Big Fish Thoughts

Snow Patrol - Eyes Open....starting to get excited

2006-04-23T23:34:00.000+01:00

Snow Patrol new album Eyes Open hits the shops in UK on 1st May and it's a pretty rare event for me. I'm excited about a CD before it's release. To be honest I don't think I've looked forward to a release since X&Y from Coldplay, generally I just find music that's already out but for a band I already like to release is kinda special. So anyway, special bond with SP as they were my first concert...I still get a kinda tingly feeling when I think back to Dec '04, jumping up and down, singing at the top of my voice to Run.

I don't enthusuastically follow SP as a do for a certain other band (cough-the-national-cough) but I've bought You're All I Have from iTunes from the new album and listened to previews on Snow Patrol's website. They seem to have moved their sound on a bit, doesn't quite seem as reflective as Final Straw was. Much more guitar and upbeat stuff, hopefully there should be some slower stuff too or I'll be disappointed. One of my favourite songs is Fifteen Minutes Old from their Songs for Polar Bears album...such a simple song but very good.

I guess I can't really say much more untill I get the whole album...but rest assured I will then!

Set Yourself On Fire by Stars

2006-04-21T18:29:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks agao I signed up to Last.fm and installed the audiscrobbler plug-in. For those not familiar Last.fm/Audioscrobbler makes a note of every song you play on your computer on then sends it to the last.fm database so as to create your own music profile. You can then get stats about the music you listen to such as favourite songs etc. OK not that interesting really but it gets cool as it finds your music neighbours who listen to the same artists as you, and then it makes recommendations based on what they listen too. So for example you listen to The National and Wolf Parade, somebody else listens to The National, Wolf Parade and Stars it's a pretty good bet that you may like Stars too. So it comes up with a whole list of recommended artists and then you can stream their tracks in full as part of you "My Recommended Music Radio"!

So I was doing listening to the recommended radio, it was really nice to be able to listen to new music that was acctually pretty close to what you normally listen to. OK there was still some rubbish music but I felt there was a chance I could have liked it. Anyway a track came on that stood out I've forgotten the name but it was by a group called Stars. I previewed a few other tracks and then paid my £7.99 to download their latest album (Set Yourself On Fire) from iTunes. My impression...

I like it. There's a kinda kitch, cheesy feel about it which I think will always prevent it from becoming one of my classic albums but having said that there are some songs that have some stunning parts. But that always the problem, they're just parts. I've listened through a couple of times now and I haven't found a song I can enjoy all the way through.

The last song Calender Girl has a stunning verse but OMG never has a song been wrecked so much by the chorus. I nearly fell off my seat on the bus the first time I heard it, I was so shocked by how a band could ruin a whole song in 15 seconds. Stars have two main vocalists, a man and a woman which gives their stuff some really good variety. Calender Girl starts off with the woman singing a very heart-felt ballad... "Well out on the landing a friend I forgot to send home who waits up for me all through the night" and then along comes the man and in the cheesiest voice possible that sounds like a TV advert jingle sings "Calenndeeeer giiiiirl" - I mean really what were they thinking?

There are similar moments in every single song, just as I'm thinking something has potential they put in a really bad bass line that I just can't forget about. I can't help but shake the feeling it's a very little bit formulaic either, yes good for one song, but a whole album with the same equation? Maybe I'm not spotting the subtlties

An enjoyable album? yes. A classic? Nope. But my congrats to Last.fm for suggesting it to me.

75 Bands

2006-04-20T10:02:00.000+01:00

I stumbled into this pretty cool picture yesterday on the net, I think it begun as a promotion for Virgin but it's pretty cool. Basically there are references to 75 bands in the picture below, all you've got to do is name them.

You'll probably want to click on the picture to get the full size version. The references describe the band's name exactly so it should be pretty obvious when you work one out, for example Guns n Roses is represented by the guns and the roses on the left. Others are a bit more cryptic but you can still be fairly sure you got it right. As an example of getting it wrong, the rat doesn't represent the Boomtown Rats.

There are lots of places on the net that tell you all the answers but thats not really any fun. Very cool picture that I keep looking back at.

Quick Update...

2006-04-18T20:36:00.000+01:00

Well I received I reply from my Ofcom complaint this afternoon, seeing as I had the number I was advised to contact my telecom provider's (BT) Nuisance Call Bureau. They didn't really say what they'd do about the problem, I presume it would be nothing more than block the number from contacting me. Ofcom is, I beleive, the independant regulator thingie and the only people who can stop the company making these calls, not just to me but everyone. They say they will continue to monitor complaint levels on this subject. So there we go...

