Looking ahead somewhat, we have a great few days in store. Staring tonight with the Calexico gig, then we have another 3 day weekend to look forward to. On Saturday Bristol City are at home to Port Vale in the last regular league match of the season, although our defeat at Chesterfield last Saturday means that we have a least one more game to watch this season, as we strive to get obtain promotion, via the torturous play off's.

On Sunday we are going to visit the brilliant Spike Island, which is open over the whole of the long weekend. For those of you that don't know, Spike Island is an old Tea warehouse which has been converted into artists units. From memory about 150 different artists have units in the building, producing an incredible array of work. Sculpture, video, paintings, printmaking, photography, conceptual art it's all there. Normally it's a working building which the public don't really have access to, but from Friday to Monday the public take the chance to view the work and some cases buy it as well. Whilst being able to talk to the people who are producing the stuff as well. Our friend's Anna Oliver (see links) and her partner John Pym will both have work on display. It's a great place to meet up with friends and the hours just seem to disappear when you are in the midst of all this creative energy.

On bank holiday Monday, the people of Redland hope for a dry sunny day, as the annual Redland fair takes place on Redland Green, just around the corner from our house. It's nothing special really, just a collection of stalls selling everything from home cakes to old household bit's and pieces, plus the occasional treasure on the 2nd hand books and records front. Although it has to be said that our DJ friends John Stapleton and Ian Green have normally snaffled all the bargains and are seen wandering into the distance with pile of rare 7" singles and LP's. All the stalls are set up in the area around The lovely old Redland church. When the sun shines it's a pretty good place to be. We normally end up back at our place with a few friends, having the inevitable Thomas tea and cakes whilst we admire each others plunder from the afternoons bargain hunt.

Thanks to the purchase of a new record player, current plays:
The Chills – Kaleidoscope World LP
Orange Juice – Texas Fever mini LP
Lloyd Cole & The Commotions- Rattlesnakes LP
LCD Soundsystem – Give it up 7”
Tamla Motown Presents the Isley Brother LP

Whilst on CD
LCD Soundsystem – Losing my edge (best song in the world at the moment!!)
Evan Dando – Baby I’m Bored
Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun

We have had a very pleasant couple of days. On Thursday evening, we meet up after work and planned to have something to eat in Severnshed, however for some reason it was absolutely crammed full of people, so we popped next door to The Riverstation, to see Petunia and Simon, where we took advantage of the their early evening meal offer. I had a gorgeous meal of Skate wings with Capers. I’d forgotten how much I love Capers, that wonderful acidic zing really adds something to any fish dish. We then nipped over the river to see Orynthia’s dad as he has been moved back to the general hospital. He was in great spits, which was lovely to see.

Last night we went to The Croft, for John, Ian and Phil’s excellent Four Corners evening. Lots of our friends were about so we did more chatting than dancing on this occasion.

On Tuesday we are seeing Calexico, never seen them play live before. I’ve enjoyed the last couple of albums and am looking forward to seeing them. Once again quite a few friends are going so it should be a good night.

So, every day this week, I have been getting up at around 6:20 am to let our roofing guys in. Must admit that it's making me very tired. I know lot's of people do this sort of thing all the time, but the earliest I get up normally is 7am, once or twice a week. I guess that because we don't have kids, and we both work pretty straightforward office hours, with minimal commuting times, we have been pretty spoilt on the sleep front. Orynthia has been ribbing me a bit lately, I have been waking up at around 8:30 - 9:00 am on some weekend mornings, which she takes as a sure sign of old age. It's a well known fact that young people can quite happily sleep all day. Whereas those nice old grandmums and dads have normally read the paper, watched "Gone With The Wind" on video, had breakfast and a mid morning snack, before the clock strikes 8:30 am. So in a way I'm quite pleased that I'm finding it so taxing. Proof that I'm not completely in my dotage!

Picked up a couple of CD's yesterday. One of them is a compilation of bands on the Output label called Channel 2 , including older singles from bands like The Rapture and LCD Soundsystem plus lots of new stuff by bands which are new to me. Most of it is the new electro vein, which is all pervasive at the moment. The other CD is the new one from Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun , only had a chance to give the first few tracks the skimpiest of plays last night, but track 4 "Season of the shark" is just lovely. Looking forward to more plays of this album.

