Had rather a strange weekend, starting rather abruptly at 3am on the morning of the 31st, with the first of many desperate dashes to that special room. Yes that’s right my purge of the festive excess’s started early, things were leaving my body a great speed from several exit points.

Now some people seem to be quite happy to indulge in a spell of vomiting, one chap that I work with thinks that no night is complete without something heading the wrong way past his larynx. I, on the other hand, loathe it.

Without going into too much detail, at one point I had visions of a strange variation on the classic rock star “choked to death, on his on vomit” affliction taking my very un-rock star life away from me.

I’m sure that everyone has experienced the horrible sensation of unwanted mater forcing itself through those delicate nasal passages, well on this occasion things started to become stuck, causing me to gasp desperately for air. Between bodily convulsions my mind raced, “That’s it! I’m going to die!” “what an timid way to go.” “How pathetic”

Somehow I conveyed my fears to Orynthia as should stood patiently beside me. Brilliantly and instantly she saved my life with a simple comment, “Blow your nose” -

Genius.

Any that sort of thing went on for the next few hours, meaning that virtually the whole of Saturday was spent feeling wonderfully dreadful, whilst wrapped in duvets and blanket’s. Various radios playing seemingly astonishing songs, which slipped in and out of my mind as, I drifted away.

We had made plans to go to Holy Cross Social Club for the New Years Eve night arranged by my friend Boca 45 and others. We decided to give it a go, and very fine it was too. A great little band featuring Jim Barr from Portishead and John Gardner from the Scissor Sisters live touring group worked their way through a great set 60’s instrumental soul gems, sounding like they had come straight from 1967. They went off, Boca 45 kicked off his set with the Paul Anka version of “Come as you are” then it was hip-hop, reggae, old soul and the Arctic Monkeys all the way to midnight.

After catching up with a few friends it was time to head back to the place I knew best, my bed.

By the way since I last moaned about Bristol City, it’s all changed. 8 points from the 4 games over Xmas seeing us moving up the table. What’s more the team appear to be playing with a smile on their face. I had to join in.

I'm going to be playing a few CD's at Grumpy Man again this Sunday.

As ever all those films that I intended to watch on TV over the Xmas period passed me by completely. In the old days it seamed as though we would lose hours wallowing in wonderful old black & white films, as the holiday break slowly edged past us.

2005 has also seen a marked decrease in our cinema visits, this has mainly been due to the increasing amount of time that we have been spending on hospital visits, as our families lurch from one health crisis to another. "Have you seen the new King Kong?" "No, but have you checked out ward 14 yet? I think it's their best work so far."

Anyway in an effort to change things, our Xmas gifts to each other were rather different this year. Neither of us could come up with particularly inspired options for one another, so rather than just buying things for the sake of it, we have decided to set aside a week in January when we are going to surround ourselves in cinema. For a week, we will watch as many films as we can during the evenings and weekend, we also have the bonus of both of us being at home on Fridays in January, so we may be able to sneak in couple of films then. Bristol does have a good range of cinemas, so hopefully we will be able to find enough things to amuse.

It was great to see "I know where I'm going" the other week, it's a magical film. We are really lucky to be able to see wonderful old films in the cinema. When I was younger I would spend hours looking through the revival cinema listings in the New Yorker to work out an imaginary day of viewing. It's always struck me that one of the signs that you live in a civilised place is that you don't have to have to be dependent on just recent cinema releases for your viewing pleasure. You should be able to watch a classic film from the past, rather than the latest thing that Hollywood wants to push at you.

So it’s over already. It’s the same every year – obviously. The big build up and then in flash, it’s done.

I have to say that I do enjoy Christmas, I know that with my advanced years (another one added on December 24th) I really should be cynical about the whole process, yet somehow I’m not.

The timing this year was really rather nice. Finished work at lunchtime on Friday so had time for an unhurried drink or two on Gloucester road with some colleagues before meeting up with Orynthia for a quick visit to a friend’s new house. Oh the fun we had looking at all his wonderful storage areas. No, really it was fun.

