The best thing

ST LUKE'S: about going to a wedding in Munich is using it as an excuse.

eg. MARCEL: Are you going to football tomorrow night?
ME: No, I'm going to a weddding. In Munich.

ME: I need to take Thursday and Friday off.
DECLAN: Why?
ME: Because I'm going to Munich for a wedding.

Popbitch - You know you want to

ST LUKE'S: So while I've got half a week off this week I'm still finding myself as bored as I was last week. Or the week before that actually.

To that end I've been wasting minutes flitting back and forth to Popbitch just to read a bunch of twaddle written by largely self-absorbed, shallow middle class wankers talking about how self-absorbed and shallow the upper, lower, and celebrity classes are.

My question is this, if irony is the dominant mode of our age, why are so many people completely lacking in it?

Lists, Damn Lists and Statistics

BEDFORD ROAD: Even sporadic readers of Rolling Stone, Mojo, et. al., more than likely suffer from list fatigue. With 60's dinosaurs like Sargeant Pepper's, Pet Sounds and What's Going On inevitably filling up the top ten, this new list of the greatest albums of 90's published on Pitchfork is like the first glass of water the morning after a big night out. Sure OK Computer comes out on top but they make such compelling arguments. And all the best hip hop records make the list.

Check it out here.

Oh and Pavement have two records in the top ten.

Snow

ST LUKE'S: It snowed last night. Everything was white this morning. But by the time I went to have a cigarette at lunch time it was all gone. I'm sure The Express will blame global warming. Or the terrorists. Or the immigrants.

Things That Make You Go Hmmm....

ST LUKE'S: "My mind is completely open to different cultures, but I don't think they should bring them to Britain."

This is just a tidbit from the UK's latest racist sensation, 18 year old Lucy Buchanan who is currently appearing on reality TV show Shipwrecked. The toff racist also advocates a return to slavery but concedes that this is unlikely to happen.

The best thing about the weekend

ST LUKE'S: The best thing about my weekend was probably seeing three seperate herds of deer as I tramped across Richmond Park yesterday afternoon. However, other highlights included a "dinner" party at Elerig's, seeing Casablanca on the silver screen at the NFT, going up the Monument for the views on a perfect winter's day, a visit to the London Museum and the veritable Indian feast Chris and Katie concocted last night.

The worst part was probably inadvertently stepping in one of the many puddles that pockmarked the park like landmines in Cambodia.

There's One in Every Office

ST LUKE'S: This is genuine. Names have been changed to protect the petty.

Dear Mr ********,

I am an ******** ******** on the second floor. I'm sorry to bother you with the most trivial of matters, but I've been advised to write to you by Mr ********. I'm in the habit of (once or twice per day) collecting a coffee from the first floor and taking it upstairs to drink at my desk (well away from the keyboard may I add). The reason for this is quite simply that the coffee is drinkable, unlike the godawful stuff on the second floor. Mr ******** says I must drink the coffee on the first floor before returning upstairs.

I've said that I'm unwilling to do this, that his attitude is somewhat over-officious (health and safety concerns). I consider this a waste of time I need to be working and in any case I am careful in drinking the coffee at my workstation. He in turn advised me to bring it up with you. Could you please rule on this? If, as I suspect, you agree with him, could I ask that eventually we might have equivalent coffee-making facililities upstairs? Again, sorry to detain you with something so apparently trivial.

Yours sincerely,

***************

The Maltese Falcon

"I hope they don't hang you, precious, by that sweet neck. Yes, angel, I'm gonna send you over. The chances are you'll get off with life. That means if you're a good girl, you'll be out in 20 years. I'll be waiting for you. If they hang you, I'll always remember you."

So Sweet

ST LUKE'S: Anything I Like is a fantastic little art blog curated by my friend Marissa Newell, one half of Papertiger Publishing. In the latest edition they're featuring a fantastic Sunshine Coast Artist called Emma Coulter. She does great expressionist paintings that you can check out, along with a brief interview, here.

