Having got a wet arse from a wet seat on the tube, I'm now hanging around at the station waiting for a train that's already 15 minutes late. That's two in a row and three this week. Nice to see a change of franchise has made absolutely no difference to the service.
BBC urged to sell off BBC Radio 1 & 2. Huh? The world has gone completely mad.
So we went to a Divine Comedy gig on Friday. In a church. It was sold out and there can't have been more than 500 or so people there, comfortabley spaced in the pews on the ground floor and up on the balcony. We were up on the balcony, at the front. It was a shame that we weren't downstairs as Mr. Hannon invited people to "approach! yes, yes approach!" and a good number filled the aisle and sat on the floor in front of the first row of pews.
It was really rather good, despite the fact that I think poor Neil really would like his fans/audience to be a bit less "middle-class and middle-aged in the brain" (and, quite frankly, really rather nerdy). Everyone was so polite and, er, well-behaved and not awfully vigorous; even in "Tonight We Fly" there was only a little bit of bouncing at the beginning from a few people. However, Neil was fabulous and shone through the quite appalling acoustic (I'm sure it's fine for non-amplified instruments and voice, but for the amplified... the sound becomes smeared and the lyrics indistinct). The new songs were actually quite a bit more bouncy than the last album, which was nice, but I'm not sure I can remember any particular songs nor could I sing any choruses shortly afterwards.
I don't know whether it was the fact that we were really quite close to the "stage" (even up on the balcony), or if the crowd was better, or the fact that you didn't have to stay in your seat, or my mood, or the songs that were sung... but it was an awful lot better than the last DC gig we went to. I'm raring for another one now. Neil Hannon is just so good live.
For some reason I ended up at amazon.com by mistake and on the front page was a link to a gentlemen's grooming product. I have no idea what posessed me to click the link to look, but the video therein[*] raised a giggle.
* - warning, may contain *kiwifruit* and *carrot*
Wooo! Went to a gig last night. Headlining was Hard-Fi; supported by Sway and Billy Bragg. We turned up just before Billy jumped on stage to play a load of songs I didn't know and a couple that I did. And then he went all political, but mixed current football trivia in with it. Most odd.
Hard-Fi were OK. I mean they're pretty profesionally produced and all, but the lead singer really can't hack doing things live. After 3 previous nights of performing, his 4th was marked by a voice that really couldn't hack it. He couldn't sustain notes and the break between registers was was pronounced and widening. Still, the atmosphere was great (despite an incomprehensible habit of the crowd to throw water and beer bottles around - both plastic thankfully) and it was all the more enjoyable because I had ear plugs in. My god, what a difference that makes! I can hear people talk and hear the music. Sounds are really distinct and not painfully loud. Thanks J for bringing them for me!
(Off to see the Divine Comedy tomorrow... inna church.)
So, having fixed iBook I'm faced with the temptation of a MacBook. I'm not totally happy with the idea of widescreen and the fact that you have to spend a lot extra to get a Superdrive. However. They do look nice.
*mini dribble*
Being off work with lurgy has been giving me a lot of thinking time and I was just recalling our meeting with the mortgage advisor last week. He was awful. I mean, seriously, would you be convinced of the capability of a mortgage advisor who said, amongst many other irritating and patronising things, "these are the companies you could lend off of"? (The service was also pretty useless; he didn't give us any insights into anything we didn't already know, didn't talk about half of the important things and didn't give us any comparisons at all.)
Woooyeah! I don't have to wait for MacBooks with bated breath because iBook is alive! Thanks to a teensy bit of surgery (do bear with the page, the bit you want is entitled "White G3 iBook Reed Switch Self-Repair by Justin Granger" and is the fourth article).[0] I had the problem whereby the machine was working fine, but no display and no backlight after deteriorating performance over a few months where the angle of the hinge determined whether I got display or not.
No reed switch means I have to put it to sleep and wake it up manually, but I don't care about that. It sure beats spending a few hundred quid on a new bit of Apple hardware right now. And my boyfriend is great[1]. Apparently ;o)
[0] - Basically, if you know your way around the insides of a G3 (USB) iBook, take the battery out first, lift the keyboard, take out the Airport card, lift the RAM cover (2 screws) and look at the top connector on the right hand side. There are three - the bottom, orange one, is the trackpad cable; the next one up (black) is the keyboard connector; the one above that one - small light grey one - this is the puppy. The bottom two wires are the offenders, the ones closest to the keyboard connector. You can gently pull them free from the connector, whilst holding the plastic connector down, tape them up with insulating tape and put iBook back together again. The iBook will not automatically sleep on closing or automaticaly wake on opening after all of that.
[1] - he found the fix!
I've been a bit ill since Thursday afternoon and went to the doctor this morning. She said I have a chest infection and offered me antibiotics. Which was nice considering how rubbish I've been feeling. Still, at least with all the coughing, my stomach muscles have been getting a hell of a workout. And with the lack of appetite maybe I'll lose a pound or two. I look like shit though, probably due to the broken sleep.
I am feeling a lot better today than I was over the weekend, but still drained by physical activity (even going up or down the stairs is tiring) so I'm be off work today and probably tomorrow too.
A load of house-buying/selling related forms have arrived, so there'll be lots of filling in and posting off to do which at least won't tire me out.
I almost had to wait quite some time to exercise it. The official stamp broke on the paper before mine. Whilst extracting it from the paper, the official ended up having to take out the pins. Of course, there is a specific pattern to the pins and now they didn't know what it was. There was a spare stamp but nobody could find it until I spotted it, poking out from behind the curtains on the window ledge. Crisis averted! Time to head home and make spicy sausage and tomato sauce with pasta.
Things are beginning to slot into place. Our mortgage is pretty much sorted. House we're buying is now labelled on the various web sites as 'sale agreed'. Our solicitor is instructed and has all of the info for the sale of my house, is well underway on J's flat and has the initial details for the house we're buying. I've not heard about a survey date for my house yet, though. Other things are still awfully slow. Still. Damned warm today, eh? Should bring out the voters. (never understood that myself: can't stand much warmth)