As mentioned before the 24th was my birthday. Orynthia gave the most fantastic present, the complete history of the New Yorker magazine on an 8 volume DVD set. That’s right, every page from over 4,000 issues of the magazine is not at my disposal. Piece after piece by the likes of Woody Allen, Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, Milan Kundera, Lorrie Moore, Dorothy Parker, Philip Roth, Oliver Sacks, James Thurber……Then, there’s all the amazing artwork and cartoons. I may never leave the house again! Well actually we did manage to get out for a lovely birthday breakfast in Cotham, before making a quick visit to the Here shop in Stokes Croft and taking a lovely walk around some of the architectural delights of the Cotham area.

Some parts of Christmas day were a little chaotic, but we saw lots of family and I think that everyone had fun. We finally made it to bed at around 1in the morning after being beaten on the final letter at Scrabble by Orynthia’s mum. Can’t believe I lost after using my “Z” on a triple letter, double word spelling of Zebra. Then getting double word points for the “Z” again in Zoot. Must try harder!

So yesterday I worked a full day on a Friday for what may be the last time! In the New Year I’m going back to working 4 days a week, having Friday as my day off. Orynthia is switching back to a 5 day week in February, so for January we will both have Fridays off which will be great.

I’ve avoided a couple of work Xmas meals so far, but on Thursday we had the Bryan Munich Christmas curry, which was good fun. After leaving the restaurant at around 11:25 we wondered around the Whiteladies Road area for about 25 minutes trying to find a bar that was open. Strangely everything was either closed or closing it looks as though the much heralded 24 hours opening has yet to reach that part of town.

Tonight we are off to Gloucester Road for a meal with some friends; then tomorrow will see a get together with Orynthia’s family for the first of the Christmas birthday gatherings. The only other certain thing for Orynthia and I next week is a trip to Arnolfini on Wednesday evening to see the wonderful “I Know Where I’m Going”. It’s one of the best films from the amazing directorial duo Powell & Pressburger. We’ve seen it many times at home, but the chance to see it at the cinema can’t be missed.

Had a great night at the Gaz’s rockin’ blues’s evening down at The Tube last Friday. He plays an extraordinary mixture of reggae, ska, stompin’ R & B, just about anything to set your feet twitching. All the while he stands behind the decks, huge clouds of smoke bellowing from an enormous cigar, laughing and grinning from ear to ear as he watches the poor people try to drag their weary limbs off the dance-floor. Top man.

Had the almighty shock of watching an excellent performance by City on Saturday. A gutsy, spirited and dare I say skilful performance saw us turn the league table upside down, gaining a deserved 2-0 win over Huddersfield. I even leapt from my seat when we scored the 2nd goal...just like the old days.

Over recent days I’ve really been enjoying the iTunes only Belle & Sebastian live recording of the “If you’re Feeling Sinister” album. It brings back so many great memories of seeing them in the early days, Union Chapel, The Bowlie and more.

Other than that I’m loving the new single from The Strokes, have to say that I was horrified when I first heard it. Now I think it’s the best thing that they have done. I love the way that it really charges along; I swear that the record gets shorter each time I play it!

Another great single is “Boot Prints” by King Creosote, taken from the excellent K.C. Rules album this is a wonderfully infectious song. On first hearing it appears to a really silly little song, but the more you listen to it the more complex it becomes. Loads of supremely chirpy organs sounds and a top-notch chorus. Should be number 1 for weeks, then again maybe it is? Must admit that I’ve got very little idea about the charts these days.

Still enjoying “Set Yourself on Fire” by Stars a great pop record from Canada. An album from a few years ago, which I’ve only just picked up, is “Soft Spot” by Clem Snide, plenty of fine songs on that one.

Paid our first visit to the newly open "Tube" in Unity St this evening. Very nice relaxed place, a nice alternative to the mega bars and clubs of central Bristol.

Last night we had a very pleasant evening at Arnolfini in the company of Francois and the Atlas Mountains. They were playing as part of a book launch, so the gig was free and what’s more they provided free drink. As well as the music Francois also showed some short animated films which he had made. That boy has too much talent!

Once again the unbridled enthusiasm and wonderful melodies of this great band, made for an evening of sparkling fun. Looking forward to their album in 2006.

