"It's Not Even the End of September!"

I hate to admit this but it appears that Christmas is only a couple of months away.  Every year I usually complain that we as a family get organised far too early and that it dominates our thoughts until it arrives.  All I want to do is say "all this hassle for one bloody day!".  Needless to say that protests fall on deaf ears.

Take our visit to Costco last weekend for instance.  In true Cash and Carry style, their huge section in the middle that usually has garden tools, climbing frames and barbecues had been transformed to show their latest festive stock.  It wasn't even the end of September for heavens sake!  In fact, all retailers seem to get their Christmas stock on sale earlier and earlier.

I don't think I'm alone in these thoughts though either.  I know a few other friends and colleagues who get sick of seeing decorations and various must have presents whenever they have to go shopping.  Also, the playing of Christmas songs way before the time is a definite way to put people off.

Although I do protest about how early we start shopping (usually before Bonfire Night), it does feel good when we have all the presents bought before the beginning of December.  It then makes the build-up to Christmas all the more enjoyable.  (Yes, this is me admitting that Mrs S is right, AGAIN!)

On the whole I do enjoy Christmas....once we get to the week before.  That for me is when the present shopping is out of the way and we get to the good bit of buying the food and doing all the prep for Christmas at home (more on this nearer the time).  It promises to be more enjoyable than before as it's our daughters first Christmas.  Admittedly, she'll not know a great deal about it.  It still doesn't stop everyone spoiling her though.  For those reasons, I'm aiming to curb my moaning and try to get into the spirit, something which I've done for a number of years and is very habitual.  Wish me luck

Not Being Paid

Chris Moyles non-payment of wages rant has been the subject of much debate on Twitter and a few blog posts. Andy Bells entry is in support of him.  I must admit I originally didn't have much of an opinion on the subject.  However, last night I read The Urban Woos take on it and this provoked me into changing my opinion.

Firstly I can appreciate where the guy is coming from.  It really would annoy me if I haven't been paid for a couple of months and I consider myself very fortunate to have not been put in that position.  He still has bills to pay and needs to live, irrespective of whether there's any money coming in or not.  He may be on a huge salary but like most other people in this world, he will live to his means.  There's no point in earning money and not making use of it (well that is my philosophy anyway).

I don't think he was right to bring it up on the show though.  He should have discussed it in private with the Management Team at Radio 1.  Then he would have avoided all this media coverage and the backlash from the public, calling him insensitive.  The quote The Urban Woo uses in her post from the Guardian is very apt which was posted by a member of the Ambulance Service.  He does get paid far more than he is worth and does think that he works hard.  However, it is nowhere near as hard as the Ambulance man, and he doesn't have to see the awful sites of the public being hurt on a daily basis.

Therefore, my final word to Chris Moyles is think before you put your mouth into gear, then it not get all blown out of proportion as you claim it has, avoiding the subject of you being over payed being brought up again!  Next time you need to air your views, make sure you do it in private with the relevant people and not on your show.

The Dating Game



This week I've been pointed in the direction of this blog.  As you can see there are some quite wonderful and witty responses to messages received by the author whilst they have been Internet Dating.  Firstly, it is definitely worth having a read.

Why do some people think it's fine to chastise others that admit to doing the Internet Dating thing?  It is seen as a method of finding that special special someone for 'no-hopers' and people who have previously failed.  I guess it is these reasons that those who try it prefer to keep it a secret.

My thoughts are that anyone who goes down this route isn't anything but a brave individual.  It takes alot of courage to write a profile of yourself which will be scrutinised, pulled apart and then be discarded by others looking for that potential date.  That's before you've received any replies and arranged any dates.  Then there's the actual date and all the anticipation, fear and expectation to handle.  Like I say, only the brave and courageous will succeed.

It's probably a good job that I was introduced to Mrs. S by some friends as I don't think I could pluck up the required courage to try Internet Dating.  Knowing me I would bottle it at the last minute and wimp out!

So, next time you hear of a friend, family member or colleague giving Internet dating a go, think twice about taking the piss eh?

Encourage Your Kids to Read



Simon Says blog from last Friday touches on the subject of the lack of parents encouraging a group of primary school boys to pick up a book and read.  As he says, it is deemed by both the parents and the boys that reading is boring.  How can these 'responsible adults' declare an important life skill and what may turn out to be a hobby so uninteresting?  It is vital for your childs education and later on in their working lives.

