Just got back from Southend where we saw Blur perform their "first official gig" (according to Damon himself). And what a gig it was.

From the very start the Blur boys rocked like they'd never stopped with a long set of all their hits. Song 2, The Universal, PopScene, Essex Dogs, Chemical World, Modern Life is Rubbish and of course, Girls & Boys, which had the whole crowd jumping along for the first of many pogo sessions.

They have a few smaller gigs to follow over the next few weeks - so if you get the chance go see them for a show you won't forget.

A big congratulations again to Aimi & Gary, who tied the knot yesterday in a wonderful ceremony at Orchardleigh Estate near Frome.

And a big thanks for organising such an amazing celebration in such a beautiful location! You've just set a high standard for the rest of the weddings we're going to this summer. Pretty sure we won't get to stay in a tower with a four poster bed and a bathroom on a separate floor very often - lush.

More photos as soon as I find a spare moment to get through them. Right now though we have to shoot off to see Blur...

You can currently watch the Gorillaz documentary 'Bananaz' online for free right now. It's a great behind the scenes look at one of this decade's biggest bands, from the initial conception right through to their rapidly sold out shows in NYC.

Labels: Music, videos

Recently the UK government announced a scrappage scheme, whereby you can scrap your old car and get £2000 or more in return for buying a new car. The theory behind this is pretty straightforward, incentivise people to get their old, unevironmental cars off the road and at the same time stimulate the UK car market. Simple.

Of course although many people have jumped at the chance to get this 'free money' the reality is much more complex. It looks as though some car dealers put their prices up on the new cars that they then 'reduce', meaning you can save more money from just buying a car without trading in your old clunker. Not so good from a money standpoint. And from an environmental perspective, the strict scrappage rules define that any car over 10 years is worth scrapping - but is that necessarily the case? Are we just creating more landfill from the unrecylclable parts of a car rather than learning to maintain what we have - a much more green approach to life.

Either way the scrapage scheme is here with us for a year at least, so make your own mind up. As for us, well our car isn't quite ten years old - even if we did have enough spare cash to buy that new Ferrari I need for my pre-mid-life crisis. Mmm... red.

Labels: Brit Stuff, Cars

Blur have performed their first 'comeback' gig in a small railway museum, and by most accounts it was a jolly good romp. This is good news as next week we're seeing them at their 'mid size' pre Hyde Park gig in Southend. Huzah! Well, that's assuming our tickets ever turn up - which I'm assuming will be last minute so people tempted to tout them are screwed over. Not very helpful for us actual fans though is it? Surely is there no other way.... Coff.

Speaking of music, as I write this it sounds like we've acquired a female vocalist fronted band practice in an apartment next door. On the one hand she sounds pretty good. On the other hand not a big fan of live drums on any day, let alone a Sunday. Of course it could just be a very high fidelity stereo system.

So for those of you who haven't noticed my lack of blog posts recently, I seem to be throwing more random musings onto my twitter. yesterday though my main iPhone based app Twitterific failed during the 'Tweetpocalypse'. This is where the numerical unique identifiers for new messages went above a certain level, a very big number that is not handle by standard data types. So a lot of subsidiary twitter apps went south. Ah well.

Finally, a big thanks to mum & Henry for a) something they know about and b) for my Gordon Ramsey sunday lunch cookbook years ago. I finally did a couple o' recipes from it last night to stretch the normal. In fact not only did I cook, in itself a strange event as I'm normally relegated to washing up duties, but I cooked a wild mushroom pasta (recipe: shallots, mushrooms + oil, cook) and ate it all. Blimey. We're trying to be more veggie this week and that was a first successful step. To celebrate we ate a wonderfully unhealthy lemon posset (lemon juice, sugar, cream - how can you go wrong with that?). Mmm..

Labels: City Life, food, Music