0870 7210 445

2006-04-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

0870 7210445 - 0870 7210 445 - 08707210445 - 0870 721 0445

Continuing with the general trend of posting about random things that have absolutly no connection...today...cold calling! Over the last week or so we've had a couple of silent calls where you pick up and the line goes dead. Generally the sign of a crummy call centre where the computer dials too many numbers and there are no operators to take the calls - but damn annoying as you have to get up from the sofa. Not once have I had to get up...but twice, and that my friends is too much! So now action...

Hoping it was work phoning to offer me an extra shift on a double-pay bank holiday, I did 1471 and instead of the typical "the caller witheld their number" I get "you were called today...by 0870 7210445" which sounded remarkably familiar to the number that rang me last week. So I go to Google and type in the number, I have to vary the position of the spaces before I eventually hit upon Andrew's blog and he and a lot of people in the comments are having the same problem from the same number. So this is happening a lot to a lot of other people, assuming of course that the people commenting on the blog are the small minority who bothered to get the number and Google it.

So now we start the very first Big Fish Thoughts consumer sting with good ol' Ofcom...it's simple, everytime I get a silent call from that number I fill in Ofcom's Silent Call complaint form. By their own admission they only act if you complain lots - "We do not investigate individual consumer complaints. However, we record and monitor complaint levels. If we identify an area of concern we may raise the matter with the management of the company directly." So I figure they ony way to get them to act...is to complain lots.

Now you're probably wondering what the point is, I get nuisance calls all the time and I never bother about them. This however is different...they lacked the sense to withold their number.

Equatorial Ramblings

2006-04-10T18:37:00.000+01:00

Well following on from my post a couple of weeks ago I took a pretty big plunge and applied for a conservation project, so I can somewhat nervously announce that come October I'll be travelling to Uganda to spend 2 months assisting the Ugandan Wildlife Authority with predator conservation in a national park.

I decided I was going to apply well over a week ago but spent the time finding excuses why I would leave it untill tomorrow, eventually on Friday I filled out the online form (for the second time having not sent it the first) and then sat for 10-15 minutes with the cursor over the send button trying to pluck up the courage. Eventually I decided I couldn't do it, I had no reason why I shouldn't put in my application but instead I'd do it tomorrow. Just as I moved my mouse towards the big cross in the corner of the window I had a fleeting feeling of confidence and found the cursor move very quickly back towards the 'send' button...more worringly I clicked it. Before I knew it I was staring at the confirmation screen saying someone would be in touch shortly. I walked round and round the house for 10 minutes in shocked kinda fashion trying to get my head round what I'd just let myself in for. Finally spoke to them on the phone this morning and confirmed stuff and most importantly they said my application was accepted. Yay!

Broke the news it was going ahead to my mum this afternoon and she started to get worried about absolutely everything. I scared myself yesterday by searching BBC News for Uganda.

Conversation soon moved from Idi Amin to the fact the equator ran through Uganda and how water would swirl the other way in different hemispheres and go straight down if I stood on the equator. I mean everybody knows that? Yeh? Well I found out it's absolute rubbish! The Coriolis Force exists but compared to all the other forces in play it's pretty negligable, the direction of rotation if determined by how the sink fills up or how you move your hands about the water. You set up rotations in the water by moving your hands in it then when the plug is pulled that results in the vortex down the plug. What more I made water drain out of my kitchen sink in both directions just by changing how the tap filled it up.

Last Train To Clarksville

2006-04-07T21:50:00.000+01:00

Making the most of fantastically-summery weather we've had these last few days I decide a day out is in order and in preparation for a forthcoming trip to Africa (more on that in few days) where else could you go but a Safari Park. Obviously with this being Britain I couldn't just go to Kruger National Park but instead Longleat! Yay! For those not familiar Longleat Safari Park is kinda like a zoo with big enclosures that you can drive your car through! Very cool as you don't have to look at animals through bars or cages....but also not cool as there's not very much between you and them....

Days starts fantastically with some very cute giraffes...

Before we quickly find ourselves heading towards Monkey Country, there are signs all over the park and warnings on every leaflet saying how you enter the monkey enclosure at you own risk and any damage sustained to your car is entirely your fault and you can't sue them or anything. Now like with most disclaimers I didn't take much notice, I figured somebody had lost their BMW logo a couple of years back and they'd put all these signs up to cover themselves. So I happily drive my Mum's car into and enclosure full of monkeys very excited by the prospect they might sit on my roof. Halfway through and after a few monkeys came near and turned away again, one jumps on the back window!

