Heartfelt apologies

Are sent to whoever it was the RSPCA were trying to wake up as they attempted to forward the call from my wife concerning the bat in our bedroom at 2:25 am. When the bat flew out she simply put the phone down while she was on hold.

Bat, man Awakes!

I was woken in the middle of the night, 2:25 to be precise by a commotion. As I became self-aware – nothing so advanced as the Skynet system in the Terminator, simply the move from dream state to consciousness – I noticed something moving around. My first thought was that there was a moth zooming round the bedroom. The weather has been very hot and humid the last few days and therefore the windows have been kept open. I could here a definite fluttering of wings and it sounded like whatever was fluttering, was going round in circles, this is typical moth behaviour. I then heard my wife say that there was a bird in the room. At this point any remains of sleep vanished and I was fully awake. So I jumped out of bed and went over to the light switch, at this point the whole family was awake and wondering what was going on.

I turned on the light and immediately saw this small, dark object flying around the room. It was either a very large moth, although I was beginning to have my doubts, or a very small bird, of which there aren’t many where we live. Another reason I was beginning to think it wasn’t a bird was that it wasn’t making a noise, no sound at all.

I rushed over to the curtains and opened them in the hope that whatever it was would fly out. It then occurred to me that this might not be either moth or bird but perhaps a bat… how Goth is that? My thoughts were confirmed as it landed on the curtain and took a breather before starting again on its continual circumnavigation of the bedroom.

Now, being a natural history expert; having watched most of Sir David Attenborough’s back catalogue, it struck me that perhaps bats were similar to moths and they could be confused by the light in the bedroom, and that was why it was flying round and round. So I turned off the light and listened intently. The bat didn’t change its course. Then I remembered that bats weren’t like moths as they had a very advanced sonar navigational system – again leant from David and his documentaries. However, at this point I was beginning to wonder whether Sir David actually knew anything about bats and other animals. You see the window was wide open and any navigational system worth its salt should have detected that and informed the bat that here was an exit. Instead the bat several times approached the opening only to turn back upon reaching it.

Bats are protected species in the UK and so I couldn’t, ethically, attack it with a tennis racquet. I did hear my wife telephoning someone for help, but I’m not sure who it was, I will however find out and relay it to you at some point. At this point the bat landed on the curtain, so I rushed over and turned the curtain around so the bat was facing the open window. With its advanced sonar working it then flew off between the two panes of our sash windows. We like the old look and feel of wooden sash windows but at times like this I can see the appeal of UPVC single pane boring windows. However, the bat then had an amazing show of intelligence, well amazing considering how stupid it had so far been. It climbed down between the panes and out the bottom, and flew away.

Tiredness caught up with me and I immediately turned off the light and got back into bed, making the mental note to check who my wife had called on the telephone. Who had been awake at 2:30 on a Monday morning and who would have had some connection with bats?

Kaiser Chiefs v Man Utd

Friendly fixture on Man Utd's pre-season tour

Tuesday, 18 July 2006
Friendly Match
Kaiser Chiefs v Man Utd, 19:15

I predict a riot.

How cool is that?

Not content wit being a pop star and a pilot, Gary Numan now enters the world of podcasting. But not just any podcast. This is a great podcast with Noel Fileding of The Mighty boosh, hence the title of this post. So if you want a podcast with a little fun thown in then chack it out.

Direct download here

Intital page here

Have fun :-)

Meanwhile I have to try and finish everything that I should have done at work before the weekend starts.

Trainspotting

Ok, now I don't want to be inundated with comments by rail enthusiasts correcting everything I say in this short post. I speak about what I think I saw, I do not claim any rail knowledge beyond the basics, so please forgive me when I call the 'engine' a diesel if it isn't.

Went down to London yesterday via Silverlink trains and the London Underground. On the way down to Euston you pass a train depot (Yes, this probably isn't the correct technical term either) and I often take a look at the trains pulled into the sidings. Anyway one particular engine took my interest. It was a diesel locomotive I believe. Now these locomotives are given names and the one that stood out for me was one named 'Oscar Wilde' - this just seemed stupid to me so I'm passing it on to you.

Whatever happened to Colourbox?

