ipod roulette - no skipping

I am not to blame for the huge gap between blogs. Besides, we really should try and get away from the blame culture. But if you want to pin it on something then I think it's fair to say that the responsibility falls squarely at the door of... global warming. I was waiting for the weather to turn....I was waiting for a grey day with showers - after all it has been autumn for quite some time now so we should have had some steady drizzle by now, at the very least. In fact, yesterday was a sunny 30+ degrees and very summery. However, bank holiday Monday has done the trick and the black clouds have rolled in. It's still 25 degrees and has only rained for 10 minutes so far but it is enough to drive me indoors. The kids are outside on the street playing with their friends, forming hoody gangs, intimidating the old folks and generally 'hooning' around. Wendy is recovering from 'Trance', a dance music festival that she went to yesterday. I say recovering but it's more a case of having a breather before going out tonight to see 'Keane' (the UK indie band from Battle, Sussex). In fact the space between blogs has largely been taken up with seeing bands... and err motor sport (not my choice obviously). Amongst the bands we've seen are (in no apparent order): Killers, Snow Patrol, Kaiser Chiefs, Elbow, Kings of Leon, Madness, Fratellis, Tame Impala, Human League, Duffy, The Music, Birds of Tokyo, Howling Bells and Sparkadia. I defy anyone to say that they haven't heard of at least one of those... I'm guessing that Tame Impala are being played to death by Terry Wogan and the radio 2 gang.
As you may have guessed we've just had the festival season - when for some reason lots of UK bands decide they want to leave the frozen north and come to tour the antipodes. We saw the V festival* last weekend and there had clearly been a lot of 'male bonding' happening on tour all the bands were dedicating songs to each other, Madness were especially popular, but no one dedicated a song to Duffy. Apart from the fact that she couldn't sing, was wearing hot pants over legs that were as white as lard, and she appeared to be Welsh, Duffy was excellent.... not. (*There are photos of this event in the next batch, coming your way shortly).
Still on the subject of music, Hattie's birthday is but a week away and we are getting her an ipod nano as her main (only) present. To mark this event, whilst writing this blog I am playing ipod roulette. Usually, I would be listening to one of my own (carefully crafted) play lists, but on this occasion I am rather recklessly, with no thought for my own safety, listening to our entire ipod - all 5000 tracks of it (on shuffle). In the interests of science I am making a record of the songs played, which you can view at the bottom of this blog. So far, I have been able to ascertain a direct correlation between the track playing and the quality of the writing. For example, I wrote the funny bit when Muddy Waters was on, there was something of a dip in the quality when Will Young came on and I almost gave up entirely when Bobby Shafto infiltrated the airwaves..but, despite all that I was never tempted to skip.
Because we, (ok, Wendy) were slightly more organised, this year Hattie is able to have a sleepover... it also helps that we have actually got some beds this year. With her birthday falling smack in the middle of the holidays no-one was able to come last year, with this in mind we invited an extra person to be on the safe side. And, of course, this year they can all come so we have 3 nine year olds sleeping over-with all 4 of them sleeping in one room, which just happens to be George's (his bed can sleep 3, fill your own jokes in here..........). Obviously, being 11, George had to be bribed in order to let 3 of Hattie's friends stay the night in his room... so as a result he is going to the cinema to see Fast and Furious 4. At this point, I must say a big thank-you to our friend Steven... for it is he who will be accompanying George to the cinema to view this potentially Oscar-winning film. I grudgingly watched the first film in the series and at that point vowed that I would glue my eyelids together if I ever had to sit through another. Steven plays in the same beach volleyball team as me and I think he was very tempted to see if my game would improve with my eyes glued shut...but in the end he relented and agreed to take George to the movie.
For the last two weeks Wendy has been playing beach volleyball as well - due to one of the regulars sustaining a stress fracture of the foot after a high heel shoe incident (there may have been alcohol involved)...it was a woman by the way just in case you thought that we were a cross-dressing team. Wendy played very well despite the fact that some tall, handsome, muscle-bound bloke kept blasting the ball at her.... listen, I had to do it she was making me look bad (ok, the muscle-bound part was probably pushing it a bit far in that description). The current volleyball season is coming to an end and barring a catastrophic turn of events it looks like we will finish in the top 8 and make the end-of-term finals.... at which point we traditionally lose to a bunch of scousers, amusingly called 'Calm Down' who do a lot of whoopin' and hollerin' and high fiving (and that's just in the warm-up), and it in no way upsets me or winds me up.... I love 'em.
By the time the finals come upon us Wendy will be back dancing again, all be it with a different Dance School. After a 'big money' transfer she has left the 15 year old 'hip hoppers' and has moved to a more sedate Jazz class which starts next term... as yet there has been no mention of 'a show'.
Well, that will do for now. Now that the weather is closing in (it is currently bucketing it down and there is thunder and lightening - maybe I should tell the kids to come in now?) the blogs may become more frequent again. I'll definitely make an effort to be back before our winter holiday to Melbourne in July.

Ipod Roulette gave us:
James-Tomorrow; Muddy Waters-Rollin' And Tumblin' Part 1; Ladysmith Black Mambazo-Amabutho (Warriors); Mika-Grace Kelly; The Wedding Present-Don't Talk, Just Kiss; Belle & Sebastian-I Love My Car; Will Young-All Time Love; Clash-Remote Control; Booker T. & The MG's-Hip Hug-Her; Various artists-Bobby Shafto; Geneva-In The Years Remaining; Joe Tex-I Want To Do Everything For You; Elvis Presley-A Big Hunk O' Love; Pixies-Debaser; Clive Peterson-When I See An Elephant Fly; Buddy Holly & The Crickets-Shake Rattle And Roll; Nirvana-Come As You Are and finally ....Super Furry Animals-Something For The Weekend (that would be the Welsh again)