Jip in Human Traffic goes wild about the potential of the coming weekend, dizzy at the prospect of having 48 hours off from the world and the chance to blow steam out his head like a screaming kettle and the Milky Bars being on him, and it’s fair to say that I felt pretty much that way for every second of the 3rd and 4th of Feb 2007. The Year of the Pig is very much on its way (haven’t read anything about it yet – except a bit of blurb in ‘Nuts’ about piglet racing in a few of China’s provinces to usher in the new year…) and things are picking up nicely. I’d had an invite to Ms Davenport’s birthday on the Sunday afternoon so had planned to gad about the capital and make the most of the opportunity to see things, and to see them with my eyes. It was a cold start on Saturday, and so it was onto the train for a glaring and brilliant dart through Glos, Oxon, Berks and into Greater London before racing to The South Bank for a bite to eat and a catch up with Benj and Ros. After food and a brisk stroll around and a brush with Industrial Strength Café Mocha and Gruyère I wended my way to Richmond to meet Rae and watch the delightful and resounding thrashing of Scotland by Wilkinson and Co in a wonderful pub called The Sun in Richmond that was stuffed with people which made you feel Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box but lended the proceedings such a pulsating and rowdy atmosphere (whilst at the same time being quite gentile). We were actually entrenched by be-kilted Scotsmen who were great sports and bought us a drink by way of a forfeit. One of these guys (who was actually called Scot), who had been trying valiantly to chat up my sister throughout, was decked out in a solid black kilt. Rae was convinced it was a girl’s gym skirt but Scot The Scot tried to convince us that it was to do with the Jacobites’ battle dress at The Battle of Culloden and a clever form of camouflage for nocturnal skirmishes. The idea of a Scots ninja was hit upon seconds before my third pint (a cider by this time, that had had WKD Red added to it for a laugh, like) was upset by The Celtic Assassin who then proceeded to look very embarrassed before claiming that ‘…[his] work here was done…’ and shuffling off. I had no dinner plans beyond getting back to Reading, to stop over, through such romantic holiday spots as Feltham and Staines so I left Rae to her pre-planned girls night out and hopped it. This gave me the chance to meet Rae’s housemate of more than a few months, Aussie Dave and my sister’s new buddy Helena (who will be following Dave into the spare room in March when he moves on). A great Chow Mein was had and my trousers were relieved of their cider/alcopop sheen. Dave and Helena looked after me well.

Sunday saw me laze around before I got back to London and had a good stroll about, passing through Kensington Gardens, past The Albert Hall, through Notting Hill and along Portabello Road enjoying my tunes and togged up in chill-discouraging gear before I got myself over to Canada Water for the party. Now the invite had said (1987) after the title/announcement. This puzzled me because Alex was born in 1980. Turns out this was to be her seventh birthday all over again and one was to feel free to come along decked out in dress of the era (certainly we were treated to such musical delights as Living In A Box, T’Pau and Rick Astley). The sophisticated spreads that Alex and Co are renowned for (that usually include 7 different types of humous amongst other mouth watering delights) were radically altered and included crisps (KP Skips), chocolate bars and a bewildering selection of sandwiches that involved wafer-thin sliced ham and chicken fillings and the candy hundreds-and-thousands sort (which had apparently been a staple of Davenport children’s parties of yore). The food was actually terrific and just what was needed after my ramblin’ - the vodka jelly was particularly lethal however. Turns out we needed to be good and drunk because the party games followed. We had to pass an orange around from between one person’s chin and chest to the next, whilst simultaneously moving a balloon around from between one person’s thighs to another. Pin-the-lipstick-and-eye-shadow-on-the-face was another good one; I was blindfolded and had to tart-up a poor unfortunate. Finally there was time for a few heated rounds of Chubby Bunny before racing to Padington for my train home – or to Worcester, at any rate, as the train refused to go any further. Thanks for putting me up, Marc. I owe you a meal at some point soon, mon ami!

