sunhouse...

I have been listening to one of my favourite albums. It's Crazy On The Weekend by Sunhouse. A great album full of melancholic songs which recall lost opportunities and wasted lives. I love the album, but listening to it always makes me feel sad. The lead singer has been compared to Bob Dylan and Jeff Buckley. The band imploded shortly after the release of their first album in 1997. I came across a fan website which had this email written in 1999 from Gavin Clarke, the lead singer, explaining why the band split up. "Money, alcohol, mental instability from singer Gavin. Its been over a year now since the band had any contact. Gavin is working on a new record to be completed in early 2000, Paul is now living in France with a girl he met on tour, Rob works at Marks and Spencer, and Dom the part time drummer is a plumber. 'My heart beats out of time with the high society I climb on a jumpstarted mind'."These are two of my favourite tracks from the album, although there really isn't a duff track on it. The first is Crazy On The Weekend, and the second is Hard Sun, which has Sinead O'Connor on backing vocals. I guess, this was another lost opportunity.

here i am...

Just thought I would let you know that I am sitting here drinking a large glass of Amaretto and listening to my newest album, from one of those wonderful free sites, Rush's Feedback. A surprise album of cover versions of 60's tunes. And, even though I am a long-time Rush fan, it is pretty good. The band sound like they are having fun.

The truth is I am drinking Disaronno. Does anyone know when, or why, Amaretto became Disaronno?

i am great...

Worked out what was wrong. OnSPEED had done something to the proxy settings. Which kind of makes sense because it works by routing everything through its servers and compressing the data. I love the fact that I can spot what is wrong when I finally see it. All those years of playing with computers has paid off. I really do think I deserve a 30" Cinema Display. Roll on the next problem. Although, I do have to say here for all you Windows users, I rarely have any problems on my Mac, and when I do, it usually pretty clear that it is something I have done, rather than some mysterious interaction between apps. Just thought I'd say that.

Despite my little problem, I think OnSPEED actually works, so for all of you on a slowish connection, give it a try. I was so impressed that I am even going to provide a link to their site.

Oh, and by the way, for some reason, the full TypePad posting toolbar, which I thought was only available to Windows users, IS available to Mac users if you connect using Netscape. I really don't understand that one.

what have I done...

I thought I would try out the new OnSPEED service, which apparently can speed up your dial-up connection as much as five times, and a broadband connection by up to three times. After a bit of fiddlying around, the good news is that it actually seems to work. Our connection did speed up, but only by sacrificing the quality of the images we downloaded. I decided to get rid of it. Followed all the instructions. And now it is gone. However, I am now writing this using Netscape. Neither Safari or IE will connect. I have reinstalled Safari, but it has made no difference. I don't what to do now. Bloody OnSPEED. Does anybody have any idea how to fix this mess. I imagine it is some little file somewhere that has been changed. If only I knew which one. Help me...

precious...

I need one of these. The new 30" Cinema Display from Apple. It is clear to me now that my so called computing life has been a sham so far. It only costs $3,299.00, which seems a bargain to me.

UPDATE: The link should work now

chums

Poor Mr McMuffin has had a bad day today on his first day back and I was knackered. We didn't join Gypsy Tart and Rock Cake for Monday Night Club for very long, but they had company so didn't miss us too much. Gypsy Tart had three friends from her student nursing days round and I was amazed to see these beautiful, funny women and not the drunken party girls I used to know. Of course, they were nice back then, but it is heartening to see that maturity has not dimmed their spark or their collective love of wine.

I always feel a bit nostalgic after seeing Mrs Carrot Cake and feel very lucky to have such a lovely friend who knows me so well. So that's what this post is, a celebration of chums. We've all got them, often take them for granted, but they are always there. They know us well and they still like us. Incredible.

There are also new chums, the people we meet as fully formed adults who like the way we turned out. There are chums met through chums, partners of chums and let's not forget the 'penpal chums' we blog with.

Little Slinky's fellow housemate, Ra, is not his chum. Slink loses his purr when Ra comes round and sometimes spits and hisses at him. I have to stop myself taking Slinky's side and being nasty to Ra, but I do find myself wanting to make a big fuss of him to offset his chagrin at Ra's presence. I think that is because Slinky is my chum too.

i give up...

I just can't stand it anymore. My will to live is slowly being sucked from my body. There is just no use pretending that I am working anymore. I thought I would have a quick look around the blogging world, and then go home. I wonder if the weather is nice enough to sit outside with a glass of wine. I am missing our Monday night drinking sessions.

here we go again...

My first day back at work after my lovely two weeks holiday. My report was not well received by the family, and the father has made several death threats against me. I had a vistor to the office who it turned out was a process server, and he presented me with a summons. I have to go to court to give evidence against a local authority that I used to work for. Although I have to admit that if I hadn't done what I done then they wouldn't be in court! I have been unable to get in touch with a couple of clients, so I decided to make unannounced visits on them. They were both in, and after a while both of them in their own way refused to speak to me. I have been at work for only 3 hours. I just don't know why I bother.

more on mrs carrot cake...

Not only is Mrs Carrot Cake a brilliant cook, she has also created a beautiful garden. I took this photo this morning as we sat outside drinking coffee. Her garden is a peaceful haven.

dinner with the carrot cakes

We had dinner with Mr and Mrs Carrot Cake last night. As usual Mrs Carrot Cake provided a feast fit for a king. The crowning glory has to have been the fantastic baked cheesecake she made. It was light and moist with a slight lemony tartness from the soured cream and lemon topping. She served it with peaches in syrup. Truly a dessert to write home about. I was a bit sad, and it has to be said, a bit drunk, and I insisted on taking a photograph of the cake. Everyone waited patiently while I farted around getting a photo that I thought did the cake justice. I managed to take quite a few photos in the end. Don't worry I won't post all of them.