My nus

2006-06-16T21:56:00.000+01:00

The boys are back in town again

2006-03-31T19:33:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to see Thin Lizzy at Hammersmith Apollo. Now I know that some people will say that without Phil Lynott there is no Thin Lizzy, and that is true to an extent, but his songs live on and this was meant to be a celebration of his songs 20 years after his death.

Phil Lynott's death was one of the first things that I remember after realising that I liked that sort of music, mostly in the form of buying Kerrang or Metal Hammer or both, so I never had the chance to see him or his band play live. My first real experience of his music beyond the odd song here or there was when I borrowed a load of LPs from Simon at Ventures. I borrowed Led Zep 2, Thin Lizzy's Shades of a Blue Orphanage and Thunder and Lightning and a few others. Most of it I listened to once and didn't really get, but before you curse my name for my idiocy, this is a good sign. Initially I hated the first thing I heard by Metallica, Slayer and King Diamond to name but three and went on to fall in love with them later. What I did get was an instant and immediate love of Thunder and Lightning. While some call it a weak Lizzy album, I disagree. John Sykes is an amazing guitarist and he has something in common with most of the players I like, Mike Amott, Dave Murray, Gary Holt, though it would be a bit unfair to single him out and not mention Scott Gorham. I have always loved the trademark Thin Lizzy guitar harmonies for their simplicity and beauty and that album was very close to the sound of albums I was already familiar with such as Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet.

Acquisitive beast as I am, I soon made it my business to get to know all of Thin Lizzy's back catalogue and it was this knowledge which made me so keen to buy a ticket as soon as I heard that they were playing again. The gig was in the holidays so I knew I could safely mosey over to London and stay with friends after the gig with no worries about lessons the next day, something which has scuppered any hopes of seeing a few bands I would have liked to see this year. I got to the show in ages of time and wandered about a bit. Hammersmith seems a nice area. I headed to the Apollo and found out that there were no support so I had even more time to kill but less to worry about in getting back to Willesden Green than I thought I might. I really enjoyed the gig, though I found the sound a little disappointing as it did not allow the guitar harmonies to come through as well as say Arch Enemy did in December, but this is only a minor moan. It was great to see John Sykes, Scott Gorham, Marco Mendoza and the brilliant Michael Lee on drums. I was hoping for more than one song from Thunder and Lightning but the gig revolved around the Jailbreak album, but that did not stop the gig being fantastic because I love that one too. What a songwriter Phil Lynott was! I raised a Guinness to his memory afterwards.

Memoirs of a Geisha

2006-02-24T13:17:00.000+01:00

Last night we went to see Memoirs of a Geisha. I was a little reluctant initially because I wanted to see Walk the Line instead, but it turned out to be another decision which worked out really well in spite of all my plans.

I have been interested in different cultures for a long time, especially the Japanese. When I was a child, my dad was mugged, so he decided to learn Karate, so there was always a bit of counting in Japanese going on in the traditional washing-up discussions we had and a bit of Dad explaining the complicated names of the moves he was learning. Dad was also really into the Shogun books, something which I may now go away and read.

All of this resurfaced in my life in my second year at Edinburgh university, when I did Japanese as an outside subject for a year. I found it hard at first, being a Classical fish in an Oriental pond, but I did really get to grips with it in the end, in spite of losing lots of time because I was directing Aristophanes Lysistrata and then was really ill for a month. Actually being ill helped in some ways because I really had to fight to catch up and that gave me lots of momentum with my learning, perhaps more than if I had just studied evenly all the way through.

So the thing I learned from the film was about the nature and the ideal of beauty. We both felt that Hatsumomo was the most attractive geisha there precisely because she looked dishevelled and not made up. The other geisha each had a beautiful kimono and were heavily made up, which led me to realise that the Japanese ideal of beauty is pale skin because it is unusual. I then thought that the same was probably true of English girls dying their hair red or blond and how this puts the ideal of beauty above the individual. Should it be this way? Perhaps people would find it easier to be comfortable with themselves if these ideals of beauty were not being sold in every advert you see.

I wasn't expecting Memoirs of a Geisha to take me on such a journey. I am glad it did.

The Legion are sick

2006-02-09T09:40:00.000+01:00

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck. I am so pissed off. I organised a Classics day for our prep school to show the kids there the wonders of Classics. There was going to be a presentation on Roman domestic life, involving people being dressed up in roman clothes and make-up. There was going to be a session on the Roman army in which the kids were given orders for drill in Latin and there would have been a demonstration of Roman artillery on the field. I had seen the group do a Classics day in Birkenhead before and knew they were good. We spent ages organising when it would be and who would do what. I even brought the digital camera into school so I could take a load of pictures of it. Then, having not spoken to them for a while, I thought I'd better give them a call. It was hard getting through but it turns out that they all have flu, had got part of the way up the motorway and turned back. When were they going to let me know? I know it's not their fault but I hope we are not going to lose kids for Classics next year because they were all excited about the Classics day and now they will be disappointed. I feel like such a twat.

BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD BASTARD!

Four

2006-02-06T13:06:00.000+01:00

Four jobs that I've had

Classics teacher in Taunton, Bexley and Birkenhead. My job rules! I am so glad I chose Greek in the Third form. Where would I be now without it?

EFL teaching in Bratislava for two years. I loved that place. Would have stayed if I could. Exchange rates and student debts, eh?

Drone in a factory bakery in Trafford Park. Very close to the Theatre of Dreams in distance yet so very far away in reality. 8 hours a day stacking trays of sausage rolls or putting clean trays onto the line. People at school said it was a sausage factory. I felt like I was dying in there. I was so desperate for something to do that I wrote quotes from Greek lyric poetry in the dirt on old trays between production bouts. Grim-ola!

Two weeks' work experience with the guy who built my Mum's extension. I helped him put a new roof on a house in Davyhulme. I still find myself thinking "I built that" as I go past.

Four movies I can watch over and over

Star Wars, any one of the six films, I just don't buy the so-called unbiased media backlash against Lucas.

Lord of The Rings - I never thought I would see a film which did it justice. All hail Peter Jackson!

Peter's Friends. I loved the ambience of post University what happens next-ness and the eighties soundtrack.

Pulp fiction. There's no particular reason why I have chosen this one. I love films. I like to step out of my world and into someone else's.

