A likeable idiot?

Check out the quotation from the defendant's solicitor. Is it possible to be a likeable idiot who has run over a child cyclist, has 48 counts of driving whilst disqualified, and is a heroin addict, all before his mid-30s?

Opinion: New(ish) Music

Just some thoughts on some music I have heard recently:

Orson: As far as I can tell, they are like an American Ocean Colour Scene. If you like any song by Orson, I suggest you download Boston's "More than a feeling" and listen to it on repeat. Although I should add that I thought Orson's new single "Happiness" sounded like Robbie Williams.

Razorlight: I don't have too strong an opinion either way on Razorlight. I liked "Golden touch", but really dislike "Somewhere else". I find it hard to like Johnny Borrell (and his Mark Knopfler singing style). Their new stuff sounds OK, but not amazing and not rubbish - however, it is obviously tighter and more of a band effort than their previous stuff. Is anyone else slightly disturbed by the refrain of "In the morning, you know you won't remember a thing/In the morning you know it's gonna be all right"? Sounds sinister to me.

Muse: If you know me, you know that it took a little while for Muse's histrionics to win me over. However, their last album was a quantum leap forward, musically tight, the drumming had improved immeasurably adding a whole new dimension. Yes, it was still overblown, but I loved it. I have only listened to their new album a couple of times, but it just sounds ridiculous - you might as well go out and buy "Now that's what I call prog rock" (if such an album exists). The good bits are "Supermassive black hole" and the following track "Map of the problematique". The bad bits are just ridiculously overproduced. The bits inbetween just sound like Queen's "Flash Gordon" soundtrack. The critics love it, but it sounds to me like Muse's best moments have come and gone with "Absolution". I hope further listens, and future material prove me wrong.

The Feeling: "Sewn" is an excellent single. "Fill my little world" is very catchy. Before I bought their album, I read a review (I think it was on Ceefax) where it said that it sounded as though they had borrowed their Dads' record collections and then made an album. I agree. A few good songs, but sadly not a great album.

Primal Scream: It's so difficult to know where you stand with Primal Scream. They have become so likely to follow up a great record with a rubbish one. Before, this was mainly for their albums (does anyone remember any of the stuff in the five years following "Xtrmntr"?), but now, after the fantastic "Country girl" single, which has come out of nowhere, the other new stuff that I have heard sounds poor, derivative and as though it could fit in quite nicely with the large amounts of filler on "Give out but don't give up".

Gnarls Barkley: After all that moaning, I am pleased to say that here is a band that seem worthy of the hype. I am still not fed up of "Crazy", and from the television appearances that they have made, their other stuff sounds diverse, well constructed and (of course) well sung. And they seem quite happy to have a lot of fun with what they do. Hurrah!

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Does anyone else think they sound tired? "Dani California" and "Tell me baby" both lack inspiration, with the latter only rescued by Flea's fantastic slap bass. It's a good job that they are still such a great live band, as the new songs don't seem to match up to the high standards that they have set over the last twentysomething years...

The Zutons: As alluded to before, I like The Zutons. Rather, I was indifferent to them, until I saw them live. Their new album has a similar style of songs to their debut, but does sound more polished, both musically and lyrically. The sound of a band enjoying their success, which cannot be a bad thing.

Lily Allen: Even getting over the fact that she is related to Keith Allen, which cannot be a good thing, I find it hard to understand why everyone seems to love Lily. Lyrically, it sounds naive and like school poetry (from what I have heard), musically it sounds quite fun, but the way she sings is terrible (her diction is awful). Apparently, she also has a habit of singing out of tune and forgetting the words when she performs live.

Sorry about the rant, I haven't written about music for ages, so had lots to get off my chest. I hope you have found the positive comments above, as well as all the moaning! As always, your opinions are always welcome...

Six months of fun

I sold my car yesterday. The Volvo that I bought for £300 as a birthday present to myself back in January, was bought by someone for £500. I didn't actually make a profit, in fact when you take into account the money I spent to get it through MOT, and the money that I spent on tax and insurance, I lost a bit of money.

But it was the car that I had wanted for some time. And I really enjoyed having it and driving it. In a way, I wish I could have sold it a week later, as we are going up to Cumbria next weekend and it would have been great to drive it on the open road.

I don't need two cars though. The Nissan diesel remains my trusty steed for my driving to and from work, and I will be saving a lot of money on tax and insurance by only having one car. But it was lovely having a "weekend car" though.

Even though the car is eighteen years and 130 000 miles old, I have no doubt that it will provide its new owner with many miles of happy motoring. He wants it to drive his dog around, and tow his caravan. With a bit of TLC, it'll do just fine.

Simple etiquette

As many of you know, I rather like music. But, what with one thing and another, I hadn't been to any gigs for a while (I think my last one was Belle and Sebastian in January). So when I got a text from our friend Julie, asking if we wanted to go to Junktion 7 to watch some unsigned bands, I jumped at the chance (despite another long, slow journey home from work doing its best to put me off).

We missed the first band, but the second one were a three-piece guitar band called Hinterland (I think - sorry if I have got it wrong). Their fist song was OK but unremarkable, sounded like the kind of rawk that Radio 1 like playing at the moment. Their second song was actually quite good, although quite long. The crowd were warming to the band, who then proceeded to undo all their good work by spending the next two or three minutes talking to each other, rather than playing a song. As they were talking into the microphones, they were really quite stupid to insult Nottingham, making the by now tiresome references to the supposed gun culture, as well as saying something unmentionably insulting about Lea from Big Brother - I am no fan but that was uncalled for. They then proceeded to alienate pretty much every woman in the audience. At this point, I lost patience and repeatedly shouted out to them to "play a ****ing song". Eventually they did. Within two or three minutes we left the venue to go downstairs for a drink, and shortly afterwards a lot of other people also departed.