We have actually had some rain here today, for the first time in absolutely ages. It felt quite strange to be holding an umbrella again.

Yeah City won 2-0 last night, so we are back up to 3rd place in the league with only 2 games left. We could still finish 2nd and claim one of the automatic promotion places, and we are now guaranteed a least a playoff place. It was a pretty tense game and to be honest Cardiff had the best of the 1st half, after the break, we played with a lot more pace and deserved the victory. My Friend Steve, who now lives in Madrid, had a text message advising him of the final score and he was so excited he called me at about 11pm to chat about the game, as no one else in Madrid would really share his enthusiasm for a lower level English team. Also pleased to say that there was no crowd trouble at the match at all (from what I saw anyway). The fixture has seen some of the worst excesses of football hooliganism over recent years, and some of the games have been pretty horrible. Thankfully nothing of that nature occurred this time, although I may have injured my voice whilst shouting with joy, when the 2nd goal went in!

Not too much going on here over the course of this long Easter Weekend. We have both been on the verge of going down with colds, so we decided to have a much rest as we could and just take things easy. Apart from yesterday, when we caught up with a lot of family, it worked out pretty well.

Bristol City picked up a couple of draws in the last 2 away games. Tomorrow night is the big game against Cardiff. If we win, we will go up to 3rd place in the league, if we loose, we will be in the last playoff place looking nervously over our shoulder at The team in 7th place. Games against Cardiff are always volatile affairs, so who knows what will happen?

I finally got round to finishing my mix tape for the tape swap being arranged by Tally Ho Sulky (see blog links), it should be winging it’s way to New York tomorrow. It’s a mixture of songs, spoken word, radio samples and all sorts of oddities. I can do a copy for anyone else that wants one, if you do a tape for me!

Orynthia has been working on a new website, which she hope to have up pretty soon. Not going to give away any more away, but once it is finished I’ll have a link to it.

Well this morning all the tiles arrived for our new roof. Which meant that I had to dash downstairs and move the cars out of the way to allow the lorry to get close enough to load them onto the platform which has been erected over our front garden. Apparently the guys are going to start work at about 6:30 am on Tuesday morning. So no chance of an post Easter holiday lie in! The weather has been glorious here over recent days, just hope that we don't get lashings of rain and wind for the few days when we don’t have a proper roof!
We don't have too many plans for the 4 day Easter break, mind you we don't normally do anything special, it's good chance to sit back and relax for a couple of days. I've been thinking about previous Easter breaks and one really stands out. In 1998 we were lucky enough to go to the wedding of Orynthia's Australian cousin Sorelle and her chap Craig. Now going to a wedding in Australia would have been exciting enough, but luckily for us it got even better as they decided to get married in Malaysia! People from all over the world congregated in the beautiful Marang Resort & Safaris, a remote destination near Kuala Terengganu in remote north east Malaysia. We flew into Kuala Lumpur were we were able to meet up with some other relatives before taking the short flight north. Once we arrived at Marang, we met up with the rest of the wedding group, friends and relatives from Australia, Asia, Europe and the USA. The place was amazing, Mangrove swamp and river at the rear, the beautiful South China directly in front of our timber framed chalet. The wedding itself was gorgeous and several of us spent the small hours sitting on the beach, watching the twinkling lights of the fishing boats in the distance, just talking and thinking how lucky we were to be there. It was real treat to able to spend lots of time with friends old and new. We saw some incredible sights in and around Marang, it was a really wonderful time. To top it off, on the day after the wedding I received a fax from a friend of mind confirming that Bristol City had been promoted (only for one season unfortunately). It was quite a way to hear the news, although with the exception of Orynthia, everyone else was completely baffled by my excited state. The link above appears to indicate that the place may not be as well looked after as it once was, indeed it may even be closed, which is a shame.

