrium area. However it often feels as though the place is deserted. You tend to see the same faces, hanging around in the canteen area (that's me!) or outside having a smoke (not me). Now logically I know that their could be about 700 people in the place at any one time, yet it normally feels more like 70. Consequently it was quite strange to be walking off to the meeting point with loads of other people that I've never seen before. It's always a good excuse for a bit of social chit chat, just disappointing that after only 10 minutes or so we had to go back to work.

Some of Orynthia's Burmese relatives will be in Bristol this weekend. So no doubt we will be getting together and eating the traditional mountain of delicious food.

As a post script to the Massive Attack gig on Monday, I was just told that poor old Grant (Daddy G) broke his foot when he jumped into the crowd at the end of the gig! Rock and roll eh, what a dangerous game.

I've been working hard at my Lithuanian history in preparation for our trip in 10 days time. It’s a fascinating country and we are both really looking forward to our trip. Talking of overseas things, my blog friend Kelpie is trying organise a sort of email pen pal scheme, so that people from different countries can get to find out something about life in different parts of the world. So if you are curious about Cairo, mystified by Massachusetts, or fascinated by France, get in touch with her via her website. It could be the start of an interesting friendship.

I spent the last 30 minutes or so tinkering with my team for this years BBC fantasy football league. It's something that I do with some of the guys in work and some other friends of Bill formally of Bristol but now resident in New York. Last year I was hopeless for most of the season, so I put extra effort into this seasons team. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

In the world of real football Bristol City have come back to earth with a bit of a bang! After the excitement of the 5-0 win on the first day of the season, we’ve drawn a couple of games in fairly unconvincing style and then last night we lost 1-0 at Colchester, so we find ourselves down in 11th place. Home to Grimsby on Saturday is looking like a bit of a must win game already!

So what about the Massive Attack gig in Bristol on Monday? Well I have to say that I had a fine time. We missed Lupine Howl, so the first entertainment we caught in strangely remodelled Queens Square was the sublime Martina Topley-Bird, who played a short but sweet set of songs, which came with more of a blues influence than her album prepared me for. The sun shined and the good people of Bristol, relaxed into the afternoon with a nod of the head and polite applause.

Next up were The Bees, who captured their eclectic sound to perfection, reggae, pop, 1970’s afro jazz it’s all in the mix. I think they made a decent impression on people without exactly burning down the house.

By the time Goldfrapp took to the stage, Queens Square was getting very full indeed and the queue at the beer tent was longer than the gap between Portishead albums! After being besotted with the 1st Goldfrapp album, it’s taken me a long time to warm to the more commercial sound of the 2nd album. It’s starting to happen for me, but I do wish that we could have had more of the marvellous, cinematic soundscapes, which initially brought the band to our attention.

Final support of the day came from The Streets, now I know that they have many fans and indeed they went down really well today, but I just don’t get it. Oh well.

So at 9:15 Massive Attack took to the stage in Bristol for the fist time since the run of gigs at the Anson Rooms, which marked the end of the Mezzanine tour. Expectation levels were high and if I’m honest I think that carried the band through a slightly patchy opening. Once they relaxed the multitude vocalists did their stuff to great effect. The on stage line changing for virtually every song, reminiscent of the changing formations of an American football team, constantly evolving but always in control. Never the most dynamic performers visually, they have taken to bombarding the audience with an incredible array of electronic information from a giant screen behind the band. It can be a touch overwhelming at times, but is a very clever move. The set was heavily weighted towards the last two albums but enough of the old hits were thrown in to keep everyone happy. For me the highlight was a storming version of Safe From Harm.

At the end of the show the band seemed to be genuinely moved by the reaction, I guess that after the events of the past few months they must have worried about the bands ability to carry on. Well they managed it and I think that everyone that turned up (around 19,000) had something good to remember from the day.

By way of contrast, we spent Saturday evening at a very enjoyable Velvet Underground evening at The Cube. Various singers doing their versions of great V.U. songs complemented some strange old TV and film footage of the band itself. Some brilliant moments along with some chaotic ones. A classic Cube night that once again teetered on the edge of collapse on several occasions, but in tue Cube style, won through in the end.

