Last time I posted I mentioned that I'd won a battle with Toyota. What happened was that I'd bought a new car ('08 plate Auris SR) in December after nine years or so of sterling service from Noel, my Renault Megane, and it seemed pretty good. Granted, on the day I got it I found out that the lighter didn't work when I plugged anything into it (including, as a test, the lighter thingy itself), and a few days later I noticed that it was making a funny noise like blowing over a bottle whenever the car moved, basically. Then, a few days after this, I noticed that when over 60mph the driver's door whistled badly, possibly because it was actually misaligned when I looked at it, and also noticed an awful lot of shattered glass inside one of the air vents... I took it back to the garage six times to be fixed, getting it back each time with a "all sorted now!" when, well, it wasn't, and so I eventually transformed myself into my alter-ego, Mr Snotty Letter.
I sent my angry work of art to the garage, and got a call the next day asking me to take it in (again) and one of the managers looked at the car and announced that it would need a new door, and the dashboard dismantling to get all of the glass out (I'm guessing it had either been broken into, or in an accident at some point in its short lifetime), but then soon after this they called me to say Toyota themselves had instructed the garage to replace the car as so much was wrong with it. They broke the news that they would be unable to get a black one, like the one I had bought, but they would be able to get another SR albeit in a different colour. I asked for dark blue, which was our original first choice back in December, and a couple of weeks later I took delivery of an almost identical (only one letter different in the registration number too!) '08 plate Auris SR, just in dark blue. It's lovely, and no longer whistles when I'm on the motorway. Hurrah! As for the bottle noise? It seems that's normal road noise, probably down to the low-profile tyres it has. I'm used to it now. Lovely car.
My writing has sort of dried up for a bit as I'm currently very busy with work, picking up lots of utterly appalling new courses. I'm stunned that Microsoft have just copied and pasted the old SQL 2005 courses into the 2008 manuals, old errors and all, but have also created a whole batch of exciting new ones due to things like solution files used in labs referencing servers called "Miami" when the 2008 virtual machines use servers called "NY" instead... so obviously nothing works. It's terrible, and when you see people coming on a supposedly "new" course who had done the old one only a few months ago, and they realise very early on that it is identical to the old one... it's not a good feeling. Shame on you, Microsoft.
As for the writing, "Chest" is still on the go in my little black notebook, and as per usual I've left it mid-sentence (I always seem to do that for some reason) and I'll return to it sometime soon. Plans are still afoot for "Clone" (can't wait to tackle that one), "Deep", "Eternity", and I also scribbled the word "Fragile" at the end of the list too but can't remember what idea I had in mind for that one at the moment - I never write notes, you see.
I've messed with the blog template a little bit, and over there on the right ---> there should now be a "Followers" pane, and it would be really nice if some of you who I know look at my blog put your names in there! I can dream, I suppose.
Talking of dreams, Prince has recorded a new song called "Dreamer" for his (on first listen, patchy as hell) new triple album, and it is one of the best things he has ever done...
Concerts! So far this year we've seen...
- Keane. We thought we'd give them a go as some of their stuff is quite good and we'd heard they were great live. Guess what? They were excellent!
- Mike Macintyre. He's a comedian (you'd know him if you saw him) and was doing a warm-up show at the Comedy Store. Very good.
- LIONEL RICHIE! Amazing as ever. "Dancing On The Ceiling" is still one of my favourite songs, I'm not ashamed to admit.
Gig of the year is currently Elbow (yes, we're big fans) who we saw at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool. A wonderful show in a stunning venue, we got a spot close to the front, and they did "Switching Off" - my personal favourite - and it made me cry my eyes out. Blackpool is still an amazing dog-hole though; haven't been since my grandmother died back in 2000.
I was a bit off-colour a few weeks ago (hence all the Facebook messages etc.) as I started to suffer incredible stomach pains, was a bit bunged up, and was also having really bad acid reflux (kept in check by Gaviscon, which I've discovered is amazing stuff). I went to the doctor and got a "see how you get on", and - touching wood - things seem a bit better. On a different note though, I need to go for a filling the week after next - my first in about ten years, I think.
Brilliant to hear that my favourite author, Dan Rhodes, has a new book coming out next year: "Little Hands Clapping". I'm currently reading the new book by my second favourite author, Glen Duncan, and so far it is excellent.
Best thing of 2009 so far? Yes, it's the new issue of FHM, and I'm not talking about the Zoe Salmon cover - I mean the other one (there are two covers...) I'm a tiny bit disappointed that Konnie has posed for a lad's mag, but at the same time it's great. Needless to say I've bought it. Two copies so far. Possibly three before long.
Final thing for now... something to listen to. "Meddle", by Little Boots, live on "Later..." And she's playing a Tenori-On too! Mega!
Promise I'll not leave it so long next time...
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2 comments:
I'm your first follower Mr Lee xx
Yay! Thanks, T! xx
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