Last night we went to the Louisiana to see New York band Radio 4 in action.
First up were two guys from Seattle called Plan-B, one of them keyboard crunching whilst crouched behind an i-book, the other playing a slimed down electronic stand up bass. Fairly pleasant noodling in a Boards of Canada type vain for the most part, although Orynthia had to move pretty quickly to avoid the i-book guy, as he leapt into the space between audience and band to give us his best B-Boy moves for a couple of minutes (very nimble they were too!).

Next to squeeze onto the tiny Louisiana stage were Outhud. Now a friend of mine who owns a record shop, was telling me on Sunday that he had been listening to an album by the band recently, which he described as mainly instrumental, dubby, electro. So we were both surprised (he was standing next to me at the gig) when it emerged that the band had 3 singers. I really liked them, they reminded me of either The Slits or Delta 5 (if you know those old, late 70's and early 80's bands?) mixed with early electro like Africa Bambaataa or maybe "Confusion" era new Order. I loved them. Great bass player, cello and loads of staccato keyboard riff's cut through the crowd like a rapier. One of the band gleefully announced that they were selling a CD at the gig but that it did not feature any of the songs that they had been playing (which may explain my friends confusion about the sound of the band.) After taking the stage to general audience indifference, they left it to much applause. I'm going to keep my eye's and ears open for this lot!

By now the tiny confines of the room were packed, indeed after nipping downstairs to use the restroom facilities, I could not get to Orynthia and our friends, so I decided to head towards the front stage area. Because of the strange layout of the room, (the dressing rooms are actually behind the audience, meaning that bands have to walk through the crowd to get to the stage!) the band were already on stage chatting amongst themselves. I got myself into a decent spot, just in time for the band to dash headlong into their set. I'm hopeless with song titles and whenever I rely on memory I'm normally wrong, but I'm pretty sure that they started with Our Town, followed by Start A Fire and I thought that maybe they were just going to play the album straight through. At first the sound was a bit muddy, so the crispness that defines the album was somewhat lacking, although the band were tearing into the songs as though their lives depended on it. Suddenly we got to Save your City and everything just clicked into place with the sound. From then on, the band could do no wrong, and the audience were really starting to appreciate these razor sharp songs. They played a couple of songs which were new to me, at least one of which was off the 1st album (which I have never seen or heard). The set built to a climax with Eyes Wide Open and Dance To The Underground leaving the band looking as though they had swum across the Atlantic to play the gig. As mentioned previously, to get to the dressing room the band would need to force their way through the crowd before coming back for an encore, they quickly realised that this would be a pointless thing to do, so after a quick chat a brooding and menacing version of Pipe Bombs, preceded the final charge through a cataclysmic New Disco. Orynthia is not really a fan of the album but she enjoyed the gig and was even spotted having a bit of shuffle around towards the back of the room. They certainly seemed to be a band that know that they are on top of their game at the moment and they are aiming to make the most of it.

What a great weekend! Started on Friday really when our upgrade to ADSL Broadband went amazingly smoothly. So now can actually watch music video's and listen to streaming radio without the gaps pauses and drop outs which we have become used to over the years.

On Saturday I watched a really entertaining game of football as Bristol City beat Mansfield 5-2. The win moves us up to 4th place in the league. Tomorrow we are away at 2nd placed Crewe and on the following Tuesday we are at home to 3rd placed Cardiff. So by next Wednesday we should have a pretty good idea if we have any chance of finishing in 2nd place and getting automatic promotion, or as I think is more likely we will end up somewhere between 3rd place and 6th place and will have to endure the nerve shredding play off's.

On Sunday afternoon we had an afternoon party to celebrate Orynthia's recent birthday. I took care of the house work, whilst Orynthia baked a multitude of splendid thing. A scrummy cheesecake, huge carrot cake covered in cream cheese icing, enough chocolate caramel slices to feed most of southern England a couple of loaves of bread! My main culinary contribution was the precision spearing together of cheese and pineapple chunks. Loads of our friends turned up and a small army of children set about the task of relocating our possession around the house. Gallons and gallons of tea were drunk along with the occasional glass of wine. Over the past couple of weeks Orynthia has put together a couple of tapes of her favourite songs from the soul and reggae of her youth to heyday of scratchy guitar indie heaven of the early 80's and onwards to the present day. All bases were covered and I'm sure that those tapes are going to be in pretty heavy rotation in the car for the next couple of months.