But the excitement was short lived as I realized he'd taken an interest in my radio aerial and I quickly became concerned for the well being of my car. Now how do you get a monkey off your car? Obviously have to stay in the car, so I decide to try stopping quite quickly. Doesn't work, nor does kangaroo hopping. (I knew I did that for a reason!)

Nevermind he's probably not doing any damage, I told myself.

But then I started to wonder why the people in the car behind we all laughing and the people in the car infront were all turned round in the seats, laughing. The answer soon came to me and the monkey walked down my windscreen, sat on my bonnet and tried to eat my rear washer jet nozzle!

Was another hour untill I could get out of my car and inspect the damage, he pulled the nozzle right off leaving a nice gap in the roof that rain could get through, bitten right through the washer hose and left two monkey foot-prints on my rear window that I could see all the way home.

Of course when I got home I had to tell my Mum, she wasn't too mad as long as I found, paid for and fitted the new one (which I did today) - I tried to convince her it wasn't really my fault "How is it not your fault? You took the car to a place where it can get attacked by bloody monkeys."

Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary

2006-04-05T18:34:00.000+01:00

I joined last.fm yesterday that uses AudioScrobbler (or something) to collect data about the music you listen to and then gives you Charts of your favourite songs and artists and makes suggestions on other artists based on what other people who like the stuff you like also like. I havn't listened to enough music yet so it's refusing to tell me anything, but I had a good look around at what other poeple listen to. One group that kept cropping up was Wolf Parade - I previewed some of their stuff, got very excited and rushed out and bought an album for £7.99 in HMV.

Ermm...it's interesting and to be honest not exactly the sort of thing I typically listen to. I'm on the CD's first play through so I'll have to see what tracks stand out. I tend to go for alternative-rock and wolf party seem to be alternative-alt-rock, there's a little bit of Franz Ferdinand in them and I can't help but imagine them in very tight black jeans which really isn't what I want!

Another band I recently discovered but am having a trouble tracking down a copy of is The Devastations...by having trouble I mean it was in any of the shops I looked for it in today but it is on Amazon. I heard they're supporting The National in London this May and from the little previews of their songs that I've heard they sound thoroughly depressed about it! (personally I'd be pretty pleased)

My year out...(another "me" post)

2006-03-28T08:44:00.000+01:00

I think I mentioned at the start of the year all my well thought out plans for how I was going to spend my gap year. At the time I could think of nothing more exciting than spending 6-7months travelling but now I'm having second thoughts...

It still seems awesome, I still want to travel, and I most definitely still want to go to some "more interesting" places. But over the last month or two there's been a spanner in the works. Leaving family and friends for half a year never really phased me, yeh of course I'd miss everyone but I've always been a pretty solitary who's content with being on their own. I'd meet new people on the road and my friends could easily spend time with other people too, they'd all be at uni so I would really see them anyway. That was all fine, but then I found a girl who I'd miss a hell of a lot and whats worse is she'd miss me. Sounds pretty stupid I know, I mean I've only been with her a month or so, seems pretty naive to think I'll still be with her come the end of the year. Seems more naive to change plans of a lifetime around a 1-month relationship.

Whats more, do I want to change my plans? In short, I don't want to leave her behind for 6 months. But neither do I want to give up on a trip I've been looking forward to for years only to go and break up with her a few months down the line for one reason or another. So lets imagine, that it's gonna we're gonna work out in the long-term, as in long-long-term...what difference is 6 months gonna make? If it's gonna last a long-time surely we could get through 6 months apart. But if I don't go maybe in 10 years time I'm gonna regret not going when I had the chance, maybe (I wouldn't now, but maybe in future...) I'd find myself resenting the reason I didn't go. She keeps telling me to go, she says doesn't want me to leave but that she can't stand in my way.

So this all got me thinking, maybe committing myself to 6 months travel is too big a risk - I've never travelled extensively before and I've most definitely never been anywhere like the places I'm planning to go. I'd hate to set off on my big trip only to find I hate it and wish I'd gone somewhere else - but then these are places I've wanted to go to for years...can I hate them? But I came up with an idea, while it still has it's problems it seems a lot better. Maybe I could split my trip in half, spend 2-3 months doing a conservation project at the end of this year, come back, earn some more money and then go away for another 3-4 months.

