Man with shiny new bicycle have smiley face:D
Arrived mid-morning at the office. Its the first new bike I've ever had.
Brought back memories of my Christmas present when I was about ten - Mum and Dad got me a bike. Not new, but all done up and I was dead proud of it then.
I know better now of course.
It's even locked up in the garage.
Tomorrow evening I go to Geoff and Becky to return his loan and take a box of chocs and some wine (only two Chrsitmas leftovers left over now!!) then round to Matt to give him the panier set that came with the bike. I still have an old one soemwhere in the garage and I feel he shpould get something outy of this as it was after ll his bike that got nicked in the first place.

If you want something doing, ask a busy person
Today, Trx told me that her friends that run the local NCT branch would love an article from me about our exciting predicament. I used to write a regular Dad's Diary column when Flo was first born and it would be fun to resurrect that.
I'm going to go mad (you know me!!!) and put together a short kind of press-release about the baby, and dig out a couple of my old Diary pieces to sent to the various magazines and stuff.
Becasue I have so much spare time...

Alpha goes on downstairs. All women this year - but six of them. I did it more or less on my own. I so admire Trx for doing this - it brings everything to life for both of us to have a deeper understanding of where we are.

I am, as Flo correct diagnosed, a "worryhead". Kin seems happy enought o get the train here on Thursday. I interrogated her about the car and she was wonderfully vague. Obviously hasn't a clue about it and has got nowhere sorting it out. Full of talk about job interviews though, and excited about an interview tomorrow in a print shop. Apparently the mini-gallery online is getting 80 hits a day. You can't tell her that she won't make her fortune selling digital art online...

Speculation grows at the forum about Foxx's activities and his plans for this year. I am keeping a low profile there theses days I have chosen to chat and interact with other fans, but not declare my hand yet over the website, so no-one knows exactly how much involvement I have with that. There seems to be more than a hint of awareness about the fourth album with Louis, which I agree should if possible be a high profile release with good distribution. I suspect this will be Metamatic 2 - re-working of ALL the first album and a second disc of new material inc versions of Man Who Dies and …Machine. And a tour. A big Fuck off tour taking in Europe and America. Foxx should play America again - its long overdue. Tie this in with the release of a more subtle, fan-based collaboration (perhaps the Guthrie album). Personally I don't think this is the best year to try and also release the Virgin albums again unless they can be dressed up really special.
Still slogging through the sleevenotes at the moment...

I have a nagging pain in my lower back.
And my ears still hurt.

Fresh out of the most productive meeting of the Fabric Committee so far re; The Building@St. Denys. M and F acknowledged that we haven't presented a coherent, professional act yet and we need to do this in order to reassure DO-N at the university that we do still wnat to proceed with their original plan for the project.
In a nutshell we envisage the following:
St Denys PCC will fund the repairs to electrics and drainage over the next six weeks, which is sufficient to make the building safe to accommodate the Easter Service on 16th April. In advance of this, we will leaflet the parish and put up posters inviting people to register an interest of whatever kind (financial, practical, anecdotal etc) in the re-development of the Church Building. We will also look to raise the £400 necessary to service and re-tune the 17th Century wallace organ that is our peize possession.
Thus at Easter we have a viable building which we can offer to D O-N and the Music Dept for organ practice, choir rehearsal etc etc. The rental they pay for this will be in lieu of Hogbin's fundraising fee.
Longer term we will set up a Friends Group, the management committee of qwhich will consist of ourselves, D O-N presumably and one other of his department. The Friends themselves will be members of the local community, businesses etc who want to contribute time and resources to the project.
We can't lease the building to the Universty for a million ecclesiastical reasons that are massively complicated, essentially because no money can change hands if we do this and the lessor has to have exclusive use of the facilities. So we have to look at a rental arrangement - and hence the above fundraisers salary.
They bring her and whatever funds she can get. We offer a Victorian 2* listed church building with better acoustics than any other space of its kind in the city (and a £3M re-build value), an organic of 'significant quality and historical value', car parking for up to 20 cars and the skills, resources and histroical knowledge of a PCC member with 25 years experience preserving historical building sfor a local council.
I can expect an email on Tuesday from the Church Wardn outlining this, which I can pass on the D O-N at the end of the week.