Before the gig I met Orynthia in Obento for some splendid Japanese food. Not only do they sell lovely food they also sell Japanese condensed milk sweets!!!! We first encountered these on the plane out of Tokyo a few years ago. That’s right, the plane out – just when it was too late to buy any. We did find some in New York a few years later, then Selfridges in London was selling them in London as part of a Japanese festival. Now we can get them in Bristol – yum yum. They are the perfect hard sweet, richly creamy and long lasting.

Some of our friends are involved in a new bar / club in Bristol called “Tube”. We missed the opening night last weekend because of our Glasgow trip. Tomorrow they are having a bit of a food promotion which we are going to go along to, then on Friday it plays host to the excellent Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues, top tunes guaranteed.

We had a wonderful time in Glasgow, thanks to all the lovely people in Camera Obscura, their partners and their manager Francis. We were made to feel really welcome at the intimate party to celebrate the end of the recording period for their new album.

On occasions it did feel more akin to a wedding party, with exception of us everyone who was there was friends or family. Party poppers, crisps and chocolates on the table and a free glass of wine when you arrived, splendid. Former football star Pat Nevin played a indie hits DJ set before the band came on, following the short but lovely gig, Victoria from The Concretes took over the DJ role. After a lovely post gathering, we finally got back to our hotel at around 4:30am, exactly 24 hours after we woke up to get our flight to Glasgow, tired but happy.

On Tuesday we are off to see Francois at Arnolfini, he’s a very popular boy with the Camera Obscura crew, should be another good night.

So today we should have spent the day in Devon catching up with my dad. However, yet again a planned visit coincided with some unusually dramatic English weather. Yesterday we had a smattering of snow, down in Devon though they had around 4 inches, resulting in some very slippery narrow roads. Dad called this morning to say that he thought that some of the roads around them were just too dodgy to try. Consequently, we had an unexpected day in Bristol – What to do?

Decided that it would be good to catch up with Orynthia’s mum, so we made our way over to her place. She jumped at the idea of visiting St Marks Road in general and Bristol Sweet Mart in particular. It’s such a great shop even more so when Orynthia’s mum is with us, as she can explain exactly what all those strange vegetables are. Following a bit of shopping we had a pleasant lunch in the Old Casbah (£18 for 3 of us!), whilst we caught up on the family news.

Whilst we were in St Marks Road, I picked up a solo CD by the Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. It’s a live recording of a gig in Tokyo (I love that you can actually hear people coughing in the gaps between songs!) It includes a fantastic version of the Radiohead tune “ Paranoid Android” which goes on for almost 20 minutes. Set me back all of £1.50!

We been doing some more holiday visiting over the last week, my sister has been in for some pretty serious work. For once she let us help her out, which was nice. She is back at home now with her books and dogs, hopefully everything will be ok for her. We really don’t want to spend any time in the B.R.I. next year.

I know I’m repeating myself but really, Moby-Dick is just fantastic. It’s so much funnier than I imagined. Herman Melville has such a brilliant way with words; I love all the little distractions and tangents in the book. Genius!

Much excitement here in Tomorysworld today. Orynthia has won us an invite to the launch party for the new album from Camera Obscura. I think that it’s going to be indie heaven for her, who from the fabulous world of Glasgow music will be in attendance? Well we will just have to wait and see, however we do know that the band themselves will be playing so it should be a great night.

Over the past few days I’ve starting to put myself into the bizarre world created by Herman Melville for his epic Moby-Dick. In the main I’m a reader of 20th& 21st century fiction, but over recent weeks Melville’s’ work has been coming at me from all angles. Eventually I just had to give in and say, “OK, I give up, I’ll read it.”

If you time and live in or around Bristol make sure that you get down to Arnolfini for the fantastic Black Mountain exhibition. Where else could you “hear” mushrooms growing?

Once again this weekend BCFC were at home and I didn’t go, consequently had a great day. A good friend was unexpectedly in town for a couple of days so thought that it would more fun to spend some time with him than watching some so-so football.