Ever since my junior school years, I have most of the time enjoyed reading.  I've nearly always got a book on the go.  Admittedly it may take me a few months to read, depending on how much the book grips me and what other commitments take my time up.  I've always had the encouragement from home, even though there is a mixed feeling towards books within it.

My mum is an avid reader but my dad has never picked up a book and read it.  For years he has resisted various peoples attempts to get his interest in the written word, apart from newspapers.  Even when he was laid on a sunbed by the pool in Rhodes with mum and some friends next to him, all with books in their hands, he wasn't interested.  To his credit however, he has never stood in the way of mine and my brothers desire of literature and books.  He has asked me about some of the autobiographies that I've read, to see if a particular subject was mentioned, but he's never gone that one step further and borrowed my book to find out for himself.  However, he has never been short of encouragement when it came to following one of mums pastimes.  Again, he understood how important it was for our education.

Like Simon mentioned, I did embrace television and computers (the industry which I am currently employed in), but I have fitted in books at some stage.  I like to think that I've managed to get the right balance between these forms of entertainment.

My earliest memories of reading were making my way through the Roald Dahls books and the Diaries of Adrian Mole.  I currently read autobiographies and 'historical overivews', most of which centre round football (another huge pastime of mine).  I'm not a real big reader of fiction unfortunately.  I have read the odd story but it has to be a real good one.  Now Mrs S. reads fiction all the time.  Before you ask, she's not a Mills and Boon woman, very much a gangland murder type story a la Martina Cole.  I don't share her interest in this genre.  I've always struggled to 'get into' it.

I don't think it is a new opinion that reading is boring.  Take my office at work which is made up of people predominantly older than 30 (my age).  Out of ten of us I only know of one other colleague besides me who reads.  Admittedly a couple of others maybe read when they are on holiday.  They claim that they don't have time to do so.  Maybe this is another reason for not encouraging your kids to read?  They also claim they don't have an interest in books (back to the boring argument again).

For those of us who do enjoy reading, I'd thought I'd share this piece of advice I was given.  It from an ex-girlfriend, someone else who loved her books.  We were in WHSmiths and I wasn't sure about a book I was deliberating on buying.  She told me to pick the book up off the shelf and thumb your way through to a random page in the book.  Now read that page and see if the story grips you.  If does, you buy the book, if it doesn't, put it back as it will be a waste of money.  This method seems to have worked more often than not, probably the only decent peice of advice she gave me.  I don't know however how you would be able to do that in this day in age though with a high proportion of book sales made on the Internet.

I'll round this blog entry off with a note to myself for the future, and to all those parents with young children in the early tages of school education.  The theory that reading is boring is completely wrong.  Make sure you encourage our son or daughter to read as much as they can.  Not only is it important for their education , you may just get them interested in what is probably one of the best past times ever invented that doesn't involve staring at a television or a computer screen.

An Afternoon at Nostell Priory

Whilst I was on Annual Leave from work last week, we visited Nostell Priory near Wakefield for an afternoon out.  Fresh air, a walk on the estate and the opportunity to play with my new camera was too good an opportunity to miss.

Now I'm getting the hang of this camera (the move from a point and shoot to a 'hybrid' type), I feel like I want to show my photos.  Here are the images:



Enjoy

"They Will Not Control Us"

When Muse announced their Stadium Tour at the back end of last year, I started to get excited about seeing a rumoured 'awesome live act'.  I haven't attended that many large gigs in the past due to cost, so for me to make an exception for the Old Trafford leg of the tour meant that I really wanted the 'Muse experience'.  The BBC produced and broadcast a documentary about their homecoming gig in Devon around the time that their latest album 'The Resistance' had been released.  From this you could see what would be in-store on the 4th of September and had really whetted the appetite.

It had been a long time since I had been to any gig, mainly due to Mrs. S giving birth to our baby daughter.  As you can imagine, I was looking forward to the afternoon and evening out of live music.  I wasn't entirely keen on the idea of sitting in traffic going to and from Old Trafford, as well as being stood on your feet for five or six hours.  Add into the mix of being cramped and other concert related activities which the paying public partake in and you know why I was being apprehensive.  These weren't big enough drawbacks to put me and my mate off though.

