I'm back at work after the New Years weekend. Just went to Jo's folks in Torquay, spent most of the weekend seeing her family. Though I did meet up with Danny in Exeter for lunch & a few drinks.
New years we didn't get up to anything particularly exciting, we saw the London fireworks on TV - they looked amazing. But when we drove back home yesterday we heard on the radio Fatboy Slim's set from Brighton beach (exclusive gig he was doing - but I think the poor revellers got quite wet from all the rain).
The Christmas weekend I spent at my parents in London. It was nice to see the family, especially my niece who is nearly 2 and her words are really coming along. I got a couple of photobook presents - they are basically photo albums but you do them online, using their templates, arranging your photos the way you want them, then they are printed really nicely in a hard-bound book. I did one for Jo of our holidays abroad & honeymoon, and one for my sister of my photos of my niece's first 2 years.
Unfortunately I had a runny nose all weekend - I recon an allergy to the massive tree they had sitting in the living room.
What else have I been up to? Well up until the end of November we were busy studying for our exams. If we pass those, we sit our finals in May. So more studying soon. Boo hoo.
The Brighton Comedy festival was on recently, we saw Russ Noble (didn't really like him, his random tangent style of humour is a bit passé), Russell Brand (who Jo likes, a big figure on British TV this last year), and Mitchell & Webb (who have a new sketch show on TV and also did "Peep Show").
I went to the "burning of the clocks" in Brighton city centre recently, which is a thing they do for Winter Solstice. They make all of these paper lanterns, and then parade through the town down onto the beach, where they put them all on a big bonfire, and light them, setting off lots of fireworks.
It was quite funny, there were some teenagers sitting behind us who kept on shouting to burn stuff. "Burn the lantern", "burn the fireworks", "burn the drummers". They said a few funny ones - "burn the arsonists", "burn the loneliness that echoes in my heart" - that kind of thing. I like the idea of burning metaphysical conceits.
Music-wise, don't see so much these days, but did see Basement Jaxx when they came down to Brighton on a tour to promote their new album "Crazy Itch Radio". They were very good, and bloomin loud.
On CD, I've recently got an interesting one - Rythms Del Mundo by the Buena Vista guys. Its cover versions and remixes of western songs with a Cuban vibe. Like it.
Filmwise, I've recently been impressed by some smaller Hollywood films - "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", "Life Aquatic" and "Slither". I also really enjoyed "The Descent" from earlier on in the year. I've mostly been hooked by Battlestar Galactica on DVD though.
Our car was getting a bit worn out, so we recently started looking for a new one. Jo sped up the process by driving into the back of someone and writing it off. (She was okay). So now we have a new (ish) Skoda Fabia - basically a VW Golf, but with a cheaper badge. Some people still think the Skoda name is a bit tainted, but its a good little car.
lip up fatty
Mark
