Bodmacity

I have been endeavouring to listen to the entire Rush
back catalogue over the past two days(which is quite difficult because I don’t actually own the entire collection, especially the newer recordings ;-). It’s great however, to be able to slip on the ‘ole headphones and rock out.

My bro, Balam first got me into Rush when I was 18 and I greedily swallowed up all they had to offer. I have to say that they are one of the few bands that I can come back to and they sound as good as when I first heard them, as a naïve impressionable teenager. It seems such a long time ago now!

So I have been rekindling some fond memories. 2112 is arguably their greatest work. Other faves have to be By-Tor and the Snow Dog on Fly by Night. I mustn’t forget Moving Pictures which is a cracking album. I haven’t got that far yet though. At present, I am halfway through A Show of Hands, Red Sector A to be precise. For me each Rush ‘era’ has it’s own merits and songs that I love. Starting from the pure rock first album to the progressive era albums which morphed into synth-prog-rock epics. They can even be forgiven for their later poppy efforts which still stand up as a decent albums. In recent years they have have, by and large, returned to their rock roots. Personally I am patiently waiting for a concept album, maybe 2113? 🙂 Long may they reign!

Now we have the issue of choosing a name. So far Jake is a hot favourite. Shannon was also mooted but the general concensus was that it was too girly. My thoughts on the matter?

Well if it was good enough for the late great Shannon Hoon then it is good enough for our bairn(although probably not the best role model if the truth be told).

We went up the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth this weekend. It has recently opened and was in the news because of an embarrassing technical problem during its opening ceremony. The outer glass lift was still out of action but it was fun to zoom up in the inner lift. The lift takes only 40 seconds and was very smooth. The first level is at 110 metres which provides fantastic panoramic views over the Solent and across Portsmouth to the South Downs beyond. There are two more levels, the highest being the ‘Crows nest’ which are accessed via stairs.

It is well worth a visit but very busy. We queued for about an hour, but that is to be expected because it has recently opened. Once you are up the top you can stay for as long as you like. We were told that a limit is placed at peak times, such as during the school holidays.

What a weekend! Well it is as I thought and in five months I will be the proud father of a lovely boy 🙂

There wasn’t any doubt really. The very first image that popped up confirmed what we already thought. I am already thinking of uses for that particular image when the time comes. After all it is a parents
duty to cause maximum embarrassment to ones offspring at least once in their life-time 😉

Great! It’s Friday and the weekend looms. My wife and I are off for our 20 week scan this afternoon. Because of this I am finding it quite hard to concentrate at work. I have just found an excellent flash-based game based on the Battle of Trafalgar which took place 200 years ago today.

Anyway back to the scan. The reason I am excited is that today we will hopefully learn the sex of the Bairn or ‘him’ as he is known. I just know it will be a boy! Better start thinking of some wafty names 🙂

The scan is at 4pm so I will be leaving early. Can the day get any better?

It’s Tuesday afternoon and rather cooler than recent days. I spent what seemed like most of my
lunch hour queueing at Staines Post Office. I don’t like Post Offices. The hushed environment lends these places an uncomfortable semi-official atmosphere. Almost as if you are shuffling towards an
unknown fate at the hands of a stern-faced offical on the other side of the glass. To be fair the lady at the counter was very nice, so I will stop dwelling on Kafka-esque scenarios. I’ll leave those for my next
visit to Ikea in Croydon 🙁

Last night I had a sesh playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2006 with Balam. It’s good but has a slightly creaky feel. I think it was rushed because the areas around the gameplay itself are a little muddled. For instance every time you do anything in the menu system you are asked whether the want to save your profile. Then you are presented with an ‘are you sure?’ dialogue followed by a ‘you are about to overwrite an existing profile’ dialogue. Finally a million clicks later an ‘ok’ button pops up to tell you the save was successful. Very annoying.

The Indian summer we have been having has come to a rude halt. Yesterday there was flash flooding in the North of England, Wales and Scotland. Last night in good ‘ole London it started and hasn’t yet stopped. Luckily the skylight has held fast. Sometimes it has a propensity to randomly leak.

The BT line is now fixed so I have my Internet up and running. I decided to offline in BR to get a few more cars. I now have the Logitech Racer and the Black themed car. I think a bit of gaming is in order tonight! I found a good site for Balam the other day designed for the more elderly gamer 😉

I was looking forward to an evening on Burnout Revenge on the old Xbox Live but alas my phone line seems to be shafted. When I got in from work I fired up the PC and opened my trusty firefox browser. It failed to connect. I checked my mode and the ADSL light was ominously unlit. I then picked up the phone and the line was dead.

This happened a while ago and wasn’t fixed for several days. I must say that the BT fault line was rather good. Instead of waiting in a queue they offer a callback when you get to the top of the queue. When I received the call back they told me what I feared. There was a fault on the line, obviously really because both phones are as dead as Dodos.

Adding insult to injury I phoned Paul W who informed me that he has just had his 2mb ADSL installed and it was working a treat. He only lives a few doors down the road. Doh!

We spent an excellent weekend down in Petersfield with Mr and Mrs Blue. They have recently moved into a lovely place close to the town centre.

On the train on the way up(or is that down?) he showed off his latest gadget. The well-formed and very sexy PSP. The screen just has to be seen to be believed. While playing Ridge Racer the device attracted mucha atención. I mentioned to Blue that I quite fancied the Nintendo DS and the recent Nintendogs to which he replied “Yes, the Nintendo is a great machine…if you are a five year old”. So that put me put in my place!

On Saturday we went down to Portsmouth to Gunwharf Quays. The whole area has been regenerated and now hosts an array of shops, restaurants and a cinema. Dominating the skyline is the Spinnaker Tower. It opens Autumn 2005 and looks set to become a major attraction in the area. We relaxed in the evening with a few pints of ale from Ballards. And they were very nice indeed!

Woke up feeling like death. Not even death warmed up but death itself. So I phoned or rather
texted in sick, because my voice was shot, and settled back into bed. It’s now 9.30pm and I’m feeling a little better. Pottered around the flat drinking Lemsip and honey and lots of tea. I have finally completed my tax return(cue fanfare) so that’s a load off my mind. I have also started sorting out some bits and pieces to put on ebay. I have a nice wireless router if anyone is interested 😉

Talking of routers I have installed my new SuperG beasty in preparation for the iminent purchase of a wireless media streamer. I was surprised that it worked straight out of the box. In my experience networking is never easy.

Damn I’ve just realised that there is a good program on the telly that started at 9pm. See ya!