Just spelling ukulele correctly will probably get me near the top of google you know One of the members of the rather excellent book group I attend has the grand title of peripatetic music teacher. I had to admit I knew what peripatetic meant, being an all round sort of know it all (I’m like a straight 10% as knowledgeable version of Stephen Fry dontcha know). For those of you who weren’t the school nerd and didn’t swallow a dictionary when you were growing up, it means ”walking or travelling about”according to dictionary.com. Mind you, they failed to spell travelling with two l’s, so what do they know? When I found out there was a music teacher about, I immediately had flashbacks to my youth: a bucket of dettol, communal recorders … Read entire article »

As a consummate consumer whore, I often squeal with joy when presented with a carton of fruity drink. What’s always baffled me slightly is the ingredients list on the side of these juice drinks. It doesn’t matter whether it is orange, pineapple, grape or banana, invariably the largest fruit ingredient by percentage is apple. This has always confused me because I just tend to drink orange juice without added apple juice or pineapple juice without apple juice. You never see apple juice with added apple juice do you? So, in the spirit of adventure, I explored the fridge and grabbed the orange juice. A quick taste (not direct from the carton I hasten to add) reassured me that yes, this is definitely the normal taste of orange juice. I then poured a … Read entire article »

When too much awake time comes along hand in hand with too little sleep time, hollering children and unrealistic demands from work, I turn to the guiltiest of shameful pleasures to perk me up. It’s so shameful and embarrassing I’d almost rather admit to onanism. I put my iPod on and crank up a bit of Meat Loaf to 11. I have generally good tastes in music, ranging from the Walker Brothers, to Captain Beefheart, the Beach Boys and the Who, through to the Zutons and other modern popular beat combos but nothing is as good for letting a head of steam off like a bit of ‘Loaf. Nononononono, I take it back, I just crack one off, honest. … Read entire article »

When I was younger and still at school I was one of those people who always left his homework until Sunday evening. At around 4pm, I’d stop what I was doing, put the chart show on and start work. Some people preferred to do their homework on a Friday night so it wasn’t hanging over them all weekend. Not me, I’d rather have a break from school work and get back into it after a rest. Well, it’s getting on for half a lifetime since I finished school and the notion of homework went away but here I am on a Sunday night, this time at my desk at work, finishing off something for tomorrow. In my defence, I have had a fairly busy weekend all told. M’laddo hasn’t been sleeping well, … Read entire article »