So Orynthia, Kev, Petunia and I meet at Ashton’s flat for breakfast before heading off on the Totterdown art trail. Lot’s on interesting, funny eclectic work and people saw the hours fly by. We even bought a Lino cut print (so that someone could give it to us as a Xmas present. Next weekend it’s the Bishopston art trail, should be fun

I’ve just finished reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and really enjoyed it. It’s very tricksy – lot’s of pictures, changes of font size and the like but I thought it would really, really well. A few times last week I work back to work after a lunch time reading session feeling pretty emotional. A very interesting book.

Went for a very chaotic Moroccan in Hotwells last night, there were about 20 of us and the food took an age to arrive, in the very cold restaurant. Still everyone had a fine time. When we realised that one poor chap was doing all the cooking, I guess we just felt sorry for him. The delay gave plenty of time for pictures to taking of us smoking on the hookah with a fez on our head, what more can you want from an evening out?

When we returned from our recent trip to Glasgow, I think we both felt a little disappointed that Bristol did not offer quite the same sort of upcoming musical talent that that fine city has to offer. Well last night proved that we were wrong.

We went along to The Folk House for a glorious night of music in one of the nicest places in Bristol. First up were Cajita, purveyors of lovely brooding music. Mainly acoustic but with an electronica influence adding a nice twist from time to time. Fine band.

The star of the evening though was the magnificent Francois playing with The Atlas Mountain Ensemble. Now, we’ve seen Francois a few times in the past and it’s been nice, we’ve got a couple of his CD’s and they have their moments of beauty – but last night!

The performance was nothing short of wonderful. The only person that I could link him with is the mercurial Sufjan Stevens. Fantastic arrangements by the huge band (10 or 11 members, I kept losing count), featuring all sorts of instrumentation, added to the sense of wonder. The band played in the middle of the room, with minimal amplification and I’m sure that they must have loved looking around to see so many faces beaming with happiness.

They are playing together again at The Arnolfini on December 6th, well worth seeing if you can.

I finished reading “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith this morning. It’s little strange when academics write books, which are set in the academic world. I know that you are supposed to write about what you know, but how many of us really care about the internal politics of university life? However I did enjoy the book, particularly the adventures of the young son who is determinedly non-academic and makes desperate efforts to hook up with some like-minded people.

Had a bit of a CD buying burst today, picked up Aidan Smith’s “Fancy Barrel (worth buying for that cover alone),”Set Yourself on Fire by the Canadian band Stars and “Tanglewood Numbers by Silver Jews. This week I shall mainly be concentrating on performers who name begins with the letter S!

Whilst I was out shopping with Orynthia, Bristol City were being beaten at home in the F.A. Cup by Notts County. Over the past few months I’ve found it harder to raise much enthusiasm for football at Ashton Gate or particularly in the wider arena. For the first time ever I had to think long and hard about buying a season ticket in the summer and unless something major changes, I don’t think that I’ll bother next season. I just think that there are so many better things that I could do with my time.

It’s not the money, though watching football is far too expensive these days. It really is true that as you get older time is more important than money. So I may well limp through to the end of the season, then watch the World Cup and then that may well be the end of it for me. It will be strange, as I’ve spent most of the last 36 years watching the game, the magic has just slipped away.

Last night we spent our final hour with one of our favourite TV shows - Six feet Under. Over the years it's been a show which has intrigued, engaged, involved, and put us on an emotional roller coaster more than any show I can remember.

I think that the strength of the show was that the characters you liked had the ability to annoy, frustrate and disappoint you, in the same way that the ones you weren't so keen on could suddenly delight and amuse you. In short it was just like life. No one was always good or bad, which kept the show interesting.

As so much of the show was taken up with death it was often a pretty tough show to watch. I don't think that any other series has sent us off to bed with damp checks as often as this one did. We have had quite a lot of issues to deal with over the past year or so, including death and serious health worries for members of the family. Six Feet Under just seemed to have a knack for articulating the emotions we were feeling at the time, which wasn't always comfortable but was in some strange way helpful.

We’ll miss it.

As the rain pours down with ever increasing force, we completed the purchase of our new car this weekend. The main attraction – the splendid glass roof, which given the right weather conditions will open to flood the car with light and air. Of course at the moment the only worry is that it will flood. So far so good, no sign of any incoming droplets, which is a very good thing.