Thanks be to God for His presence this evening and His re-assuring guidance that we are following a clear path now with this project.. For the will and inspiration to continue. For the time and resources that each of us brings to the project. For the PCC and the Diocese of Winchester for their support and encouragement in this dauntng task.
Amen

Kiink now informs me that "there is a problem" with her coming down next Thursday to see Goldfrapp.
Apparently her mother's car has been certified dead and needs at least £500 of work doing to it to pass the MOT. This is despite them having driven it to Wales just a week or two before Christmas! Since then it has sat on the drive with no oil in it and they haven't been able to open the bonnet. One of the neighbours has been and had a look and laughed, declaring it "knackered".
So she can't drive down here in it.
Her boyfriend's mum has a car for sale on offer to her for £50 - I'll find out tonight whether she has made any effort to buy this, or what the arrangements are.
I think her intention is that I drive up to Oxford at 8am on Thursday to meet her off the bus as usual.
BUT I really don't want to do this any more, and both Mum and Trx agree that it won't help the long term plan to get Kink off her lazy backside and sort her life out. I know they're right.
So I have to tell her tonight that I have meetings Thursday and too much work on, suggesting instead that she gets the train down here. She can do it to Eastbourne to see Matt involving two changes and a bus, so one change here in London should really be quite easy. Then I meet her in Southampton, just a minute's walk from the office.

I am on the guestlist to see Goldfrapp. I wish I'd asked Mike now. Would have all been so much easier.
They've Sold Out artistically too I feel. Supernature is cheap disco-pap in comparison with the sublime Felt Mountain. Black Cherry was in between the two, but there was every indication that she was seeking the chart-diva sexy megastar even then. This will be their 15 minutes I'm sure. Maybe perhaps once the bubble is burst she will make a "difficult" fourth album that is more worthy of the groundbreaking calibre of Pilots and Utopia.
We can but hope...

But then I've never been to a sell-out world tour chart-topping gig before. About time perhaps after about 200 others...
No I lie. Madonna "girlie show" (??) and Prince at Wembly Arena. My excuse is that you have try these things...

Another inspiiring couple of days, but I enjoy writing less when it is retrospective like this. Playing catch up somehow doesn't capture the ebbs and flows of life.
Bamboos. Queensway.
new for us, and a spontaneous inviattion to dinner with Lesley and Mike to celebrate his birthday. When she ordered champagne as we sat down I should have foreseen that we were in for an expensive evening...
I wrote only a couple of days ago about that disappointment at going out for a meal that you could have cooked as well yourself.
Such was this occasion, although the company was fantastci and gave us all a chance to catch up properly. I hope we can build on this. Still sounds weird to hear Trx talking so excitedly about her Uni life in Plymouth.
She and Lesley spent a year there together and were reuntied quite by chance four years ago when Lesley phoned out of the blue during thhe period when Trx was a Childminder and Joseph was first born.
We were joined by their equally affluent and amiable neighbours Rob and Cerryn (??), although I laid awake last night feeling that I had been flirted with alittle too much. Lots of whispering between Cerryn and Lesley during the meal, and a crazy wink and wave when I dropped them at home after midnight.
Little wonder I am tired now.
Lesley paid!! Crazy - we offered to share but she insisted, and I always make a point of letting people who insist on paying get there will.
No change from £200!!!!! For six people...
Very disappointing that I don't feel I enjoyed £35 woth of Vietnamese cuisine and hospitality.

