Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Merry Xmas
Anyway, have a wonderufl Xmas and a fab new year!
Friday, December 05, 2003
So true!
Friday, November 28, 2003
BookCrossing Documentary
BookCrossing Documentary
Oh, BTW, if you decide to join as a result of listening, can you stick chelseagirl or hey-miki down as your referrers! Thank you!
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Glass Marble Magnets
Glass Marble Magnets
Do you believe we were lied to about Iraq?
The Hutton Inquiry is limited to just a small area of the conflict. It is absolutely scandalous that an illegal war, which has caused loss of life and immense misery along with making Britain one of the most hated nations on Earth, has been justified on the basis of half-truths and deception.
On September 24, 2002 Tony Blair stated: 'His (Saddam's) WMD programme is active, detailed and growing. The policy of containment is not working. The WMD programme is not shut down. It is up and running'.
Tony Blair described the intelligence upon which his assertion was based as: 'extensive, detailed and authoritative'.
The dossier which he was quoting from went on to say: 'Some of these weapons are deployable within 45 minutes of an order to use them'.
The whole war was fought on the basis that Iraq posed an immediate threat. We were told when war started that Iraq had deployed chemical and biological weapons to use against British and US forces. No such deployment took place. A whole series of allegations were made in the build up to war and throughout the war that have been shown to be at best inaccurate and at worst blatant lies. To date, no weapons of mass destruction have been found.
Sign the petition to Tony Blair now at Our World, Our Say and get all your friends and colleagues to do the same.
This is part of a major new Our World Our Say campaign to ensure that politicians are made accountable to us for their actions.
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Friday, October 10, 2003
World Beard and Moustache Championships Carson City 2003
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Angle-Grinder Man
Angle-Grinder Man
Saturday, September 13, 2003
Crazy M
Crazy M's wedding pics
Thursday, September 11, 2003
David Blaine - Stunt or ...?
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Police watch on Blaine-baiters:
"Some local residents have complained about traffic coming to a standstill on Tower Bridge as motorists slow down to look at the stunt."
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
A dirty weekend away??
The Stansfield Times
My latest project. At a family gathering at the weekend I mentioned that it would be good to have a website where we could all post family news and gossip - because even though we don't often get together I'd consider us to be quite a close family.
"Ooh, what a good idea, are you offering to set it up?" someone said. And so I did ... well, it got me out of doing any house work on Sunday!
Friday, September 05, 2003
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
Monday, September 01, 2003
Katie's World!
We're presuming that she must have been selected as Page of the month or something, going by what some of the messages say, but isn't listed in the site's winners list ... and her page was registered at an old email address of mine that doesn't function any more, so we'll never know. Boo!
Katie's World!
Googlism
alison is seriously pissed off and needs cheering up
alison is in demand as a jazz vocalist and performs extensively at music venues throughout the chicagoland area
alison is a natural choice for this honor
alison is smug
alison is a partner in an airline freight business
alison is fresh
alison is literally one of utah's finest treasures
alison is responsible for building and maintaining alliances with a wide variety of community organisations and groups
alison is passionate about teaching people to live more fulfilled
alison is tall and slim
alison is one of the greatest voices in bluegrass"
Googlism
Sad Song Co
Chelsea Girl Rules!!!
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Friday, August 15, 2003
Oops corrections to "Gigging For It" entry
So, just to clear up any confusion ...
"The Unbelievable Truth (an early nineties band that U was very keen
on, he ran the official website and followed them all over the place."
WRONG!!!
They dropped the definitive article after their debut single (Building,
Shifty Disco Feb '97).
So Unbelievable Truth were a late 90s band.
U had his own unofficial website - Nigel did the official one!
And U only saw them 22 times between 1st April 1998 (Chelmsford) and
Sept 16th September 2000 (Oxford)...!!!
