So last night we went to see Far From Heaven at the Watershed, what a strange film. Now I don't think that I'm giving too much away, when I say that this is a film made very much is the style of all those great old 1950's melodrama's. Now the thing is, that we tend to watch lots of old films, so the likes Joan Crawford, Ginger Rogers, Doris Day, Claudette Colbert and like are familiar guests in our house, so I think that we are pretty well versed in the nature of films that this was based on. The first thing I have to say is that the film looked absolutely stunning, the rich autumnal colours of the landscape, brilliantly mirrored by the fantastic 50's clothing which the cast were blessed with. The internal set's were master pieces of styling, even the font used for the titles and credits was brilliant. What a shame then that film did appear somewhat shallow, in it's approach to the important issues which were raised. We enjoyed the film but came away thinking that it was a pretty average Sunday afternoon film, rather than the masterpiece which some reviewers alluded to.

I've tried not to talk about the war on this site, but Orynthia and I had an interesting conversation about the reaction of exiled Iraqi's to the current situation. Orynthia's family are originally from what was Burma, now known as Myanmar. For many years, the country has been under the control of a tyrannical regime, who have crushed individual freedoms, been engaged in warfare with it's own people, used forced child labour to work on building railway lines in appalling conditions, many political prisoners have been taken, many have simply disappeared, a people's revolution after the results of the last "democratic" election were ignored was brutally put down. Oil and mineral deposits should have resulted in a rich and prosperous country, instead it is one of the poorest in the world. Orynthia's family were forced into exile in the 1960's in search of a better life. Thankfully for me as otherwise we would never have meet. We would love to visit the country of her birth, but will never do so until the regime changes. Now obviously regime change is one of the prime motivators in the current gulf war, and I'm sure everyone wants the people of Iraq to enjoy the same sort of democratic freedoms which we enjoy, so some people have been questioning why many exiled Iraqi's are so unhappy about the current campaign. Anyway we started to talk about how we would feel if Rangoon was under the same sort of pressure that Baghdad is at the moment. Some members of Orynthia's family remained in Burma when the exodus took place, certainly Orynthia's mum and dad still have many, many friends in the country and the prospect of sitting at home watching these people being bombed because of the actions of their leaders is just too terrifying to comprehend. We want the situation to improve for the people living there but how many people need to die or be displaced before the gains are outweighed by the loses?

I don't have an answer for the obvious "Well how would you remove the evil leaders?" question.

What a glorious weekend we had. The weather was even good enough for me to do the thing that every Englishman loves to do on a sunny afternoon – Cut the lawn! I know it’s very sad, but the first lawn trimming of the year is one of those benchmark’s that define the start of spring. Whilst I was doing that Orynthia went out for a ride on her bike, another sure sign that spring is here. It may seem odd to some of you, but I must admit that I have never learnt how to ride a bike. We well remember how shocked our Aussie relatives were when they found out that I could not ride a bike, could not swim and worst of all did not drink beer! Strewth, they said or maybe it was something a little stronger?

I have to say that I really enjoyed the Ladytron gig on Saturday. It's strange that when I was younger synth bands appeared to be the music of the future. Certainly, I remember seeing the wonderful Kraftwerk in action when they had the robot mannequins with them and thinking that that was the way music would be in the next century. So it’s odd that music, which was futuristic, now has a slightly retro feel to it. The band all looked very good in their matching unisex outfits, swaying behind banks of keyboards.

I’ve managed to make some practical use of my time off today (unusually for me). An old footballing acquaintance came round to look at our leaky roof. It’s only been leaking for a couple of years; we didn’t want to rush into anything you understand, and after all the rain was conveniently leaking into the shower cubicle!

Had a lovely day in sunny South Wales yesterday. Unfortunately returned home just in time to watch the frightening scenes unfolding in Baghdad. I notice that Where is Raed? has not been updated in a while, I hope that this is just down to a loss of power or communication lines.

The McDowell gig was a strange affair. I really like this band; I just wish that people would actually listen to them, rather than just using the gigs as an opportunity to pay money to go and have a very loud conversation. They are a pretty quiet band, so the constant buzz of chatter can really irate. All the bands new songs sound splendid, I really hope that they can find their niche.

Thanks to John and Jane, it looks like we have a couple of guest list places for the intriguing Ladytron at the Anson Rooms tonight. I have not heard too much stuff from them, but I have liked what I’ve heard. They are another of the wave of electro bands that seem to be sweeping the nation, although in fairness to them they have been doing it for a little while.

I’m off to have some breakfast now. Somehow, I don’t think that our breakfast will be able to compare to the one enjoyed by my blog buddy Pete in Australia! Toast and Marmite for me.

So here I am with 4 days off work! Today I’m taking my sister and one of her sons, Craig over to South Wales to see our auntie in Pontypridd. Lets see if it will rain in Pontypridd again today, as it always seems to! This evening, it’s off to the hospital to Don ad he continues to make steady progress after his operations. Then we are going to see the lovely McDowell in action The Folkhouse. They are one of Orynthia’s favourite local bands and are capable of hitting beautiful heights.

On Saturday, I think that we are going to be doing a brief bit of pre holiday shopping. Petunia, who will be joining us in Paris, flew of to Egypt yesterday on an amazing deal. A week in a 5 start hotel and return flights for £199! When she gets back to Bristol, she has a day to get used to being back in Europe before heading out to France with Simon to catch up with us. How jet set!

Not sure how long Where is Raed? is going to be around. It's a blog from Baghdad. Just one persons view on life in the city, that we hear about almost every hour of every day.