Four places I have lived

Flixton, Manchester. Half way to Warrington. It worked for me.

Edinburgh. A top city!

Bratislava. It all happened by accident in October of 1996. I didn't know what I was doing. It was great!

Taunton.

Four TV shows I like to watch

My name is Earl - I love the Karma thing.

X-Files - it seems a long time ago. I suppose it is a sign of my genuine love of any kind of mystery, though I did get frustrated when we never got any proper answers.

Twin Peaks - David Lynch is a genius but I hated the ending.

Farscape

Four foods that I like

Everything, everything, everything and everything, especially all at the same time.

Or:
Takeaways, especially fish and chips, chinese, especially with prawns, and curry, especially with lamb or prawns, but not too hot.

Anything Witho cooks but especially Leek and Bacon pasta.

Fry-ups, especially with black pudding!

Smoothies - I am prepared to give any form of fruit, and some things which aren't, a go.

Four websites I visit on a regular basis

Either of my fantasy football teams, Guardian or Telegraph

Gmail

This one - only from home, though

Football 365 and/or Cricinfo, depending what is on.

Four things I want to do before I die

Go to Old Trafford again.

Go to some nice places.

Get over the fact that our neighbours are evil, selfish, money-grubbing bastards to the point that I can see or hear them without wanting to implode in an mushroom cloud of righteous indignation.

Get another cat and a house which will allow us to have one.

Four places I would rather be right now

On holiday, which I see as a state of mind, rather than necessarily a place.

In the garden

With friends anywhere

On a beach

I am not going to tag people. Do you want to have a go at this?

2006-02-02T14:12:00.000+01:00

Gorgeous George

2006-02-02T14:02:00.000+01:00

Once there was a ginger cat. He was very silly. He used to enjoy snuggling with anyone warm who would sit still long enough. He had odd tastes in food. Chocolate, water from an empty plant pot, nothing was beyond him. He got confused when his evil owners moved house to the house next door. He surprised the people who bought the house where he used to live by climbing in through an open window in the middle of the night. He did not like staying out at night and would often sit outside, crying at night, hoping to be let into somewhere warm. Sometimes he would even climb onto his neighbours' extension and further onto their window sill. He was even known to force his way in through a part-open window by pulling himself up with his paws.

We loved George. We think he died yesterday. We are sad.

Pandora's Box

2006-01-26T23:30:00.000+01:00

What a discovery! I was told about this site and just had to give it a go. What does it do? You type in a song and/or artist name and the site gives you a load of soundalikes. It costs nothing to register if you don't mind ads and are prepared to fill in a false American zip code eg 90210. I hope I won't be arrested.

After recent mutterings, I am sure you guessed that I decided to choose Arch Enemy's Nemesis as the first song I sought to clone through the medium of Pandora. Best of all it came up with a load of Frankensteins, as well as playing three songs from the Doomsday Machine album. Here are the other ones:
Lowest common denominator - Napalm Death

A visit from dread by Deceased

Death lasts a lifetime by Mental care foundation

Beg for life by Out to win

The god I would be by Sinai beach

United nations by Ektomorf

Parasitic Flesh Resection by Aborted

Sadistic Lullabye by Soilwork

Mummified in Barb wire by Cannibal Corpse

I think I can see a lot of money pouring out of my bank account on this in the very near future....

Sven Gordon Eriksson and the FA

2006-01-24T11:05:00.000+01:00

Right, now I am really angry. I don’t have much time for journalists at the best of times but this is just ridiculous. I don’t know what the reasons are for Sven’s sacking after the World Cup, maybe he would have left anyway. It seems to me that this is largely a result of the Nowt, (Northern for nothing or worthless), or should that be NotW, arranging a sting operation specifically to stir up trouble with the England team before the World Cup. What is wrong with them? Are they secretly Scottish or something? How can we hope to get a good replacement when the pressure on the England manager is getting unmanageable? I don’t think he has done much wrong and I think that the Nowt has done a whole lot wrong, yet it is allowed to carry on damaging our chances of success. What can I say? I hate the way that football news is dominated by lies, gossip and hearsay and the fact that the redtops are basically allowed to get away with it. People of England, unite! Stand up to the false prophets! Vote with your feet like I have done and stop buying this rubbish!

I also hate the way that the game seems to take greater pleasure in stamping on enjoyment and truth than crushing corruption. Mike Newell, Ian Holloway and Sven all seem to have commented on the bung culture they see in the game yet they are the ones being requested to visit the FA compliance department. However much I wanted it to happen, Arjen Robben should not have got a second yellow card a few weeks ago for jumping into the crowd – he had just scored at a crucial time, why should he be denied? Equally I feel that the rumpus over Gary Neville’s celebrations the other day is a joke. We are not living in the 80s any more – enjoying a goal, even provocatively, will not cause a riot, not even between United and Liverpool, the fiercest of rivals. Have they not learned from the Cantona incident at Crystal Palace? When did the FA last try to do anything about fans hurling abuse at players, except in a racist context? This is so wrong! People go to matches to shout and scream at the players, and that is as it should be, but I think it is disgraceful to expect the players to not get caught up in the moment which they are responsible for. For me there is a danger that the FA will be going down the same road as the over-officious UEFA, inspired by the most odious man in football, Sepp Blatter.

2006-01-23T20:04:00.000+01:00

2006-01-23T20:03:00.000+01:00

These boots

2006-01-23T10:36:00.000+01:00

I take a football option at school on Mondays and Wednesdays and have just worn out a pair of Adidas boots. I tried replacing the studs but I had worn them for just long enough that it was not physically possible. I chucked the boots out and decided to get a new pair as soon as possible because the plastic moulded studs on my Nikes were not giving me enough grip on the field. I went arse over tit the other day and that was the last straw. So this weekend GF and I went to Exeter and I planned to purchase a replacement then. More fool me. I went to a shop in Exeter where I had successfully bought things before. Little did I realise the difference between purchasing a United shirt that requires no effort on the part of the 'sales assistants' and a pair of boots which require them to actually go and get the things out of the store in the right size. So I asked an assistant to get me a pair of Adidas boots in a size 11, nothing too fancy, just kind of old school boots. Red, white and black. Five minutes later I am still standing in the same spot and I see him somewhere else talking to another customer. In the end I have to go over to him to ask him whether they had any. He said no. Why did he not come and tell me? How was he assisting their sales, the gormless twat? In a bit of a temper I flounced out of the shop. How difficult can it be to buy a pair of fucking football boots? Err, quite difficult, it would seem. And there's more...