Made up for it today though by indulging in a little spending myself, picking up £200 of backdated Tax Credit from the business account and buying my girls some new clothes. Fabulous thick and colourful winter coats, and some amazing ivory dresses from Debenhams for The Wedding.
It would be good to know the date...
One or two of these bits and bobs (inc a couple of boleros) were in the sale but I feel its money well spent and I really enjoyed my time in town with them. They don't ever get new things and have no idea what shopping is about.
ALice is especially funny. Flo has her mother's grace and elegance, natural deportment and can 'wear' beautiful things well. Alice has nothing of this, and even in the changing rooms I had to pick her up twice for sitting in her dress on the floor! She looked stunning of course though, and it was quite a proud, emotional time.
Trx even likes the dresses I chose (hurrah!) and I think we are now looking forward to flouncing Stan up in the same way.
Met Kate and Fin in the cafe and shared tea and buns.
They came round her after lunch to play with Stan this afternoon - which he loved, especially as I didn't realise at the time Ollie and Celia had been here all morning. I took LC out for a walk (biting cold wind on that bridge!) but she refuses to have a daytime sleep these days, and met Lizzie with baby Iris in the park. Too cold to talk for long, but we'll catch up tomorrow. Good to see things settlign down for her after a difficult year.
Then at 4 Mrs W came in with two bin bags full of games that they have cleared out of the loft. Fantabulous.
Ou rhouse is becoming quite a refuge and drop-in centre at last, which is something we have both talked about developing over the past few months.

Its great (most of the time) to come home to madness, chaos and Other People's Children, never quite knowing who is with us for dinner. Often of course there's no-one here at all - just a note explaining where they've gone and would I have tea ready when they return.

Also Friday, phone call from the insurance company acknowledging receipt of my claim for the bike and £250 of accessories and clothing. The bike itself will be delivered to the office on Tuesday with all the bits and bobs, but I'll have to "cash settle" for the clothing and buy it myself first. Quite a result really.
Fast, efficient and no questions asked.

Today I have been listening to this wonderful little obscurity.
Aznavour sings with such expression and despair. The lyric is full of sadness but the song aches with beauty and passion.
One of the songs I want played at my funeral

Yesterday, when I was young,
The taste of life was sweet as rain upon my tongue,
I teased at life as if it were a foolish game,
The way the evening breeze may tease a candle flame

Young
Young?

I get these crappy "personality" quizzes from Kink and biscuit all the time, and see them all over the net as they do the rounds.
And now, for the second time this week I'm filling them in!
This is the very last time. What is going on in my head??

Four Jobs You've Had In Your Life:
1. Till tart (Sainsbury's)
2. Perfume packer
3. Van driver
4. Cartographer

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over Again:
1. Baraka
2. Wizard of Oz
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Withnail & I

Four Places You've Lived:
1. A stairwell
2. A mate's broom cupboard
3. A bedsit
4. A car

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch:
Ha! I don't watch TV these days :-(

Four Places You've Been On Holiday:
1. Norfolk
2. Ireland
3. Scotland
4. Vancouver

Four Blogs You Visit Daily:
1. TV Orphan
2. Wulfweard
3. Nat
4. dfg567

Four Of Your Favorite Foods:
1. Bread
2. Thai Curry
3. Pasta
4. Apple Crumble

Four Albums You Can't Live Without:
1. Metamatic - John Foxx
2. Heart on Snow - Marc Almond
3. Judy Garland - Live at Carnegie Hall
4. KAte Bush - Kick Inside

Four Vehicles You've Owned:
1. Mini Clubman
2. Vauxhall Marina
3. Fiesta
4. Escort

I put it down to working late on this biog.
Tonight I'm playing Climate of Hunter again.
Dangerous.
Moving onto Jacques Brel now. Interesting. I feel my direction shifting slightly

Ne Me Quitte Pas

I have an almost unprecedented EIGHT map jobs in my in-tray at the moment, and another seven on quote totally around £25K. Quite ridiculous.
And I've spent all day today doing none of them.
MYPOB is coming together. i am taking over invoicing from 1st Feb and have been setting up a system of "workflow" for the office to operate from that date.
As its been just the two of of us inthe past we have never really had a system, so Jo's arrival has focused our attention on streamlining procedures and generally becoming more bureaucratic. Paid her today for the first time - by cheque as I cannot get the figures to work out for the PAYE yet and need to talk to Paulley about this.
I'm a designer. What do I know??
I'm also the local shoulder to cry on it seems, and had an emotional scene in the church office on the way to work this morning.
Two women who cannot work together, both of whom share the vicar as their boss.
How good is the vicar (or any vicar) at being an office manager?
In my experience, vicars are generally "nice blokes" who are good at the listening, comforting, supporting role rather than the more ruthless dynamics of office and personnel management. And when your job is the church and your boss is the vicar, who do you talk to when it all goes pear-shaped?
Me it seems.
So C is in tears this morning on my shoulder, when P walks in who is a much better friend and generally nicer person. It now looks to her as if I have taken C's side in things, which is not the case at all. I just happened to walk in and find her in a state.
Do I need this?