Yesterday, I had on of those moments when I wonder if I really am a mature grown up. For many years now I have been heading off to work every morning in the traditional attire of the office worker, suit, shirt and tie. So why was it, that I should be standing in front of a mirror for about 10 minutes, being completely unable to put my tie on. Of course I could put it on, but it would either end up somewhere by knees, or a slight adjustment in the starting position would result in a complete reversal of roles, with the wider front portion of the only just making it past the point of my shirt collars! Suddenly all those years of successful tie management counted for nothing. Pretty soon I could not even remember the basic manoeuvres required to complete any sort of knot let alone being able to venture into the world of the Windsor knot, the Half Windsor or the more straightforward Four In Hand. Ah, you ask yourself why does this man know the different names for the way in which his tie is presented to the world. Well, I have to confess that it’s not the 1st time that this malaise has affected me. So imagine my delight a few years ago, when I found a series of detailed, step-by-step illustrations and descriptions for the successful resolutions of tie related problems. Unfortunately, this appeared to complicate matters further. I spent so much time worrying about which way I was bringing the long end over the short end that I would inevitable end up with something that looked liked two pieces of badly knotted spaghetti around my neck. It really is one of those things that is best done on instinct at breakneck (not literally!) speed. As soon as I pause to consider exactly what I am doing, all is lost!

I’ve been really enjoying a book called Under The Frog by Tibor Fischer recently (thanks to Bill for another excellent recommendation). It has the unlikely premise of following the progress of a couple Hungarian basketball players from the end of the Second World War up to the revolution in 1956. It’s full of crazy situations as they try to pick their way through the chaos of a post war eastern block county, doing as little as they can.

BCFC managed to pick up another victory at the weekend. The 1-0 win over Peterborough and the failure of the teams around us to win, means that we are once again only 3 points off one of the automatic promotion places. In truth it was a desperately poor game, but the win does keep us on track.

Two bits of good news for us!
Orynthia's dad has had a couple of operations this week and the surgeon told Orynthia that he has an 80% of walking again. It will take several months, but it is so nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel at last. It was Orynthia's mums birthday yesterday, so along with Orynthia's brother Ashton we took her out to Sawadee's our favourite local Asian restaurant. It was really nice to see Orynthia's mum smiling and laughing again. The food was good, as always.

The other good news is that we have booked a lovely looking apartment in Paris. Petunia and Simon will be joining us, for what should be a lovely trip to celebrate Orynthia's birthday. We sure do need a holiday!!

Well it's been a hectic few days again. We had a call on Sunday morning to say that Orynthia's dad was being moved to another hospital in order to have an operation on his back. We had planned to visit him during the day, so decided that we would do some stuff around the house and go out to see him in the evening. So at about 6pm we called the hospital to see if he had been moved yet, the answer was no, they were still waiting for the transport to move him. When we got to the hospital it was quite a little family gathering, Orynthia's sister and her 2 kids were also there along with Orynthia's mum. Some poor old chap took a terrible crashing fall whilst on his way to the toilet, which was not a very nice thing to see. Anyway it later emerged that one of the reasons for the delay in moving Don, was that his wheelchair had to be moved at the same time and for some reason that can only be done in a certain kind of vehicle. The nurse asked how we felt about taking the wheelchair to Frenchay hospital, so that Don could follow on behind. When it was explained to us that the wheelchair would actually fold down into a very compact little unit, we realised that we could get it into our very small car, so we did, and set off on the 5 mile journey to Frenchay Hospital. This was when the fun began. Frenchay is a huge hospital set in pleasant grounds, but with hardly any signs.
So we drove round and round looking for some sort of indication of the location of ward 2. Eventually we found a building with some lights on and people moving around inside. We rang the bell on the door, and from the way the woman rushed to meet us, it looked as though they had not had any visitors it a very long time. She ushered us in, and seemed a trifle disappointed that we were only looking for directions. Anyway, she managed to give us a decent clue to help us in our quest. We drove round to the Accident centre parked up again and Orynthia went off on foot to locate the ward. Success!! Frenchay is actually the site of an old American war base from the days of world war 2, and although many millions of pounds have been spent on it over the years, the one enormous central corridor that serves all the wards still has the feeling of the sort of place where you could encounter Gary Copper, David Niven or maybe as this is Bristol, Cary Grant. Anyway we managed to find ward 2 and amazingly they did have a bed ready for Don, so we could deposit the wheelchair and finally make our way home.

Yesterday Don had the operation, Orynthia and her brother and mum spent a large part of the afternoon at the hospital, When I came home from work, they were all back at our house grabbing something to eat and a chance to relax for an hour. They went back a bit later on and Don was conscious and chatting, I guess that we will have to wait a little while to see how this will leave him in the long run, but at least something is happening now.

I played football last night and I have to say that I was laughingly inept. I just had one of those nights when I could not do anything right. The harder I tried the worse I became, so I was the target for a lot of good natured ribbing, as I blundered my way around the pitch.

So we’ve arranged our transport to Paris. We were going to go on the train and today we got very excited when it looked as though we could do it for only £80 each, all the way from Bristol to Paris and back again. Of course it was too good to be true! We could get a train to Paris on the day that we wanted to go, but travel back to Bristol was virtually impossible to arrange. So we have opted to fly from Bristol instead. It cost’s a bit more, but we can travel at times which suit us and the actual travelling is much less, so we get more time in Paris. We have enquired about an apartment in the Montmarte area, and are just waiting to hear back from the owners to make sure that we can have it for the week.

Bought a few CD’s yesterday: The Mink Lungs – The Better Button and DJ Muggs – Dust. The Mink Lungs album sounds as though about 6 different bands have been forced together to make record some tracks. So far about 50% of it sounds great to me, the rest sounds a bit confused to me at the moment.

Thanks to BBC4 we are now getting the fantastic American TV show “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. It’s one of those shows that you either love or hate. I love it, but Orynthia runs for the door as soon as it starts.

Oh no the shame of it! Last night I went out with the people from work, we went to a Chinese Karaoke restaurant and I have to admit that I was dragged onto the stage! I trust that I was suitably awful. I Promise that it will never happen again.

Well being a fan of Bristol City Football club can be a frustrating and occasionally tedious hobby. Last night, we had one of those nights that makes it all worthwhile. The team played with an exhilarating zip and vigour, coupled with a skilful and intelligent use of the ball seldom seen at Ashton Gate to inflict Oldham's 1st away defeat of the season upon them. The 2-0 score line did not do the team justice, as they pounded an Oldham side that were only sparred a heavy defeat by the heroics of their Australian goalkeeper. So we now go above Oldham to take 4th place in the league and thing are really starting to hot up in the promotion race.
After the match, I went down to The Bell to meet up with Orynthia and a few other friends. It was only then that I realised that I had the slightly rough throat that comes from cheering us to victory, it's one of those strange occasions, when something slightly bad comes from something good. Like the sore feet and aching legs that are the result of exciting day exploring a new city when you are on holiday, the stinging mouth and lips that you can get from the red hot curry and the buzzing in the ears when leaving a gig which has knocked your socks off.

