I can’t believe I’ve not done one of those for previous years, but I thought I’d look back and highlight what I think has been the best songs of 2009.
And, there really aren’t that many. Maybe it’s due to me getting old. I don’t know. Either way.
1. Hockey – A Song Away
Embedding’s disabled, so you’ll need to click here to hear it.
“I wanna write a truthful song over an 80s groove”. And you do it very well too, whoever you are. The whole song reminds me of the Travelling Wilburys. First heard somewhere on the outskirts of Harrogate, on Radio 2.
2. Frankmusik – Confusion Girl
Wahey, I can embed this one…
A great song. Bonus points for the inclusion of…. erm, that ‘bewer’ whose name escapes me, the 80s style mobile phone, pink wheely bins (!) and infinitely shite “special effects”. The guy singing it looks like a pigeon.
Unfortunately, the first time I heard this song, I was in the less glamorous location of the Asda car park. This was obviously before the incident.
3. David Guetta / Kelly Rowland – When Love Takes Over
I like it, even though it has a very Coldplay-esque intro.
I’m now going to sit in a darkened room for the next three hours, and see if I can actually think of any others that entice my ageing eardrums like the afore mentioned trio. Probably not.
You might as well consider this bandwagon well and truly jumped on. Yes, it’s Sunday night, and for the first time in my entire life, I’m actually planning to sit down and watch the final of a Simon Cowell-induced “talent” show. Not because I’m going to particularly enjoy it (Ok, I probably will), but I just want to be “there”, as in, know exactly what the hell certain people are talking about for the next 6 weeks instead of just instantly switching off the instant I hear the letter X.
I did see a couple of earlier episodes of the series, mainly because I got sick of hearing about John and Edward. However, I did particularly enjoy their rendition of Ghostbusters, but immediately lost interest the moment they got voted out.
I know I did post a sarcastic tweet last night, along the lines of “OH MAN I AM SO GLAD I AM OFF WORK TOMORROW TOWATCH X-FACTOR FINAL HAHAHAH YEAH LOLZ”, but I woke up today (freezing cold, by the way because the heating is still knackered) and decided “Yes, I WILL actually watch it”.
Why? Because there isn’t anything else on. Top Gear is AWOL for a week and the snooker final doesn’t restart until 9PM.
I shall also be monitoring twitter, because there’s bound to be some classic comments showing the deep inner turmoil some humans suffer in the face of what is simply a con to make some rich people even richer.
And as for Stacey, with a face like hers, I think we all knew there was “neigh” chance she was getting through to the final.
(EDIT: Jamir. What a fucking prick I am. Title corrected)
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, I am pleased to announce that the remixed version of Andy D’s Hartlepool Gallery is almost complete.
You may remember there’s been a section on the gallery of his photos for some time now. Unfortunately, it suffered from massive disorganization, and a whole load of low quality images. Therefore it was decided that the old images were to be removed, and replaced with ones collected over the past 18 months.
Here’s a sneaky peek at what it’s going to look like…
Currently, there’s about 1,500 images in there, but as there’s still a little bit of work to do, I’m not launching it until next year. Stay tuned!
Well, I have been summonsed by Glen Adrian of Obscureinternet (change your avatar, ffs!) to write a detailed review of my 30th birthday. I’ll start from the day, because it was a much better and more exciting day, for you see, I went bowling!
The first part of the day was spent watching stuff that had been collected on the Sky+. this involved several episodes of Countdown. Unfortunately, there wasn’t going to be a lot happening in the early part of this particular day, as the car was in the garage after it snapped a spring or something, thanks to the state of one of the local roads.
Onto the night, then. Plans had been made with most of the people from work to attend the bowling alley on Brenda Road. It was the first time I’d been bowling since November 2005
I arrived at approximately 7:30, to find that the place was absolutely packed, but I was the only one there out of the proposed group. Oh, great. Things start going through my mind, like “Am I on my own? Is anyone else turning up?” I decided to wait outside, just in case anyone was going to ring my mobile. It was noisy inside.