Way to go fellas. You did the equivalent of going to someone's house, letting them make you a cup of tea, and then proceeding to say how crap you think the house is, how the location is awful, you have made a terrible job of decorating, and then finally pointing out that you think their wife is ugly. I am not convinced that they will ever be welcome back in Nottingham again...

Sleeping beauty

Breaking news: It is now official that sleeping with your partner is bad for you.

At least now I have an excuse for my lethargic performance at work!

Tenerife

Nicola and I returned last Friday from a well-earned week away. We stayed in Playa de las Americas, which was far from the 18-30 resort many people had led us to believe. Maybe it was because we were staying in a timeshare apartment, we had a better class of surrounding(!).

You can see some more pictures by clicking here. Our adventures included:

* A trip to go up Mount Teide, which at nearly 15 000 feet high is over three times as tall as Ben Nevis. The air is thin and the journey up there makes your ears pop. I have to confess to feeling a little dizzy and unsteady on my feet when I was up there, presumably as a result of the altitude. We had an excellent tour guide called Mauricio who told us a lot about the fascinating way in which the volcanic rock has formed the space-age landscape.

* We went to an overpriced water park called Aqua Land. The slides and rides were great, the queues to get food and the prices were less so. They could also have done with more shady areas to queue in, as the sun was very strong...

* We accidentally ended up in a lap dancing bar. No, really! We wanted to go a clib that played Spanish music. Nicola had got chatting to a girl who worked in this place, and I suppose we should have cottoned on when she asked if Nicola was interested in doing any "work". Nonetheless, the next evening we went along and as soon as we went in, we realised that we were in a "Gentleman's Club". The girl from the previous evening insisted we stay for a drink, and two drinks cost us 16 Euros (about £11)!. As soon as we finished them, we got out of there...

* We played water polo at the hotel. I have never played it before and it was fun, although I was let down by my lack of swimming ability. It didn't help that I was on a team of young kids, whereas the other team had two really big guys! Still, it is not the winning, more the taking part...

* The most outlandish activity was "bob-diving". You get into an underwater scooter, and can go to the bottom of the sea and meet the fish! Nicola loved it, I was feeling a bit nauseous due to the choppy seas (we had to get on a boat to take us out to the bay where we were diving). When I put on the wetsuit, I was feeling very claustrophobic (man, those things are tight!), and when we went underwater, a combination of that and the pressure from going so deep meant that I couldn't take it anymore. While Nicola finished her underwater excursion, I spent most of the time parting company with my breakfast. Still, I am glad I tried it, and at least I know not to try scuba diving in the future!

* I tried an authentic Tortilla (Spanish Omelette), which was great but terribly unhealthy. Nicola drank Sangria. We ate Canarian Paella. And considering that the Canaries are fruit-growing country, it was impossible to get decent fresh fruit out there. So we came back feeling fatter than we went!

All in all we had a good time. But, as with many trips away, one of the best things was coming home. And after getting up at 4.30am for our flight home, we had to set ourselves up for the Sport Relief mile the next day. After all that, I needed another holiday just to get a rest before returning to work on Monday!

Sport Relief 2006

So, we came, we saw and we conquered the 2006 Sport Relief mile!

In 2004, I completed the mile at Wollaton Park in Nottingham, in about ten and a half minutes. Considering I had done little or no training, I was relatively pleased.

This time around, I was part of a team! Mohan and his wife Divya, Sandeep, and Nicola all joined in. I am far from a fitness freak, but I do go to the gym occasionally, and this time around I wanted to break the ten minute barrier.

I am pleased to report that I managed it in a staggering eight minutes and 24 seconds! Sandeep and I both ran faster than ex-Forest and England legend Nigel Clough, although to be fair, Nigel had his very young daughter with him!

We have also made it onto the BBC Nottingham website as part of their photo gallery - click here to view (from left to right: Mohan, Divya, myself, Nicola and Sandeep).

Obviously, many thanks to the Sport Relief team and volunteers on the day, for making it so much fun! It is a great cause, and as a team we have so far raised £124.80 (of which I have managed to contribute £45.90). It is not too late to sponsor us, if you wish to contribute, click here.

Update

Once again, not had much time to write recently. Been plenty going on though:

* Nicola and I were invited by our friend Simon to a ball at Colwick Hall Hotel. Simon's Dad is heavily involved with Childline, and the ball was arranged to celebrate Childline's 20th anniversary. If you didn't know, Childline is in deep trouble, and under threat of closure without financial support. It seemed like a successful evening!

* I attended a conference at Nottingham University's Jubilee Campus, which meant that my usual journey of an hour each way became ten minutes! However, I needed to give my cousin Rani a lift to Birmingham airport on Tuesday, which meant that I had my usual hour-each-way journey anyway!

* I completed the Great Nottinghamshire Bike Ride - all eighteen miles of it - in less than two hours. I didn't even hurt afterwards, although Sandeep (who rode with me) was complaining of a sore posterior afterwards.

* Mohan, his wife Divya, Sandeep, Nicola and I are running the Sport Relief mile in Nottingham on the 15th July. You can sponsor me by clicking on this link: https://secure.artezglobal.com/registrant/StartUp.aspx?SID=63338

* Lastly for now, Nicola and I are going to Tenerife tomorrow, for a well-earned break. I feel as though I have worked hard so far this year, and Nicola has taken her Anatomy & Physiology exam. So I think that we deserve it!

More to come when we get back...