Well the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s certainly rocked last night. After the slightly disappointing 2nd EP, I was not sure if they were a bit of a flash in the pan. Initially I was a bit concerned that they used tapes and loops to provide additional backing, I really like to see a whole band of people up on stage, struggling with their equipment, rather than pressing a button, and coasting along on the results. I have to say that the shear energy of the band won me over, Karen O is a star and the guitar playing of Nick Zinger was splendidly angular and spiky. Do they have the songs to make this more than a quick bit of fun? We will just have to see what the album is like, when it comes out in a few weeks time. Support came from dreary Canadians The Still’s and Novelty fat man, mulleted would be sex god Har Mar Superstar. Funny for the first 5 minutes and then so awful that it became a bit of a car crash performance. You know the sort of thing, absolutely dreadful but you can’t take your eyes of it. He ended his performance wearing only his underwear, most of the crowd loved it, which was a shame, because for me, the funniest bits came when he was dealing the one heckler brave enough to take him on. Maybe the whole joke would work better with a crowd that did not lap it up so willingly.

City managed another win yesterday, 3-1 against lowly Cheltenham Town. We are still in 5th place in the league, and have a big few days ahead of us. On Tuesday night we are at home to 4th placed Oldham and then on Saturday we are away at 6th placed QPR. So by next Saturday evening we should have a much better idea of our promotion credentials.

On Wednesday evening we are of to see one of Orynthia’s current favourites, Richard Hawley at the Fleece. Sometimes guitarist with Pulp and former member of The Longpigs, he is starting to make a bit of a name for himself with his gently brooding yet melodic pop gems.

Just got in after a top night out. Went round to Petunia’s where we had a most enjoyable few drinks with her and Simon. Then onto Four corners at The Croft where we had a bit of a dance before a sort of rare groove 60‘s soul instrumental band played a short set. Strangely they played a funked up version of that old Black Sabbath tune -Iron Man. Why is it that in every dance band, there is a rock group desperate to get out?

We are on the verge of another weekend. We are heading out for a bit of dance on Friday evening, when we go to the Four Corners night at the croft. Then on Saturday, I’m off to see BCFC in action in the afternoon, before meeting up with some friends for some food and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs gig at The Anson rooms. Picked up a few CD’s this week, finally got round to picking up the new Calexico album, which is growing on me nicely. Also got a couple of EP’s The Black Rooster E.P. by American 2 piece The Kills which I like a lot and Holly Roller Novocaine by Kings of Leon which has it moments. It does look like the band have way too much hair though.

The main story in Bristol this week, has been the amazing news that a local pensioner had by detained in South Africa for a couple of weeks, after the FBI has decided that he was one of the top 10 most wanted men in the USA. Now anyone can make a mistake but this was a truly bizarre error. The poor chap was the victim of identity theft, but as soon as you heard him talk (let alone compared his picture with that of the wanted man) it should have become clear that this was not the sort of man who pinch a newspaper, let alone be involved in a major financial fraud.

I’ve added a few more links to the site. A couple from overseas, Bailey’s Irish Cream Bar from Washington USA is a place where entertaining and thought provoking debate is the order of the day.. Never Alone is from Australia, enjoyable prose, a passion for music and a few recipes, make this an interesting site to check out.

I’ve also added a few blogs from this part of the world. I don’t know any of these folk but it’s interesting to see what other locals are using their blogs for.

Take a look at them and see what you think.

Thanks to Bill for sending me a list of recommended reading material.

Bill also reminded me that I had not written anything about our Friday night viewing the Lodger. It's a Hitchcock film from the 1930's, so obviously it's a silent film in glorious black & white. Joby Talbot (formerly of the Divine Comedy) wrote a new score which was played by a small orchestra situated in front of the screen. The whole thing was a real treat, music and film linked beautifully (after one false start) lots of humour and a surprisingly gripping and clever twist at the end of the film kept us entranced.
One thing that I need to resolve is the problem with my Archives. It either seems to show 9 months from last year or nothing at all. Any ideas on how to solve this are welcomed with open arms

Cor blimey, yesterday was an exhausting day. As mentioned in the comments on the previous entry, we played more games than expected and because of a few last minute dropouts, I played much more than anticipated. We did pretty well, eventually failing to qualify for the semi finals on goal difference. It has to be said that in the last couple of games we had lost our zip, so it came as a relief to go home. Then again we are back for more tonight. Could be a slow match!

Very rapid turn around, in order to get down to the Beth Gibbons gig, but it was well worth it. What a wonderfully intensive and fragile mood she can create, then as soon as the song is over, she nicking fags off the people in the front row and cackling away like a lunatic.

I’m at a bit of a loose end on the reading front. Anyone got any ideas?

Just found out that we are going to see THIS tonight. Should be interesting. I've never seen the film even though I'm a big fan of Hitchcock. Tomorrow, we have nothing to do and all day to it. I've got a feeling that we may end up trawling through the 2nd hand shops on Gloucester Road looking for clothes, books and records.

On Sunday, the Monday night footballers that I play with are taking part in a 5 a side competition. I guess that I'm one of the worst players in our happy band, so I may only see partial action. Suits me really as we are going to see Beth Gibbons in the evening, so I don't really welcome the prospect of running around like a mad man all afternoon. We don't really know anything about the teams that we will be playing against, so really have no idea if we will be run into the ground by super fit young gods or then again it could be a stroll in the park. Please, please let it be the later option!

According to a recent survey our lovely home city was declared to be the friendliest place in the UK! It’s amusing as many Bristolians take great pleasure in being as grumpy as they can be. Certainly most of the city’s bus drivers will be devastated at the shock news.