Solves the problems? I'm still spending my gap year in an awesome way, certainly not a waste. Going away for 12 weeks at a time seems a hell of a lot more managable than half a year. I know I'd still be away for the same amount of time but it has a very differnt vibe. What's more I get to change my plans halfway through, if I decide I hate Africa during the first trip I simply go somewhere else for the second one, if I hate travel I simply don't go away again.

It kinda all makes sense, trying to spot the drawbacks though. It makes getting jobs harder as I'll have to quit each one after a few months but I was planning to temp so touchwood that shouldn't pose too many problems. I'll spend more on flights as I'd have to fly out and home twice, but an extra £500 isn't too big a thing compared to what the whole year is costing me, for those two reasons it's financial blow. Plus my trip loses some of it's "tough-guy expedition" feel, 6 months accross Africa has a certain edge to it.

Essentially I'm trying very hard not to fall into the trap of young-naivity. Am I changing my plans around someone I've been with for just over a month, yes and no. It made me reconsider, without her I would probably stick to doing one trip. But in my attempt to avoid the hole of young-naivity it still makes logical sense even if we break up, there aren't really that many drawbacks to it. In a way it makes it seem a lot more real to me, spending 6 months travelling still feels like an impossible dream that I won't ever reach even though there's no reason for me not to. Going on a conservation project for a couple of months at the end of this year seems very acheivable, I get some travel experience which will no doubt help if I do decide to overland accross Africa, and I can get a good idea if that it what I want to do.

OK that was a long post, all about me, so probably not very interesting. Sorry I havn't been posting much lately, nothing to say I guess but there's a couple of things I'll write about later today or tomorrow....probably.

...fudgefudgefudgefudge...

2006-03-22T17:07:00.000Z

Discovered something crazy today, y'know when you get a text message and your phone is right next to you radio and you get the beep-beep-be-beeeep noises? Well I had my phone next to the computer mouse...a text came through and the screen started randomly scrolling up and down! Crazy!

But onto more pressing matters...

I discovered a couple of weeks ago how much I love Cadbury's Fudge bars...y'know the chocolate covered fudge bars that used to cost 10p and are now priced at an extortionate 15p. Well I've found myself eating more and more of them, to be honest I always thought I was in control, y'know I could quit when I wanted, I just don't want to thats the only reason. My friends have tried to help me, they worked out I could save £1.95 a week if I kicked the habit. They tried to shock me into realising the damage I was doing to my body, each bar contains over 100 calories meaning in a typical day I could be taking in upwards of 300 calories. But I reached a new low today, I realised buying three Fudge bars simultaneously made me look...well...fat, I felt the need to tell the canteen lady I was infact buying some for a friend. I then sat in the corner trying to eat my way out of the shame.

Woooo space shuttle!!!!

2006-03-16T08:51:00.000Z

As I'm sure I've mentioned on here I'm going to America in the summer and being a bit of a space-nut I'm really looking forward to going to Kannedy Space Centre - sooo imagine my excitement when I stumble upon the New Scientist website saying the next Space Shuttle flight had been delayed....to July....when I'm there!

I'm in America for the entire launch window so fingers crossed it doesn't get delayed again, little issue is we probably wouldn't be near Florida at the right time however seeing as this could well be a pretty much once-in-a-lifetime chance I'm willing to make sure we are!

Great...except the guy I'm travelling isn't a space nut. I just told him the news on MSN in a very excited way only for him to reply "well we'll have to wait for the date to be confirmed" shortly followed by "well if we're down south close to the launch I'm sure we can." Ye what??? Only if we're close by, and even then he's not exactly keen. We have a whole month out there with no commitments, we'd planned to go to Florida and Kennedy Space Centre anyway it's perfectly possible to make sure we're there whenever the launch is scheduled for.

I'm kinda getting worked up by his reaction, he knows how much I love space travel and he knows how much going would mean to me. Years and years I've said I wanted to see a launch, ever since we decided to go to the US I've been saying "how cool would it be.." and now here we are with a launch scheduled when I'm on the same flippin' continent and he doesn't want to go because he'd rather see Chicago before heading south.

Well I've decided. I'm gonna keep trying to persuade him but if he says no I've comprismised this trip enough and there's no way I'm letting this opportunity slip by, wherever we are I'm getting on a train a day or two before and I'm going, if he doesn't want to come then that's his problem. I'm going.