Hey, this new iTunes 7 is good, isn’t it? I didn’t notice much difference with the last version but when I upgraded yesterday I was delighted to find that the new version gives you the opportunity to switch views so that you can sift through your music collection by album cover. I did a hunt online and downloaded a whole host of covers for things that I had imported from my own CDs (a step closer to the whole completist thing that we geeks strive for). The music videos have their own department away from “TV Shows” and “Movies” now which somehow allows for them to be played continuously in full screen without snapping back to the mini viewer window between videos. Previously I could only achieve my random video jukebox utopia on the iPod but now I can manage it with the iMac too. Also there are the handy functions of now being able to select blocks of tracks to skip in random without having go through each one and checking that “skip when shuffling” function if you’ve a stack of not-so-cool tracks or guilty pleasures that ought not to be exposed in company (but that you might want to indulge in away from ridicule) and someone sensitive to the needs of my “Back to Mine” or “Another Late Night” mix albums and electronica concept albums has factored in a function where you can tell iTunes whether or not an album is a “gapless” album or not thus eliminating those disruptive little pauses that didn’t used to be there when you listened to the CD. All this plus the icon for iTunes has now changed its note colour from green to blue signifying my new found power. Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-hah!

The fact that I’ve only got a limited upload limit at Flckr meant that it did take me three or four months to post the majority of the Prague pics so I’ve now had a chance to post some of Rae’s birthday and graduation as well as a few I took on my recent walks. Let me know if you want to made a “friend” contact so that you can view the full collection. You can view pixs here.

After dreading the upcoming weekend, knowing that the finest festival of relaxing and divine groovy music in the known world would be in full swing just down the road from me and being unable to afford to attend, Alex has come to the rescue and kindly offered to buy my ticket. This has cheered me up no end by the way and I’ll be sure and let you know how it went. Amongst the highlights will be Aim, Coldcut, Lou Rhodes, Mr Scruff, The Egg and Martha Wainwright. And as if that wasn’t exciting enough The Proclaimers will be stopping by to perform a set aswell. I can hardly wait!

Anyone who knows me and my complete indifference to football (and most sport) might be wondering how or why I’ve taken an interest in the World Cup this year. This is something I’ve been asking myself recently too. As far back as I can remember I’ve always watched the world cup with a keen interest despite having little or no regard for the premiership or league football of any description. I do find the sport infuriating and very frustrating to watch; the constant back and forward of the ball as opposed to the tactics and steady progression of territory teams achieve in rugby. Football is almost like watching a slightly more complex version of Pong and it does get annoying. Somehow I’ve got past that this year again and having no idea who plays for which club and no knowledge of player’s respective strengths and weaknesses means I can maintain an open mind. I’m certainly enjoying the displays of skill and in particular the high standard of goal keeping. I’m not at all sure about the amount of yellow cards for innocently-meant tackles and the fact that someone has seen fit to replace the football with a beach-ball that sails over both attacking and defending players alike from corner kicks or straight over the cross bars from goal attempts but there it is.

A full 40 years after our last win, does anyone think we have a chance this time round?

An unusual weekend was had in the end. After a truly awful Friday in which I sent myself to my room early with very little supper (it was either that or involve myself in a full blown row with my parents) Saturday passed without much incident and in the evening it was time to venture into that inconsistent place Worcester. I was to join Dom and his housemates for a session. I’d also said to Naomi that I’d make it along to see her perform as part of The Sunset Dancers in an Oriental Dance display at Worcester Arts Workshop… (more…)

Thanks to Marc for taking me out on Saturday and getting me good and drunk. It was great to catch up. We managed eight bars during the course of the evening and a variety of drinks that included an obligatory ‘Shady Character’ (don’t ask me what’s in them) at The Consevatory and a half-litre of bock beer that’s currently a guest beer during Easter at The Cardinal’s Hat. I was certainly in the mood for drinking and the only reason that the bock beer wasn’t super-sized was due to it’s being 7.2%! Due to the proliferation of very decent bars and the relaxed licensing laws it is now possible to have a decent night out in Worcester and happily there is now no good excuse to find yourself in one of the many unnecessarily poor clubs. Before Christmas my sister, Dave and I had wandered over to what was The Apple Tree in Lowesmoor, to find it has now become a very smart, comfortable and well-stocked bar called The Firefly. I just can’t believe it’s taken this long for the night life in the city to become interesting. Perhaps a lot of it is down to the University College Worcester finally being granted full university status as of last year. The city’s student population is only going to swell and so perhaps the appropriate thought it now finally being put into the place. Not before time but more importantly, not before I’m too old for a night on the town.

Had another great weekend (the last one away for a little while) with my mates Rich and Soneva in Newcastle-Under-Lyme. Rich has just taken that remarkable leap and bought a house. And what a nice pad it was too. The kitchen is big enough to cook, eat and dance about in (all three are just about possible at the same time) and the lounge is big enough to house a host of the most comfy and luxurious, black leather chairs you’ve ever seen. I even got my room with an emperor sized double bed. I was impressed.