Never mind, Cell meets this evening. All will be well

You know when you go out for a meal and experience disappointment when the food is no better than you could have prepared yourself?
That happens in so many ways…
At work today we received all the files for the 2005 Hamble Valley Vistor Guides from 3 Men. They are a fairly big agency around here, big offices and a good reputation. Seeing there stuff now on CD and looking at it in InDesign, their work is crap and nothing better than we will do. Some of the ads are poorly designed too, which is even more disappointing, but generally they haven't used the software properly, there are several typos and the files are littered with hundreds of unused colour swatches, empty text boxes etc.

Having sat last night and seriously read through interviews with Foxx by Record Collector Magazine, Rolling Stone and Steve Malins (all the stuff on the sleevenotes) I realize too that they are not well written and no better than anything I could do.

I'm not trying to be arrogant. Disappointed more than anything else. It seems all tooo easy to churn out rubbish. It does mean that I am less respectful of these people than before.
And I think that hits a nerve too, and I think about my feelings toowards D. We had a better day today and do generally work well together, but its when he doesn't see his own ideas through (fillin g in his own forms etc) and lies on the phone about the company that I struggle with the whole respect thing.
Now it turns out he has taken up a place on the City's Council of faiths!! Its because he is a good speaker and does get things done,a nd likes to be the Big Cheese - he has less faith than just about anyone else I know.
He's a Jew by birth and by culture. He has religion but he doesn't have 'faith'. Strange but ironically true - he is also quite seriously racist and chauvinistic.

Here's an issue I have not dealt with. Came into the office Thursday morning last week to find him. not unusually out for the day doing deliveries and meetings. Clearing up the "meeting table" my eye is caught by the image of a male model on a piece of paper in a plastic folder. Closer inspection shows it to be one of several pages downloaded from a gay porn site the 'net. Pages of erotica and sex stories describing gay sex in graphic detail. Flick flick. Then several more conventional hardcore pictures from the Hun's Daily galleries.
I stacked it up under some other post and put it on his desk.
Haven't had an opportunity to mention it since.
I would imagine in a more conventional office environment this is a "disciplinary offence".
I wonder if Jo saw it?
I wonder if she thought it could be mine?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not offended by the material per se but its totally out of order that it should be left lying around the office. I did later check his history file and found it totally empty, which again has made me suspicious.
Is he using office computers for porn?
This would make sense if he doesn't want his partner to know of the habit. Which presumably he won't.
It's interesting too that he should be getting off on gay porn especially.
So many people obver the last few years have asked me whether or not he's gay, and I thought so myself for the first couple of years I knew him. I've spoken to Trx and she suspects he possibly is. With the classic Jewish mother and blue-eyed boy situation it would be very difficult to come out.
I imagine if this is the case then (apologies for the character assassination, but I have a problem with people not being true to themselves) he will be in some kind of confusion and have some kind of identity complex.
Which in itself would go some way to explaining all the lies and empty undelivered promises. Creating the illusion of something that isn't actually what he seems. It might explain to something of the resentment and awkwardness he feels when I pick him up on these things. There can't be many people that have seen the man on the other end of the phone.
I worry for his partner, for she does not see...

So anyway, how to deal with the porn in the office thing?
And why doesn't he have an internet connection at home...