We then went to another place to get the boots. I went and looked at them and saw some that I liked. then I had to wait ages for the arsistant to come and talk to me and again before she came back to say they didn't have them in an 11. Then we did exactly the same thing again. In frustration I decided then to ask what size 11s they did have so I could choose from them and she brought me back three pairs of boots in a size 11. Three in the whole shop! One did not fit and the ones that did fit I hated the colour of. I want functioning boots. I know I am not good enough to wear the silver boots I now have. I am not Christiano Ronaldo - John Smith might give me a run for my money!. The thing that really pissed me off was that these boots did not even take screw in studs, so when they do wear out I will have to buy a whole new pair. Why? Is it because the boot manufacturers have realised that they can make more money this way? It would not surprise me. Wankers!!!!
I will be putting a photo here. Decide for yourself.

2006-01-20T23:48:00.000+01:00

2006-01-20T23:47:00.000+01:00

Decoration, decoration, that's what you need...

2006-01-18T13:08:00.000+01:00

...if you want to be the best...etc...
*Roy Castle and various McWhirters start spinning in their graves*
Apologies to those of you who aren't familiar with Record Breakers!

We are getting some decorating done. We finally got the guarantee that our nice exposed floorboards will not simply fall apart because of the actions of wood-boring insects just before the holidays. Now we are getting all the walls painted and the floor protected to last and the whole of our front two rooms made to look nice. At last we will be able to sit in our front room and not be confronted by the shambles of our accursed vendors' decisions.

Of the two of us, my girlfriend has clearer ideas on what she wants from a house in terms of decor. I am happy as long as it functions okay, ie has the required number of walls, ceilings etc, is not too cold or damp.

At this point in the writing of this post I was not quite sure how to end it. However events last night have changed that. I woke up at 7 like normal today and went downstairs only to find that a large patch of plaster had grown tired of life and decided to try to impale itself on our nice new sofa. I will put a picture here later. I was completely discombobulated, to say the least. It just seems that every time we think we are making progress with this house there is suddenly some new reason for the devil to fart in our faces again. Bunch of arse!

Top Five favourite artists and songs

2006-01-18T11:06:00.000+01:00

I suppose this is really Mosher's fault because he got me thinking. I suppose I am in danger of going a bit High Fidelity, but I know at least one blogger who will be delighted to reminisce happily about John Cusack!

My top five artists at the moment are:
1 Arch Enemy, favourite song Nemesis
I loved that song so much I downloaded the guitar tab to learn the melody and was disappointed that it took me about a minute and a half.
2 Iron Maiden, favourite song Hallowed be thy name.
I still remember singing along to the guitar parts, along with another 70000 people at various Maiden gigs with particularly fond memories
3 Vicious Rumors, favourite song anything from Digital Dictator
My friends all hated them and I have still not seen them live after a very frustrating experience at the Camden Underworld
4 Metallica, Fade to Black
5 Slayer, Angel of Death
Slayer are one of the most powerful bands I have ever seen live. Crushing!

Feel free to add yours below. I will not mock you if it is not heavy metal. Duran Duran still feature heavily on my iPod!

Sacrifice unto Sebek

2006-01-16T13:51:00.000+01:00

It was early. I was just getting ready for school. We were expecting the decorator to arrive. I was just finishing my shave in front of the TV when the first chords of evil ground out. A scatophagous grin crept across my face. This song was special. Depraved, brutal but special. They were only a three-piece and there was no bassist. They didn't need one. The noise they made was enough to wake the dead. Insane double bass drumming pounded out. I felt a pressing need to hit things until they made loud noises. 7.15 am rarely seems like the time or place for this. A semi-balding countenance, long, curling hair where the follicles allowed, an unshaven jaw and a cherry sunburst Explorer copy. On the other side a head of very pale blond hair banged away above a Flying V with a strange headstock. The obscure images of Egyptian hieroglyphics scattered throughout the video made me wonder what the song was about. It sounded nasty. I smiled again.

Arch Enemy

2005-12-15T14:01:00.000+01:00

So it has been a while. Last time I wrote I had been to a gig and again that has stirred the limited creative juices I do possess. This summer I heard the song Nemesis by Arch Enemy and just had to buy the album. I loved it and had to see them live. I knew Mike Amott from Carcass, who I had seen live once, and knew they had the guitar harmonies I crave. Since I arranged the tickets I have bought every album they have done and have just got to the point where I know what is coming next in most songs before I get to it. I went to see them in Manc with my old mate D on Tuesday at Academy 2, which is in the University Student Union. I wondered why they were not playing at the Apollo, because I thought they could have sold that out too, but the atmosphere at the Academy was fantastic, so I am glad they did. As you can see from the pics I took with my camera phone, although we were two thirds of the way back, we could still see fairly well, though the detail has not come out in the pictures.

Arch Enemy played with Throwdown, who I did not know but played a great cover of Pantera's A New Level, and Strapping Young Lad, who I had heard of but did not know too well. Without knowing the songs, they were absolutely brutal. It also meant that Gene Hoglan had been at both of the gigs I had seen Mike Amott play, as I bumped into him in the crowd at that Carcass gig at Bradford on the Heartwork tour. He drums like a demon!

I wondered whether Arch Enemy would be a bit of a letdown after them but they were awesome. This was one of those rare occasions when a metal band turns down the volume but it was a key factor in hearing those harmonies. Well done them! Arch Enemy are also one of the few extreme metal bands to have a female singer, not that you could tell from any of her work, even if such a monstrous voice is truly unlikely from a woman of her size and appearance. Mike Amott was the star of the show for me, but they all did well. The drummer, who I thought might have been eclipsed by Gene Hoglan, played really well. Talking of being eclipsed, many small planets would have been eclipsed by Sharlee D'Angelo, a Giant Haystacks of a bassist, at least in height if not build. The new guitarist, Fredrik Akesson, was note perfect, which is a real feat for a band which is as intricate and involved. What an awesome gig!