We are going to see Radio 4 and a couple of other bands at The Louisiana tonight. I think that it's going to pretty hot and sweaty!

Well, It looks like most of the site is back.Whew! Gone for a new look as well!

Well, at least the blogs show now. I'll have to put comments, links back on. We have just upgraded our service to ADSL (nothing to do with my blog problems) so it's all a bit mad on the computer front today! Just noticed that my archives have come back!!

Oops! Look's like I've messed up this page, help!

Some recent CD purchases from Paris and Bristol:
Alpha – Stargazing (made in Bristol, purchased in Paris). Howe Home – The Listener (Howe Gelb of Giant sand under another name). Ignatus – Le Physique (laid back French noodling). Dynamo Productions – Analogue (Top Bristol DJ duo, one of whom is part of the Monday night football gang, finally get their sampletastic album out and it’s great!). Freddy Fresh presents B-Boy stance (26 old school hip hop gems for only £4.99!! I had to ask the staff to check the price, way too cheap, but why complain?).

Forgot to mention another interesting meal which we enjoyed whilst in Paris. On the Friday evening we thought we would head off to the Place D'Italie in the 13th Arrondissement. The area around Les Halles, where we were staying for the last 2 nights, is very touristy and we had a feeling that we may not eat as well in that part of town as we had done in the Rue De Rome area. We read that the Place D'Italie had lots of Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants and as it was a part of town that we did not know, we thought that it may be an interesting place to walk around. Many years ago, on a previous visit to Paris, we stumbled across a tiny but delightful Vietnamese restaurant in Montparnasse. Ordering the food was quite good fun as neither us or the lovely couple spoke much French, which could be understood by the other party. However the food was delicious, so as we settled our bill Orynthia decided to use one of those handy phrases that you find in the back of the guide books, this one basically meant "The meal was very good, thank you". As soon as Orynthia mentioned these words, our hosts became very animated and suddenly produced a bottle of Saki (or something similar), and poured out two large glasses of this potent brew for us. Neither Orynthia or I were sure of the correct etiquette for this sort of drink, so we decided to bite the bullet and knock it back in one swig. This produced even bigger smiles on our host's faces and our glasses were instantly replenished! We could see ourselves being quickly flung into an alcoholic maelstrom and a potentially tricky journey across Paris as our ability to read (or even see!) the metro sign disappeared into an alcohol induced haze, so we decided to take the cowards way out sipping the drink slowly before shaking hands and leaving the restaurant. Anyway I digress, the idea of eating Vietnamese appealed so off we went. The Place D'Italie is basically a huge roundabout with about 8 roads leading off it. Not knowing which road to look for we headed off in the direction of the most neon lights, normally a good indication of a "Chinatown" type area. As we later discovered, we were on the wrong side of the roundabout for Chinatown, but we did discover a very picturesque little area around Rue De La Butte Aux Cailles. We walked around for around 30 minutes, being tempted by various restaurants before we walked past a tiny little African place in the Rue Du Pere Guerin. I guess that the place would hold about 10 people at the most and that most of the trade would be of the takeaway variety rather than eat-in. We had a quick chat with the guy behind the counter, who explained that this place served food from Senegal, it looked interesting so we thought that we would give it a go. I had a fish dish called "Tiebou Diene" which the guy behind the counter advised me is the national dish of the country. It was a rich and tasty dish, which included a huge portion of cous cous, sweet potato and some exotic vegetables which were new to the pair of us. Orynthia had a dish which was a sort of beef curry which was called either Maffe or Yassa. Very filling and very very cheap.