Nothing's ever easy

2006-03-10T00:07:00.000Z

Luck really wasn't on my side today, very simple task that really fell down around ears. Thismorning was my girlfriend's driving test and, thankfully, she passed! Hurrah! (4th time lucky!) So I said I'd head round her house after she'd finished work later that evening to say well done, I bought her a card that afternoon and decided to get her a little bunch of flowers too.

It was simple, I jump in my car a bit early, drive down to Asda, be a good boyfriend and buy flowers, peel price sticker off, get back in my car and drive round hers. I make it all the way to Asda before I realised I was gonna be 15-20minutes early and beleive it or not there's not much to do at Asda when you absolutely nothing to buy. So I found some flowers but (thankfully) decided to leave them in the bucket instead of carrying them round the shop looking at all the things I could possibly buy if I was ever that way inclined.

I was looking at a Pinata donkey because frankly that was probably the most interesting thing in the entire shop, when all of a sudden I was broken from my musings about whether it's right to tell kids to hit a donkey with a big stick by the sound of someone saying "Hey sweetie, fancy seeing you here!" I turn round and sure enough she's decided to drive her dad to pick up some stuff from Asda of all places! "Oh...hello...how are you?" Given I was meant to be at her house in 20 minutes I certainly couldn't be doing the weekly shop. Some quick thinking was in order. "I'm good thank you, what are you doing here?" she replied, I'd been hoping she wouldn't ask that. "Ermm...y'know, just killing time" "oh ok....in Asda?"

Just as everything was looking lost it hit me in the quickest bit of thinking I've ever done I came up with the greatest cover story ever come up with! (Mensa take note! lol) "Yeh I had to get out the house, Mum wasn't impressed with my exam results" - unfortunately that didn't explain why I'd driven two miles out of my way! But she seemed convinced. How I would get these flowers I had no idea.

So I walk round Asda with her while her dad gets the stuff he needed (12 bottles of wine and 300 balloons - don't ask!) and we headed to the exit. Fortunatly we'd parked at seperate ends of the car park so we split and 30 seconds later I did a swift turn around and straight back into Asda, told the cashier of my plight (as you do!) and I covered the flowers in a few bags. Headed back to my car and in a final stroke of genius got a woman to carry the flowers for me so my girlfriend didn't see me with them.

Sorted.

(I did come clean with how difficult our chance encounter had made things, I'd fooled her except for the fact I'd vanished when she looked back over her shoulder on the way out! Her dad had guessed I was up to something though.)

A little ambition...

2006-03-08T22:30:00.000Z

Decided to set myself a little challenge, kinda like a New Year's resolution but one that's made in March. By the end of the year I want to get into Mensa! Only little issue is I don't think I'm clever enough. But I'm not gonna let that deter me.

So to get into Mensa you've got to get in the top 2% of the population on an IQ test, now apparently there are loads of different tests and the scores vary and such but I read somewhere (can't find it now!) that that's roughly equivalent to an IQ of 148. I've done a few tests throughout my life and tend to get somewhere in the 120s so I'm falling a little short!

However I have a plan, I reckon by practicing IQ tests you can boost your score...so that's what I plan to do. Then you pay £15 and take a standardized-supervised-Mensa-approved IQ test in some funny test centre and hope for the best. Unfortunatly there's only a few test sessions so I may have to wait a while for one to be local or get in my car and drive somewhere to do one. As for why I've decided to try and join Mensa I don't know - but it would get some serious bragging rights!

Do I stand a chance? Probably not. Will I ever bother to try? Probably not.

However I take great comfort that Mensa's official website felt the need to inform me that "1 in 50 people have an IQ in the top 2%"

The Archive of Misheard Lyrics

2006-03-03T23:56:00.000Z

OMG have a I found a funny site - http://kissthisguy.com is a collection of how people have misheard song lyrics. Y'know how it is, there's something that sounds so clear it couldn't possibly be anything else despite the fact it sounds totally you stupid. But still you decide the artist must have been having a laugh and happily sing your alternative lyrics while doing karokee (as you do!) only to find another phrase thats sound pretty much the same but fits a hell of a lot better! Some classic's I've found on there...

Shaggy - Angel
Real: "Closer than by peeps you are to me"
Alternate: " Closer than my briefs you are to me"

Blink 182 - The Rock Show
Real: "I fell in love with the girl at the rock show. She said "What" and I told her that I didn't know."
Alternate: "I went down with the girl at the rock show. She said "What" and I told her Garfield was a show."