One other thing I should say about Plateaux of Mirrors

I've just finished (??) the first batch of material for the Media Archive. Transcripts of the sleevenotes for the four Edsel re-issues and Modern Art, all from 2001.
There is SO MUCH work to do on this project...
I've devised a classification system, which works OK, but I've just found it to be restricted by the length of the fileanames on the computer. So they are just alpha-numerics, but that should be cool.
Not impressed really with Daryl Easlea's grammatical and often factual inaccuracies, and his rather crass comments now and then, but generally I like the style in which he presents the interviews. Malins is a better writer from what I've seen so far.

Played Plateaux of Mirrorsfrom 1980 while writing, and I would rate it almost up there with The Pearl. Its kind of a prequel I think, and some of the sonic themes and signatures are developed and worked out in The Pearl. To my mind, that is the best ambient album ever - this is good, just a little more naive and conceptual. The repetition of notes that is Budd's trademark is what works for me. And on Steal Away Eno's echoing sound of birds in flight. Magical

I love the juxtaposition of tracks from this (from 1980) and TG's Second Annual report which I'm listening to again now!! But what a cover on that… I have the 1991 reissue that folds out and contains an incomprehensible piece of writing by Jon Savage and THAT PICTURE of the girl on the bed. Interesting how opinion has changed over the past 15 years and issues have become glamourised in the media spotlight.

All is well.
of course

Apart from waiting aaaaaages. Should have known better.
Just the one baby, as big as a peanut.
9 weeks and one day.
Apparently

This meant I was out for nearly three hours, inc. going over to see the accountant to sign something.

pageone this period (Feb-March) is proving difficult to fill. No-one has either got anything going on, or can't seem to motivate themselves to send us adverts.

Strangley cold. And my ears still hurt.

Big long chat on the phone with Mum last night, and she wanted to chat at length about the church, faith, God and all that stuff. Seemed interested to know more about Alpha (wk 2 tonight) and was telling me all about the service she went to on Sunday. Finding it hard to go to a "boring" church where no-one speaks and she doesn't understand the protocol etc…I'm going to download and send her some stuff about Alpha. It's an interesting development.
Get the feeling something has been growing in her since my Gran died five years ago, and my Dad's dad passing last year brought it out a bit more, but she's not sure where to take it. One of the problems she feels is a lack of encouragement from my Dad who for some reason is very anti church. Perhaps I could try to find out why this is. It's more than just common indifference too - he seems to positively disapprove of her going at all.

All this is helping so much with my growing in faith. It's quite bizarre.
Using the unexpected and "miraculous" pregnancy as a foundation for flag waving, all I can see more and more is that this whole situation is an exciting opportunity for development.

Scan this morning.
In a special unit for early days, so we shouldn't have to queue for ages.
Nervous?
Believe it.

Alice has told her class in "Show and Tell' at school.
She is our strength and our guide through a lot of this.

Never underestimate the wisdom of children

Suddenly everything is busy.
I wonder if I have been here the last couple of weeks?

Someone Almost There.

I can't get MYOB quite sorted - there is so much to learn. Keep putting off designing the invoice and other forms...
Hamble Valley Ads going out this week for the new guide - I'm halfway thru drawing those up. Its been VERY hard work trying to convince D that we should charge extra for redesigns and amendments. Jo says they always have in the past, but he is one of those people who won't be told.
i think the problem is that it wasn't his idea.
D is NOT a good team player...
Map order package confirmed for Shorefield, and we have quotes for five other big jobs.

Doctors this morning.
He has arranged for me to go and have a "test" at the hospital. If it returns positive, he has suggested that we look into suing the Health Authority. What a ridiculous waste of everybody's time and energy.
"Unless of course, ha ha, the judge decides it's a gift from God and then you're stuck with it"
Thanks for that.
That's exactly what we think ourselves, so I don't think we will be going along that road.
Trx had her own appointment. They have suggested an early scan.
Tomorrow morning.

She was so excited about Dvs news this morning. It seems K's baby is due within a couple of weeks of ours! they are going for a quiet wedding. He's done the best man thing for SEVEN friends and is godfather to four kids, so has seen many wedding sand knows what he doesn't want for his own. The children were very excited when we told them at breakfast. new dresses all round. Hurrah!