Yes it is that time of year again... the soccer world cup is almost upon us. I sit here contemplating many things... but what exactly am I contemplating? Am I wondering whether Rooney will recover from his broken toe? Am I concerned that Peter (Mr Bean) Crouch [thank you Andrew] is our secret weapon? Do I worry whethwer we should employ a 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1 or 4-3-3 system?

NO

My concern is whatever happened to Colourbox!!!!

Hold on Darren, why and who and what are Colourbox and why the World Cup link? Well dear chums. Colourbox are, or were, an 80s band on the 4AD record label. You can find out all about them here. Their biggest claim to fame is that they were part of the team that brought the world Pump up the Volumn and therefore introduced house music to the masses... but don't hold that against them, they were quite good as well.

So the world cup link? Well if you read their biog you'll find that they wrote a track called 'The official Colourbox world cup theme' and it is fantastic. Although written to copincide with the 1986 world cup in Mexico it wasn't taken up by any major TV companies, however, I f I am right the BBC did use it as internal music for one of the following tournaments, possibly the euro championship two years later. Anyway, whenever it is world cup time I sit back, put on this track and contemplate whatever happened to Colourbox. All they ever did was make a few tracks, one great album (containing an amzing guitar solo by the then unknown genius William Orbit) and then they disappeared... or does anyone out there know better?

mini-heatwave

Well the last three or four days in the UK, well in the bit where I live anyway, we have been enjoying a sort of mini-heatwave. However, I have had to work and also endure an almost six hour round-trip up, down and around the M1 and M25, during this time.

But it is the weekend tomorrow and so I thought, 'ah sun and relaxation', Having just looked at the weather forcast though it looks like I'll be sorely disappointed... still at least I'll be able to have a cup of tea.

Getting Things Done

The above book by Dave Allen does work - well the ideas inside do - well for me anyway. Work is now organised, I am on top of things and I know where and when everything should be.

However...

I haven't been able to get it into practice outside of the office and I have far too much there that needs organising.

Oh well, will give it a good try this weekend, prepare for the mind-sweep of all mind-sweeps :-)

A couple of bands

Ok, I am a little slow on getting to grips with these but...

check out the Editors here and have a watch of the Munich video

also

have a look at white rose movement here they have an official site but the tracks weren't playing there so the myspace site is best to have a listen to the track Love is a number.

and where did I find these two bands? Yep, you guessed it PartyBen. Download his Coechella dance mix (30mb) and have 30 mins of any party's music sorted out.

and

if you want a great mash-up of Gnarls Barkley, Supertramp, the Who and a little Rockwell then download this. And also check out Arty Fufkin's site, the guy behind the mix.

that's about it for what i'm listening to at the moment, great tracks a nice warm cup of tea.

It's the return of...

... long meeting Tuesday, and it is a humdinger. Will I be able to survive? Anyway here is the main list of things which annoy me at long meeting Tuesday.

• Pointless conversations off-topic
• No one laughing when I go off-topic to be really funny
• Seemingly endless conversation when the obvious thing to do is obvious - I mean it isn't rocket science
• Blank faces of everyone else who wishes they weren't there

Well that will do for a while. See you tomorrow as I have other things to do so I can't really opt out of life in the short term :-)

I hate it...

... when nothing inparticular is annoying me, winding me up or simply making me cringe. I feel like I am missing something and everyone is secretly chuckling to themselves because I can't see it.

As Shirley Manson sang, so I mumble in agreement... 'I'm only happy when it rains.'

JOKE!

Saturday BBC1 Doctor Who

is back

nuff said

Although if you are a fan check out the real fans blog here and have a go at Neil's quiz.

Just hoping

I am able to avoid watching Mayo tonight. I should be Okay as I have some stuff to do and if I get drawn to the TV I should be able to distract myself with Doctor Who night on BBC three.

Feel free to hope that I make it through without pressing the BBC One button!

You are what you eat

I am not wanting this to turn into a TV review blog and I also don't want to give the impression that I only sit at home and watch TV, however, I have to briefly chat about the above.

You are what you eat is a good fun programme with some good, healthy advice on how, why and what you should eat. I love the format and I love the abuse that the narrator berates toward the (un)willing vicitm, who is normally grossly overweight, and eating the culinary equivalent of a rubbish tip.