Savage Garden - Truely, Madly, Deeply
Real: " I want to lay like this forever until the sky falls down on me"
Alternate: "I want to lay like this forever until this guy falls down on me"

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Real: "You'll go down in history"
Alternate: "You'll go down and hit the tree"

Quick Rant...

2006-03-01T19:48:00.000Z

OK just a quick rant on something which keeps bugging me. As I mentioned in an earlier post I'm taking a gap year to go off travelling, and beleive it or not travelling costs a a lot of money. I'm not in the fortunate of having stuff handed to me on a plate so I therefore have to work to get any money and then I have to save it rather than blowing it on going out and beer. I do a part-time job in a shop and work 16+ hrs each week and that's on top of college work. Obviously there's a finite number of hours in the week so to fit everything in I have to make some sacrifices, unfortunatly that means not spending my weekends at parties getting drunk, which to be honest I wouldn't be doing anyway.

So most of my friends think I prefer going to work over going out, not true at all (although it can be depending who it is/what they're doing!) and find it absolutely unbeleivable that I get by with little to no free time. That's not what annoys me, what annoys me is when the same people turn round to me and say how lucky I am to be having a gap year and going away. Hello! It's not luck, it's damn hard work and down to the fact I want to travel a hell of a lot more than I want to get drunk.

OK enough of the rant and seeing as this is already a pretty personal post rather than the random stuff I usually post may as well fill you on the fact I have my first serious girlfriend. Ahhhh! I've known her for well over a year and I've always had a bit of thing for her, we finally got togethor almost a couple of weeks ago. Met her through work which means I'm in the very slightly awkward situation of having to work alongside my girlfriend but that hasn't currently posed a problem, hopefully it won't. She's at uni which throws up another problem as we can only see eachother in the evenings when neither of us are at college/uni/work but still things are going well. Oh yeh, my other concern, there's a couple of people from work who I know had a thing for her...one of which I got on pretty well with. Don't think he knows what's going on yet so I'm a little concerned about that, we've done nothing wrong but I'm just hoping he won't react too negatively towards me.

Digital Camera's

2006-03-01T17:32:00.000Z

Trying to decide on a new digital camera at the moment, I've had a Nikon Coolpix2000 for the last few years which I've really enjoyed using and has been great for going on holiday etc. but I've always found it really clumpy to carry around when I'm out and about so it tends to just get left at home. So with my trip to America coming up I've decided to upgrade to a much smaller camera that I can just put in my pocket and take to alsorts of places without having to carry a rucksack or anything. Also, given, you can get a lot more bang for your buck I should be able to get a camera thats significantly better than my 2MP Nikon.

Currently I have my eye on the Kodak V530 mainly because it's nice and small although I havn't found seen one in real life to see just how small, it comes in groovy colours (likin' the black), is 5MP, has 3x Optical zoom and can record MPEG-4 video with sound at 30fps in 640x480!!! All for £143!

Open to suggestions though.

02 Genie

2006-02-24T23:50:00.000Z

Seems like a stroke of genie-us from O2 - I heard this week about their pay-and-go package that combines the unrestrictedness of topping up with loads and loads of free texts that you get with contracts. Basically you top-up Â£10 every month and you get 300 free texts. But the genie-us bit (as far as I can tell) is that if you don't top up one month you simply don't get your free texts and just pay for them as you did before..Butt the next time you put Â£10 on you get your texts again!

So I heard about this and went along to the O2 shop in town and went "oi, lady, I gotta get myself on this" but obviously in a much polite way. So the lady makes a phone call and they ask me bizarre questions that I really wasn't expecting such as "how did you last top-up your phone?" - "Ye-wha? Oh well, I got in my car and went down the petrol station..."

So that was Thursday and the lady told me just to waiuntilll Monday before topping-up again, but then today, being Friday, I noticed I could get a signal and my phone was saying "card rejected"....great! So I wait a couple of hours and phone O2 customer service where the woman tells me to put £10 on my phone to activate the card, somewhat dubious about throwing money at the problem I went back to the petrol station and one hour later still nothing. So it's 11PM and I finally fixed it by simply turning the phone off and on again. Grrrr!

Got my free texts though!

