Big doors swing on little hinges

This morning, my door fell off. Well, almost. I arrived at work in my wee clio, clambered out as per usual and just as I went to shut the door it seemed to slip, closely followed by it banging off the car's body and bouncing back at me. Mary and Margaret, two of the smoking women from the office, (when I say 'smoking women' I mean they are smokers...) were out on one of their smoking breaks (funnily enough) and immediately started heckling me from the front of the building. A bit like a louder Statler and Waldorf, except female. The top hinge of the door was bust. After visiting the garage I learned it's actually the pin that holds the hinge. Will most probably have to stay off the road now while I wait for my garage appointment. The door does stay closed whilst driving but is not fixed properly in it's rightful place thus the noise of the wind and the nearby traffic seem strangely loud whilst travelling and you feel the need to hold the door in place as you drive... reminds me of a go-cart we built as kids when I had to constantly hammer one wheel as I flew down the hill to keep the wheel from flying off as it was not secured properly. Thankfully the clio has not lost any wheels in such a fashion so I won't be needing my hammer for a while yet.
The little incident made me face a few facts about life. My clio is getting old. It's over ten years old now. Many would have traded it in years ago but I've grown kind of attached to it over the past six years or so. Purchasing it off my former boss in Birmingham, it was my only trustworthy companion in the wilderness of the West Midlands and of course it came with me back up to Scotland and found another new owner and driver in Ka. I'm hoping it will live on for another year or so at least but you never can tell what's round the corner can you. Especially if it's Ka that reversing round them (joke!).
Talking of my time in the West Midlands, I was telling folk in the office how we used to sing Britney Spears songs in David Bowie voices - the way he would sing them - in the office I worked in down south. Shirley Ann was quite impressed at my Bowie impression of 'Hit Me Baby One More Time'. Felix (my immediate boss [he moves very fast!] in S&UN) and Shirley Ann had been watching the Life on Mars tv series recently on DVD which got us on to the subject of Bowie. Shirley Ann was shocked to find out from Barry that the line 'Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow' was a true lyric to Bowie's 'Life on Mars?'. She had no idea it was part of the real lyrics. Mickey Mouse - the saviour of kids entertainment when he was born, something pure and honest that was exploited and used to make the money, cashing in, becoming the 'cash cow' for Disney. Humanity losing it's purity and morals and Bowie looking for somewhere else, somewhere for hope and a better life. That's what I always took the song to mean anyway. It's also about a girl realising she's gay apparently. "But her mummy is yelling, "No!"
And her daddy has told her to go".
'Life on Mars' was brilliant television, pity it's all over. We've now got the 'Ashes to Ashes' spin off with the lovely Keeley Hawes. Looking forward to a second season of that - whenever that will be. 'Ashes to Ashes' was another great Bowie song. But then again I think they're all pretty damn good. Apart from anything on the 'Tonight' album. He's been very quiet of late. Come on Bowie - get another album out!
Listening to the Vampire Weekend and 'Accelerate' the latest REM. 'Accelerate' is definately their best and most exciting album in a while with some great tracks (well, all of them are great in fact). The 'return to form' is an often over used expression but in this case I reckon it's spot on. Ka's been listening to her Alphabeat album. I got her tickets two weeks ago to go and see them in November. I keep insisting that she doesn't need to take me. I don't mind if she takes one of her friends. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many other takers...