Well I’m feeling a bit better now. Which is a good thing as we have a busy weekend coming up. Tomorrow it’s the second home game of the season for BCFC. It’s also the game that gives Steve a chance to catch up with the reds, as he is here on holiday for a few weeks from Madrid.

On Sunday we are aiming to take Orynthia’s mum and dad to see the open air jazz in Kings Street, so lets hope the weather holds up for that.

Then on bank holiday Monday it’s time for the big Massive Attack homecoming gig in Queens Square. As well as M.A. an excellent collection of bands make up the bill, Lupine Howl, Martina Topley-Bird, The Bees, Goldfrapp and The Streets should make for an interesting day. It’s the first really big gig that M.A. have ever played in Bristol, and virtually everyone that we know appears to be going. It’s also the first time that the lovely square has been used for a paying gig, so it will be interesting to see how that works out. The weather forecast is good, so all look to be in place for a memorable occasion.

Our tickets arrived today for the Lithuania holiday. Apparently we are going to be driven from the airport to our apartment, by a driver who will be waving our names around on a bit of cardboard at Vilnius airport. It’s always good fun when that happens, makes you feel like a celebratory, albeit a very small one.

Been struck down with some sort of cold bug, so being a man I’ve done the decent thing and spent most of my time in bed!

A couple of new Bristol based blogs added to the links. One is a person I know Paul Baxter and one I don’t The Thought Offering/NYC to the UK.

Off to relax on the sofa again now.

During our little trip to Cornwall we had a couple of very interesting but wildly contrasting meals. Just before leaving for our trip, our friend Jane told us about an old castle, which was located on the one of the hills overlooking Redruth. She started to tell us about the tricky route which you have to follow to find it and the amazing views from the hilltop, but then she mentioned that the castle was home to a Lebanese restaurant. This sounded like an interesting combination, so following an afternoon spent poking around in the 2nd hand shops that Redruth offers, we set off in search of the castle. I should just add that this included one fantastic Art Deco store, which was more like a small museum than a shop. Also found a great record shop, where Orynthia managed to pick up a vinyl copy of the first Monochrome Set album for only £5. We also wished that we had access to a van, as we kept coming across great pieces of furniture from the 1930's and 1940's at half the price you would pay in Bristol.

Eventually the shops started to close, an we decided that it was time to head to hills, in search of fine views and food. After spotting the castle on the skyline, we drove off and eventually found ourselves in the village of Carn Brea. Now Jane had mentioned that last bit of the route was on a pretty dodgy track, so we parked and after checking with one of the locals, set off on the "easy" path. 30 minutes later we emerged at the crown of the hill. The castle was indeed a strange thing, partially built on boulders, it really did have amazing views and it really was a Lebanese restaurant! Now before taking the long walk up the hill, we should have stopped to consider the fact that there had to some sort of road access, otherwise how on earth we the supplies get to the restaurant?

Sure enough a bumpy, rocky track did exist and several cars were proudly sitting in the small car parking area. We decided that rather than wait the 15 minutes or so for the place to open, we would walk back down the hill, pick up the car and come back via the bumpy road.

All went to plan and around 25 minutes later, we once again found ourselves on the threshold of the castle. The interior of the castle was as spartan as the food was tasty. Stone floors and walls and simple wooden furniture, combined with the candle light to produce a suitably rustic atmosphere. The food was a delight and we emerged just in time to watch a fantastic sunset as the sun dipped into the sea off the north Cornwall coast.

The next day we went to the Lost Gardens Of Heligan. Here we spent some time walking around the lovely grounds, sitting and reading, and enjoying a cream tea, whilst fielding calls from friends in Bristol who were having problems with their travel plans, for their trip to Cornwall for the wedding on Saturday. We decided to head off to the coast for some sitting by the sea reading time. Whilst heading coastward, we saw a sign advertising "Mambo, American 50's diner". We skidded quickly to the right and found ourselves eating some of the most cholesterol heavy food you can imagine. To add to the classy tone of the place the Cornish Elvis was giving a performance later that evening. We had left before he started his act, but were fortunate enough to see him waddling around (definitely late period Elvis!) without a care, as his pencil thin female partner lugged all his gear around. We drove round to Polkerris, parked at the top of the village and walked down the hill to the small bay, along the single car width road. Here we sat and read for a while whilst waiting the sunset.