Saturday’s rain defeated our attempts to go to the intriguing sounding Monkey Forest and bowling was booked up so we went to the movies and saw “V for Vendetta” which I quite liked and I now really want to read the original comic (or should that be ‘graphic novel’). I’d deliberately kept my expectations low as I’d heard it was being directed by the 1st AD from the Matrix movies and had been fraught with problems but it was quite exciting stuff with CGI explosions that actually meant something and a shaven Natalie Portman (no, not like that). A thoroughly glorious weekend and a long overdue visit but then often the best visits are!

And before you ask, no this nothing to do with porn, thank you very much. The weekend was an absolute triumph; veni vidi, er, I ate a lot. We’d all arranged to meet at Alex’s place and upon arrival, she and Soni continued their aggressive entertaining campaign which involves the guest being caught off-balance by the opulent surroundings before they are made as comfortable as possible and subsequently plied with as much good food as they can take (in this case upwards of six - count them - types of humous, pitta, salad and some lightly fried chorizo). My personal theory is that they plan to prevent all of their guest from leaving, it’s a sort of “Isle of Pleasure” surrounded by Canada Water, Surrey Water and The Thames. Later Alex, Dave and I crossed from the Pleasure Isle to the Spice Island, which is the girl’s local, to meet Meg and Kelvin fresh from their flight from Swansea (I use “flight”  in the sense that they were fleeing the place rather than they arrived in a plane). After a few drinks (two pints of Hoegaarden) we decided to eat before the party - here I made the mistake of assuming that The Spice Island’s tapas would be substantial. Three shrimps, five button mushrooms and a couple of olives later I was ready to (eat more, actually) party. We all piled into Alex’s car and drove down to Brixton stopping off for supplies (a bottle of Ernst & Julio Gallo Zinfandel and six Kronenberg - yeah, I was impressed…). On reflection the lack of food to weigh me down freed me up to bounce round Benj and Ros’ new place and talk utter rubbish at people all night. I also got to thank Dan’s girlfriend Audrey for the recipe she gave to Ros for butternut squash risotto with oranges that Ros and Benj prepared last for me last year. That had been the night that Ros had proudly shown off her electric peppermill with an inbuilt torch so you could illuminate what you’re seasoning, or would help you find your way to the fusebox during a powercut and leave a trail of spice to prevent you getting lost on the way back. Next morning in order to combat a terrible hangover (I blame the Spice Island) we bought in a Full English Kit and some Resolve (a but like Pro-plus with chalk). Dan was giving me a hand with cooking and we realised that since two men were tending more than one type of sausage and suitably attired (I was wearing an apron and Dan had his Russian hat) and everyone was waiting around expectantly, it was virtually a barbeque and so we armed ourselves with Kronenberg. After consuming bacon, sausages, scrambled egg, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans, toast and coffee Dave and I just had time to get our stuff together and head back to The Isle of Pleasure on the Northern Line (taking time to argue a few of the rules to Mornington Crescent) before the roast chicken was served.  This was accompanied by stuffing, bread sauce, potatoes, carrotts, parnips, peas,  gravy and a side salad washed down with twelvty bottles of good red. We finished off with ice cream (chocolate and black cherry) and a mini chocolate muffin. Everyone then seemed to feel that what was needed was a shot of lemon liquor but at that exact point I felt as if this would have been the wafer-thin-mint that exploded the fat man.

Being in the midst of the Six Nations at the moment and loving rugby as he does Dad was ready for England vs Scotland at Murrayfield this weekend. Rae was home for the weekend but was due to be whisked away to sunny Snowdonia for some hiking on Saturday. Not being able to bear her lucky England top going unworn and therefor rendering it’s good fortune void, Rae passed the talisman to Dad who clambered into it. I think we have a fairly good side at the moment who were thoroughly capable of a grand slam having seen off Wales and Italy comfortably. Scotland, to everyone’s surprise had made a strong opening impression but were supposed to be beatable - or so we thought. Solid team work and a faultless defence triumphed over the English to reclaim the Calcutta Cup and dad never really got to make the above face again in a match devoid of tries. I was annoyed with a Scottish team who deserved the victory yet had been unable to beat a lacklustre Wales the week before. Rachael was annoyed that she hadn’t been dressed in her England top which apparently would have made all the difference.