Well the whole Xmas / New Year shebang is almost over; soon it will be time to get on with real life again.

Sadly much of the period has been dominated by the truly stunning and hideous news from South East Asia. We spent an anxious hour or so trying to establish whether Orynthia’s relatives in Burma would be affected. Luckily for them, although sadly not for so many thousands of others in the region, the news was good.

We have had a reasonably quiet time of it, which has been quite nice. It was a sure sign of the advancing years of my friends and I, when it emerged that all of us chatting in the Nova Scotia before BCFC’s new years day match had spent the preceding evening either at home or at a friends house. The days of wild nights on the town appear to be over. As midnight approached Orynthia and I were actually getting soundly thrashed at Scrabble by Orynthia’s mum – how rock n’ roll!

So after the turmoil of 2004, what do we have to look forward to in 2005? Well first up is the long awaited new novel from Haruki Murakami – Kafka On The Shore, which will be with us on January 6th. His only worthy UK challenger, David Mitchell has the paperback version of his latest work – Cloud Atlas, published on February 21st. Lot’s of live music to look forward to over the next 6 or 7 weeks, Adam Green, Sondre Lerche, The Go! Team, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Trashcan Sinatras to name a few. There could also be a very special Bristol event to raise money for the disaster relief fund, but the plans are still sketchy at the moment, so I can’t say too much.

Talking of things musical, during this festive period the good people of Bristol have been enjoying the treat of having an alternative radio station again. Radio Caroline or Caroline Rocks as it is now known had been broadcasting on 87.7FM. People who aren’t lucky enough to live here can always listen via the net at the Caroline Rocks website. In fact if you tune in this Monday evening at around 10:30 you will be able to hear a live set from top local lads Aspen Woods.

Oh and I’ve added another blog to bookmarks – Cage Of Monkeys, well worth taking a look at if you are interested in music.