Thursday, May 31, 2001

31st May 2001

Summer's here and the time is right for dancing in the
street......well not quite but the sunshine finally broke through
for more than a day and we have had a few days glorious weather but
as I write this and look out of the back window I fear the warm
spell is coming to a close and there are showers imminent. Well what
have we been doing while the sun has been cracking the flags
outside?? I have been stuck in the studio swapping amplifiers and
trying to sort out the numerous faults in my studio. After two days
of soldering and unsoldering jack plugs and crawling around the back
of my rack I can safely say my vocabulary for swear words has
increased rather dramatically. After swapping two amps I finally
went back to the one I took out a year ago and got everything
working properly except for a couple of dodgy channels which I will
fix today. I was supposed to be on the other side of the glass today
with Wal doing the button pushing but he has pulled out at the last
minute because he has to do a matinee performance of his Beatles
show which me and Frankie B went to see last week. The show is
called "All You Need Is Love" and has just opened in the West End
and Wal got a couple of tickets for me and Frank to pop down and
check it out. It is a music/dancing thing with slightly altered
arrangements of Beatles songs. I thought it was very entertaining
and had a great time watching one of the dancers who really knew how
to shake her stuff and Wal of course whose illuminated dome could be
clearly seen bopping away in the gantry above the stage. I went out
to see my mate Afro-Celt Martin down in the depths of Hackney last
night and got a sneak preview of the new Afro-Celt Sound System
album which was a vibe. Before I went out last night I made the
steps to sorting out my own credit card facility (about time I hear
you say) so for any of you who are reading this and do not have the
very fine debut album then your chance to purchase is not to far
away. When I get this payment sorted then there is a good chance
that I will be sorting out the "Enter The Bigger Reality" album and
maybe some t-shirts and stuff so you better start saving all your
pennies up now. I spoke to Ket yesterday about putting a link on the
site and some instructions on mIRC for people who want to join in
the chat on Thursday nights. I know from some correspondence I
received this week that a few of you have trouble trying to get in
last week and i would bet that most of you were trying to access the
room via the site and it is much better using mIRC. I am still
getting to grips with mIRC and all it can do and know that it is not
straightforward so maybe with the help of Ket's instructions we can
all become "mIRC aware" and chat to our hearts content. I am off now
to Currys to buy a mini disc recorder and a DVD player with a large
gift voucher. Technology....we love it in our house!!!

Tuesday, May 22, 2001

22nd May 2001

Let me begin this edition of the wise words by thanking all of you
who signed their birthday wishes to me in the guestbook. So I am now
38 years old and wondering when I am going to start acting it!! I
keep thinking that sooner or later I will wake up on my birthday and
a light bulb will illuminate above my head and a voice inside my
head will say "OK!! Party's over!!! Time to be an adult". It is a
voice I have been waiting for since my 18th but I have yet to hear
it (and hope I never will!!). Well it has been a phenomenal week and
despite the moaning we have in the chat room we cannot let this week
pass without mention of the football. Yes I know I am turning this
website into "Sportszone" but the season is over and it will not be
mentioned again unitl September and it was a somewhat spectacular
week for my team so I will ask you all to indulge me while I talk
you through it. The FA Cup Final: We got a bit of a pasting from the
Arse' for the first 75 minutes of the game but robbed the North
London pensioners with two great goals from Michael Owen. The second
was a fucking belter and worthy of winning any cup final. Needless
to say I have had the sour gooners on the phone moaning about how
"we wuz robbed" but footy is a game of 90 minutes and if you switch
off after 70 minutes because you have gone a goal up then you
deserve all you get. We didn't get to the Spice Carraige but still
managed a late night curry which was mostly left uneaten by myself
(very true to form). There should be some doctor in a university
somehwere who should be doing a thesis on why half pissed geezers
fancy a curry until it turns up on the table and their appetite has
disappeared after two poppadoms. Fuck "life on other planets" etc.
We want to know about drunks in curry houses (or maybe that's just
me?). So anyway, we won our second cup of the season and were about
to try and win a third one in Dortmund against the plucky Spanish
team Alaves. This game will go down as the final that had
everything: Goals, errors, players sent off. Any football fan who
watched this game would have had a great evening in front of the
telly. I think I would have been happy even if we had lost because
it was such a great game. The Spanish lost the game with a "Golden
Own-Goal" which, in my opinion, was a shitty way for us to win/them
to lose such a great game. The guy who scored the goal must have
been gutted. So we have won three cups but still have to win our
last league game to ensure entry into next years big money cup
(Champions League) and we beat Charlton 4-0 after gettting a bit of
a pasting in the first half. So we did really well and I won't
mention football now until September so all you anti-footy merchants
can rest easy.I am off with Frannie-B to see Wal play in his west
end show tomorrow night which should be a blast. Tonight Matthew,
Wally is going to be Paul McCartney!! He is playing in this Beatles
show so I will have to check out all his Macca chops and make sure
he is playing them right. It is a good job he doesn't have to play
"Tainted Love" (sorry, private joke!). I will fill you in on the
musical front next time but I am off now to watch some more of my
birthday pressie which was a DVD box set of The Sopranos first
series which Mrs Nash bought for me so I will catch you wiseguys
later.

Friday, May 11, 2001

11th May 2001

Sorry about the lack of wise words for a while but I have had phone
stress. If you live in the UK then you will have seen the
advert.....cheery tune.....smiling engineers.....millions are coming
back to BT.........my arse!! I should have known that it would be
greif but you always hope that this time it will be painless: no
such luck. Switched back to Bt from NTL and lost use of the phone
for a week and couldn't collect my mail without dismantling the pc
and dragging to the only working telephone point. Connect up your
two other sockets sir.....oh no that will take us five minutes and
cost you £132. So I calmed down and did it myself but you can be
assured that I will writing to Watchdog and try and set Anne
Robinson on them then they will be sorry. Now that the rant is over
I will fill you in what's been going on. I went down to The New Den
with Millwall Johnny West and my son and his mate Harry. Millwall
won the league and everyone was waiting for the party to start and
the atmosphere was excellent. More footy on Tuesday when I spun up
to Liverpool to watch the Reds take on Chelsea in an entertaining
2-2 draw. But these two games are small potatoes compared to the big
game tomorrow. The FA Cup Final in Cardiff tomorrow featuring The
Reds playing Arsenal. If we win then there is a good chance that I
will be singing on my way home. It is an early start tomorrow which
will begin in the pub at about 1.30 with the Four Musketeers on
parade with maybe Moishe in tow and everyone will have to be in peak
physical condition if they are to make the final whistle at 10:00pm
in the Spice Carraige. Come on you Reds!! I have to mention
something about the sharp practice of turning up in the chat room at
11:30 to avoid the idle chat and hoping to catch the bedtime story.
The guilty ones know who they are!!! Only joking of course. In
future the bedtime stories will start from anytime after 11:30 so
make sure you are there by then so you don't miss out. I have been
checking my stats and I am thinking of doing my own census seeing as
they are currently flying about the country with the only difference
is that I won't be bringing it round to your door. I may slot in a
mini section tomorrow for the football heads out there so if you
don't like footy then I will see you next week.