Thankfully, the cars did indeed start pulling up, and before long, we had a group of about 16 of us. Unfortunately, Tuesday is apparently semi-pro night, so we had to wait until about 9 before we got a game. The price was £3 for the hour. It closed at 10, so we’d just got in. It was at this point, I began to fling my camera around in the hope to catch some epic shots. Unfortunately, this failed miserably, though I did think Matt got a good strike here:-
Unfortunately after I got home and checked the video, he hit the rail first. So technically, it didn’t count.
I finished last, as you can probably gather, though I did manage a strike. I might have to start going there, if I can find someone to go along with. there’s no point playing on your own.
After the bowling, we made our way to Lloyds, in Church Square. And yes, I really did wear this shirt…
Some random barfly stated that I looked like Timmy Mallet. Out of all the times I’ve worn that shirt, it’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to a compliment. Unfortunatelty, there’s a button fallen off it, so that’ll give me an excuse to never, ever wear it in public again. Awww.
After sharing a jug of some odd drink bought by Matt (possibly to celebrate his non-strike), it was time for everyone to begin departing. Some people had work in the morning, and some people wanted to attend the Indian. Guess which category I fell into.
So, the initial group of 16 had dwindled down to 4, and we headed off to the Dilshad for a load of grub.
As usual, the meal was delicious, and just as we were finishing, the clock struck midnight. Yup, I was now 30 years old. Daddykins sent me a text.
The second person to wish me happy birthday was Wayne, at an impressive 2 minutes past midnight, though obviously I didn’t get it until I got home. His email made me quickly realise how much of my life had disappeared…
“You are now twice as old as you were when we had our first talk on CB”.
He was right. The CB days were now half my life ago!
The 4 of us finished our meals, and headed off home in our respective taxis, and a good night was had by all. Well, certainly by me, at least, and I made my way up the long, winding gravel driveway of Mercuryvapour Towers at 1:13.
And now, onto the day itself. It started off early, around 5AM. This was mainly because I could feel the vindaloo on the move, and it was only a matter of time before it was indaloo (actually, alloverdaloo would be a better description). So, I was wide awake after only 4 hours sleep, and with an arse like the flag of Japan. I logged onto Facebook, and watched the happy birthday messages scroll past. Thanks to all of you who left a message, and for those who tried to talk to me, Facebook Chat is being a tart at the moment, and although I can see who sent me a message, I can’t actually see it. I’ve gone back to an earlier release of Firefox. That might help it.
Anyway, the morning consisted of my usual “Woo! I’m off work!” ritual – lie on the sofa and watch “Homes Under The Hammer”, followed by “to Buy or Not To Buy”, then “Cash In The Attic” (as long as Jenny Sodding Bond isn’t presenting it), followed by “Bargain Hunt”. Andy The Iridium Fan popped round during the preceedings, and dropped off my birthday card. He stayed for a few hours, and was amazed to find that he also liked amplifying the ends of songs just to get every last note out of them. An “interest” of mine which I thought nobody else shared. A bit like streetlights. He also helped me dispose of the large boxes that Beastbits2 had came in.
ATIF stayed for 3 hours, 22 minutes and 45 seconds, and after that I began watching some more stuff that had accumulated on the Sky+. I was absolutely knackered, as I’d only managed a couple of hours sleep, and decided to go to bed “for an hour”. This was at 4PM. Next thing I know, it’s 10PM. I must have been more knackered than I thought. The day was finished off with the obligatory “few cans”, and I headed off to bed some time around 4ish.
So, that was the story of my first full day of being into my 4th decade. Not bad going considering I wasn’t actually going to blog about it. And now, I’m off to take photos of a pothole, or I might wait until the chippy is open, and kill two birds with one stone. Pothole photography and chips. Being 30 is AWESOME.
