Best Songs of 2006

ST LUKE'S: Definitely in no order and restricted to one song per band:

1. Insistor - Tapes 'n Tapes
2. Think Long - Mates of State
3. The Funeral - Band of Horses
4. Eleanor Put Your Boots Back On - Franz Ferdinand
5. Yeah Yeah Yeah Song - Flaming Lips
6. Valerie - The Zutons
7. Sheila - Jamie T.
8. Just Kiss Me - Daylight Basement
9. We Are Your Friends - Justice vs. Simian Mobile Disco
10. Crooked Teeth - Death Cab for Cutie

Top 5 Sport Highlights of The Year

1. Tim Cahill - Those goals, that game, the World Cup!

2. 6 dec for 900 - That's what revenge looks like. Now fuck off back home! Hats off to Mabo (223), Love (169), Watto (201 n.o.) and Perren (173 n.o.).

3. Bradmanesque batsman - Hats off to MoYo (religion's a wonderful thing) and Punter (as is redemption).

4. Arsenal's march to France - It might have ended predictably, but it was a thrilling fairytale until its denouement.

5. Getting back the Ashes/ Pretty Boy Floyd in the Pyrenees - Revenge is good (seems to be a theme) but so is seeing an athelete do the unthinkable (even if he was on drugs).

Our Fearless Leader

ST LUKE'S: In the tradition of Chuck Norris I bring you http://www.davidboonfacts.com.

Worst of 2006

1. Iraq - Didn't really turn out like you planned, did it Georgie? Or as the militias like to say, when the world gives you lemons, make IED's.

2. R.I.P. John Spence - Leo McGarry is no more. The world is poorer for it.

3. Mal Michael, Ashley Cole - Sports people as massive, money hungry wankers - who would have guessed it?

4. England at the World Cup - I wanted to bask in the residual glory. They had a great team, however, I overlooked their Achilles heel, their unsurpassable 'Englishness'.

5. Darfur - Where's a pre-emptive strike when you need one?

6. Hoodies playing tinny sounding grime on their mobile phone speakers - Not only is it obnoxious, but why do you feel the need to broadcast the fact that you have no taste?

7. The Whale - We got there twenty minutes late and it was already on its way towards an Essex death.

8. Celebrity - Especially those 'famous for just being famous' mannequins.

9. My old job - No seriously I did want to work an extra thirty hours a month for £50.

10. Not being able to eat at good restaurants.

I Wandered Lonely As a Crowd

ST LUKE'S: Back from the North. We had a lovely Christmas amid the dry rock walls and meandering creeks of Lancashire. We spent most of the non-Christmas time driving through the hills and heaths that rolled into the fog like waves on an ocean. On the first day we briefly visited the Yorkshire Dales on our way to Fountains Abbey, the sobering remains of a 12the century abbey. Included in the price of admission are a sumptuous 19th century water garden spread over the acres of a rambling National Trust area.

It was amazing to walk through the soaring walls of the abbey's cathedral, the perfect symmetry of the arches and forgotten stairways to nowhere. Definitely the best architectural relic I've ever seen though I really haven't seen that many.

On our second free day we drove up to Lancashire and went walking in the Lakes past Ambleside. It's probably just easier if I post pictures when Kate gets back. The beauty of the lakes, the towering hills, the improbably strong dry rock walls and the bold, broken granite really can't be put into words. Well not unless your Wordsworth.

Finally on Boxing Day we drove down to lush, picturesque Blackburn to see the Boxing Day game. It was a sell out so I managed to offload our spare ticket outside the ground then watch as Tugay set up Benni McCarthy score. Saw the most famous footballers I've ever soon play (Gerrard, Emerton, Neill, Reina etc.) and heard the Kop sing "Never Walk Alone" but, against the odds, Blackburn got up, we didn't beat Man City and consequently we're now in 17th spot rather than 13th.

Got back to work today and now have to slog through another two before it's off to Devon and Cornwall for New Years.

Merry Christmas

ST LUKE'S: Merry Christmas to my cheery cabal of readers. It's been a fun first year of blogging and while I remain ridiculously rubbish at the digital genres it has been pleasing to attract a regular readership. Even if they are all my friends. Unfortunately I've run out of time to send everybody Christmas emails, I don't do Christmas cards and since I lost my phone a couple of weeks back there wont be too many text messages. Therefore I'd like to wish you all very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year. Banal sentiments I know, but heartfelt nonetheless.

I'm off to Clitheroe this afternoon to spend four days in a cabin. Highlights are sure to include the Lakes District, Wensleydale Cheese, Fountains Abbey and the Boxing Day match between Blackburn and Liverpool.

Top 10 Films for 2006

ST LUKE'S: Poverty, travelling and a busy social schedule have conspired to keep me away from cinemas this year so my top 10 probably isn't a good reflection of the cinematic vintage of 2006. I haven't seen Hidden, Transamerica, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, North Country and more so it isn't the best list. It also includes films I saw on DVD in the UK that weren't released at cinemas in Oz in 2005.

1. Pan's Labyrinth
2. The Descent
3. Brick
4. Little Miss Sunshine
5. You and Me and Everyone We Know
6. Brokeback Mountain
7. The Departed
8. The Squid and the Whale
9. Tsotsi
10. Shooting Dogs

Liam's Walking Tours of London

ST LUKE'S: With the glut of overtime on offer and the recent arrival of not only Kate, but Shannon and Mum on Thursday and Nick this morning, means that posts have slowed to a crawl. And this week doesn't look like it will be any quieter.