OK all you people with invoices outstanding. Show me the money…

We must be feeling better. Starting to joke about the situation and feel more or less as we should now.
Why did I get so worried about telling my parents??
They reacted perfectly calmly, after registering the initial shock, and the day yesterday was just as enjoyable as any other is with them these days. We took the kids over to Brixworth Country Park again and had a great time. It's almost 30 years!!! since I first went there with Piper as a novice birdwatcher - my first notes from the reservoir are dated 11 March 1975. I saw my first ever Wheatear that day.
It brought back a lot of memories on Sunday as the sun started to go down on the gull roost by the dam...
Saw a butterfly in the garden today - only briefly, but a Red Admiral. Seasonally outrageous I think, but I need to check.

Trx is feeling suitably rubbish most of the tiem now and can't find any food that doesn't taste disgusting. Except sardines, beetroot, Quavers and Horlicks. And jsut about anything fizzy. I rememebr when she was carrying Flo dashing off at some ridiculouos hour when her craving for Cherryade kicked in...

Her brother has just announced today that he and K are getting married in March!!! So totally out of the blue and fantastic news. She is preganant too, and the baby is due in September.
He's off to Cyprus with the reds in April and then the display season kicks in, so they want to get the Big Event over before he goes away. That leaves like NO TIME at all for planning and stuff. Trx is in bed now and I've been on the phone to Biscuit for an hour so we'll have to discuss this over the cornflakes.
Hurrah for them.
It's going to be quite a year

Listen to the voice of buddha
Saying stop your sericulture
Little people like your offspring
Boiled alive for some god’s stocking
Buddha’s watching, buddha’s waiting

Once more with the voice of buddha
He’ll say carry on your slaughter
Who cares for the little children
You may slice with no conviction
Blind revenge on a blameless victim

Fopp.
New in the Marlands.
Inspired selction of stuff in their £5 bargains.

Three new additions to the collection.
This week, I ave mostly bin lisnin to:

The Human League - Travelogue
Takes me way back to where it all began. OMD, Replicas, Metamatic and this. Superb stuff, and darker than I remember. Life Kills, Dreams of Leaving...
Throbbing Gristle - DoA. The Third Annual Report
Impossible. Nothing like it. Totally inaccessible genius
Brian eno & Harold Budd - Plateaux of Mirrors
The perfect antedote to the above. Paints the most beautiful pictures on the inside of your head

Go buy them
Anyone remember Empire State Human

Second impromptu night out this week.
Thanks MIke for the txt - good to see you again.
And late last night too.
Memoirs of a Geisha
A belated birthday night out with Trx (thanks Matt for that). Stunning film. Very visual and intensely moving. Mother is brilliant, and as for Gong Li as Hatsumomo...it has been a long time since I have seen such a beautiful woman on the screen.

I've walked through silence for an hour, around Highfield and down some of my favourite streets, with no sound but my own footsteps and a Song Thrush in the garden of the Church of the Immaculate Conception.
Pater Noster
Qui est in caelis
Sanctificatur nomen tuum

Now at home. Jack Damiels and Scott Walker for company.
A dangerous liaison.
Climate of Hunter loud in the headphones and the tears are running down my face. Some nights I could just walk for ever.
In and out of myself
Between memory and dreams.

Enough. Mike has given me 5 discs worth of mp3. Thirty albums.
These include three Clan of Xymox, two Wedding Present and some John Barrie. A little Polly Harvey and the most recent Depeche Mode and Numan,

Marc - where are you? This is a time for Absinthe.
Behold, her green eyes.
Drink from them.
Its going to be a long night

Once in a while
I take a break from everybody's expectations

'He withdrew into the cave, about a stone's throw beyond them, and knelt down and prayed. "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me. Yet not my will but yours be done." (Luke 22: 41-42)

News of the baby has started to spread around the parish and the playground, and so far everyone has been amazing. Genuinely happy for us, despite a few raised eyebrows! Not surprising of course.
So flattering that we have been chosen for this again - His trust in us has brought us to tears of humility, confusion, and delight over the past days.
As vicar says, we can draw strength from this positive reaction and build on that to face the family.