Morning Runner

2006-02-23T20:05:00.000Z

Another music post, this time about another little-known band called Morning Runner. I saw the live waay back in 2004 when they supported Snow Patrol, I thought they were fantastic back then and the next day I went on the internet to find some of their tracks of theirs but found pretty much next-to-nothing on them and they didn't seem to have anything released. Then last summer they started to gain more popularity and some of their stuff was released in the form of very short EPs.

Then today I was on iTunes and was surprised to see their newest track, Burning Benches, as No.17 on the day's top 100 downloads a quick listen and you can tell why. Sum's up Morning Runner's pretty unique combination of rock and chill-out music that makes you want to both stand up and move but also sit back and be very depressed - "it's not heaven without you"

The only annoying thing about them is that last year they supported Athlete last year and I didn't go!

www.morningrunner.co.uk

Coldplay split?

2006-02-16T13:08:00.000Z

So Coldplay have dropped a bombshell but unfortunatly nobody quite knows what it means - ""People are fed up with us and so are we. You won't see us at one of these for many, many years." Sounds like they're intending to take a damn long holiday but it leaves you wondering whether they'll ever return, much as I love Coldplay I'm actually kinda glad...

There's been a HUGE difference between the group after Rush of Blood release and the group after X&Y's release, X&Y launched Chris into becoming a household name and made the group become a stadium-filling supergroup. They've rarely been far from the media's eye with Live8 and Glastonbury followed by their tour. It's a pretty mad pace to keep up, while they may be able to do it I don't think their fans would. It's hard to get excited about a huge concert when they did one just last week - in a way all the specialness wears off. Chris said not so long ago that the 4th album was pretty much written, so in theory they could probably get it into the shops by the summer if they wished. But I think if they did that it would be the end of Coldplay.

Why? Because we'd go round this roundabout again, big concerts, big media coverage, award ceremonies etc. etc. And, as with anything that becomes very popular, it becomes cool to criticise it and disassociate yourself from it. If Coldplay put out their 4th album this year I'm pretty certain that what would happen and that reputation would be near impossible to shake off. So I see a long break as a very good thing and vital for Coldplay's long-term success, it's a short term pain so that things can work out in the long run.

X&Y has sewn the seeds for Coldplay's future, their music will happily last for a few years in people collections, they'll come back fresh-faced, puppy-tailed and able to wow us all again.

(I hope)

£1000 Cash-Climb

2006-02-16T11:56:00.000Z

All this week the local radio station has been running a game show which they play every hour. Basically you have one minute to answer as many questions as you can, you get £5 for every correct answer and if you get ten correct in a row you win £1000...but if you get one wrong you go all the way back to nothing and have to start again.

So I woke up this morning, realised I could do with winning a grand so phoned in...and got on.

Before we started the presenter was chatting to me and I made the mistake of admitting to studying Further Maths and basically got labelled a genius. Not so bad...until it comes to the question "what 'a' word is a type of maths?" (or something along those lines) "ermmm......arithmetic?" WRONG! That was quickly followed by a Flintstones question which I also got wrong making me the only person all week to win absolutely nothing!

Apparently the 'a' word was algebra but I still think arithmetic was right! Admittedly it wouldn't have made much difference, but still.

Ahh Blunty...

2006-02-16T00:25:00.000Z

Just heard how James Blunt accepted his Brit award, I wouldn't normally pay much attention but it cracked me up - "I have been accused so many times of singing like a girl that it is amazing to be the best male."

Mozzarella in Carrozza

2006-02-16T00:12:00.000Z

OK feeling the need to immortalize what is quite frankly the best starter course ever discovered - I'm not posting this because I think anyone else will be remotely interested it just seems the best way to ensure I can always come back and look up the name. Went to dinner with a friend from work this evening (that's a whole other post!) at Prezzo which is this Italian resturant chain and for starters we had "Mozzarella is Carrozza" which according to the menu is mozzarella that's deep fried in bread crumbs - seriously nice! Very stringy (obviously) but very nice.

Thought I'd post a recipe for it but the internet seems to disagree with Prezzo Plc. and most places seem to thing think it's mozzarella between two slice of bread that then fried - so basically a deep-friend cheese sarnie. But anyway the breadcrumbed version is here - http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_26158,00.html

(Edit: I just read the recipe...probably easier to buy the mozzarella rather that make it)

Finding Big Fish Thoughts

2006-02-10T15:39:00.000Z

I always keep a close eye on my blog stats mainly becuase I want to know when I pick up a regular reader but they're also pretty interesting to see who/how people find their way to ths lowly page. Most of my hits tend to come from Blogexplosion if I'm using that but they tend to surf away after 30-seconds probably without ever reading anything, can't see much point there. Others tend to find their way here from other Blogspot blogs - probably via the little toolbar. But I do seem to get about about 2-3 hits a day through Google...never any other search engine, just Google.

