Only a few culled from many, most of the rest are of my friends and I’d just scare you all away if I showed that lot!!
Month: June 2005
bookmark_borderTraffic
“We all face the same way, Still it takes all day, I take a look to my left, Pick out the worst and the best”
We got stuck in traffic last night on the way through to see the in-laws. Louise was driving so I got to sate my voyeuristic tendencies peeking into windows and open doorways as we drove through the west side of Glasgow. Whilst not quite as satisfying as people-watching whilst sitting in a comfy chair in a café, the stop/start motion of the traffic not being entirely pleasant and the lack of a decent coffee being the most obvious reasons, it’s always fun watching the world go by, the multitudes of people heading home, to the pub, to the corner shop. Watching them stop to chat with a friend, ask for information at a bus stop, or sit idly on a park bench reading the paper.
Not that being in the car doesn’t have its bonuses, watching your fellow commuters tapping fingers to a song on the radio, wistfully playing with that lock of hair to the side of their face, or laughing along to the “zany” drivetime DJs, all safely cocooned in their cars, oblivious to the world. The couple having an argument, the couple sitting in stony faced silence, or the couple not watching the road ahead as they are lost in each others eyes (get a room!).
And then as the traffic cleared, they were gone, never to be seen again. Consigned to their previous status of unknown strangers, or maybe as friends I haven’t yet met.
bookmark_borderLife is random
Looking for my thoughts about R.E.M. at Balloch? Try here.
A few random little thoughts to start the day.
The floods in Yorkshire are awful but are they yet another sign that our planet is changing?
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I just can’t get into Big Brother this year and Anna manages to capture my thoughts perfectly. It’s because of the “countless combustable combinations of cuntiness“. Excellent. I hope Anna sleeps well – poor dear is on nightshift and suffering some awful late-night TV.
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Some mornings I’ll happily suffer fools, other mornings it’s all I can do to restrain myself from knocking them in front of the train. But then he was an inconsiderate twat and deserved it. Allegedly.
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Looking back it’s days like Saturday that make it all worthwhile, and I must try and remember how lucky I am to have friends like those.
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Formula One Farce – best quote was Martin Brundle threatening to punch Michael Schumacher on the nose if he celebrated his win. Michael didn’t, he’s not THAT daft. The entire thing was a complete farce though, and I have to wonder how much flak Ferrari will avoid as it’s currently all directed at the FIA. Rightly so of course, and as someone said it was like watching a group of five year olds throwing temper tantrums, not a multi-million pound sport. And those poor fans, some flew from Panama and Mexico to be there. Awful, just awful.
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When lightning strikes! Sunday morning at 8am, lying in bed at my parents house as we didn’t get back until 3.30am, we were both woken by a very VERY large crack of thunder and lightning. My Mum and sister both saw a yellow light flash down the hall, and my Dad saw the same in the living room. No damage but scary as hell, and certainly not the best way to be woken up!
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The in-laws are back in the country so we’ll be heading through to see them this evening, and I’m quite looking forward to seeing them. Louise’s Mum is doing well, and hasn’t smoked or drank since her heart attack in January, she’s still on medication but is showing signs of getting back to normal. My father-in-law has cut back his smoking dramatically but it’s not bothered as at his last check up, the doctor was mystified at how healthy he was. Smokes all day, drinks all night, no exercise and likes his food, cholesterol is fine, lungs are fine, blood pressure a little high but it always has been. My theory is quite simple; the bugger is just too stubborn to let those warnings, about smoking and drinking too much, come true.
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Big Blogger continues apace. Well at a pace at least, not sure what that is as it veers from sprinting to plodding from hour to hour. I know who I want to win but, as that bloke with the Geordie accent says, “You decide”.
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And in case you are wondering why I’ve got a link at the top of this post to the post below this, well here’s why: Continue reading “Life is random”
bookmark_borderThat's me in the corner…
The rain stayed off, there was a surprising lack of the usual idiots and all in all it was a great day.
We met up my friends house for a BBQ first, he lives all of two minutes walk from Balloch Park, and finally dragged ourselves out around 4pm. By the time we got into the park and found a decent spot – which just happened to be about 40 feet from the bar – the Zutons were just starting their set. They sounded a lot more “rocky” than I would have thought, and they got things going nicely, although I heard that Aberfeldy and Ambulance Ltd were pretty good but we missed them, preferring to sit in a quiet garden munching on carbonised burgers.
Feeder were up next and fairly romped through their better known stuff, although it did seem like they were only on stage for about 20 mins. Maybe it was the beer, or the vodka we’d smuggled in…
Then all of a sudden, although not until after we’d had some chips, everyone started cheering and the opening chords of “I took your name” rang out. The set was a good mix of old and new, with a few surprises thrown in, most notably “Cuyahoga” and “So Fast So Numb” and all too soon “Man on the Moon” was finishing, the lights went up then it all started to go downhill.
To say the organisation for moving people out of the park was bad is an understatement, and whilst I know they were trying to control things it wasn’t handled well and left large sections of people stuck inside the park for over an hour. Anyway, we’d purloined some inflatable chairs so just plonked ourselves down on the grass to wait, but I feel sorry for those who would have missed the last trains.
Despite it not feeling like a “gig” – there were loads of people there just to be there rather than to see the band – it was a great day. Hearing Michael Stipe live adds a new realm to their songs, he’s got such a powerful live voice, and the company I was in was pretty good too.
The full setlist, for those interested, is below. More thoughts and photos later.
Continue reading “That's me in the corner…”
bookmark_borderFingers crossed
I’m standing in Balloch Park as the rain falls, my beer has gone all watery and we’re all trying to be “cheery” because that’s what you do when you’ve been standing about in the rain for several hours. I feel like a stranger despite this being a “hometown” gig for me, and R.E.M. had better be as good as reported from the gig on Tuesday at Glasgow Green or the day will be a complete and literal washout.
OR
At this very moment I’m sitting on a rug in Balloch Park, it’s a little overcast but no sign of rain, I’m a few beers to the good and I’m enjoying a great day with my friends. I’ve spotted and chatted with some old friends and some of the peeps of the interwebnet that I knew were coming. R.E.M. are just about to come on stage and from what I’ve read about their gig on Tuesday at Glasgow Green it should be pretty damn good.
bookmark_borderFirefox
How on EARTH did I not know about this one??
If you’re in Firefox and you click on a link with [the] … wheel [of your] mouse it will open a link in the background in another tab. No more holding down the CTRL key or let alone right mouse clicking and hitting “open in a new tab.â€? The button we’re talking about here is the center wheel found on most new mice.
Brilliant. I can’t believe I’ve not discovered it – come on, own up, who knew and didn’t tell me!
In other Firefox news (well sort of…) those you who visited Big Blogger over the past couple of weeks, and that are using Internet Explorer MAY be having problems with popups in your browser, I’ll now hand you over to Peter for some info on fixing that problem (twas mike that spotted the problem so credit to him). Yes THAT Peter, yes I never thought I’d point you there for technical information, and yes I’ve mentioned the products myself in the past.