2005-12-15T13:23:00.002+01:00

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2005-12-15T13:22:00.000+01:00

18 years was worth the wait...

2005-06-20T23:06:00.000+01:00

It finally happened. 18 years after my penpal Monika turned me on to Motley Crue, I finally got to see them on Saturday night in Cardiff. I had seen them before at Donington but that's never a real reflection of what a band's own show is unless they are headlining. Crue ruled - I couldn't believe the energy of the show. They played all the old classics which I loved so much. I suppose nobody will see this post or reply to it because I am such a one-off blogger these days, but I am telling you, this was a real moment for me. Ever since I persuaded my Mum to get me tickets for the Crue show in January 1987 (I think) and then didn't manage to get through, only to find out that the gig was cancelled because of 'snow on the roof' or some other unlikely excuse, I have been waiting for this. It was worth it!

2005-06-20T23:05:00.002+01:00

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2005-06-20T23:05:00.000+01:00

Waiting for a builder....

2005-06-03T10:35:00.000+01:00

I got bored waiting for the builder this morning, so I took a few pics of the garden from the inside of the new house. I would have taken some of the house, but it was raining quite hard. It will be nice to be able to see the garden from almost everywhere in the house, unlike the place we are renting where you can hardly see it without being in it!

2005-06-03T10:33:00.000+01:00

2005-06-03T10:32:00.000+01:00

What have I been up to for the last two months?

2005-06-02T15:49:00.001+01:00

Mostly I have been working but there has been a bit of time to relax here and there. Witho and I went to Exeter to see Downfall, a truly grim but captivating film about Hitler.

2005-06-02T15:49:00.000+01:00

2005-06-02T15:47:00.000+01:00

Before the film, which we went to see at Exeter Picture House, I had time to gaze lovingly at guitars I will probably never be able to afford, such as this one or the £5500 Paul Reed Smith I saw in the same shop.

2005-06-02T15:46:00.000+01:00

A cool cat

2005-06-02T15:44:00.000+01:00

We also had time to visit Witho's family in Chippenham and saw their supposedly evil cat, Dicko, who has this cunning trick of drinking water from a running tap as you can see....

2005-06-02T15:43:00.000+01:00

Further happenings

2005-06-02T15:42:00.000+01:00

We also went up to Bristol to my friend's house for his birthday and went on a walk around part of Bristol which led to this tower, from which we had a long walk to the top and the amazing views of the city which you can see here.

2005-06-02T15:38:00.000+01:00

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2005-06-02T15:37:00.001+01:00

2005-06-02T15:37:00.000+01:00

2005-06-02T15:36:00.002+01:00

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2005-06-02T15:36:00.000+01:00

We love United, we do...

2005-04-13T19:50:00.000+01:00

Well, respect to Billy for that post. Little did I know what I was going to unleash on the world. Proper (ie Manchester) United fans aren't all glory hunters. I am from Manchester and when I started supporting them City were arguably more successful. I'd love to know why glory hunting is regarded as such a big thing - I think that those of us who are prepared to commit ourselves get the best of it. These people who are always changing allegiances don't really have it in them. After Saturday there are times I wish I could stop supporting United but I can't lose the passion, be it for good or bad. Don't get me wrong, there are people who are more insane in their dedication to the cause then me but Saturday school just doesn't fit with going to Old Trafford any more regularly than once or twice a year. I have been lucky though. I have been to some great games, like the time United beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 in the longest extra-time ever. Or the time I saw Peter Schmeichel make a truly amazing save against Rapid Vienna in the Ernst Happfel Stadion. Or the time United beat Newcastle 2-0 at Old Trafford the season Kevin Keegan didn't love it as much as he'd hoped.

Billy's story about the Charlton lover reminded me of my old form master who was a raging Toon fan and in my first year at secondary school he gave us homework in proportion to the quality of the team's performance. This was 1983-4 and Newcastle got relegated. We were gutted!

Jaws was non-fiction!

2005-04-06T17:20:00.000+01:00

I have always been fascinated by this crazy world in which we are living in and the other animals to be found here. When I was a kid I used to read non-fiction books quite a lot, mostly to fuel my interest in drawing at that stage - I used to love drawing trains and planes, but not cars because we didn't have one and they never seemed desirable. I remember I used to comb my way through my Dad's books about the sea with all the pictures of weird looking fish, mostly so I could use their names for fictional planes which I would draw.

In time I moved on. My Dad read me the Hobbit in bed and that really turned me on to Tolkien and pretty much since then I have geared all of my imagination to that kind of fantasy world - comics, roleplaying games etc. Where's this going with a title like this? Well, when I saw Jaws for the first time, at least partially from behind the sofa or a cushion, I had no idea that it was based in fact, but it is!

How do I know this? Well, yesterday lunchtime I was stuffing my face, as usual, when I happened to stumble on a documentary about the real events which it was based on. This was a real series of attacks by Great Whites on bathers on the coast of New Jersey and even up a river there in July of 1916. There were obvious echoes of the film in the real things that happened.

Why does this interest me so much? I suppose this relates back to my interest in nature, as described at the beginning of this post. These days any programme about sharks, birds of prey or big cats is guaranteed to grab my attention. That's why I was so pleased when Witho got me a day here for my birthday, even if we haven't done it yet. Anyway it should be great when we go.

2005-04-06T14:39:00.000+01:00

border=0 align=bottom> My top result for the SelectSmart.com selector,
Which Monty Python Cast Member Are You?,
is Graham Chapman

20 years on from Heysel

2005-04-05T22:01:00.000+01:00

I have just been watching Liverpool v Juventus in the quarter final of the Champions' League and found myself supporting the Scousers, in spite of my United allegiances. In spite of all that stick from Birkenhead scallies I still feel like I should be supporting any English team left in the competition. I think that UEFA's decision to ban English teams after Heysel was ultimately wrong and unfair. Could even they have got away with such an arbitrary decision under the new Europe?

I did see a guy on TV today saying that it was really UEFA's fault because the stadium wasn't up to the job of hosting such a big event. Certainly it put English clubs back a long way in Europe, as I saw over the long period of readjustment for United after readmittance, though it does seem to have coincided with a sea change in football support. I wonder how much of this was really down to Heysel and how much down to Sky and the massive injection of cash they put into football.