Since our recent holidays we’ve been rather lacking in gigs to attend, however we managed to get ourselves along to The Cube last Thursday, to see SJ Esau’s John Peel anniversary night. We went along with a few friends who were making their first visit to this wonderful place. It was a typically chaotic and noisy night featuring all manner of mayhem.

Whilst listening to radio 6 this morning I rediscovered a lost treat – The sublime “Katy Song” by Red House Painters. They were someone that I only discovered long after they had split up. Finding them was one of the many benefits in fact of working at Imperial. Beren who worked there with me was a huge fan and pointed me in the direction the excellent double CD compilation of their work on 4AD, it’s a fine thing.

Well a bit of a first for me last night. On Friday I was asked if I would DJ at the latest evening of musical delights from the Grumpy Man collective? Thought I may as well give it a go, have to say that I really enjoyed it. People even came up to me to ask what some of the records were, just like a proper DJ.

It was all done with CD’s, so in reality it’s pretty straight forward, and given the nature of the evening, there is no pressure to keep people dancing – what can go wrong?

Anyway here is my set list.
1. Jacob Faurholt – Alone with you
2. Iron & Wine – Cinder and Smoke
3. Music and Movement – Cosmonaut
4. Nina Simone – Please don’t let me be misunderstood
5. Lucksmiths – Fiction
6. Lou Reed & John Cale – Hello it’s me
7. M. Ward – Hi-Fi
8. Francois – Katrina
9. Calexico – Not even Stevie Nicks
10. Devendra Banhart – Now that I Know
11. The Decemberists – On the Bus Mall
12. Teenage Fanclub – Planets
13. Pavement – Range Life
14. Beth Gibbons – Romance
15. Bobby Darin – Simple song of Freedom
16. Sufjan Stevens – The dress Looks Nice on You
17.Lambchop – Up With People (remix)

Found out today that a couple of our best friends are leaving the area. After a lot of thinking they have decided to head up to Scotland. It’s got me thinking about our situation, I’ve never lived anywhere other than Bristol, and the same is virtually true for Orynthia. She has lived here for as long as she can remember.

Now this brings many advantages, we’ve lead pretty sociable lives, so whenever we go out in Bristol it’s pretty likely that we are going to bump into a friendly face or two. It’s also true that Bristol is a great place to live, lots to see and do, good travel connections and generally a nice relaxed atmosphere.

And yet… I did feel a little pang of envy. I love the idea of the bold new adventure, heading off to a place where you have no obvious links with anyone or anything. Just the two of them together, working out how things in that community work, how to fit in with the people around you, where to buy your bread, the best way to get from A to B or even C.

Then again our friends have both moved around England during the course of their working lives, so I guess they are well prepared for the challenges ahead. We’ve always been steady, organised, no risk sort of people. That makes us sound dull, it’s not meant too, because I think we’ve had a fantastic life. Seeing and doing so many different things.

As I write this the wonderfully simple song by Smog called “Let’s move to the country” has just come on the CD player. Now you could never call Orynthia and I country folk, but it really suits our friends. As the song says, “ Let’s move to the country, just you and me. My travels are over, my travels are through.” I don’t know if their travels are through, but they might well be. Then again if you are used to relocating every few years can you ever completely settle in an area or does the urge to reinvent yourself come along every few years?

It’s been a busy few days, stating last Thursday with a visit to The Prom, a John Peel day gig featuring our favourite faux country band – Wilma. I’m sure we weren’t the only people to hear a cover version of Teenage Kicks that night, but the boys carried it off with some style.

On Friday we nipped out to see the latest work of genius to come from Bristol – Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Funny. Knowing and great to look at we all loved it. Saturday saw Bristol City continue to limp towards the middle of the table with a hard fought 1-0 over Tranmere.

The football theme continued on Sunday when the plucky Bryan Munich went out of the cup at the first attempt, yet we played really well and were more than a tad unlucky. Oh well now we can concentrate on the league.

