Sometimes I write my thoughts down.

So, I'm relaxing after a nice big Easter Sunday roast and a couple of glasses of wine :)

What did everyone think of the new Doctor Who last night? I have to admit to not having watched it when I was a kid, but from what I'd heard - and my parents agreed with this - the new series fairly accurately captures the spirit and feel of earlier series. I for one was thoroughly entertained, anyway. Hammy acting, pretty ludicrous storylines, but extremely imaginative without taking itself at all seriously. Plus added Billie, of course, which is no bad thing.

Just one thing: although Christopher Eccleston is wonderfully deadpan ("Lots of planets have a North!"), he looks less like an eccentric Doctor than he does an extra for the Matrix. Get kitted out in a crazy patterned scarf and tatty jacket, Chris, and you'll be spot on. Thinking about it, though, it just wouldn't suit him, would it...

Back in Malvern for Easter weekend. I've had 2 great nights out already, both similar in some ways and very different in others.

Thursday night was a reasonably quiet evening with some good friends in a local pub (one that we've only recently found, incidentally, but that could well be our local for the forseeable future!). A guy called Bill was there, who apparently has been friends with my friend Rachael for most of their lives, yet I'd never even heard of him until now. Anyhow, he is in his first year of Uni and already a budding dance producer and DJ (on student radio for now, but has ambition). He's open minded about music, though, and is also partial to a bit of indie.

Then last night I went up to Brum for my friend Helen's 22nd. This was a much bigger affair, and other than Helen I only knew one other person there. Her boyfriend Ben, apart from his day job as a graphic designer, is... a budding dance DJ and producer. He also likes his indie, and is generally a good bloke, apart from some unfortunate Human Traffic-esque phrases ("Yeah, man..." "Mate!" "Sound!" "Happy days!").

I thus had similar conversations with both Bill and Ben :)

Anyway, we ended up at the Carling Academy, which on Friday nights hosts an indie club. I've been to the Academy a couple of times to see bands, and it turns out that on club nights it looks pretty much exactly the same - the DJ is at the front of the stage, and there are a few more tables and booths, but otherwise... It's a huge place, and it apparently very rarely gets full - which is great for not having to fight to get in, but which also means that it always seems a bit quiet, despite the fact that there must have been several hundred people in there. It was a good night though!

One other thing: both those nights were very well organised - Rachael phoned me about half 8 and we were in the pub just after 9, and Helen had told everyone to get to hers for 6, and after eating we left about half 7 and were in the pub just after 8. Both evenings were organised by women. What can this mean?!

Well, wasn't it a lovely weekend, boys and girls?! It was so nice to be able to leave the house in just a t-shirt (plus trousers and shoes to be on the safe side!), especially since I only have about 3 jumpers/cardies but considerably more t-shirts ;-)
Friday night was Nexus, which is always a pleasure. Saturday, after re-attaching my face after all that dancing, I went to my first barbecue of the year, at Ben's house. Ben and Lucy found the biggest potato in the world, and I would post a picture of it if I hadn't temporarily mislaid my camera's USB cable. Arse. It was impressive, anyway. Then Sunday I went for my first curry since coming back from India, with Jon et al, and foolishly stayed up till about 1am playing Trivial Pursuits. Still, I did win :)

Trivia corner: What's the main connection between Aix-la-Chapelle and Aachen?
Answer: They're the same place.

I like this fact.

It's raining and blowing a gale out there at the moment. I do not like this fact.

So last night was the first A/IM night at the Hobbit, the best pub in Southampton, if not the world (in my humble opinion!). Two bands played early in the evening. The first, Strongroom, were a fairly bog-standard indie band - pretty good for a free-entry pub gig, but nowt special.

The second band, however, were bloody brilliant. Named Envy And Other Sins, they first of all had dressed the stage in fairy lights and fibre optics, and dressed themselves in charity-shop jackets and an assortment of scarves, hats and flying goggles. If they turned out to be rubbish, this would be transparent gimmickry; but in fact their decorations reflected their music's spiky, bouncy, infectious nature. Good rhymes and witty lyrics (relatively speaking!), an excellent keyboardist, and seemingly without too big a sense of themselves. I'm not very good at describing sound, but a review on their website says "Think Supergrass with attitude, then add in irresistible drum rhythms, 80’s synth gone demented with age and smug guitar work... every track is spiced up with so many tack changes you barely get chance to catch your breath." I'd go along with that, pretty much. Look out for them, anyway.

All in all, it was a pretty good night. It was a shame that most folk left after the bands, leaving the A/IM guys to DJ mostly to us hangers-on, but I had some good musical discussions, including whether to say Kaiser Chiefs or Kaiser Chiefs and whether it's possible to compare Killswitch Engage with John Lee Hooker, and if so, who is best (I've not heard any KE, but with a name like that I doubt they're any good, though Tom disagrees). Also, Mary tells me she reads my blog. Hurrah! A big "hello!" to you :)

Or "Happy Drink Guinness And Celebrate Someone Else's Culture Day" as cynics would have it. I'm not sure how cynical I am about this. It's a fair point to ask why the English love to celebrate a foreign patron saint's day but not their own; but on the other hand, it's always nice to have something to celebrate. In India there are festivals every other week (though, granted, not everyone celebrates all of them, being associated with different races & religions), and I think it lifts people's spirits. So, as Al's MSN display name reads today: "Mine's a Guinness, ya fecker!"

This time last year saw the first indie/rock event at the Union, after months of petitions, angry emails and meetings with clueless Union officials who suggested booking Busted tribute bands and the like. Congratulations to all involved, most of all to A/IM's fearless leader, Bobface. It was also Al's 22nd birthday yesterday, which makes him 21 years older than Rock. In a sense. (And not The Rock, either. He has a pocket full of cheese and a garden full of trees, you know. Not that it matters...)

