Stormy clouds. New horizons.

We live in interesting, but scary times my friends. A cascading economy caused by the greed of a relatively small number of people, bad advise taken by many more and ignorance of the warnings from those who been here before. Sickening it is indeed that powerful people who are being bailed out by, lets face it, public money will still be paid obscene bonuses for doing a bad job. I am cautiously concerned for myself and my dearest, but not panicking. Also fascinating to watch the imminent rise to power of America's first black president and the end of reign for the country's worst ever. Think back what the world was like in '94. How excited, energised and proud of ourselves we were and what we could achieve as a nation (and as a responsible developed world). The come down was more painful than many of us thought possible and the legacy will resonate for good time to come. As usual - I will watch with interest...

C and I have been busy bees, making the most of that there London and bimbling about before we get old and crusty. Here's a round-up:

Charlie and Phil's wedding in Worthing, Sussex - Lovely, happy, smiley day. Dancing, band, tears, great speeches, top food, terrible weather, crap hotel, too much champagne.

Dinner Club revival - Green and Reds in Bethnal Green with Maria and Rus. Fair to middling Mexican feast, not shabby, not amazing.

Billy Elliot - C's wedding anniversary present to me. Not a big fan of musicals, but this was just superb. The best thing I have seen in a theatre for years. Heartfelt, atmospheric, angst filled and humbling. 9/10.

Elbow at The Roundhouse - Ahh, our good friend Guy Garvey and his merry men from Manc (well, Bury). What a special gig, they are riding high this year and are getting their just rewards. The best we've seen them since Electric Picnic (when they nearly made me sob like a jessie - hard one to beat that)! The Roundhouse has the best sound too - maybe it's something to do with circles. Preceded by a lovely long walk in Richmond Park as we made the most of the last Indian Summer weekend we will be getting on these shores for quite a while.

Noah's birthday - Popped over to Mickleham to share a day in the sun with H, Kent and little (or not so little anymore) Noah - he's Two you know. Loved the Glockenspiel we bought him - not sure H and Kent did! Lovely walk to Leatherhead to ride on the miniature railway with him. Lovely day.

Spiritualized at The Roundhouse - Ladies and Gentleman, Maria and I floated in space (I would have seen more if I had - I hate being a short arse at gigs)?! Brilliant they were anyway, but after seeing MBV there, any attempt at a wall of sound wig-out just sounds like a pussycat snoring.

Chris and Jen's country pile in Littleworth, Oxfordshire - We love seeing these guys and staying in their amazing house. Good times, Chris's superb cooking and cellar, lovely Miley and little Coco, buggered my shoulder playing Wii.

Granny Di's and Papas - my lovely grand-in-laws. A great relaxing day, chats and papers. The best roast pork you will ever have the pleasure to chow down on.

New Toy - Harmon Kadron soundsticks II. Stupidly cheap off eBay and the lovely seller delivered them to the door. They look sound amazing and look fool as cuck.

Work - I've still got a job and in these times am grateful. Done some really good work recently. Designed some cool Flash eCards that the company will be using all over the world...even in Hull!

Quite a list - explains why I'm so skint. We are lucky to be able to get out and about so much and I am fully aware of that. Never been one to sit and scratch my arse anyway. 

In between all this it's been a week of realisations, frustrations and reaffirmations. It's cathartic to ride the rough waves to remind you of how big the ocean is. Enough of the cryptics...there's a party to prepare for and it doesn't get much bigger than this one!

Recharging north of the border

This will hopefully be a more cheery post than last weeks, though I am still soul searching and questioning myself over many things - I don't like the person I have turned into recently and am trying to make a-mends, but not beat myself up too much about it. 

We lost more of the team this week - some great talent who will be sadly missed. One chap in particular has gone to an amazing job working on Sony's SingStar on-line song store - a dream job for the lad and I wish him all the best. In true miser fashion the company is trying to find ways to cut corners and save money, so much so that we currently have no replacement and our websites could technically grind to a halt. Utterly unprofessional and ludicrous of the management, but somehow we will manage - some quick calls to agencies are in order.

A long awaited 4 day weekend was upon us, so C and I flew up to Scotland to visit her family (my lovely in-laws). They live in the beautiful part of the world that is Moniave in Dumfries & Galloway. Remote, cold, wet (next to the wettest place in the UK) but stunning - the perfect place to wind down, take stock and recharge the batteries. C's old man is a prize winning beef farmer with a large herd, plus sheep and a scattering of goats. His beef is without doubt the best I have ever tasted (a tall order considering we pigged out at Goucho's last weekend)! He farms Galloway cattle - big, butch, black hairy beasts, that are rarer (no pun intended) than the commercially popular Aberdeen Angus. Alastair and Clare (my parents in-law) always make me feel so welcome and we were thoroughly spoilt. Lots of chilling, epic paper reading sessions, walks in the country, great wine and the best food - a top time was had by all. I even bottle fed some early spring born lambs...which was nice. C's younger sisters were both there as well, so it was a real family home-coming and little Muffin (cheeky Cocker Spaniel) was so pleased to have Uncle Simon back for a few days. 3 days went far too quickly and before we knew it we were back at Prestwich Airport waiting to fly on to the metropolis. Ryan Air can kiss my ass by the way - charging us an obscene amount for an extra 7 kilos in our luggage (2 legs of lamb kindly donated by C's mum) - crooks. Their online 'web booking charge' is a swizz as well - surely administration doesn't exist with web bookings?! I'm slow roasting one of the legs of lamb tonight so it will taste all the more juicy at the price. *Update - I am the slow roasted lamb king...heaven*.

Just finished (and speed read) a great book - Kill Your Friends by John Niven. A fictional story of a high-powered A&R man in the mid-90s. One of life's true bastards, seriously lacking in moral fibre and living a life of excess at other's expense. I loved every minute (not that I related to or empathised with him at all). A great insight into the back-stabbing, power-hungry, fickle world of the music industry and how someone who seems to live the utopia life lads mags write columns inches about - you know the party has to end at some point, but not in such a spectacular fashion. You feel not one ounce of pity, but can't help fascinating into such a rarified way of life. 8/10

Tunes of the week: Rodrigo y Garbriela (latin guitar flavoured/percussion loveliness), Elbow - The seldom seen kid (welcome back lads - you get never cease to amaze me), MGMT (trippy, squirky, harmony driven...er...thingy).

Meat of the week: Gourlay farmed leg of lamb!

Until next time...