Bidet

Today is my birthday. 21 again, well, 25 actually.

Plenty of fun planned for the weekend that will more than likely involve obscene ammounts of alcohol, starting with the office Christmas party at Cataldos in Wolverhampton tomorrow afternoon. Thinking it won’t be as good as last year though, really fancied going to Don Salvo’s again. Still, the beer will be flowing so might as well make the most of it.

Had a nice new book off Naomi for my birthday. The first installment of the Chopper series (full title – Chopper 1: To the human filth I have bashed, belted, iron-barred, axed, shot, stabbed, knee-capped, set on fire and driven to their graves – I regret nothing) which I have become very fond of.

Started reading it this morning and it looks like to be just as entertaining and fascinating as the third installment which i read on holiday earlier this year.  If you enjoyed the film then i strongly recommend you start reading the books(all 8 of them) as they are just as good – if not better.

On the home stretch

After a lovely 5 days away from the grindstone I am now happy to report that I am on the home stretch. One and a half full days left to work before the shackles come off for a whole 12 days of hassle free goodness. 12 days to kick back and relax, eat, drink and be very merry and generally not have to worry about anything whatsoever work related. I fear 12 days will be nowhere near long enough though and am already braced for the barrage of hell that is likely to descend upon us in early January to make up for 12 lost days.

Anyway, what have I managed to achieve in the time since my last wafflings? Well, our Christmas tree is now up – and it’s not bare like it was when we first decorated it. A second trip to Home Base for more decorations saw to that. However, I am sorry to report we have succumbed to the chav ways and strayed from the traditional multi coloured flashing Christmas tree lights, and opted for the more “cool” blue L.E.D affairs. Still, at least the outside of our flat isn’t lit up like a beacon off the coast of the Orkneys so we are still relatively normal – unlike certain households elecrtricity bills in our street.

My new monitor for my PC has arrived. I can now look at “art” in all its twenty inch widescreen glory. Hurrah for Dell who also saved me best part of thirty sniffs  by including a DVI to DVI cable in the box with it. There was distinctly something of the microwave oven about the last abomination that sat on top of my computer desk and has now been relegated to the spare room.

Naomi has also very kindly let me have my birthday present early – an Alesis Photon X25 (right). Been after a decent MIDI controller to complete my production set up for a while now and after much deliberation, decided the Alesis was the best one for the job. Nice and small so is easily portable, and packs enough features for even the most advanced of users. It makes MIDI mapping all the easier as it comes pre programmed with generic maps for a whole range of software – ideal for me as Ableton and Reason are included – which are my weapons of choice. MIDI mapping is of course – fully customisable if your program is not included in the presets. It also has 10 assignable knobs and 3 layers over which they can be assigned, so in effect that is 30 assignable knobs. Add to this 10 assignable buttons, modulation wheel, pitch bend wheel and a “3 dimensional control dome” (pass on how that works, havn’t got that far yet) and what you have here is one very versatile MIDI controller.

Finally, I am happy that for once, I have managed to get my Christmas shopping all done and dusted before Christmas Eve. This means I will be able to stay about 300 miles away from any town centre over the weekend. I hate shopping at the best of times, but I think I would rather watch Hollyoaks for a week solid than go shopping on the last weekend before Christmas. Yes, I would hate it that much. While countless fools are out there rushing around for the last minute presents, I will be sat in the pub enjoying a nice cold pint of their finest, being bored to tears by The Mighty Wolves trying to grind out a result against East Midlands Crisps. Bah humbug!

Early December Chart

 1. Home and Garden – In and Out [Classic Music]

2. Stank Dubz – Tinas’ Groove [Alphabet Music]

3. D-T3ch – From the Soul (Chuck Daniels Mix) [Neighbourhood House Watch]

4. Real Time Hand Motion – Break Ya Neck (Sexual Chocolate Mix) [Spatula City]

5. Jamie Wattz – Nizzle [Guesthouse]

6. 1200 Warriors – At Last (Bonus Edit) [1200 Trax]

7. Craig Hamilton – Disco Heater [CD-R]

8. Sunset Stylerz – Fast Track [Shak Digital]

9. Desperate House Guy – Those Days [Highjack]

10. Quality Control – We Doing It [Drop Music]

Barnsley chops and fizzy pop

With the Tesco carrier bags slipping up we had the chance to sieze the opportunity last night to go into the automatic promotion places. Unfortunately, we didn’t turn up and got turned over by mighty Barnsley. Our recent form hasn’t exactly been poor, and I kind of expected this lamb chop shaped banana skin, but I was disappointed with how poor we played. Still, hopefully, it will have given the players a kick up the backside to get us back on track on Saturday evening in front of the Sky Sports cameras. Unfortunately, our live game record is dismal, Burnleh are on a good run, so i fear an Eeh by Gum Ecky Thump shaped banana skin lurking just around the corner.

It just proves how wide open and entertaining the Championship is. On their day, anyone can – and will – beat anyone. The top 10 or so are seperated by so few points, teams are up and down like yo-yo’s. Teams are so inconsisent, if somebody manages to string 3 or 4 wins together, they shoot to the top and open up a gap – only to slip up and be hauled straight back in again. I hope we can mount a serious challenge for the automatic promotion spots. I fear it may be a season too early, but, the financial rewards are so great it’s not all bad if we do make it to the top flight this time round.

In other things, this is my last full week of work ’til the New Year. Using up the rest of my annual leave to break up the last few weeks of work. Derrick Carter & Greenskeepers are playing Turnmills on 29th Dec which I am desperately scratching around to afford to go to. Friday night this week is Birmingham, DJing for Bumpty Bumpty and having a few beers, then next week is our brands 1st birthday come Xmas party. More of that nearer the time as you’ve probably switched off by now. Over and out……