We're off to do a Jack the Ripper tour followed by curry in Brick Lane for Nick's birthday one night and dinner at my cousin David's place in Belsize Park on another and then it's off up to Clitheroe for Christmas on Friday afternoon. And in between I'll be trying to cram in as much overtime as possible.

What have I been up to? Well both nights of the weekend were taken up with festivities. Flo's band, The Burn Brothers, played a gig in a curious, old pub in Kennington on Saturday night and on Friday night I was out at our work Christmas party. During the day it was tourist stuff with the fam.

Saturday was a stunning December day so we walked from Little Venice to Camden via Regent's Park, Lord's and Primrose Hill. The hill was stunning with perfect views of London however there were not sightings of Sadie Frost or the fabled Primrose Hill set. After Camden we bussed it over to the British Museum for a whirlwind tour of the highlights including the Sutton Hoo treasure, the Parthenon Marbles and the Mummies.

The Sunday we went to Spitalfields, then the Columbia Road flower markets which were packed with Cockney's hawking Christmas trees, the Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green, Speaker's Corner at Hyde Park, Mayfair, Picadilly, then the National Gallery.

Now I'm back at work doing overtime so forgive me if this post is devoid of inspiration.

The Work Art Balance

ST LUKE'S: It's been something of an artistic weekend this week. Well in between working both days. Actually I'm at the end of a 55-60 hour week (or actually at the beginning of another one, the delirium makes it difficult to tell) so work has been the main theme but yesterday I visited Hyde Park with a side tour to the Serpentine Gallery which is currently showing works from Damian Hirst's personal collection. Highlights included a photo of a man in a gorilla suit fulfilling Mary's role in <Pieta, an Andy Warhol car crash and some other giant sculpture that involved a BMW with a door ripped off and the arm of a manequin making wanking gestures.

Then after a stroll down Piccadilly stopping in at the bookstores it was time to see the Velazquez show at the National Gallery. Incorporating many of the highlights of the Spanish masters career the show was completely and utterly transcendent. Lacking the fine brush of an art critic I couldn't do the show justice if I elaborated so let me leave it at, transcendent.

The Pin

ST LUKE'S:

See the Pin pipes it from the lowest scraper for Brad Bramish to sell, maybe. Ask any dope rat where their junk sprang and they'll say they scraped it from that, who scored it from this, who bought it off so, and after four or five connections the list always ends with The Pin. But I bet you, if you got every rat in town together and said "Show your hands" if any of them've actually seen The Pin, you'd get a crowd of full pockets.

The Brain Brick

Rememberance of Weekends Past

ST LUKE'S: Friday - Borough Markets for the most amazing cheeses, produce, meats, chocolates, chutneys and everything else known to man.

Friday night - Christmas dinner. (Chris left for Mexico for three weeks on Saturday so we had to get in early). Which consisted of an antipasto-type plate for entree that featured Spanish ham, fried haloumi, fresh bread, roasted capsicum huumus and dolomates. Main course was roast goose with ALL the trimmings. Desert was a homemade chocolate pudding. Then for afters we had some Welsh cheese and chocolate.

Saturday - Hungover. Massively. We did get it together enough to go wandering in the West End though.

Sunday - Went down to Greenwich with Kate and met up with loads of people. Stood on the GMT line, got some great views of London and then cosied up in a little pub.

Know it's back to work, slogging through hours of overtime dreaming of a Parisian excursion in February.

Ring Ring

ST LUKE'S: Referring to last night's birthday celebrations, the lemonades and the long train ride home, I no longer have a phone. At least not at the moment and while I am in a quest to acquire one it will have a different number. This also means that I don't have anybody else's number. Can everybody please email me, if you haven't already spoken to me, at liam underscore ferney at yahoo dot com dot uk.

If you don't know what an underscore is how did you get on the Internet? If you still don't know leave a comment and I'll try and explain it.

The King is Dead. Long Live the King

ST LUKE'S: Nicko left a comment on the post below regarding this morning/yesterday's dramatic Test victory. I don't think it's over the top to say it's the most amazing Test comeback in history. I can think of others where the victorious team have had to work harder, but the utter tactical ineptitude of the English batsman shouldn't tarnish what has truly be a remarkable game.

I'd gotten home late last night. It was Flo's birthday so I was celebrating up North with a couple of lemonades before making a mad dash to get the last, long train home. We've got a dosser in our living room at the moment so I couldn't switch on the digital radio and instead headed straight to bed safe in the knowledge that some semblance of classicism had returned to Test cricket. After all there couldn't possibly be a result in this game, it was simply one small battle in the summer's long war.

I picked up the Metro on the way to work flicking through yesterday's news before settling in to read my book. But when I got to work I was treated to a dockyard full of insults and profanity. Posters had been ripped from walls and ashen, sullen faces were everywhere. It seemed, though until Cricinfo confirmed it I would not believe it, that we had won the Test.

Well I would have to say England only have themselves to blame. Australia, on the other hand, have moved into a position to stem the damage from the impending avalanche of retirements. For my two cents worth I'd swap Damien Martyn for Brad Hodge or Phil Jaques for the Perth Test and then look long and hard, probably at the WA team, for a pair to replace first Hayden and then Langer. I know some bloggers are saying why change a winning team? The other tack is that we should let these champions retire on their terms. Healy wasn't afforded that respect and the introduction of Gilchrist did set up Waugh's record breaking run. So I say that while Martyn has been an excellent player (far better indeed than most of the ignorant Australian public will ever give him credit for) he was certainly no Healy.

As for England in Perth, I just hope the Pom's continue to shoot themselves in the foot. Australian cricket revenge is such a rare meal that I'm happy to savour every spicy moutful.