What makes me chuckle is looking at the search terms to see what they were acctually looking for, in the last couple of weeks I've probably had 20 hits from people looking to download Episode 1 of the Ricky Gervais Podcast. If you're looking for that...GUTTED!!! Had a fair few hits by people searching for Undertheigloo - odd as I've only ever mentioned them once but I do have a quote by them down the bottom of the page. Bet you never noticed ;) Other searches tend to be for The National but I'm getting a couple of people interested in Mock the Week now too.

Maybe oneday someone will find my blog usefull.

Mock The Week...or not

2006-02-09T19:47:00.000Z

Well last night was the recording of Mock the Week that I had tickets for so a friend from work and I drove the 2hrs to London. Being a pretty new driver I got a bit lost on the M25 and ended up missing our junction, not a big deal except by this point we were getting very pushed for time. Somehow we found our way to the studio without too many more problems and just one 3-point turn but nonetheless our detour cost us half an hour. Our tickets say the studio doors close at 7:10 and we finally jog up to the front of BBC centre...at 7:10. There's about another 10-15 people standing outside the audience entrance where we're told we're too late and the studio's full. Great.

Fortunately the very lovely people said they should be able to get us into another show being filmed at the same time called The Late Edition, perhaps there was hope after all. So we go through to the foyer and hang around for 20 minutes while all the people with official tickets for the Late Edition go through to the studio leaving just us hopefuls behind. Half the hopefuls are taken off to be seated while my friend and I are left with a group of 8 or so others guys. The man in a suit returns and starts apologising to the group that the studios full and they can't do anything for us. We'll have to drown our sorrows in a McFlurry. He ushered the group of eight towards the exit before turning to us and saying "there is however room for you two." YES!

Seriously surreal experience in the studio, they did a "link up" with a reporter at the Turin Winter Olympics and the screens showed him set against a very snowy backdrop - we however could see him set against a green screen off to the side of the set. The presenter, Marcus Brigstocke, was seriously good and I don't think it was just because he had a good team of writers behind him. In between shots he was making jokes with the audience and pretty much ensured that for the two hours we were sat in the studio I never once felt bored....given my attention span is somewhat limited that's damn impressive!

We all headed out the studio around 10PM and I began the drive home. All was going well until the matrix boards on the M25 told us we couldn't get off at the junction we wanted...all I could do was wave to the M3 as we sailed past. So we got off the next junction and tried to cut back across and rejoin the M3 slightly further along. Nice plan...but I can't drive. We got lost and didn't have the right map so were forced to put up with the very small-scale diagram in my "condensed road map of Great Britain and Ireland." So my friend tells me to follow signs to Chobham, I followed signs to Cobham, subtly different name but still in completely the wrong direction. I mean really, why would you have two towns pretty much next to each other with one letter difference! What genius did that?!

Even if I had gone the right way it wouldn't have made much difference as we spent the next hour and a half touring the surrounding countryside. I even gave up on my macho male reputation (yeah - whatever!) by going to a petrol station to ask for directions. But even that went wrong...it was bloody closed! Eventually we gave up and went back to the M25 to find a different route home.

Home finally came well over 4 hours after leaving at 2:30AM.

My story is still not quite over, I'd just finished telling a friend at college of our magical mystery tour when my mobile rang. It's Martin from SRO Audiences ringing to apologise/explain why we couldn't get in and despite bending over backwards to get us into The Late Edition they offered us priority tickets for another recording of Mock the Week. Proper customer service.

If you're interested the episode of The Late Edition we saw goes out tonight (Thurs) on BBCFour at either 10PM or 10:30...I'm not too sure which.

Little thought for the day...

2006-02-05T16:08:00.000Z

OK lets imagine a hypothetical situation in which I've been offended by a cartoon published in a newspaper and to vent my anger at the paper's country I decide I wish to burn their flag. So, no doubt, I go on the internet with my debit card and have the appropriate flag shipped to me via UPS. So even in the technologically-advanced western world burning flags can be quite a bit of hassle.

And yet its a pretty common occurence to see people from all over the world on the news burning various flags. So where do people is less-developed countries get flags? I'm thinking maybe there are flag shops at the side of the road or something, might be a good line of business in times of trouble.