Sneaker Freaker

ST LUKE'S: I finally found the pair of shoes to buy with the money Mum gave me for Christmas. Aren't they snazzy? But browsing the Internet today I saw a whole lot of others I'd like to own so I might just invest in a second pair when I get payed next month.

Another Weekend down

ST LUKE'S: Another weekend over and I'm back at work listening to The Sports Factor and trawling endlessly through Yorkshire newspapers. And five full days till the next one. Still I did come across an article about a white water centre in Wales that offer two day courses for £105. I've got a birthday coming up...

But I can't complain. If I did people would stop dropping by and I'd end up with less hits and comments (That's not technically possible. Ed.) than I have now. Friday night I visited my cousin's place, caught up with the fam and supped some of his fine desert wine.

Saturday morning was the last little bit of OT for the month and then Saturday afternoon I walked down to Southbank to check out the latest installment in the Unilever series at the Tate Modern. For those of you outside the UK I'm referring to "The Slides". Then in the evening Kate and I visited the local wine bar before coming home for steak sandwiches and home fries.

Sunday I cooked a Spanish Frittata then went for a walk through Battersea Park before taking in The Maltese Falcon at the NFT with Kate, Shannon and Nick.

Inadequacy

ST LUKE'S: When I trawl through some of the other blogs scattered across the blobe, I always end up acutely aware of my own distinct that of ability as a blogger. Maybe I can't write - though there is, I believe, some evidence to suggest that, at times at least, I can - maybe I'm just not funny or perhaps, most likely, my life is, at times, so mind numbingly mundane that it would require a Proustian effort to animate it.

My weekend for instance: Friday night visited Shannon in hospital at South Ken, Saturday morning worked then visited Shannon in hospital again with a side trip to a lovely Italian restaurant for lunch, Sunday made a Canadian breakfast, read The Sunday Times, watched A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 then went to see Apocalypto with Kate at the Ritzy. See - nothing to exciting about that.

Tonight I'm off to Brick Lane for Libby Trew's birthday. Maybe I'll bump into Peaches Geldof, Russel Brand and George Galloway.

PS. For my readers down under, if you don't recognise these celebrities, google them.

Korean

ST LUKE'S: Came home from work last night and there was a five or six dish Korean feast on the table. Delicious. It made the forty-five minutes worth of washing up more than bearable. Then I had leftovers for lunch.

Scrabble - Glastonbury Hostel

BEDFORD ROAD:

Some holiday snaps

Wanka

Glastonbury Abbey

Liverpool must've wasted a dozen corners
like this, right in front of us.

"I wandered lonely as a cloud..."

Fountains Abbey (built by Multiplex)

Spinal Tap props

From the Vaults

This was drafted about two weeks ago but I forgot to post it.

ST LUKE'S: Well it's early Saturday morning and there's no place I'd rather be than at work doing overtime. If only the days would lengthen enough to allow me to get up in the light.

Now that I'm back in the realm of the wage slave I thought I'd take some moments to ruminate on the past week and fill you in on the details of my Cornish sojurn. But rather than give you a blow by blow account I figured an account of the highlights would be more fitting. Otherwise my sleep deprived mind is likely to repeatedly flounder on cliches like "craggy peninsula", "windswept" and "desolate". (Though the landscape mostly was).

I saw, in order: Stonehenge, Winchester (including the cathedral), Glastonbury Abbey, Glastonbury Tor, Glastonbury, Lyton, Bude, Rick Stein's Fish and Chip Shop in Padstow, Land's End, Penzance (where our hostel manager uttered the fatal words I'm not racist but...), Newquay, Mousehole, Cape Cornwall, the Coastal Path, St. Ives, Mezigivvey, Dartmoor National Park, Portland, Maiden's Castle and back to London.

The Road Warrior

""She sips nitro... with Phase 4 heads! 600 horsepower through the wheels! She's meanness set to music and the bitch is born to run!"