I know a lot of people go on about how football is such a big business these days and how it has lost its soul, but when its soul in England at least was a hooligan, isn't it better to have got away from it? I suppose United have seen both sides of it, from the bad times when a large section of the supporters were violent lunatics to the good when United has replaced the idiots with 'prawn sandwich eaters', and I am sure that the way things are now is better.

Anyway I was really pleased with the Scousers' first half performance, when they came out all fired up and played really well for half an hour, but ultimately they gave Juve a goal to get themselves back into the tie. The ITV commentators blamed the mistake on a goalkeeping error, referring to a series of high-profile mistakes by Premiership keepers. I can't help wondering how Shilton, Jennings and Banks would have coped with the new balls which swerve more than the old fashioned lumps of leather which they had to deal with. It was a bit unlucky for them really because it looked exactly as if they would get the fairy tale ending during that first half, but now it looks like The Old Lady will do exactly enough to get through, again.

School dinners, schooled inners

2005-04-01T16:29:00.000+01:00

After Swiss posted on this topic, Witho and I recorded Jamie Oliver's School Dinners last night. I watched a bit of it and it looked really interesting for a number of reasons. I was one of the few people I know who liked school dinners. My friends all seemed to think they were 'processed plastic piss' (their words not mine)which made it hard for me to resist the urge to try to eat theirs too, when allowed. Two particular friends of mine, H and K, went over to having something from the chippy just outside school every day instead of having to put up with it. However that wasn't going to stop me. It led to a new form of entertainment over lunch time - any leftovers from H's lunch became the prize in a 'Chiprace' around the old form room. The other reason for my interest in this programme is that it centres around a part of London which was very close to my last neck of the woods, even if it is just in the wrong borough to affect my old school directly. I was really interested to see that Jamie did not come across as the transparent Mockney he often does and indeed some of the impact of it came from the way he interacted with one of the dinner-ladies in this episode. Good luck to him - I just hope that people will learn to love school dinners as much as I did!

Book meme

2005-03-31T12:53:00.000+01:00

I stole this meme from Billy via Maria.

1. What book would I like to be?

It must be Tolkien's Lord of the Rings because it made me feel so good when I was reading it and I was upset when I finished it, because, like the best holidays, I wanted it to go on and on.

2. Have I ever had a crush on a fictional character?

I used to have a crush on Rogue from the X-men comic series, back when I read them religiously. I also decided that this girl that I fancied would play Rogue to my Wolverine, even though there was no such romantic link between those two characters in the comic.

3. What is the last book I bought?

I think it might have been The Unifying Force by James Luceno, one of the New Jedi Order Star Wars books, unless you count the Tom Holt books I bought from Amazon as late, late birthday presents for my two aunts, even if there's no chance that I will read them for ages and ages.

4. What is the last book I read?

It was Reunion: Force Heretic 3 by Sean Williams and Shane Dix in the Star Wars New Jedi Order series, which I finished this morning. I have hardly managed to read anything at all this year, so it is nice to get a good run going. My ideal mode of reading used to be to aim to read the book all the way through in as close to one sitting as possible after I really got into The Arms of Nemesis by Steven Saylor a few years ago and just couldn't put it down during the holidays. I ended up staying up all night and reading it all the way through. However it is now even less practical to do this and reading at all during term time is quite difficult, so now I just really go for it in the holidays.

5. What book am I currently reading?

I have now started the next New Jedi Order book, the Final Prophecy by Greg Keyes. I find it very hard to read more then one book at once - I suppose that's part of the reason I find it hard to read during term time.

6. What five books would I take with me if I was stranded on a desert island?

Probably a Greek version of Homer's Odyssey, a Latin version of the Aeneid, Lord of the Rings, probably Raven's book on meter and I'd try to cheat and sneak in Lewis and Short and Liddell and Scott, possibly by hiding the Raven inside one of the dictionaries. Why such bizarre books? Because I'd like to have a go at writing a bit of Latin and Greek poetry. I would have said something by a Greek tragedian or Aristophanes but I wouldn't have got my money's worth compared to Homer and Virgil. Maybe I could have a go at translating Tolkien into Latin and Greek. This is of course assuming that I was stranded alone with no chance of escape. Who would read my efforts is another question entirely....

7. What three poor idiots am I tagging with this FUN FUN FUN?

I choose Witho, Colin/Ray/Ron and Polly. Consider yourselves tagged - apologies if you've done it before but you might have different answers now.

The Phantom Menace

2005-03-30T18:18:00.000+01:00

Right, part one of the mission has been completed. Having seen The Phantom Menace again last night, a few things struck me. What was all the fuss about? There’s nothing wrong with that film except for Jar-Jar Binks and a bit of an annoying tendency to include what Lucas thinks we want to see when perhaps he would benefit from being a bit truer to his own principles. Even this can be justified if you look at it from a certain point of view, namely that of the Jedi and the need for them to fight to protect even the most irritating and oafish citizens, like him. The thing I do like is the way you can really see Anakin's character developing in this trilogy, in a way you didn't see Luke's develop in the original

Science Fiction

2005-03-28T11:25:00.000+01:00

I love all space-based science fiction but Star Wars was my first love, ever since that day in 1977 when my Dad took me to see the Star Wars IV: A New Hope. It was one of the first times I had ever been in a cinema and I loved it. I loved it so much that I was instantly hooked, like millions of others. I can still remember the smell of the bubblegum which Star Wars cards came with when I used to swap them with my friends in the playground of Flixton Infants School and can still fondly remember the number of games based on Star Wars figures that I used to play when I was growing up. I read the books too and waited desperately for the next film to come out. Time passed, I changed school and friends, Empire Strikes Back came and went, as did Return of the Jedi. Then a wait of fifteen years or so until the next one. I was never quite sure but I have believed for a long time that it was always the plan for George Lucas to make at least six films if not nine, though I can no longer remember why I believed that.

The Phantom Menace came out and everything felt so different. There wasn't the same sense of wonder - Star Wars had become a victim of its own success and the millions of copyists afterwards. Suddenly it seemed like the press were out to get Lucas - I wondered whether it was just that it wasn't new and there was that old British envy of success coming to the fore. Anyway, my friends and I went to see it, ironically in Taunton, where I now live, and everybody else seemed so cynical about it. Granted it wasn't as good as the first three, but I always argued that this would be far better paced as a trilogy than the first because they were sure that the second and third films would be made, which was not the case when the first film was made. Why am I saying this? Well, I have seen the trailers for the third one and I am hoping for a really good film. In fact I am going to make Witho watch Episodes I and II immediately....