The wedding was great, but I'll write more about that later.

Well we had a brilliant time in Cornwall. Will write more about that soon. Looks like I'll be leaving my job on October 31st!! Only 44 more work days to go!

In other news, we have booked a holiday in Lithuania, Vilnius to be precise for the middle of September.

On a ludicrously hot Saturday afternoon, Bristol City kicked off the new season in emphatic style this afternoon. We thumped a disjointed Notts County side 5-0, bizarrely all the goals were scored by players called Lee! The newly christened “Lee Amigos” are Lee Peacock (2 goals), Lee Miller (1 goal) and Lee Mathews (2 goals). It could well have been more, as we had two disallowed through very tight off side calls. So after one game, we are at the top of division two, mind you it’s only on alphabetical sequence as QPR also won 5-0,Interesting really as we were the two teams who missed out in the promotion play offs last season. Maybe this time we can both get promoted.

Last night we were supposed to be watching the latest up and coming band from Liverpool "The Stands" in action at the Louisiana. Sadly the gig was cancelled because of health problems. It is a shame as they really are a top band, we've seen them a couple of times before, although on the first occasion they were 3rd on the bill to The Coral and we only caught their last few numbers. Orynthia loved them and spent ages trying to find out more about this, as yet unknown band. The only information that she had was their name and the fact that they were from Liverpool, not surprisingly when you enter those two pieces of information into web search engines, you do get masses of information, sadly though it was all about the various stands at the football grounds of Liverpool! All very nice, but not really what Orynthia was looking for. Their debut single is released on Monday and it looks as though it may even chart. Anyway we have just found out that they are due to play with Shack at the Fleece in October, so we should catch them then.

On Wednesday evening, we are driving down to see my dad in Devon. We are just staying overnight before heading on to Cornwall for a few days, culminating in a wedding on Saturday. Lots of our friends are making the trip to the southwest including Steve Vowles, who is having a holiday in the UK, now that he is a resident of Madrid. Very impressed that Steve called tonight to find out how BCFC got on in today’s game. Although he lives in the city which hosts arguably the greatest football team in the world, he has said on many occasions that, great as it may be to watch Real Madrid in action, it can’t come close to the thrill of watching “your” team in action. Luckily he will be able to catch a couple of games whilst he is back in Bristol.

So I finished reading Ghostwritten by David Mitchell today. To be honest I was a little disappointed. The book is constructed in the format of 10 seemingly stand alone short stories, however the stories are linked by characters, who straddle the boundaries of their own tale, often appearing as peripheral parts of the next link in the chain.

I loved the start of the book, the chapters set in in Okinawa and Tokyo were splendid, although obviously influenced by the hand of Haruki Murakmi. An air of calm detachment, so typical of Murakami, cleverly understates the momentous events taking place, particularly in the Okinawa chapter. With my curiosity engaged, I quickly moved onto the next section. The themes of the following couple of chapters were equally engaging, but I thought the book really slumped during the middle three chapters, set in Mongolia, Petersburg and London. These elements of the book seemed predictable and mundane, not something which I normally associate with Mitchell's work. Thankfully the book then springs to life again, with the brilliant story of the Irish scientist, who decides that the technology which she has been developing, is going to be used in unacceptable ways. Prompting her to flee, with interesting results. The final couple of chapters are also captivating, and a few lose ends are successfully tied up, which makes the mid book lull even more frustrating.

I've mentioned here before, how much I enjoyed David Mitchell's second book - Number 9 Dream, a brilliant book which shows real progression from Ghostwritten. If he continues to hone his skills at this rate then his 3rd book should really be something to look forward to.