I worry a lot about this. I worry that I haven't declared my faith publicly enough to use it in this way to justify what we have 'done'.
What have we done
Are we 'absolved of negligence' after the operation last April?
I worry physically for Trx, and the long hot summer holidays that she was looking forward to.
I worry A LOT about telling my parents.
I feel I should not 'fear the evil day' and I am praying all the time now for guidance and strength. We would not be in this situation if we could not overcome the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

And yet I am genuinely happy, excited and feel very arrogant and proud.
Is that so bad?

Hmmmm....

New song sent through from Athol today entitled "Spiral". Each one gets better than the one before - she has a future ahead of her. Wsihing that we could meet again, and that I had gone with my gut reaction and asked her to Goldfrapp instead of Kink. Ridiculous of course, so the idea didn't last above a few seconds. Crazy tho that it must have been nearly 3 years now??

Sat through 2 hours of a crap seminar on PAYE Online Filing this afternoon.

Stan is on a go-slow and driving us mad.

Trx is out this evening for her first taste of Alpha.
Revd Randall always says that God has a sense of humour.
It is so perfectly timed, and I have prayed for this moment too for a long time.
Moving on together will enhance everything for both of us.

Someone asked me this evening why I keep this blog.
What is the point of it?
Do you know, I couldn't really answer them at all.
The point is perhaps that there really is no point at all - its just an excuse to rambe inanely about shit.
I ramble about me mostly, which irritates a lot of people and amuses others.
Some bloggers opine about important issues on the world stage. Some review books, or express clever political philosophies.
Some ore banal and crass. One or two are even pink.
I don't really know and I'm not sure that I care. I've been keeping a diary in pretty much this format for nearly 20 years now (which is a fekkin scary thought), but to my knowledge only an unlucky few have read the previous 18 years worth of that.

I read very convincing argument recently making the point that blogging was an utterly selfish act of sheer indulgence.

Today I have (see - me, me , me already)
- Been to church and taken part in a ten minute dramatisation of Joshua's experience at the Walls Of Jericho
- Opened my soul in testimony and announced the curveball that the good Lord has seen fit to throw at us
- Discussed the effect of ovarian surgery on the conception of children
- Made further study of EB's incredible figure
- Explored Priory Hill Copse and Butlocks Heath reservoir during some time Dad Time with the kids
- Played the Nation 12 album three times and more or less finished the lyrics
- Played The Bedsit Tapes through twice. Incredible. Soft Cell never did anything better or as daring since, excepting perhaps This Last night in Sodom.
- Shared beers in the Junction.
- Discussed over said beers the process of VJing, digital art, Scandinavian music, wood veneer and the local rapist. Twice this year.
- Been interviewed by the police on the way home. Good to see them on the streets
- Watched a woman dressing in awindow
- Chatted online to Kink and pissed off Biscuit. Again.

That's probably enough for one Sunday.

I'd like comments on this please from anyone passing.
Seems more people read this than I deserve.
I have written better entries.
Its like pay to view - never quite delivers the punchline.

Amen

When Kraftwerk met The Beatles
They called it Nation 12

She was shining
She was
She was rising up
She was
And I was waving because
I was wondering where she was

And she's making me feel
Like I've never been touched before
Ahh-ha
Making me feel
Like I've never been touched before
Ahh-ha

Its taken less than two weeks for the sound 2006 to come alive for me.
I've been "Into the Wonderful" with Climate of Hunter for a few days, wallowing in the delicious mournful agony of Walker's despair.
And today emerging.
You know that tingling feeling when something really has been worth waiting for?
I cannot for the life of me understand why even people at the forum are not raving about Electrofear. The above song in particular has to rate as one of John's best. Acid house break beats, torch like melodies and psychedelic harmonies. Pseudo-noir. There's also something laughably naive about his lyrics that is recognizable a mile away, even on a more personal subject than we're used.
Its infectious, and outrageous that the project was abandoned before this could be released 15 years ago. Then it would have been of its time. But that it has come out now, heralding a Foxx renaissance this year, is timely indeed. The man has unsurpassed genius at picking up underground sounds and introducing new ideas.