Happy now?! :0)
Grrrr
There were four acts on at the pub we went to. The first, a young kid (well, about 17ish) called Dan, was pretty good, just a singer-songwriter with a guitar and he had a sweet voice. The pub was fairly empty when we arrived, but it fuilled up quickly - we grabbed the last two chairs and soon after the floor was littered with bodies. The second band, Geko, weren't bad - girl singer (slightly flat at times but otherwise okay), two guitars and drums - main problem was that the drums were far too loud and drowned everyone else out. Then the third band - Kung Fu Phinga Pik and the Lovestik - took to the stage and it became obvious that they were local and just about everyone there was there to support them - which was fine, because there was a very lively atmosphere. Shame their music didn't really do it justice. Some of the songs were okay, but they had a go at doing some strange Streets-esque acoustic rap that just didn't really come off, not least because the rapper rapped far too quickly. I think the lyrics were meant to be amusing but I could only catch the odd word here and there. U and I weren't too fussed about the music, and spent the evening messing around with the candles on the table, dipping our fingers in the hot wax and creating molten wax structures! So the music wasn't to our taste, but we respected the musicians, kept quiet while they performed and clapped politely.
Then came U's friend, Nigel, of the Sad Song Co. As soon as the previous band left the stage and he stood up there was a mass exodus from the pub - not because of him, but because they had obviously come to support the others and weren't going to stay. Unfortunately, not everyone left - because those that did stay talked and shrieked and laughed and generally drowned out poor Nigel and his bass player (Jason). We were sitting right near the front and it was a struggle to hear what he was singing - he kept asking for the mics to be turned up but the louder he was, the louder the idiots in the pub got. You could see he was getting really pissed off by now, and he said something along the lines of "Ah well, I'll just plough through the set list, I don't care." From what I could hear he was really good, far better than the previous three acts, but the kids in the pub (all fairly pissed and probably celebrating/commiserating A level results, but that's no excuse) just carried on making a dreadful noise. There were a groups of maybe a dozen people actually listening, and at the end Nigel said "Thank you (pointing at individuals)you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, erm, you, you and you .... and [two fingers] to the rest of you." Not a happy chappy, and justifiably so.
Anyway, we came away feeling fairly cheesed off with it all. We'd only gone to Winchester because we can't make his gig in Oxford tonight, we'd tolerated the second rate support acts and then hadn't been allowed to enjoy the headline band. Very annoying. Well done Nigel for doing your best under very difficult circumstances, and thank you very bloody much you idiots who ruined the evening.
Anyway, U bought the Sad Song Co cd so at least we'll be able to hear what he's like in peace and quiet.
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Another one on the hit list?
NEWS JUST IN ....
"
Real Madrid have announced they are starting disciplinary proceedings against Claude Makelele following the French midfielder's refusal to train with the team on Wednesday."
The 30-year-old's decision came amidst reports of a transfer swoop by big-spending Premiership side Chelsea.
Makelele's agent Marc Roger reportedly presented Madrid with a £7million offer for the midfielder from the Blues on Wednesday morning.
FOOTBALL365
So now we're after ANOTHER player ... and yet another midfielder? What the hell is going on at Chelsea? Last season we came fourth, we were far more consistent than we have been for years, we pulled off some great results against the top teams and (with the exception of West Ham) managed to see off the minnows as well. And we didn't spend anything during the previous summer, it was all due to the development of the team, to letting the players stick together and get used to each other and actually work AS A TEAM rather than as a group of over-paid superstars.
It was a good season, a season all Chelsea supporters could be proud of, and one that showed we could be optimistic about times to come.
And then Roman bloody Abromovitch whatever the hell his name is came along and it's all gone crazy.
Now every season you have to buy a couple of players. And with Zola gone back to Italy (sad but predictable) and Ferrer retired, we did need to make a couple of purchases to fill the gaps. But Abromovitch is just flashing the cash, as far as I am concerned. It seems like he's got the money and he wants everyone to know it, so he's buying every available player just to make the point. Yet there doesn't seem to be a great deal of thought going in to who he actually signs.