Bit of a lively start to the day this morning. I arrived at Redland station at about 7:40 this morning, in readiness for the 7:45 train. The person in front of me had just pressed the information button, which cheerfully told us that the train would be 32 minutes late! Rather than wait in the freezing conditions most of us walked out of the station to the bus stop approx 150 yards away. After waiting for about 5 minutes we suddenly noticed that the train was heading into the station. Several of us decided to use this as our trial run for the British Olympic squad, and set off at full tilt. Despite the tricky nature of the track, a couple of hairpin turns included, about 4 of us managed to jump on the train before it pulled away. Cue much puffing and panting and we congratulated ourselves on our fleetness of foot. The Monday night football must be paying off.

Shocked but delighted to see that Massive Attack are at number 1 in the UK album charts. Must be the first time that a band from Bristol has ever managed to do this. I was chatting to a friend of mine who is a teacher on Friday evening. He subject is history and he was telling me about the fact that he often uses music in his class, either to illustrate a point or just to set a mood. He is convinced that Massive Attack have hit upon some sort of back to the womb heartbeat rhythm, as they are only band that can settle all the kids down. Once again with Massive Attack, the 1st play reveals very little, but the more you play it, the further you get dragged into the edgy, paranoid world which they inhabit. The mundane becomes soothing and then the changes suddenly become much more defined and noticeable then you would ever had imagined on 1st hearing.

Of course Teenage Fanclub were just great on Friday night. Very social evening, lots of our friends were out including my 15 year old nephew Craig, Who seemed to enjoy himself. Strange to think that the band has been around for longer than he has been alive. Makes you feel pretty old!
We had a very pleasant day in Sunny (but nippy) Devon yesterday. Had lunch in Honiton, which really does seem to be a thriving market town. Lots of interesting antique shops, great food shops and more café’s than you can imagine. Forget Paris or Vienna being the home of café society – Honiton is the place. They just need to get a few more writers and artists in town and who knows what could happen?

So it looks as though Orynthia’s dad is going to be confined to a wheelchair when he comes out of hospital (which won’t be for another month at least). Obviously this is sad news, but it comes as no real surprise. At least everyone can start planning for the future, which will probably include Orynthia’s parents moving to a house with better wheelchair access. Obviously, this is going to involve quite a lot of work for the whole family, so it looks as though it will be wise to put our Australia trip on hold for this year. It’s a shame as it would be really great to catch up with all the family down under (even though they would throw heaps of abuse at me for the recent sporting humiliation’s that the Aussies have inflicted on England this year, or any recent year come to think of it!) but we can always go next year. Hey we still have Paris in the spring and what could be better than that?

So whilst we were at the hospital last night we met up with Orynthia's cousin Petunia. The original plan was to go to the home of wonderful cheap, south east Asian food Sawadee's afterwards. However Petunia was needed in work, luckily for us she works at the splendid Riverstation. So the three of nipped across the river and Petunia feed us all manner of captivating foods from the downstairs deli bar which she helps to run. We worked our way through a vast array of delights whilst Petunia worked and chatted. We agreed that although the health problems besetting the family are quite traumatic, the positive thing is the way that it has brought the family together. Anyone that knows us, will be aware that we never pass up the chance of some nice food. This certainly was yum.

Talking of family tomorrow we are heading down to Devon to see my dad and step mum. Orynthia remembered that we have an adapter so that we can play CD's through our cassette player in the car. We seldom go on long journeys, so we tend to forget that we have it. The only tricky thing is working what to tack with us!

So tonight we have the first of little run of gigs to go to, Teenage Fanclub at the Anson rooms. Then over the next few weeks, we are going to see Beth Gibbons (of Portishead fame), The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Richard Hawley and then Radio 4.

I'm currently reading the excellent book that Shane Macgowan and his partner Victoria Mary Clarke put out a few years ago. Shane is such an amazing character, so intelligent and yet so destructive. Full of contradictions and brutally honest, it's gives a fascinating insight of his early life in Ireland, the early punk years in London and the rise and subsequent decline of the Pogues. My memories of the early Pogues gigs are still great memories, however I also remember how awful they were the last time that I saw them. Shane could barley stand, let alone sing. I'm constantly surprised (but delighted) that he is still alive.

Well the football last night was much better, but the reds still failed to win. The 0-0 draw was scant reward for a stirring 2nd half performance. Anyway at least we had enough excitement to get me leaping from my seat on a couple of occasions.

The result’s are back from the scan that Orynthia’s dad had. Afraid to say that it doesn’t look good. Major problems with his back, which will need further investigations. We went to the hospital as soon as we got home tonight, pausing only to pick up Orynthia’s mum on the way. Despite the gloomy news we managed to have a bit of a laugh in the hospital. The way that Don has kept his spirits up is really amazing.

It must have been the sunny weather, yesterday we had a mad blast of spring cleaning! Most unlike us, as any of you that know us will testify. We well remember the famous occasion when we ere playing some sort of word association game with Orynthia’s sister, Crescentia. I can’t remember what word we were trying to get her to say, but the clue was something like “you’ll find lots of this in Tom & Orynthia’s house”. I guess we were hoping for music or books or food, but no. As quick as a flash, she answered with the word DUST! We aren’t really that bad, we do what we need to do, but we are certainly not slaves to the house. Anyway, I always think that the key to this sort of work is to find the right sort of music to listen to whilst getting busy with the sponge and duster. As I set about our kitchen units with some gusto, I was helped on my way by the last 2 CD’s from the splendid Teenage Fanclub. Firstly Howdy and then Songs from Northern Britain helped me cut a swathe through the grime. Better still the Fanclub are in town on Friday. We will be there along with a pretty healthy percentage of our friends.

In the afternoon, we popped into to see Orynthia’s dad in hospital before heading over the river to Severnshed for a farewell drink with Janneke before she heads back home to Holland.

Just picked up a few CD’s on my home from work. Bought a couple of things that I don’t know too much about. “Kill The Moonlight” by Spoon and “Oh Inverted World” by The Shins. Also picked up “100th Window” by local lads Massive Attack. Only had a chance to play The Shins CD so far, and on first hearing it sound quite interesting, in a fairly gentle laid back sort of way.