The Holidays

2005-03-27T11:07:00.000+01:00

Yes, it is finally here. No, not my post! Freedom! After a long two terms I have made it to Easter. Witho and I went to Widemouth in Cornwall for a week, our first official holiday in a while which didn't involve visiting relatives. We were actually hoping to move house this Easter but it looks like we will not be able to get into the new place for a while. We want to get a few things done to it, so we will probably be renting for the first month that we own the new place because we both think that we need to get things done to it before we move into it so there's no room for apathy and laziness to set in. The trouble is that we have got to get the stuff done. Why is it that builders are allowed to get away with such arrogance and incompetence? We have both called a few to arrange for the ceilings to be skimmed and to get the carpets taken up and the floorboards sorted out but all we have got so far is a mix of blank refusals and no-replies. Why are they so disorganised?

Well, this post was going to be about the holiday but the builders overran it. I've not done this for a while, so I must have forgotten how to do it...

Blogging? Schmlogging!

2004-12-24T13:43:00.000+01:00

I have stolen this idea from Rathwel. Yee-hah! Thanks for the idea. As usual, I am unable to actualy come up with anything of my own creation and so had to use someone else's. Hardly surprising as it clearly has plenty of mileage in it, or would if anyone knew that I had posted this year.

Hah! So much for Mars and Venus, I chose something better!

2004-12-07T21:22:00.000+01:00

You Are From Jupiter

You are exuberantly curious - and you love to explore newness.
Enthusiastic and optimistic, you get a kick out of stimulating intellectual discussions.
Foreign cultures and languages fascinate you. You love the outdoors, animals, and freedom.
Chances are you tend to exaggerate, so try to keep a lid on that.
If you do, you'll continue to be known for your confidence, generosity, and sense of justice.

What Planet Are You From?

Why are some nouns masculine and some feminine?

2004-11-09T19:18:00.000+01:00

One of my colleagues asked me this question the other day and I couldn't answer it for a while. Obviously there's not much of this in English but there is a lot in other languages. I wondered if maybe it started off with Caveman one talking to Caveman two and saying "Nice" while pointing at a woman and then wanted to show he was talking about her not the bloke standing behind her by changing the end of the word. Of course this might just be rubbish. The beauty of that point in time is that it is so far in the past that we can never know but can speculate endlessly...

A Weekend Visitor

2004-10-29T19:31:00.000+01:00

Recently Witho and I had an old friend, J, round for the weekend. He was the common connection who originally brought us together. I went to school with J and she worked at [insert company name here] with him. We had a nice meal on Saturday afternoon and played some computer games as the weather in Taunton was absolutely quite wet. Then we watched the scousers (red) beating Charlton, who I was supporting both in my anti-scouse ( because he is a Liverpool supporter even though he actually only just grew up on Merseyside and probably lived closer to three or four clubs than them) and pro-South East London capacities. Then we had a nice curry and sat down for a marathon film watching session with Koyaanisqaatsi and Powaqqatsi on offer this time round - Witho and J had both seen Koyaanisqatsi before and raved about it, while I was new to it. I always have liked getting a look into someone else's crazed view of the world and for this reason do find myself a bit bemused by people claiming that they know how the film should have gone, better in fact than the person who wrote (or whatever) it. Isn't the whole point that it is about letting yourself into someone else's world to see what they think, rather than finding yet another way of egotistically imposing yourself on a world that doesn't need it? Anyway Koyaanisqaatsi was really interesting with a vast number of images in it which seemed to be making a coherent point though I was not quite sure Powaqqatsi was so successful - I wasn't sure what point it seemed to be making. By the end we were all falling asleep - who knows what we might have missed - so we just headed off to bed.

This morning we went into town at a respectable hour to show J the sights before lunch and J's departure before the big match. The sights were still there and The Crown and Sceptre did a very nice roast dinner - certainly much better than I remember their food being before, though before was probably as many as five years ago. Then we played a bit of pool before J headed off and we went back home to see the match which United won 2-0. Get in! Hopefully this will be the start of a vast improvement in form.

Anyway J was our first overnight guest, doing somewhat better then our previous guests who stayed for literally minutes on end, possibly as many as five. It was good to see J and behave like the eleven year olds we may always be around each other.

Going over to The Dark Side

2004-10-25T16:15:00.000+01:00

I have finally realised that I will never be a Jedi Knight. I give in to anger and frustration too much. For example, I have recently decided to invest in contact lenses because I am getting sick of using my inability to see as an excuse for not being able to hit the ball properly when I play tennis. So I got the lenses but found them very difficult to put in. The optician put them in for me the first time. Then what? Well, I couldn't get them out! I took several hours of howling frustration trying and got what I thought was one and a half of them out but had to give up on the last half because it looked as if I had torn that lense in my efforts to remove it. In the end it turned out not to be there, as I discovered when I went back to the optician like a pathetic schoolboy the next morning. I came to put some more in today and once again the rage at my inability to do this came back with a vengeance. The stupid thing is that I seem to get more angry the more beyond my control the thing in question is.

The other irritation recently was my boxers which took offence at being required to stay up as I was walking to the supermarket today. It really was annoying feeling them sliding as far south as they could manage until they got lodged against the gusset of my trousers. Obviously I wanted to pull them up as I was going along and not being able to do so because of all the other people on the road just added an extra dimension of annoyance. The whole experience gave a truly disconcerting sensation of being naked as I was walking down the street.

T shirts

2004-10-17T21:45:00.000+01:00

I have offended one of my best friends. At J's wedding this weekend I revealed that I had thrown out a lot of my ancient heavy metal t-shirts. My friend K went into a state of (mock?) mortification, the like of which I have never seen. He refused to talk to me at least for a short while, possibly until the prospect of the further consumption of porcine products wore him down, and fair play to him, who could resist chopped, sliced, grilled, minced or otherwise damaged and then heated bits of pigs. Is this really such a big deal? I have after all not given up on all manner of evil music, I just don't wear the t-shirts any more. Don't know what else to say - have I really sold out? I think I know myself better than that - gnothi seauton, one of the Greek proverbs of the theatre at least appears to be one of the standards by which I live my life. Anyway I didn't get it - that's what I meant to say.

