-
Archives
-
Meta
Author Archives: james
Arctic Monkeys & Them Crooked Vultures @ Brixton Academy
Just a few piccies from a gig I went to a month or two ago. These photos convinced me that it was time for a new camera.
Posted in diary, gigs
Leave a comment
If I Could Just Get Five Minutes…
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” John Lennon, ‘Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)’, Double Fantasy, 1980. Phew! This has got to be the most protracted house move in history! I’ve been in the flat since … Continue reading
Posted in diary, reading
Leave a comment
Home Sweet Home
So, on Tuesday evening all the paperwork was formalized and signed off, and the keys to my little flat were handed over to me. I unloaded all the stuff that I’d packed into my car at the weekend and brought … Continue reading
Posted in diary
Leave a comment
All Change
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) 35th President of the United States I know, I know. It’s been ages. I’ve … Continue reading
Posted in aimee, diary, life, reading
Leave a comment
Thirty One
The blog, its coming back.
Watch this space… Continue reading
Posted in diary
Leave a comment
An Open Letter to the Retail / Gift Industry
Dear Retailers / Giftmakers,
I am a man. This means that I lack the necessary genes for success in the field of ‘present wrapping’. In the future, please can you design your gifts and presents to fit into neat rectangular boxes, as I find these somewhat easier to wrap (though they’re still sufficiently challenging!) rather than the ornate moulded plastic designs in shapes which wrapping paper just wasn’t designed to cover!
Many thanks,
James.
Continue reading
Posted in diary
Leave a comment
Vorsprung Durch Fuckup
I love my car. Really, I do. It’s great, economical, fairly sporty, and has a load of space in the back for Aimee and her copious paraphenalia. It has lots of toys – like parking sensors, dual climate control and loads of three-letter-acronymns that I don’t fully understand (like ABS, EBD, ESP, TCS and so on), it also has a bluetooth mobile phone system, built in. The phone system is one of the reasons I bought the car – what with doing quite a bit of travelling, and the ban on using mobiles in cars. Everything is great in the car, absolutely wonderful German quality – except this phone system.
Firstly, the number of phones it supports is meagre at best – most of which are old and retired now. None of the Nokia E or N-series phones (or indeed, any Series 60 Symbian phones) are supported – though that’s a Nokia issue, rather than an Audi one, which they’ve only just fixed with the E71 and N96.
Secondly, when you have a compatible phone, and you wish to utilize the Audi’s wonderful voice-activated controls, it all turns to goopy shit. To illustrate this, I recorded my attempt this morning at trying to dial my voicemail box using the voice controls. All the car needs to do, is dial ’901′.
Apologies for the quality of the recording, it was done by using another phone’s Voice Recorder and then exporting the audio off.
Posted in comedy, random
2 Comments
New York, Part 6
Didn’t really stay out late last night – got back to the hotel around 11pm, tired and with my feet aching.
Woke around 9am to another sunny morning and, my last day. I really, really need to get some presents sorted for folks at home, so I decide to make that the aim of the game for today, and, I think I’ve done ok. The weak dollar at the moment makes New York an attractive proposal – and its clear that I’m not the only nutter that’ll be going home with a shiny new suitcase, full of booty.
All the ‘discount’ electronics and giftware stores have hastily arranged ‘Luggage’ sections, with all manner of cases, from $400 Samsonites to cheap Asian knock-offs. I, obviously, plump for the cheapest bag I can find that’ll hold my stuff – $45 for a mid-sized expandable suitcase with a trolley handle. If it only lasts this one journey, I’ll be happy!
Wandered around the Flatiron district this morning – disappointing (though probably unsurprising, really) that most shops seem to close on Sundays (or not opening til mid-day, at the earliest). The Flatiron building is architecturally beautiful – if the people who owned the building across the intersection from it let people take photos of it from their rooftops, they’d make a killing.
Posted in diary, travel
Leave a comment
Oh
PS. I just looked in the mirror and realised that I am very, very sunburnt. WTF? Sunburn in New York? In October?! Continue reading
Posted in diary, travel
Leave a comment
New York, Part 5
Ok, so, the updates stopped. Even my mum thought I was dead, murdered by a crazy New York gangster, but, I wasn’t. I was just bloody busy. Busy, and tired, in cycles.
I went out for a quick look around when I arrived – even though I had been awake for 20+ hours by that point, to fool my mental chemistry into accepting the time-delay. This proved to be a great idea, for two reasons – 1) I have no jetlag at all, now, and 2) I found Smiths Bar, a couple of blocks from Times Square.
I like to think that I’m not the ‘regular’ tourist – sure, Times Square is pretty neat, but it’s a tourist trap ready to suck the dollar bills out of your pocket as just as soon as it can. I don’t really understand the notion of going all the way to New York to go to franchised eateries like Planet Hollywood, or movie-spinoff-moneyspinners like Bubba Gump Shrimp where you’ll eat some godawful microwaved shit served to you by a waitress that’s getting minimum wage and providing minimum effort. So, I went out on Thursday night and had a bit of a ‘recce, just to help me get my bearings.