blimey, really. i seem to have built up quite a few pics over the last couple of days, all for you to enjoy or, if we are honest here, ignore. well, for those of a passing interest, let's see what i have snapped away, or snapped up, and for some reason have decided to post here.
they are, and i appreciate that the limitations of the blueberry camera obscure your pleasure here, some sort of throwback reference to them saucy postcards one could purchase at seaside resorts. they had a few different types, but these were the most cheeky of the cheeky ones, and the ones that took my fancy accordingly. it is with nothing but pride that i display these - presently the umbrella one - as i sit and read my book on the bus. all us British like a bit of cheeky sauce, look you see.
what is it that i am presently reading now? i think you spell it Sepulchure, and it's by that James Herbert fellow. bloody jolly good it is, and nearly finished. i think i have about 10 pages to go, so i will finish that tonight. thus, i will be reading something else tomorrow. with a saucy bookmark.
now then, elements of this post were due to be posted yesterday, but that rather sad news that came through to the world seemed more important to reflect on. moving onwards, then, and here is a poster on display dans le HMV at 8:30 in the morning; a time at which HMV are not open.
one of the albums featured in that poster was released yesterday, hence the title of this blog post. i was very, very excited about this for all sorts of reasons. we shall, however, get to those reasons a little later. or right now, really, if you scroll down i guess.
now, then. back to Saturday. on Saturday i was promised cricket, as i had been invited to an event that was being held at a cricket ground as a game of cricket was scheduled to be taking place.
it did not work out quite as it should have.
oh the event went well - very well indeed, as it happens. superb, in particular the magician fella. but no cricket was played due to the moat-esque swamp the rain had created of the field. gosh darn it.
yes yes, at the risk of making this all sound rather like one of them nationalistic, jingo jolly boy things, it is of the most exceptional of standards for cricket to be rained out here in England. i just wish, you know, that it did not happen quite so often as it does.
to get all the distinctly English / British things out the way though, a number of friends and family in South Africa - Zama in particular - were all very excited about just what cream scones were or, in a very real sense, are.
for those curious and interested in that way, here you go.
we did, on Saturday, of course go and check to see if the rain had stopped and the field dried out enough to allow a bit of an over or two, of course. by rights, i should have sat there for the entire day, reading the Daily Telegraph in the rain, waiting for play to start. it was, however, nicer inside and anyway i did not have a copy of the Daily Telegraph at hand as such.
here, then, is my (considerably) better half and i at one of the points where we decided to see if play had, by any chance, commenced at all.
no, as you have possibly ascertained, no play had commenced. and nor did it, so treacherous was the rain and the drainage to the hopes and ambitions of cricket. what a rotter the weather can be.
my mate Norman was, obviously and understandably, very disappointed with the cricket not going ahead too. he went so far as to make a speech, apologizing for the shortcomings of the weather and expressing his regret that none of us could see any being played. so emotional was he on the subject that he did not even mention the cricket directly, instead using his talents and skills of metaphor to refer to it all via means of discussing how happy he was to be married for some 15 years or so.
a very noble and magnificent gesture, i am sure readers of this will agree. certainly everyone there to hear his formidable speech did.
will there be other times to watch the cricket? yes, for sure, certainly, of course. cricket shall out live us all, indeed it will exist when civilisation does not; for civility is impossible without cricket.
being able to walk into a shop, right, and buy an album on its day of release, as if it were the most perfectly normal thing in the world to do, is a dream that i have had for a while. it has not happened for quite some time, alas, due to the sadly lacking and awful approach adopted in South Africa. oh, sure, they managed to put out for sale any quick session Phil Collins did on the day of release, and selected works by Rod and Bob Dylan, but never anything i wanted. regular, long suffering readers here will recall that last year they could not even be bothered to put the new Bowie album out for sale until two weeks after its release.
so i was excited, look you see, to be going and buying an album by a famous band that other people had actually heard of. nice one.
oh, go on then, another look at those saucy, cheeky bookmarks for you.
what was i using as a bookmark before getting my hands on these saucy, cheeky ones? quite an exotic range, as it happens, since you ask. my (considerably) better half, knowing how loathe i am to simply fold pages in paperbacks, fashioned for me a splendid and perfectly servicable one of paper, shaped in the style of one of them loveheart things. i have also been using the backing cardboard that accompanied a badge featuring him with the hood thing in South Park. Kenny, as i recall.
anyway, Sunday.
on Sunday i took a number of strolls. for some of them i had my new vibes machine on the go, as you have probably worked out.
what was i listening to? walking around with a Mod / Lambretta t-shirt on? why, i had Travellers Tune by Ocean Colour Scene on the go. the 4 track single of the song. top, it is - four quality vibes that is.
rarely have i felt as at peace and as at one with your humble narrator than i did as i strolled around home with this music on the go.
and yes, indeed i believe my beard does indeed need a trim.
if you are wondering what review i would give this Bush mp3 player thingie, the answer is just about a pretty good one. it can be a bit fiddly, and the headphones that come with it are rubbish, but just work out what album you want to play, put on it the albums you want to hear, and off you go.
best of all is the fancy light display it does when you power it up. i have tried to make a video of it for you, here you go.
yes, i say, yes it is a "buy". i will probably, maybe one day do a proper review of it, although i imagine the above covers it for you. does the job just fine on the bus, where ones does not really need nor require all that fancy stuff an iTwat does.
back to Saturday, then, and as you would expect Andrea was just as distraught as Norman was about the lack of cricket on the go.
yes, indeed, Andrea and Norman had gone to sensational lengths to dress in style for the cricket. most admirable. i had a suit on too, of course, but i do not look at all good in them. and my (considerably) better half always looks good.
so, day of release purchase business. the things one misses, really. i know in this day and age the idea of waiting for the shops to open to actually buy a record is somewhat alien and unusual, and i suspect the world is a lot sadder because of it.
yes, i appreciate that i could have gone along to the iTwat or the Amazon store and bought a digital download of it, since i will for now be listening to it on portable vibes machines alone. yes, i too am also aware that i could have simply plucked a less than legal copy of it off of the internet for the last week. i did not want to do any of that, though.
not out of any moral or legal obligation, and not out of wanting it "proper", i just wanted to experience once again the delight of walking into a store and buying an album that other people had actually heard of.
what was the experience like? well, for HMV, it was pretty much just a standard, conventional transaction, all done in a nice, polite way. for me, though, it was just excellent, man. a good feeling to have once more.
what's the album like? well, as you can see, mostly it is black text on a pink background, which is quite class.
the music is ace. it starts off with what sounds like Primal Scream crashing into Vangelis, which is as brilliant and smart as that idea sounds. so get the album, by whatever means suits you.
i will, with some good fortune, see them live at some point. in the mean time, the vibes on my vibes machine will do rather nice and splendid indeed, thanks.
and that will do for now, folks.
more as and when something of interest, as it were, happens!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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