Merry Christmas, blogfans! I hope you all have a wonderful time this year and get all the presents you want. Thanks to TNT’s incompetence I’ll be lonely this Christmas (in an iPod sense, at least), but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other groovy shit to keep me happy.
Enjoy yourselves and don’t eat too much turkey!
Today, having waited for many days for my new iPod to be delivered, I finally decided to bite the bullet, phone up and find out where it was. Many phonecalls to TNT and several wasted hours later, I get a call from a compunctious chap called Chuck telling me that it was missing from the depot and from his van. He could only assume, therefore that it had been stolen. When did this happen, I asked him. Sometime between (he pauses to think) Monday morning and… (further pause) Monday afternoon. Today is Thursday. If what they tell me is true - that they check the undelivered stock at the end of the day and lock it up in the managers’ office overnight - why was its absence not noted on Monday evening? You would have thought that Apple would be a pretty big contract at this time of year and that they wouldn’t want to piss them off…
Unfortunately for them, Apple are pissed off, but not ‘arf as riled as I, dear Blog. Let this be my second consumer-related post (after that one about 4×4s). TNT ATE MY IPOD! Damn them. You ain’t heard the last of this, boys…
Jeremy’s party on Saturday night was immense. I’ve only just recovered from the mother of all hangovers… I don’t want to talk about it. Suffice to say, it was worth it!
Glad that Christmas is coming. It’s a lovely time of year, really. Feel quite Christmassy now… That’s all I have to say, really. It wouldn’t hurt to leave a comment every now and again, would it? :p
I went to see a Velvet Underground tribute band tonight, called, rather imaginatively, the Underground Velvets. James’s friend Sam from university is their John Cale-esque keyboard player and so we trekked along to Camden’s The Dublin Castle to see the art rockers represented by some skinny kids who weren’t even born when Andy Warhol’s wet dream came true.
What struck me most about the band was the sheer naïve fervour of the lead singer. I thought they did well not to attempt any costumes or looky-likey bollocks, but this was at the expense of that knowing, ironic distance perfected by better tribute bands. I quote from the band’s official website:
What do WE promise? No tacky outfits, no ridiculous makeup; no
Warhol lookalike pretending to paint soupcans in the corner of the
stage. Tribute acts can go to Church as far as I’m concerned. We cover
the greatest songs written in the history of modern music. When Andre
Previn or Yehudi Menuin conduct a philharmonic orchestra to deliver the
works of the great masters like Beethoven and Bach, no-one calls them a
tribute band. In the same way, I conduct my incredibly talented Velvet
Orchestra.
Ha ha! Seriously!
Went to Morrisons today for some bread and happened upon their drinks section. What a fantastic choice of ales hitherto unbeknownst to me! And what’s more, they have a four for £5 deal. Naturally I didn’t waste any time availing myself of a small selection of these fine Northern beverages.
So far I’ve sampled a bottle of Jennings‘ Cocker Hoop (4.6% ABV). This is a delicious golden ale from the Cumbrian brewers, apparently incorporating Styrian Golding hops. Does that mean hops from Styria in Austria or does it merely refer to the type of hop? Either way it’s a beauty. I’ll definitely be purchasing more of this frothy monster.
Ward’s Best Bitter (4% ABV) is a beer with an interesting past. Well, I found it interesting, at least. A popular Yorshire bitter from the 1840s until 1999, when the brewery was shut down by its owners, The Swallow Group PLC, it was recently taken over by the Double Maxim Beer Company Ltd with two well-intentioned chaps called Doug Trotman and Mark Anderson at the helm. As far as I can tell, it’s distributed by the Jennings Brewery (see above). But enough of that - it’s a fine, fine ale. One of the best bottled ales I’ve ever tasted, in fact. It achieves pretty damn close to the perfect balance: not too strong, not too weak and with a delicious aftertaste, especially when compared with the faintly chemical tang of some bottled ales. Full marks to this one, then.
Crivens…
I’ve been offered a job! After two interviews with a London-based
media company, I got a phonecall on Tuesday informing me that they were
offering me the position and that they wanted me to start on January
9th. I was then called again yesterday with more details about the
pay. Apparently, they operate a three-month initial (relatively
handsome) expenses only assessment period, and then I’ll be up for
review and - all being well - bumped up to the £17k starting salary
with frequent reviews.
I have mixed feelings about this. Overwhelmingly, I’m very pleased to
have been asked and the nature of the work sounds varied and engaging,
but I’m still not totally convinced by the pay. I think the best thing
is to accept the offer and see how it goes. I can still do my
freelance journalism on the side (it’s hardly onerous to review CDs),
and thereby keep my options open. The only casualty might be the
tutoring, but it’s hard to tell whether that’s going anywhere at the
moment. Do feel free to comment - it’s worth creating a Friendster
profile for that purpose alone!
Right, shock over! I once again point you to George’s Blog. It makes for a very interesting read.