I am currently catching it on TV almost daily through E4, or more 4 or one of the other sibling channels of channel 4. I presume that this is a re-run of the original series and so I am not sure whether the following applied to the original channel 4 transmission.

You will have noticed that many TV programmes on independent channels are sponsored by various companies and products. This normally works very well for the company and obviously gives some much needed funding to the TV channel. However, who decided to match up You are what you eat with its current sponsor. Remember this is a programme trying to get people to change their lifestyle and eat a more healthy diet. So who do they now have as a sponsor?

IAMS - the cat food producer.

So after seeing that my diet of processed food and fizzy pop is slowly turning my poo the wrong shade and smell, I am encouraged to eat cat food by the programmes sponsor. I am (no pun) sure that this wont sort out my insides! So I wonder what other programmes could have dubious sponsors... over to you.

Why do I put myself through this?

I am in desperate need of help!

Am I in financial straights? Am I in a desperate situation at home? Have I lost faith in everything?

Well not exactly. I watched an episode of Mayo the new detective series on the BBC the other week. And it was dreadful, it was possibly the worst TV I have ever seen. It was stilted, predictable and unbelievable (and remember I am a huge Sci fi fan). I had high hopes for it, being on the BBC and believing that perhaps it may be similar to Janathan Creek. However, those hopes were dashed.

So what is my problem? Well the problem was that I then sat down to watch another episode of it the following week. Am I gluton for punishment? Ok, this episode did have Sylvestor McCoy as the Reverend Beaver (titter ye not) but even so, the program was again dreadful. But it is strangely addictive, so bad but I was drawn to watch it. For this I need help.

In the meantime here is a review of Mayo inspired by the Mighty Boosh.

Armi and Danny

As a follow up to my previous post here is another link for the wonderful video and some further information about the above Finnish pair. Although the saddest news is the mention that Armi died through drinking too much - and I am sure that wasn't becasue she had three instead of two litres of water per day.

Go here

You can download the video from here although it is 30MB in size, but as we have said it is a classic - Steve try and hold on for as long as possible it is worth it.

And as for Danny's site itself, it really is a corker. I can't believe that such talent could ever come from Finland, he certainly shows other acts from there the correct way to shake their thang.

Worst video, or song, ever?

Have to link to this. I'd like to thank the guys at Music Thing for posting this. After seeing it I again feel my faith in music rekindled. And as the comment suggests, do stick with it, the choreography is fantastic.

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/03/worst-music-video-ever.html

0800 Reverse

Well this got me thinking about what I'd like to be buried with, but then after procrastinating on the thought for about ten minutes realised that it was a pointless exercise - I mean you are dead after all (please don't start bombarding me with your views on the afterlife, whatever you believe being buried with your mobile phone wont help).

However, the underlying reason for taking the phones when they died was in case they weren't really dead and they were buried by mistake. I couldn't help thinking that if you were so unlucky as to be buried alive you were also the sort of person who constantly forgets to recharge your phone, and then when it is fully charged unlikely to get a good enough signal to actually call anyone.

Perhaps I'll ask to be buried with my broadband connection, I never seem to have any problems connecting and staying connected to the int...

Typical

So I book a week off work to spend some time alone at home, catch up on some things, do some long term planning and generally sort things out. And what happens?

Well I end up having to call out the doctor for a home visit. Yes, I was so ill that I couldn't even make it down the doctors and he is less than a five minute walk away. Although why I bothered to cal him out I don't know.

'I've got this really bad cold, it may be flu, and I think I've also pulled a muscle in my back which means I can't move'

'Yes, I think you do have a viral infection. Where does your back hurt?'

'Here'

'Right. Do you do any exercise?'

'Well actually I think it was the sit-ups I was doing that may have pulled the muscle in my back'

(he laughs)

'Well it is good to exercise, bye'

Me thinks I may have to exorcise my doctor and find one who actually does some doctoring. My current one is about as much use as a tanning salon in the sahara.

Why II

Why, is it that when you are up against things, deadlines looming and a holiday just a week away... do you end up with a week littered with annoying meetings that you really don't want to go to, but which are deemed important by others to attend???

Anyway, happy new week to you all :-)