Having said that, I have to admit that last night was a bit of a disappointment. After the band (who were actually pretty good, and had a female singer with an incredible voice), A/IM had 1 hour of DJing before the RockSoc folk took over, so I was ready for a bit of dancing before going home. But the setlist was really uninspired, I thought: the same 3 or 4 ska-punk songs I've heard everywhere for the past 4 years or so, QOTSA's "No-One Knows", and I can't even remember much else. When Steph took over at about 20-to-midnight things started looking up, but by then I couldn't really be bothered.

I don't know, maybe it's just me, or maybe I'm missing the point, but I'd like to hear something a bit different: either more new songs I'm not familiar with but could come to love, or older songs that aren't dug up very often but make you smile to hear again. I don't want to criticise too much, because God knows how much effort the guys have put into it, but I just wanted to get that off my chest. Cheers!

Not together, obviously. Although, having said that...
You'd have to sing "Ace Of Spades", I guess.

Anyway. Last night I went to the Union's fortnightly Poker Night. You pay £5 on the door, and sit down at one of 8 or so tables of 5 or 6 people, wherever you want (so you can start off with people you know). Then off you go (at Texas Hold'em). The organisers shouted for the blinds to be raised every 30mins or so, and as people started to drop out the organisers moved people around so that the number of people on each table remained respectable. Then when there are 10 or so left, they bring out the fancy cards and baize table for the Grand Finale :)
I got nowhere near that, of course, but I didn't do too badly. Once you're out you're free to wander around and see how your mates are doing. Al got the furthest, I think. On one of my hands I had next to no chips left so I went all in... luckily for me I had a pair of pocket aces so I survived a bit longer :)

After that, we wandered over to the main bar where a Karaoke Night was beginning to wind down. Two events on the same evening, one of which goes on until 1am. The state of the Union is definitely looking up this year. For number and variety of events, it's probably as good as it's been since my first year here (although obviously I don't go up there nearly as much these days!).

Al's Birthday Weekend of Fun will commence in approximately 4 hours' time. Hurrah!

(...coming from a Hollyoaks fan!)

Wow. I would just like to say to any football haters: if you weren't absolutely gripped by last night's Chelsea-Barcelona game then you must be dead inside. I don't think it calmed down for a second until Frank Lampard tried to hide the ball between himself and the corner flag in the 91st minute (it didn't work).

The trouble is, such games only occur a couple of times in a season, if that. The rest of the time, speaking for me at least, I watch football in the hope rather than the expectation that the game will be exciting. But you've got to watch, just in case. Of course, this applies more to a European match involving a top English team than to either the average Premership game or England international (where frequent ineptitude rather takes the gloss off the proceedings). But there's always the possibility of genuine, unexpected, unscripted excitement. Broadly speaking, then, I reckon sport is like the male equivalent of soaps and Big Brother... but as an occasional soap/BB watcher myself, and hardly the blokiest of blokes, I still say football is better.

Thank-you for your time :)

Oh, and if the game itself doesn't really interest you, like my female housemates last night, you can always laugh at the silly names. There's a Barca player named Xavi that the commentators insisted on pronouncing "Chavvy". And that's not even to mention Ronaldinho's face... ;)

I have had a sad yet somewhat liberating weekend. I had a very hard and upsetting decision to make, but I made it with the support and advice of my excellent friends; and having made the decision, I went through with it immediately. It was one of the toughest things I've ever had to do, but I feel relieved, and I'm positive it was the right decision. I feel more confident now about life and relationships possibly than ever. Thanks guys!

Before this turns into a LiveJournal entry, I'll move on! Ben gave me 4 CDs packed with goodness last week. The title of this post comes from a Magnetic Fields song that he gave me. It starts:

and ends:

I like gin. I also like the Magnetic Fields. I've also decided I really like the Cure. I bought their Best-Of yesterday. I don't know why everyone calls them "Goth" (apart from Robert Smith's ridiculous appearance!). They're basically 80s synth-pop, but in a good way.

Shit! I try to avoid writing like a LiveJournal, then ruin it by quoting song lyrics. Damnit. Anyway, on a lighter note: both Jesters on Friday and the house crawl (for the uninitiated: like a pub crawl, only with houses) were great fun. I wish I had internet access at home; then I could post ridiculous post-club blogs like Lauren's... ;)

Gah! This has been a bad week for computer spazziness. Earlier in the week my internet was down all morning (which didn't strictly speaking affect my work, but made me resentful ;) ... but this morning the network drive containing the statistical software is kaput! Ah well...

Last weekend was fun. I felt like a break from So'ton, so escaped to Bristol to see James. Hi, James! Bristol (well, the Clifton area anyway) is a lovely-looking place, and is good for interesting little cafes, bars and pubs (as I've possibly said before), but going out on a Saturday night is a bit of a nightmare. There are queues outside - or at least at the bar - everywhere, and if the bouncers don't like your shoes/sex ratio/face, you're not getting in. Maybe you get the same problems in Southampton and I just don't notice because I rarely go out into town, but even in 'posher' areas like Bedford Place I've rarely had a problem. Ah well. We eventually ended up in our fall-back, a sticky-floored studenty place similar to the Academy. 'Twas a fun night, but nothing special.

The First Song I've Heard On The Radio In A While That I'm Looking Forward To Hearing In An Indie Club Award goes to: Honest Mistake by The Bravery. If you haven't heard it, it sounds like a cross between The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, though God knows I'm hopeless at describing what bands sound like...

Edit: Arse. That drive's back online now. Better do some work, I guess...