Sunday Evening saw making the short trip to Cardiff to see the majestic Roddy Frame. You can see a million people standing up with a guitar and singing a self penned song, yet when someone like Roddy does it a sort of magic take place. He was on top form and the crowd of middle-aged fans lapping up every note.

Back home after our short trip to Scotland. We had a fine time, Falkirk was fun, and Glasgow was grand.

The Falkirk Wheel is quite a thing, if you like concrete, modern sculpture or engineering, you should pay it a visit.

We stayed in an amazing B&B, it was within walking distance of the Town Hall, yet had the feel of a huge house in the country. Amazing garden, leading to plenty of bird watching activity over the breakfast delights.

The gigs were good. On the 1sst night Aberfeldy opened up with a collection of little pop gems. Next up were The Pearlfishers, who I enjoyed rather more than Orynthia did. Lush piano driven singer songwriter stuff from another age, think Jimmy Webb or Burt Bacharach, not at all rock “n” roll, I like d the ambition of it. Finally The Trash Can Sinatras took to the stage and played a lovely set of songs old and new.

The next evening saw us enjoying Malcolm Middleton (of Arab Strap) rather more than we expected to, have to say he dealt very well with some hilarious banter from a very exuberant female member of the audience. Then we enjoyed a majestic set from the mighty Teenage Fanclub. The lads were on top form, and it was great to see them in front of a Scottish audience, who sang along with gusto to many of the songs.

The next day we took the short train journey to Glasgow, a city festooned with men in kilts in a high state of expectation before the Scotland – Belarus football match. Sadly their enthusiasm was misplaced as Belarus managed to secure a 1-0 win.

We missed the football as we were enjoying our iPod tour of the musical highlights of the city. A lot of it was familiar to us, places such as the “School of Art”, “King Tut’s” and the splendid “13th Note”. New to us was the esoteric “Tchai Ovna” a very special café dedicated to tea form around the world and absolutely flippin’ marvellous “Mono”. Mono is a great place, part fantastic records shop (opened with help of many luminaries of the Glasgow music scene), part organic café, part super relaxed bar and also a live venue. I must admit that we spent ages in here on Sunday afternoon to rest our feet after the long walk of Saturday. It’s the perfect place to sit and read, and pick up some top tunes.

Other than that we enjoyed another visit to The Lighthouse, always an interesting place the highlight this time was the Marimekko exhibition.

Well we’ve been back almost 2 weeks now and I’m only just starting to feel as though I’m back in sync. To prove the point I’ve just got around to watching a video of the final day of the amazing ashes series. We won – it’s still hard to believe that England (with the help of a couple of Welshman) have finally managed to beat the Aussies.

Our friend Jon kept me abreast of all the cricket (and football) news with a wonderful supply of ever more frantic text messages whilst we were away. The cricket even made the papers in Germany, surely that’s a first!

Ljubljana is a lovely place. A beautiful old town with a picturesque river, it’s also blessed with some great 20th century building and sculptures as well. Loads of friendly street café’s and bars where a drink never cost more than £1 and some of the best Ice Cream we’ve ever had helped to make it a splendid destination.

Berlin was a massive contrast; huge, busy and fascinating, it’s a marvellous city. We caught lots of awful bands at Popkomm, the music industry festival that was taking place in the city. The honourable exception to the mass of mediocrity was the excellent Jacob Faurholt & Sweetie Pie Wilbur from Denmark. They were great, head and shoulders above anything else we saw.

Whilst we were away I read “Small Island” by Andrea Levy a wonderfully wise and entertaining book about the experience of the melting pot culture of the world in the 1940’s.

What else? Well next week we are off again, not quite so far though this time. We are heading up to Scotland for a few days, firstly to spend a couple of days in Falkirk. Here we will get the chance to see Teenage Fanclub, Trashcan Sinatra’s, Aberfeldy, The Pearlfishers and Malcolm Middleton. Then we have a couple of days in one of our favourite cities in the world – Glasgow.

The other major thing to happen over recent weeks is that Bristol City have started to score goals and even (gulp) win matches! New manager, new era, the smiles were back at Ashton Gate on Tuesday evening. Another home game coming up this weekend, for once I'm looking forward to it.