We made the executive decision to park at Manchester Piccadilly and get the Tram to Old Trafford, in the hope that this would beat the traffic and save on costs.  Some websites were quoting parking as being £15 per car!  That's expensive, even for an event of this magnitude in my opinion.  This proved to be an inspired decision, even though it was absolutely packed on the Tram. 

We managed to get into the ground just after 16:50, just as Pulled Apart By Horses, the support act were on stage.  Most of their set was spent doing important things like checking out the official merchandise and getting a drink.  From what I heard their material was OK, if a little heavy.  I guess with a little more listening I would probably like their music.  They are on the list of bands to listen to again.

Having got into position just before the end of their set, we then enjoyed excellent sets from Band of Skulls and Editors.  Both successfully warmed the crowd up, in particular Tom of Editors with his unconventional movement whilst providing the vocals.  Their set included the favourites such as Bones, Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors, Bullets (my favourite of their live tracks), The Racing Rats before finishing on Papillon.  Now I do like Papillon but I must say that I was disappointed with this as a live track.  They used a backing track at the beginning which was identical to the album version which to me seemed like they were cheating.  Chris the keyboard player could have easily played this content as he wasn't playing the guitar at the time.  This was however, the only fault I could see in the show.

Towards the end of Editors set, it started to get busy in the area we were in.  The space that we originally had was becoming alot less.  By the time the lights went down for Muse to come on stage it was pretty tight.  At this point I was worrying whether I would have a sore back the following day or not.  Also, my feet were really aching by being stood in the same position for the previous three hours.  Then Matt, Dom and Chris entered the stage and began with Uprising.  All of a sudden we were thrown forward by the surge of the crowd wanting to get close to the action.  I wasn't worrying about my feet anymore!  A soaking of a paper cup full of what I wouldn't like to think about followed.  I was in full on gig mode now, just going with the flow of the crowd.

Matt was wearing a Silver Suit, Chris a Black and White striped one and Dom was in what can only be described as a diving suit with reflective panels on it.  This was the backdrop of an unbelievable stage show using tonnes of lights.  There was a catwalk in the centre which led to a podium.  This would become more relevant later.  Each of the panels on the sides facing the crowd (behind the mounted speakers) lit up and at times provided a screen.  With these and the riffs between certain tracks the influence of Queen was there for all to see, something which shone through on listening to their latest album The Resistance.

They played a mixture of material from all of their albums, all of which were very polished performances.  The highlight for me were Undisclosed Desires which was played on the earlier mentioned podium.  At the start of the track, it manoeuvred out and upwards on hydraulics.  Once in position it then started to rotate.  This to me one of the most extravagant 'in-crowd' performances I had seen.  I thought to myself that it would be a weird feeling, playing whilst your stage rotated.  It must have taken some practice to keep their concentration whilst being up there!

Shortly after this, the more famous live tracks started coming out, beginning with Starlight and Time is Running Out.  Unnatural Selection was played before the boys went off stage.  It was only 21:30, only an hour and a quarter into the performance.  This turned out to the first of two encores with Exogenesis: Symphony Part I (Overture), Stockholm Syndrome and a couple of riffs making up this one before they went off again.

When they returned a third time, Matt was wearing a suit made of multi-coloured LED Lights and glasses which lit up aswell.  He made his way to the podium and the band launched into Take A Bow.  The podium again came up and outwards but didn't revolve this time.  This was the prelude for the final two tracks which proved to be a brilliant finale, Plug In Baby and Knights of Cydonia.

Making our way out, both of us grateful that we were moving and that our feet felt better for it, we discussed the highlights, which no doubt for us were Undisclosed Desires  and the two tracks played in the final encore. A good evening was had by all.  Not even the thirst, the cramped tram ride back into Manchester and the closure of part of the M62 on the way home could dampen our mood.  It was truly a spectacular gig (how I described it on Twitter).

If you are lucky enough to have tickets for the Wembley gigs this weekend coming up, you are in for one hell of a show!

Set List from the Official Muse Website

(The first image used was taken by myself, the second ones have been taken from crowd shots that were uploaded to the Official Muse site by the concert attendees)