Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Up 3p/litre (~23 cents/gallon) this week
12:27:00 PM
Saturday, May 24, 2008
It's Over
I'm just watching the last of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. Terry Wogan's provided amusing enough commentary.
Not surprisingly, the UK did poorly despite having a decent song by a talented singer. What is surprising is how few points they received: out of 43 countries who voted, only two (San Merino and Ireland) gave them any points, and they were tied for last in the total votes. Here were the final standings;
1st- Russia: 272 points
2nd- Ukraine: 230 points
3rd- Greece: (didn't deserve) 218 points
...
Last place- Poland:14 points
Last place- Germany: 14 points
Last place- United Kingdom: 14 points
For the record, my favourite was Iceland, who scored in the middle of the pack.
11:07:00 PM
Thursday, May 22, 2008
I can Dance if I Want to
Before I'd known mom was visiting, I'd bought myself a ticket to see Mathew Bourne's Nutcracker! in Southampton on the 17th. I'd seen his Swan Lake, The Car Man and this show on DVD before and thought it would be a fun day out. Luckily when I phoned the booking office, the seat next to me was still available, so I invited mom along.
I met her in Oxford the night before and we had a nice curry at Mirabai in Headington before popping over to CM's for a cup of tea. We got an early start the next morning and were 50 miles down the road when I had to fill up with petrol. Unfortunately, for the first time ever, I'd left my wallet at the house & had to humbly plead with mom to pay the £40 bill. Luckily I'd picked up the theatre tickets but mom had to pay for everything else that day, including our nice lunch at The Giddy Bridge before the show.
The show itself was ... innovative. You can read a review for yourself. The second half in particular was just bold and brash, but in a good way. We both thoroughly enjoyed it.
After the show we had a short drive around Southampton but weren't too impressed. No sandy beaches (no beaches to speak of really) and the day was overcast so we didn't stick around.
10:18:00 AM
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
I'm not sold
Now that we've had more than 2 hours in a row without it raining (and in order to Stick it to the Electric Man), NKC and I strung a line across the back garden in order to hang clothes out to dry.
I'm not yet sold on the idea. It's less convenient than using the dryer, and you have to keep an eye out on the weather (which turns every ten minutes). Also, the clothes wind up *crunchy* when they're dry, no matter how much softener I use in the wash. Of course that's fixed by ironing them, but I don't iron.
Supposedly, NKC says, they wind up smelling fresher too.
I realised deep down I think there's something awfully white trash about stringing your clothes up to dry, but it's more the norm here in the UK than not.
10:04:00 PM
My ears don't bleed
I was pretty sad to hear that Shania Twain and her husband of fourteen years are splitting.
I know it doesn't mean she'll stop recording, which is a good thing as she's one of the few country artists whose music I can stand to listen to.
I even managed to slip it into every-day conversation last week.
9:53:00 PM
Petrol Prices don't Scare Me
So I've been toodling about England this past week: Monday was the day trip to Bath, Tuesday was a visit to Heathrow's Terminal 3 and a jaunt up to Banbury, Wednesday was another round-trip sojurn to the Gran's, and yesterday I kidnapped mum for a quick bite to eat at The Bowling Green in Warwick.
The weather has been gorgeous during the past week (and this May is the sunniest since records began).
I'd never been to Warwick before and will be sure to go back, as mum and I only had a short visit and didn't fancy paying the £18/adult to get in to the Castle grounds.
9:32:00 PM
Friday, May 02, 2008
Online, on Digital, and on 88-91 FM
I listen to 1000% more radio now that I'm driving to and from work.
The RAJAR quarterly listening statistics were released this week, and BBC Radio 2 came apparently had some huge numbers, with Chris Evans's Drive Time show (which I listen to from 5pm until I get home) acquiring 620,000 new listeners in the past quarter. I was one of them.
This happy fact from Chris a few days ago: in six more weeks it starts getting darker again.