Well, so here we are back at home after our Parisian jaunt. What a fine time
we had. First thing that I should say, is that if anyone wants to have a
real Parisian experience rather than the usual overpriced small hotel room
that most of normally end up with then I would really recommend the great
place on the Rue De Rome that we stayed in. It was so great to be able wake up at what ever
time you want to (no one knocking on the door, to see if they can clean your
room at 9am!). Even better was that most mornings Petunia went off to the
local shops, to get in out breakfast goodies. The croissants, pan au
chocolate, brioche, baguettes, fresh eggs, cheese, ham and yoghurt all
flowed. The area was packed with all sorts of food related places, a
brilliant daily food market, any number of restaurants and more wine and
champagne then you can imagine. The property is located on a fairly busy
main road, but as you enter through the huge wooden double doors which all
these marvellous old apartment buildings have, you enter the tilled hallway
before walking through to inner courtyard, where this ground floor apartment
is located. Consequently the setting is incredibly quiet and peaceful. In
the same way that our stay in the New York apartment benefited by being in
Chelsea, a residential area rather than a tourist one, the same can be said
for the area around this part of the Rue de Rome.

So what did we get up to? Well as mentioned earlier, lots of leisurely
breakfast's where the plans for the day were decided. Then around noon we
head off to our destinations. These included the amazing market at Porte De
Clignacourt (so many wonderful pieces of Art Deco furniture, if only we
could afford to ship it home!), the high rise glory of La Defense (with it
breathtaking view back towards central Paris, along the Champs Elysees), an
interesting walk from the apartment to Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur (which
gave us all the chance to pretend that we were part of the film Amelie,
which we watched on DVD in the apartment later that night), the incredible
Philippe Starck exhibition at the Pompidou centre, The best free view in
Paris from the top the Samarataine depart store, a visit to the slightly
neglected feeling Modern Art Museum in the fading Art Deco beauty of the
Palais De Tokyo, finally managed a boat trip along the river, a visit to the
great market at Place de Batignolles, seeing some inspiring artwork in the
exhibition of advertising from 1920 -1950 including some fascinating world
war two material and lots and lots of sitting around with a glass of Pastis!

And the food, a great meal at the resonant next door to the apartment, a
spectacular 8 course chief choice meal to celebrate Orynthia's birthday at
the tres chic l'impatant, an enormous cassoulat in a hale and hearty
restaurant celebrating the regional cuisine of south west France, hot roast
Chicken & vegetables from the market eaten with amazing bread and a
sumptuous prune tart.

We love the way that a city that can be so manic, can be so relaxed as you
turn the corner into a tree lined side street, with cute cafes and bars.
Also love, the way the market stall holders, take time out to sit down and
eat lovely looking meals from fine China, rather than just grab a sandwich
as they would do in England. Sitting on the steps of a church in the
sunshine watching the world go by. The incredible array of food and drink
that is available, the good grace of the Parisian's who helped us around
their gorgeous city. Never having to wait for more than about 3 minutes for
a metro train to come along. The fact that I could buy a CD by Bristol band
Alpha more easily there than I could here.

Along with New York, it is a place that I feel instantly at home in, it's
safe to say that we will return again.

Well we are back in Bristol. Will right more on the splendid trip to Paris soon. Pleased to see that BCFC managed to pick up a trophy during our trip.

Well, what a great week! Don't think that I'll write too much here, mainly because - that's the wonderful streets of Paris out there, so why would I want to sit in a windowless room typing? And also because this keyboard is really strange - nothing is where I expect it to be, but you do get lots of bonus keys, such as €,ç,à,°,é,and~what fun!
We have eaten so much great food and seen too many wonderful things for me to describe now. I'll do that when we ge home. Will just say that the apartment was fantastic, great part of Paris, any groups of people going to Paris should check it out. We are now in the Les Halles area for a couple of nights before our journey home on Sunday.

Well it’s almost time for our trip to Paris. We are out tomorrow evening so, tonight we will be finalising our packing, in readiness for the flight on Saturday.

Any one interested in hearing something unexpected should take a look at Tally Ho Sulky. 5 red panda’s is organising a swap of mix tapes. Why not join in the fun?

I finished reading Under The Frog by Tibor Fischer, what a great book. It’s a very funny and also very sad look at life in post war Hungary. Following on from that I’ve decided to take another of Bill’s tips away on holiday with me, The Master And The Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov keeps my Soviet controlled theme going. Completed in 1940, it was not published in his native Russia until the mid 1960’s. First impressions are of a curious mixture of surrealism and the bible as the split time frame novel leads us on a pretty freewheeling path.

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.