Interesting though perhaps that I have reacted so positively so quickly? It's not an album of any lasting depth but a fascinating revelation and a mirror of the emerging sounds at that time.
One day, the rest of the world will catch up with what John Foxx is doing.
By then he'll be even further ahead.

I managed to download the official CO website soundtrack today. Tiny Fragments I suspect, of Invisible Buildings.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.

Disco…Euro…

Went over to Stubbington last night to visit Flo at the Study centre. She is having a fantastic time. Looking tired I thought, and dirty but she didn't stop talking at me for an hour and its great to see her so animated. No badgers yet (not surprising with all the noise they make) but she's been made a bird experet which she's very excited about and done so many activities (bridge building, making shelters, assault courses etc). No doubt she'll be exhausted when she gets home this afternoon.
Which is why we have called off our trip up to see Mum and Dad. It also enables Stanley to go to William's party at lunchtime, so probably for the best all round.

D came into the office this morning beaming, having picked up £150 from the Pink Broadway. Advertising money they have owed us since last April that we'd given up on. Apparently he just met the guy in a pub and... I daren't ask!
Anyway, means now that I have had a chance to go out and get Will's birthday present and I can reimburse Trx for the stuff she bought yesterday for the twins whose party Alice is going to this afternoon! So the cash her dad gave her for her birthday present remains intact and so hopefully she will be able to spend it on herself over the weekend.
Used some of the other cash to actually BUY a couple of albums just now in town. Finally, the Nation 12 album Electrofear is in the shops so I got that (ordered last week from HMV) and just flicking through the racks (uh oh) I found a copy of The Bedsit Tapes. I thought this was hard to get, so quite a result. Contains all the Mutant Momentsr tracks I think, but also 8-10 other early Soft Cell things from as far back as '78 when they just had a Revox and a couple of tape machines. Fantastic. not played it yet, but I expect more than a nod to Throbbing Gristle.
Interesting to see that any comments from Almond are absent from the sleevenotes...

Suddenly I only have about £15 left. Its all very well only being able to spend proper money, but Iit doesn't seem to last very long!

MYOB has arrived in the office and really is the business. It will take me a week I think to set it all up properly and a long time to learn exactly how it all works, but AT LAST we have a professional accounting package! I can keep a much closer eye on invoicing and stock levels, which (having now imported D's database) is really shot to bits at the moment.
He gets very excited about working out scripts and making theses interactive databases - which are very clever and work well - but then pays no attention to the detail he puts in! We have wasted so much time and embarassing phonecalls to people who don't owe us money after all, sending out invoices to people's private addresses (more than once, despite them telling us amendments). But that's my job, attention to detail, and half the reason we work well together.

Talking of which, I actually started cataloging the media archive a day or two ago. Hurrah for me!

"One city
Two nights
three reasons
Four lights"

I think I have given up with this month's book for the Reading Group. It has done little more than irritate and confuse me all the way through and I really dislike Briony tallis with an annoyance that makes me not care what happens to her or how the story unfolds.
It seems to flit here and there and uses flashbacks and recollections a little too much. One of those "classic" books that we felt we had to read, but not one that will leave a lasting impression on me.
I don't even have the resolve to finish it.

This probably means for me too the end of this Reading Group. I feel it hasn't really taken off and the meetings are stunted and fragmentory, the discussion is shallow and brief and no-one seems to know anyone else at all after a year, which means that conversation is dry, very formal and often awkward.
Over the last year or so we have read:

Toast
Three Men in a Boat
The Time Travellers Wife
Perfume
Shadows on the Rock
Atonement

I can't even remember the others. There should be ten at least.
Toast is fun. Three Men…is always worth reading and I think starts on TV this week. I enjoyed it again.
Perfume - brilliant. One of the best books I have ever read. Shadows was very good too, and made me think a lot.
The other two I haven't finished and will probably not bother with.

Not that I haven't got at least four books here at home that I have started or have got lined up waiting so I won't go short.