Incidentally, has anyone got any idea how to get Greek letters into a post or comment box? I have tried copying and pasting from word in both normal mode and compose and got nothing.

Oh and I have been listening to evil this weekend, mostly to protect my ears from the insane drivellings of the cretins travelling around us, especially after the incident with the hen party and the dildo rings *shudders*. I listened to (I have remembered that I did say I was going to post this stuff, even if it took me until after I had published once to remember it) Somewhere in Time by Iron Maiden which has a fantastic bit of soloing on The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner. It took me back so much that the hairs on my arms stood up, even though I have now been listening to that album at regular intervals for 18 years. I know it's not the one 'people' think is Maiden's best but it's really special to me. I have got this theory that the first bit of music you listen to by a particular artist tends to be the one you come back to again and again. Certainly this is true of Metallica (Master of Puppets) too. Not the most perfectly formed theory in the history of the world but I was happy with it. So there!

Back from the dead

2004-09-30T17:47:00.000+01:00

Apologies to one and all who have ever visited this blog. I know I have not posted much recently but things have been busy and look like they will stay that way. I will post when I can manage it and I won't feel guilty. You may remember a little while ago I introduced a record of the day section which rapidly fell by the wayside. Well that's because I no longer have two 45-60 minute trips a day to listen to music in. I walk to work and have still not got the walkman out at all yet. All of my rechargeable batteries are probably too, though I am listening to a fair bit of new music on Kerrang TV at the moment, especially song of the moment The Reason by Hoobastank. I did actually start listening to a new CD today, Megadeth's new one, The System Has Failed. I had actually listened to it a bit before but not taken in what a true return to form it is. I nearly took my eye out on Kick The Chair! If you liked a bit of speed metal with just a hint of jazz back then it will be like a return to the old days because Chris Poland is back to throw his influences into the 'Deth again. Long live Megadeth!

2004-09-22T19:50:00.000+01:00

I can now reveal that Wayne Rooney is no longer United's newest signing! I was a bit annoyed with this shirt because it took me three goes to get one to fit because of the ridiculous 'for fit footballers, not lardarses' cut, which almost cut me out of the United shirt wearing demographic for two years.

The wrong kettle of fish

2004-09-12T20:18:00.000+01:00

I was trying to get a picture of a very blue fish in a petshop in Exeter but instead got an arty type thing with a reflection of the street behind me.

Toni's wedding in Kendal

2004-09-05T22:46:00.000+01:00

This weekend Witho and I went to Toni's wedding in Kendal and stayed at my Aunt's place in the town which is still partly decorated in the gorgeous 70s style to be seen behind me in the first photo below. No comment. The wedding was on Friday and I was very lucky to be able to get my second day at the new school off to go to it. Then there was a mystery excursion on the Saturday which involved driving around the Lake District in an open top bus looking at, err, lakes and mountains and things. We went for a walk and had a picnic on Grasmere village green. It was a lovely day out. Thanks to Toni and Suzanne for inviting us!

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It takes two to mango

2004-08-29T19:24:00.000+01:00

On Friday Witho and I had the cheek to order poppadoms and chutneys with our delivery of curry. Of course the people who had to put up with our audacity in this respect simply ignored the outrageous claim. Then when I phoned and asked where they were and could they send them round they tried to fob me off with a twenty percent discount next time but either we would have to go without this time or we would have to go round and get them from the curry house. After all we had just ordered it for delivery so we were clearly very keen on going out to pick up errant curry-based products at the time and definitely not on eating them either there or then, because that would have been just plain ridiculous. After all, who wants to eat poppadoms without chutneys? Service, schmervice, that is what I say. So, like goons, we rushed down to the curry house to get them. I really wanted to give them a piece of my mind (though obviously not my chutneys, what with not having any and all that) but held back. After all I wouldn't want to promise to withhold our future custom from a curry house we had not yet sampled. Just as well, as it was actually quite nice, if a touch cooler than we wanted when we actually got back to our rapidly cooling poppadoms. So, if that was the question these so called curry service providers were asking...

...this was the answer!
Witho and I decided that some emergency chutney would be in order. Yee-hah!

2004-08-24T19:35:00.000+01:00

Can you tell what it is yet? I wish I could tell you whether you are right or not but answers on a postcard to....

Results day for A-levels

2004-08-19T22:55:00.000+01:00

It was results day for A-levels today and I was in the unusual position of not being able to see the people whose results I really wanted to know as I am in Taunton now and they are in Bexley. All I know is that I am glad they did well. Most of them texted me today, so I know that they are going to be able to do what they want to do. I actually got double today, well partly last night because a mate at Bexley sent them to me, whenI got to peer at the Taunton results too, which was the first experience I have had of most of the pupils I will be teaching this year. The thing that winds me up is the annual bullshit of the news either whining about the results being too bad or, mostly, complaining that standards are falling because more people are getting better results. Can we ever win? Bastards! Isn't it time the wanker journalists got judged like we do? Would the government kindly leave education alone and stop playing with it? I would vote tomorrow for a government which left education alone for five years.

It seems to have become more and more the case that kids go into school to get their results with their friends and it's a big deal. I got mine by post and my Mum cycled round to the place where I was doing my work experience, reroofing a house in Urmston and nobody made a big deal about it. Is this all part of the same process as the one in the national news on a smaller scale, all part of the build them up and knock them down cycle? I certainly don't remember journalists coming to school to take pictures of the most successful pupils when I was there or seeing such pictures. Then again, I suppose we make it easier for the journalists by publicising the pupils to them.

...and finally, I have been listening to Alice in Hell by Annihilator, one of the CDs I bought with the very small amount I made by selling the vast majority of my two hundred slices of vinyl. Good old evil!

A tale of two evils

2004-08-17T13:30:00.000+01:00

What an idiot I am - I start a programme of a bit of music per day for the blog and promptly don't listen to any for a few days. D'oh! Anyway today's effort relates to an argument a couple of mates and I were recently having at a barbecue about which of Slayer's Reign in Blood and South of Heaven is the best. I used to think that South of Heaven was the best and that Reign in Blood was just a row, but now I am convinced that it is a masterpiece, better even than South of Heaven. Anyway, J agreed with me and S believed what I used to think. That album rules, not a wasted note on it. Yee-hah! I have just been listening to RIB today - may give SOH a go tomorrow.