We've ended up with about four new midfielders, plus the four or so that we already had . So who on earth is going to play? Do we stick Cole (a good signing, I grant you) and Lampard in the middle because they know each other so well already? But then what do we do with Veron (over rated, IMHO), and Duff (another valid acquisition) and Petit and Gronkjaer and Stanic and Zenden? They are all top quality international players - none of them are going to be happy sitting on the bench or playing for the reserves at Aldershot.
Then of course there are the defenders ... we now have players of the calibre of Bridge and Geremi, plus West Ham's Johnson. But what was wrong with the pairing of Terry and Desailly, with Melchiot/Gallas/Babayaro on the wings? Sure, we need a couple of spares in case of injuries, but it's going to be a nightmare for Ravioli to choose the best team AND keep everyone happy.
And at the same time we're relying solely on the fantastic Cudicini (best keeper in the league) to hold the fort in goal ... two new keepers bought, but one is out injured for the whole season and the other is, by all accounts, even worse than Bosnich. Hmm. And up front, the "pick two from three" combination of Hasselbaink/Gudjohnnsen/Forsell looks strong till one of them is injured, but what then? The signing of Mutu will take the pressure off there, if it goes through, but it seems that money has been spent in areas that don't really need it.
We'll see ... my main concern is that with so many new faces it's going to take a long time for any team to gel ... and to keep all the players happy there's going to have to be some regular rotation which is going to make it even harder. Abromovitch has made no promises, at least he knows the problems, but at the same time the fans are going to be baying for instant success as usual.
As far as I'm concerned, any victories we do achieve are going to have been bought rather than earned, and that bothers me. I'd be far happier if we'd bought a player here and there and then built on the sound foundations we developed last season ... success this year is going to have a hollow ring to it for me. I won't go so far as to say I'd like to see Chelsea fail (well, actually, I have said that to a couple of people), but the display of money in the club now is, frankly, morally offensive, and I'm not having fun being a Chelsea Girl at the moment.
Gigging for it!
And I did, and he wasn't.
For the first two or three tracks I wasn't impressed - they didn't seem anything special, and there are so many guitar indie rock groups around at the mo. But I quickly warmed to them and was bouncy along by the end. Their new (third) album The Final Straw is out now and there are some samples on their website … definitely one to watch. They were supported by Terra Diablo and Teer - both not bad but nothing to get excited about.
Tonight we are off to Winchester to see The Sad Song Company. This is a solo project by Nigel Powell, who was in The Unbelievable Truth (an early nineties band that U was very keen on, he ran the official website and followed them all over the place. The singer was Andy Yorke, younger brother of a certain Thom "Radiohead" Yorke, both of whom U went to school with) and is the drummer with Dive Dive, who I've seen a couple of times and they are really great. I've no idea what his solo stuff is like, but apparently the songs reflect the name of the project and are rather sad. Will let you know!
We're staying at my place tonight so I can top up the cat's food and water, and hopefully find her alive and well. I've had all sorts of problems getting her to use the catflaps because she is just terrified of them, especially of the noise they make when they open. I left them propped up, one on a wellie boot and one on a wine bottle, and she did actually go through both of them into the garden before I came over here. I'm just hoping that she hasn't knocked over the supports and got stuck in the bit between the two doors - our "conservatory" - because it gets so hot out there. I really don't want to go home to find a mummified moggy!
Monday, August 11, 2003
Flapping about
"After a few hours, a group of students approached me but, instead of helping, they removed my trousers and pants, painted my buttocks bright blue, and stuck a daffodil between my cheeks... No one tried to free me. In fact, I only got free after two days because a dog started licking my private parts and an old woman complained to the police."
... then I might just go along!
Sunday, August 10, 2003
What a load of rubbish!
Saturday, August 09, 2003
BookCrossing
My only problem with the site is that I love all my books, even the ones I hate or have never read, and I'm reluctant to part with them. So the answer is to buy cheap duplicates in the charity shops and use them! Then you're helping others in two ways.
I left my first book in Stoke Park, Guildford this week and have a couple more to release next week ... it gave me a bit of a buzz, sad but true! Anyway, fingers crossed I'll get lucky and someone will give my books a good home!
Back to scratch
*sigh* We'll see!