Off to play football tonight. Looking forward to it after missing out last week as we were in Nice. Mind you being in a splendid city in the south of France, for our wedding anniversary with my lovely wife, can hardly be described as missing out. Tomorrow night it’s back to Ashton Gate for the BCFC’s latest attempt to stop the slump that 2003 has thrust us into. Saturday’s performance against Colchester was truly inept. Come on lads – even if we can’t win, at least entertain us a bit.

Well of course it rained in Pontypridd! Turned out to be a really nice visit, as the two sisters entertained me with old family stories, mainly about my Welsh grandmother, who died before I was old enough to know her.
Put a few of new links up. Lightningfield is mainly a photo blog of New York. Tim Biskup and Seonna Hong both do great kitsch graphics.

Lots going on tomorrow, Orynthia’s dad is having a scan to try to get to the bottom of his ongoing leg problems. So, hopefully, sometime next week we should have a better idea of what the future holds. Fingers crossed on that one.
On my side of the family, I am taking my mum over to Pontypridd in South Wales, to see her sister.
It’s going to be quite interesting as I have not been to Pontypridd for many, many years. When I was a child we used to drive over to see mums family every other week, and I must admit that I hated it. In those days Pontypridd was still a coal mining town (my grandfather had been a miner), and the dirt and dust from the coal seamed to cover the town. Everything was either grey or black, and even managed to feel dirty. To make matters worse, I have convinced myself that it was always raining. I know that can’t be true, but it just felt like the most miserable and desolate place. Of course Thatcher closed the mines, and I’ve been told that the dark brooding slag heaps that overlooked the town, are now all green and the feel of the place is completely different. It will be good to catch up with my Aunty Mair. It’s years since I’ve seen her. My side of the family are just useless when it comes to keeping in touch. It’s a complete contrast with Orynthia’s family, where I feel closer to relatives from Australia, than I do with members of my own who only live 50 miles away. In fact some of them live in the same town, yet we never see each other. Can’t really work out why our family has developed in that way.

Well we did make it across to Nice on Sunday and very nice it was. It was a shame that we missed out a day of our trip, but we made the most of our time in Bristol on Sunday. We went to look at the new Nissan Micra, very cute in a retro sort of way, and then went out for a very nice Sunday lunch at Le Monde. Although it's a French restaurant, we both opted for a traditional Sunday lunch, and it has to be said that the beef was fantastic.

The trip to Nice was mercifully straightforward. Whilst we were at the airport we bumped into a guy called Derek and his mate Ian. We have vaguely known Derek for many years, but this was probably the first time that we had sat down and had a proper chat with him. Bristol is such a small town that pretty soon we realised that shared loads of mutual friends. They were both good company in a pleasantly silly laid back sort of way.

Upon our arrival in Nice we manage to get the right bus into town and before we knew it we were at the apartment. Just had time for a quick scout around the neighbourhood including buying a very tasty kebab, before we went off to bed. The next day we walked all over Nice, new town, old town, sea front and hill tops, eating lots of local dishes before finally ending up in really nice restaurant called Le Lodge. Here, we rested our tired feet whilst drinking a splendid champagne cocktail and enjoying a gorgeous meal. With a nice bottle of claret.. The next day we had enough time to visit the magnificent Russian orthodox church, checked out the local food markets, before enjoying lunch in one of those bar/restaurants that the French specialise in. Lots of very tasty couscous, sent us back to Bristol with our stomachs full and our wallets not too severely stretched. We both think that we would like to return to Nice, hopefully for a bit longer, so that we could travel along the coast and also venture inland to those gorgeous snow capped mountains, which surround the city.

In the past few days, I finished reading The Earthquake Bird by Susana Jones and Nick Mcdonell's 12. Both were intriguing without being completely satisfying. Although I was disappointed with the "spectacular" ending of 12. It was in marked contrast to the preceding pages and seemed to somehow diminish the detached tone that had previously been set in the book. I enjoyed the Susana Jones book more, it has been marketed as a crime novel, but it seemed to me to much more about the way people on the edge of society connect and what they do when those connections are threatened.

So, as I write this, we should be enjoying our first visit to the south of France. Well, our flight got cancelled, but only after we had left for the airport! Which was a tad annoying as they must have known several hours earlier. We checked the websites and called the help lines which all indicated that the flight was still on. So here we are back home instead! We are booked on the flight for tomorrow evening, will the plane turn up who knows? Certainly not those nice people at Easyjet. They really did not have a clue about what was going on today. Not much we could do, so we just came home and watched a mad old Orson Wells film called Journey into Evil, eating Pizza followed by cheesecake, all washed down with some fine Champagne. Life could be worse. Think of those poor people on the Columbia space shuttle and their families.

Lets see what tomorrow brings!

Boy it's cold today. Still we are quite lucky, most of the eastern side of the country has ground to a halt. Lots of stories of 1 hour journeys taking 9 times that long! So we can't really complain. Although I love living in Bristol I do wish that we could get a little more snow down here, we miss out on all the snow related fun.

Spent lunchtime reading a feature in The Guardian about all these New York based bands that are taking over our world, Radio 4, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Rapture and many others. It was also good to see The Boggs getting a mention, must admit that I don't play their CD a lot, but I really enjoyed the gig that they played in Bristol. Also delighted to see that Radio 4 have announced a Bristol gig in April, and that Calexico are coming to town as well!

Looks like Orynthia's dad is going to be in hospital for a least a couple more weeks. We went to see him straight after work last night, and the good news is that he is still in very good spirits. He was joking with the nice old man in the next bed, saying that his problem is that he is diabetic, whereas the chap next to him was diabolical. They both started chuckling away, which was nice to see. So often hospital visits can be hard work as every one tends to be rather downbeat (understandably). Over the past year or so we have had to spend quite a bit of time with people who are unwell in various ways. I tend to avoid discussing the current state of their health, as I figure that's all they have been thinking about. I see it as my job to lead the conversation towards the vacuous, trivial and humorous topics. Consequently after the visits I never know the answer to the "what medication are they on" "why are they doing that" sort of questions which people tend to ask you. It's probably part of that great male tendancy of avoiding issues. You know the sort of thing, never talk about anything serious when you can talk about football or music instead!