Tremendous T

T in the Park 2008 was fantastically, bristeringly brilliant. Seen loads of bands and enjoyed much music.
We left early on Friday morning to avoid any traffic queues and got to Balado Airfield in plently of time for the campsite gates to open. After straining much muscle in transporting our provisions and camping equipment we set up camp in the Indigo zone and whiled away the day with a few beers getting to know the folk camping around us who consisted of a few pleasant nutters from Balloch (funny that - nutters from Balloch;-), a bunch of late teen girls who liked to talk about men's private parts, a bunch of late teen guys who liked throwing themselves over tents, a bunch of guys who liked their lager at 8 in the morning and a couple of forty-fifty year old dudes who had dyed hair and thought they were hip. All mostly nice folk though which always makes things a bit more bearable. The Arena then opened at fiveish and Friday's music kicked off with the Wombats, followed by Kids in Glass Houses, Stereophonics, the Chemical Brothers and The Verve. The sun managed to fight the clouds off a few times throughout Friday and Saturday not emerging fully till Sunday. The highlight on Friday was most probably The Chemical Brothers 'Hey Boy' and the Verve's 'Bittersweet Symphony' after which we trekked back to our tent.
After a mostly sleepless night Saturday's line up for us was a bit of Eddy Grant, The Rocket Summer, The Feeling, Biffy Clyro, We Are Scientists, The Pigeon Detectives, The Fratellis, Rage Against the Machine and then The Kaiser Chiefs.
Biffy Clyro and The Pigeon Detectives were both great highlights for me, the Kaisers were also good but not as good as when I'd previously seen them in the Carling Academy. They extended two songs by about five minutes each forcing the crowds to chant the same line over and over. Gets a bit tiresome after a while...The Pigeon Detectives earlier were great. Loud, energised, fun, brash and cool and the lead singer Matt Bowman had a great time with the audience.

On Sunday, we seen The Ting Tings, British Sea Power, Vampire Weekend, Amy Winehouse, The Zutons, a few songs from REM and then the Prodigy. REM and The Prodigy's time's clashed as did more than a few of the other bands so we had to make a decision! REM sounded great but were on at the same time as The Prodigy and as I had never seen them live we dived over to the NME/Radio 1 tent for them just before they started and was not disappointed by their performance.

Two totally different kinds of music on the two different stages to finish off the festival which is probably the best but most difficult decision to make when you like both!! I'll watch REM on the TV though. Amy Winehouse was also good and to my ears much improved from when I heard her live at Glastonbury. Good to see her on the stage again. The Zutons were as always brilliant as well. God damn it - everything was brilliant! Can't complain...apart from the toilet situation. The portaloos in the campsite were just atrocious and the ones in the Arena, come 5pm, not much better! Boggin' but I suppose you have to expect that with a festival of that magnitude. It was Ka's first camping experience so I don't think she was too enthralled with the prospect of going holidaying in a tent again. I'm trying to reassure her festival camping is in no way the same. Tickets go on sale today for T in the Park 2009. Looking forward to it!....oh wait I'll be on honeymoon...I'll MAKE IT the honeymoon! Yeah, great idea, hold on I'll just go and suggest it to Ka...

Tomorrow in the Park

Well, tomorrow morning Ka and myself will be setting off to T in the Park in the wee red clio. Watch out balado, here we come! Camping for the weekend too which should be interesting considering Ka has never camped before in her life! There's a great line up of music - looking forward to Rage Against the Machine, Primal Scream, Vampire Weekend and REM especially. Really curious about Vampire Weekend as they sound very Talking Heads like. But there's just loads. Probably won't manage to see everyone I've got half an interest in. Hopefully the weather holds out to some extent and we don't get completely soaked, even if Gareth in the work wishes it. He seems to think I've went out and bought a shit tent. He obviously has no faith in my tent buying skills. It was a proper £25 quid tent we bought so hopefully we'll be well sheltered from the stormy nights! None of your £10 Somerfield specials here thank you very much. We've got our wellies, rainjackets, torches, alcohol and mallets at the ready so bring it on!!

Looking forward to T

The weather does not bode well for our weekend in Balado at T in the Park...it's pouring as I write. It was sunny around one this afternoon which raised my spirits a little but now it's peeing down again. It would be nice to get dry weather for the whole Festival camping experience but I doubt it's going to happen. Of course, there are some that would say rain and mud ARE PART of the whole festival experience. It's only monday I suppose and I'm sure it'll be great anyway, come rain or shine. Looking forward to seeing the Fratellis, REM, the Kaisers and Amy Winehouse to name just a few. There are literally loads of bands I've been meaning to see for ages playing at the festival and some at similar times so there may have to be a coin flipped to decide which tent to head for. On the sunday night REM are up against the Prodigy and even though REM are great I've already seen them live and will probably opt for the Prodigy. However, I'd love to see REM again... decisions, decisions. Still got three shifts to go before then though and a new tent to practise putting up!