A film today but no music

2004-08-13T15:31:00.000+01:00

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which we went to see in Wellngton at a very large but old and non-multiplicious cinema. I think we'll be going back - it was very nice. A beautifully shot, weird film in which Carrey and Winslet were good, especially Carrey who was not the parody of himself he has been for most of his career and was surprisingly good in this seriousish role.

Finding new mistakes from which to learn

2004-08-12T19:42:00.000+01:00

One of my Dad's favourite sayings was that you should learn from your own mistakes. With this in mind, I wanted to learn from the mistakes I made when I last moved. When I moved to my previous school I did it all in a mess at the end of the school holidays, moving out of rented accommodation into the flat I had bought in South East London. Little did I know that I would not actually get into that flat till mid-October. Fortunately I had an aunt who had a flat in Catford which she was happy for me to stay in and from where I could easily get to my school . That meant that those six weeks felt very unsettled because of the living-out-of-box-ness of it all and I felt largely unprepared for the job I was going to be starting.

I wanted things to be different this time, which was why I really wanted this job to be different and to be here nice and early. That is how it is and I feel like I will already know the area relatively well by the time I start work at the start of September. What I hadn't allowed for is that fact that I don't really know anyone here and will not have much in the way of ties until I do start work, leaving me feeling a bit out on a limb here, a feeling which is not helped by the fact that we are likely to be moving again in a relatively short space of time when we find somewhere we want to buy. I suppose we asked for that but it does mean that we didn't have to add to the stress of selling my flat by buying another one and somehow trying to coordinate that so the dates met up. It also means that we will have no chain when we come to buy, so it's going to be worth it, but there's this slight disadvantage to it. What experiences have you had of moving house?

In a new series, I am going to name two things I have listened to recently, though in future it will probably be just one if I can be bothered enough to do it every day. I have been listening to Keeper of the Seven Keys Part One by Helloween, which was largely because K's wedding featured the pant-wettingly funny playing of a fifteen year old tape of him singing I'm Alive from that album, including him sort of singing along with the guitar solos. It was so funny because it is exactly the sort of thing I do and so far I believe there is no evidence of it. Phew! I would die! I have also just started arranging to get rid of my record collection and in the course of it I found a copy of a CD by Return to Forever for which I had been looking for ages. The main reason for that is the playing of Al di Meola, who I reckon is about the second best guitarist in the entire world behind Joe Satriani. While I have only just started with Return to Forever and can't judge it fairly, di Meola's Electric Rendez-vous is a masterpiece and any guitar listener should own it.

2004-08-12T18:51:00.000+01:00

Aren't I a clever boy?

One year ago today

2004-08-11T20:43:00.000+01:00

I started going out with Witho a year ago today. A year well spent and living together is far better than having to put up with endless travelling and horrid Sunday nights. I love you, Witho!

Holidays

2004-08-03T15:45:00.000+01:00

I've not been here for a bit but life has been busy and I have chosen to do other things. In the time since I last posted I have

moved out of the Mound (see moblog for evidence)
moved into a rented place in Taunton
gone on holiday to sunny Manchester

It made me realise that since this time last year I have hardly stopped, what with catching up on stuff for OFSTED, which started at the beginning of the holidays last summer, OFSTED itself in October and the evil ploys of the dynamic leadership (OFSTED's words not mine) of the school to make us push on even harder after OFSTED, not to mention meeting Witho and realising that my career was not the most important thing in my life and all the various moves and upheavals dictated by the decisions we made to get together and more together.

So that is why I have not done much recently - I am having a real break from work for a bit before next week comes and I start working out how little I have done for this new job. What have you all been up to in the last two weeks? Just name two things or more or less, depending on whether you can be bothered or not.

Last day at school

2004-07-20T08:42:00.000+01:00

Today is my last day at my current school. It has been a good four years and I will miss many of thet staff and pupils. I went for the last fry up at the local greasy spoon today and was delighted that the old one, to which I have got quite attached in spite of its annoying recent tendency to be closed or not have a chef when needed, was open and provided exactly the mass of lard I was looking for to fortify myself for the last day of what has at times been quite a trying year, what with OFSTED and the unexpected post-OFSTED push just when we were all hoping for a bit of a rest. I will miss the feeling of fighting on the frontline against ignorance and barbarism and the occasional victory, like when you hear a favourite pupil talking about going into teaching or when someone you once thought had no chance going off to University. I think that sort of expectation will be par for the course at the new place and I will have to do far more to get that fleeting sense of victory, though the daily grind should be a bit less onerous. Apologies for lack of regular posting recently and for a bit longer but we are in the process of sorting out our move to Taunton and it's taking up alot of our time.

Fahrenheit 9/11

2004-07-11T07:28:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Witho and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11. It was one of those films that changes you and made me come out of the cinema in Camden with a lot of thoughts racing through my mind. For the first time ever I felt that I had to post straight away. I wrote down my thoughts as we drove away and I will record them here.

Fahrenheit 9/11. Queensryche. Operation Mindcrime. Turmoil. New World Order needed. Selfishness. Bush . Bush junior. Cheney. Powell. Rice. Bin Laden. Afghanistan. Iraq. Corruption. Rich poor divide. Military service. Sacrifice. Greed. Money. Dimpled chads. Electoral system not working. Status quo perpetuated. Need something else. Must do something. Blair's role? America deceived. Britain innocent? Michael Moore - where is the British equivalent? Party politics. What do we do? Surely capitalism must have failed if this has really happened. Class war? Communism? Contact Michael Moore. Fear caused by American government. Bush's apparent incompetence. Freedom. Rights. Bin Laden family allowed to escape when all other flights were banned. "Rich man's war, poor man's blood" - slogan on wall near Blackhorse Road station really made me feel like the world was thinking what I was thinking.

I don't know what to do. I have felt utterly disillusioned with party politics in this country for ages and this film just made me feel more this way. Can't these evil, selfish men be made to pay? Is nobody able to do anything? Well, I am now listening to Operation Mindcrime. I suppose that is as close to doing something as I am likely to get for a while and it makes me feel a bit better.

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