Spent some of the evening sorting out some books for one of my nephews. He is 17 and has just got into the whole “Beat scene”. Managed to turn up 5 Kerouac’s that he hasn’t read. A couple of William Burroughs and an excellent anthology of American poetry from 1945-1960. Also found a couple of biographical books covering that period. Should keep him going for a while. I must admit that although I enjoyed Kerouac when I was younger, I always found Burroughs very hard work. Kept buying his books in the hope that something would click, afraid that it never did. I love the idea of passing books onto other people, but I always hope that they come back to me. I leant him a copy of The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and that got returned so the signs are good.

Only 2 more days in work then we are off to France!!

Well I just got back from seeing Orynthia’s dad in hospital and he’s doing fine. Looks like it could be in for about 2 weeks, so that can really try to work out what is causing the problems with his legs.

Forgot to mention that we were chatting to Delge (3D) from Massive Attack in the pub before the match on Saturday and he said that they will playing a big open air gig in Queens square, in the middle of Bristol in August. I’ve not heard anything off the new album yet, but people who have tell me that it’s one that you need to work at a bit. Mind you Mezzanine was a bit like that as well, so we will just have to give it a few plays.

Our football last night was really hard work, as well as being pretty cold, it poured with rain for the first 30 minutes and generally blew a gale for the whole match. We still managed to have a laugh as we ran around like headless chickens.

The only thing that I’ve managed to listen to over the past couple of days is the new mini album by The Raveonettes – Whip It On. Not managed to hear the whole thing yet, but it’s pretty good fun.

As expected, it was a pretty tiring weekend. Back to work today for a bit of a rest. Took make things better all our systems were down for most of the day, so we couldn’t do any work anyway!

While I was in work Orynthia called to say that her dad has been taken into hospital because of the ongoing problems with his legs. Lets hope that they can have a really good luck into the nature of his problem, so at least we may start to work out a plan for the future.

Because of time constraints, I did not have much of a chance to look around London. The hotel was really nice and the meal in the BT tower was great. The real star of the show though was the amazing view across London. It was a really clear night so we could see for miles and miles. When we had finished the meal, the lights dimmed and then the restaurant started to revolve, it was truly spectacular. After the meal, we went out to a pretty average sort of club for a bit of a dance. Stupidly, when we came back to the hotel just after 1am, I stated drinking coffee. Consequently I hardly had any sleep all night. Still at least that meant I did not have to rush to get back to Paddington for the 10:15 train to Bristol. Orynthia kindly picked me up at the station, I was at home for about an hour then dashed out again to see the Red’s in action. Sadly a very disappointing 1-1 draw, did not really give Steve Vowles the send off that he was wishing for. In the evening the massed ranks all trooped down to The Bell for Steve’s farewell drinking as he leaves for Madrid at the end of the week. Finally got to bed at around 1:30, by now very tired indeed.

Sunday was pretty quiet, popped out to Mat on his 21st and after dropping him back at the hospital we nipped into Sawadee’s for a quick meal. We are just so pleased that this fantastic little restaurant is so close to our house.

I'm off to play football tonight, whilst Orynthia takes her mum into the hospital to see her dad.

Busy few days coming up. I’m off to London tomorrow afternoon, for a work related trip. The customer that we look after is putting a few of
us up in a swanky hotel and BT are giving us a meal in the BT tower. Not sure if the restaurant still revolves, I hope so, watching London at night from one of the highest points in the city should be pretty good.

No time to lounge around the next morning, I’m booked on the 10:15 train to ensure that I get back in time for City’s match against Stockport. It will be Steve Vowles last City match before he heads off to his new life in Madrid. Pretty weird, Steve has been going to games for more years than he would care to think about. I guess he will make it back for occasional games when he visits Bristol, but it’s a strong link to break. Then on Saturday evening it’s down to The Bell as friends from many years meet up to say farewell. Sunday is my nephew’s 21st birthday. He is in hospital at the moment, so that will be a pretty strange day. I remember that when I was 21 I really did not what any fuss made about and was determined that I was not going to have a big party or any expensive gifts. It was just another birthday to me. In hindsight, maybe that was a bit mean on my parents. It’s a pretty big milestone for them, and maybe I should have let them mark it.

Wow! What a glorious morning.

Well the Wynton Marsalis / Lincoln Centre Jazz Orchestra gig last night was just fantastic. Although I was looking forward to it, I was slightly apprehensive as Wynton can be little bland on record. Well no such problems last night. The 15-piece band was awesome, not much can beat a 12-piece brass section going at it full tilt. When that sort of band swings, it really swings! We had lots of laughs as well. Amongst the generally slick looking band our favourite was a gentleman who looked for all the world as though he had wandered in from Shirehampton working men’s club, slipped into a suit and thought he would take a chance on sitting with the band, hoping that no one would notice an interloper in the ranks! It turned out that as well as playing bass Sax, he could play a mean bass clarinet, but it still looked as though he was nipping off stage for a quick pint or two whenever he got the chance.

I’m currently reading “Stupid White Men” by Michael Moore. It is an often hilarious account of the ills that have been unleashed on the world by the all conquering white man. He has lots of interesting and pertinent points to make. I must admit that I was totally unaware of the funding problems associated with American schools and with books in particular. The representation of schools in the states that we tend to see always look like shining beacons of enlightenment in comparison with our financially embarrassed institutions. In preparation for our forthcoming short trip to France (only about 10 days to go now), I stocked up yesterday on some other reading matter. Bought a couple of novels by writers that are new to me. Nick McDonell is probably new to most people, Twelve is his first book and he is only about 18 years old. I caught the end of programme on Radio 4 on the weekend when 3 people from very different backgrounds were discussing this and a couple of other books. All them were singing the praises of this novel, but for very different reasons. So I figured that there must be lot’s of ideas at work, if can it can touch different people in different ways. The other book I picked up was The Earthquake Bird by another debut novelist Susanna Jones. This was prompted by an article, which she wrote in The Guardian on Saturday, describing the origins of the novel. The book is set in contemporary Tokyo (Nick Mcdonell’s book is set in New York by the way, so as everyone who knows me will tell you, that my two main obsessions taken care of!), and I liked the way she spoke about the mechanics of moving around Tokyo on the excellent rail and underground system and the different atmosphere that each area has, that you feel as soon as you leave a station. The title also had echoes of my favourite author Haruki Murakami, sounds like a mixture between two of his books, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and After the Quake.

So I went to the barbers at the top of the road yesterday and all the talk was of the strange goings on at our newspaper/general store. Over the past couple of months it’s been amazing to watch the progress of this shop. What was once a well stocked and seemingly thriving enterprise, has gradually been depleted of virtually all it’s stock. You can just about buy a newspaper or one of the handful of magazines that they have, as long as you don’t try to go to the shop before 10am, as it will inevitably be closed before then, quite strange really as most people like to get their morning paper somewhat earlier. You can forget about buying anything else, row upon row of empty shelves stand before you. No food, no drink not even any cigarettes. Yet the staff sit behind the till all day, even though they have nothing to sell. My barber is convinced that it is being used for some illegal purpose and he has spoken to strange Russians coming in for a haircut claiming to be linked to ownership of the shop. If they were trying to give us the experience of Russian shopping, it is certainly pretty close to the sad stores, which we saw in Russia in 1988.

Managed to get some tickets yesterday for a couple of forthcoming gigs, Beth Gibbons is playing in late February and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs come to town in March. We already have tickets for the splendid Teenage Fanclub on Feb 14th, so things are starting to look up following the post Christmas lull.

Well it’s been a pretty busy week. It’s strange but although I was only away for one night with my training course, the whole week has really flown past. Last night we went to see the latest Harry Potter film. Orynthia is a big fan of the books and she really enjoyed the first film. I must admit that I am not much of a fan of “fantasy” films and to my shame I actually fell asleep when we saw the first H.P. film! Almost managed to stay awake for the whole duration of the last nights show. Orynthia loved it, and I always enjoy watching the way she jumps about at all the sudden scary moments in this sort of film.

I have just watched a short programme on channel 4, where a girl from London wanted to try to prove the six degree’s of separation theory. You know, the idea that anyone in the world can be connected to anyone else through just 6 people. It’s a game we often play with famous people; this girl set herself a really tough task. The person that she had to meet was a nomadic Mongolian horseman. Pretty tough! In the end, it actually took 9 links before she meet the bemused Mongolian miles from anywhere.

Tonight we are heading down to Bristol’s home of 60’s soul and boogaloo. It’s “Four Corners” night at the croft. Lets see if our old friends John, Ian and Phil can get us shaking a tail feather or two.

After weeks of thought I finally bought a ticket to see Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Jazz Ensemble at the Colston Hall next Tuesday. It’s £25 for the ticket, but I guess it could be the only time that Wynton comes to town, so my friend Steve and I figured we should take this opportunity to see one of the major figures of the current jazz world. Luckily our friend Jon works in the box office at the Colston Hall, so we have some excellent seats. The timing is unfortunate though, Tuesday is Bab’s birthday so I’m missing out on a meal at the glorious Hotel Du Vin, no doubt Orynthia (who loathes jazz) will give me the full rundown of the fine food that I missed out on.

Not had a chance to listen to much music this week. Mainly Mercury Rev – Deserter’s songs, Velvet Underground – Box Set and Roddy Frame – Surf.

Well if anyone wants to make a comment about anything I write (why would you?), I think that you should now be able to do so. Have a go and see if it works!

Well. I’m back from a couple days at the very grand Horwood House, a few miles outside Milton Keynes. It actually wasn’t too bad. The other people on the course were OK, and the time passed pretty quickly. The trip also gave me a chance to catch up with my old friend Temps for the evening. He lives about 3 miles away from Horwood House, so it was an ideal time to go out for a meal together. This may seem a bit odd as Temps, still comes to all the home games at Ashton Gate, but it has been known for our conversations to get interrupted by the football from time to time! After a lovely meal in a splendid old pub called The Lone Tree, we popped back to Simon’s house where I was able to say hello after a long absence to Carolyn and their unusually amusing Kids.

As I was driving back I was listening to a very entertaining chat and live session with The Flaming Lips on Mark Radcliff’s afternoon show on radio 1. The band is playing in Bristol in the next week or so. But I messed about when it came to buying tickets and then when Orynthia went to get some last week, it was sold out. It’s a shame, we have seen them twice before and they are an unusual and enjoyable live band. Still it’s a lesson learnt.

Forgot to mention that I finished The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith last week. When I wrote about last, I was not very impressed. However, the next section of the book was far more interesting and gripping. Now it may just be coincidence, but this part of the book was set in New York! Suddenly the book just went to another level for me. Unfortunately, when the action switched back to the London, the intensity of the writing seemed to be lost once again and the book just seemed to drift away.

Hello again, although I feel like I should say “Bonjour”. We have spent the last couple of days looking into French holiday information on the net. We have booked a short trip to Nice, in southern France for our wedding anniversary in February, and we have been researching our proposed trip to Paris in April
The trip to Nice, was a fairly spur of the moment sort of decision, prompted by the fact that those splendid people at Easyjet are having a mad sale. So crazy in fact that before tax our flights are £1 per person each way. That’s right, for £4 excluding tax we can both travel to Nice and back from Bristol airport. How mad is that? We have made a provisional booking on an apartment in Nice, our New York Apartment holiday last Xmas really did convince us that this is the best way to stay in a city. It was so great to get up whenever you wanted, and enjoy a relaxed breakfast. If you want to sample the local produce, you can rustle something up in the Kitchen any time day or night. You also get much more space for your money, which is really nice.

Talking of trips, I have got to away for a couple of days for a fairly pointless training course for my job. Not looking forward to it all, at least it’s only for two days.

Had a bit of a dash around last night. Orynthia and I went straight to our favourite local restaurant “Sawadee” where the food is good, cheep and quick. We both had their excellent Burmese curry and were then ready to dash off to The Cube , to catch the 7pm showing of Morvern Callar . Now because the weather has been so cold, Orynthia had driven our little Cinquecento down Cranbrook Road in the morning, so that after the meal we could just hop in the car, drive the short distance to The Cube and then after the film, the even shorter distance to The Bell for a couple of drinks. All safe in the knowledge that we would not have a 25 minute walk home in sub zero temperatures. Well that was the plan! When we got to the car, the door locks were actually frozen! So I had to run up the road to quickly pick up our other car, drive back, pick up Orynthia and we just made it to The Cube for 6:59.

Now anyone that has been to The Cube, in wintertime will know that heating is not a strong point in this wonderfully eccentric little building. When we purchased our tickets, the guy behind the counter did warn that the heating (such as it is) had not been on for long, and that it may be a bit cold in there. Something of an understatement! It was absolutely freezing. James, Orynthia and I sat there with coats, scarves and gloves on and to make matters worse, the 1st half of the film is set in an obviously cold Scottish fishing port at Xmas time. You really felt that you were on location with cast! Strangely, Later in the film the story moves to Spain, bizarrely the sunshine radiating from the screen actually seemed to make us feel little (and only a little!) warmer.

The film itself is pretty hard work. The first section of the film really is grim viewing, as the dull washed out colours reflect the misery and bleakness of the situation that Morvern finds herself in. Even when the film switches to Spain, the loathsome behaviour of the British abroad made for more uncomfortable viewing. However it’s not without merit, without giving too much away, Morvern spends a lot of time listening to a cassette tape, which has been compiled for her. On occasions, this is put to really good use, particularly when she strides into her supermarket, whilst “Some Velvet Morning” blasts out. Obviously made on a very tight budget, the quality of the sound did make it tricky to work out some the heavy Scottish accents. All in all, I left the film feeling (cold!) quite pleased that I am old enough not to have to go to those dreadful adolescent house parties or ever go on an 18-30’s holiday.

When dashed round to The Bell and were greeted by the welcome site of not one but two roaring fires. Coffees were ordered and the thawing process began.

If anyone wants to learn how to speak "Bristolian" in case they visit our fair city, at last we have an on line dictionary to help you!

Boy it’s cold today, just come back from lunch and it’s freezing. I’m due to be playing football at 8pm this evening. How cold is it going to be then!!

On Saturday night, we went round to Steve Vowles house for a meal. Teresa and Steve Dew were also there for what turned out to be a rather drunken evening. Still we have to make the most of it, because at the end of the month Mr Vowles heads off to a new job in Madrid. It’s something that Steve has been trying to arrange for a while; indeed he recently spent 6 months there, which must have been a useful test run for both sides. At least we know that it’s pretty easy to keep in touch these days and flights to Madrid can be pretty good value if you pick your moment carefully, so we should be able to keep in touch.

Had a really good evening with Kev & Julie last night. The restaurant was a little chaotic, if was the first time that they had opened after Xmas and whoever was in charge of the stock ordering had been somewhat negligent by the sound of things. They even ran out of milk! Still, the food that we had (Pheasant for Orynthia and I) was pleasant enough.

Soon after waking up this morning, we had the treat of a short but pretty vigorous snowstorm. It did not last long, but 7 hours later we still have a sprinkled icing sugar appearance to the neighbourhood.

Whilst we were out doing some shopping today, I bumped into an old school friend that I had not seen for 6 or 7 years. The only problem was that after leaving school, the chap in question changed his name. Now I knew that the one of the names involved was Tony and the other one was Julian, the trouble was that for the life of me, I could not remember which was the current name! I managed to get away with only saying his name once; I plumped for Tony and seemed to get away with it. Mind you I can’t really complain about peoples names. Although most people know me as Tom, some of you will know that my actual name is Andrew Thomas. Tom is just a nickname, which I picked up, in the early years of school life. So the situation now is that the members of my family call me Andrew. Orynthia and all her family, plus all our friends call me Tom. Whilst people who know me from work call me Andy. It can all get a bit confusing, especially when I’m signing Xmas and birthday cards. Orynthia has to say “now you are Andrew to this person” or Andy to this one. I still manage to make mistakes from time. It’s a bit embarrassing when you get confused about your own name.

Not much more news on the body that was found at the railway station yesterday, so I guess we can assume that the person did not die as a result of foul play. It’s strange that something like that can happen and then just disappear from the news stories.

Anyway onto brighter things. On New Years day we managed to catch up with our old friends Kev & Julie, who were back in Bristol for the New Year. We enjoyed it so much that we are going to meet up again this evening for a meal at Hullabaloos on Whiteladies Road. It’s a while since we have eaten there, so it will be interesting to see what it’s like these days. It is very strange to think that it is Friday today, it always gets confusing at this time of year, all day yesterday I was convinced that it was Monday, suddenly we are on the edge of the weekend! Now that’s the sort of working week that I like!!

Last night we watched Royal Tenenbaums on DVD. We saw it in the cinema when it was released and both of us really liked it. I think I liked it even more this time, the whole cast are just fantastic. The film is just packed with so much subtle humour, and as Orynthia has just pointed out to me whilst we were at lunch, the music is great as well. Taken as a whole, it really is a treat.

As predicted on a previous entry, having returned to work, I have managed to get back in the routine of reading again. I am now about half way through The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith. I along with many other people thoroughly enjoyed her previous novel White Teeth; so far this latest offering is not nearly as captivating. Sometimes it appears that she is trying rather too hard, to make pull off a literary trick rather than concentrate on the fundamentals of developing the plot. Still, it may pick up in the 2nd half.

I’ve mainly been listening to the following over the Xmas period: Velvet Underground -box set, Radio 4 – Gotham, Death Cab For Cutie – We have the facts and were voting yes +3, Beth Gibbons & Rustin’ Man – Out of season.

Strange start to the day, when I arrived at Redland station this morning, the sight of several ambulances and police vehicles greeted me. To cut a long story short a body was discovered on the track, the odd thing amongst this sad situation is that the incident did not make the local TV news this evening. Very strange.

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!