Life in the Bus Lane

Absolutely fantastic.

90 minutes of sing-a-long superbness with a decent mix of old classics, and potential future classics.

Full setlist, now in the proper order (apparently):

The Light At The End Of The Tunnel (Is The Light Of An Oncoming Train)
Lock up your mountain bikes
Shit Arm Bad Tattoo
Fuckin’ ‘Ell It’s Fred Titmus
If I Had Possession over Pancake Day
Bob Wilson Anchorman
Bad Review
Restless Legs
Turned Up Clocked On Laid Off
CORGI Registered Friends
Trumpton Riots
Paintball’s Coming Home
Secret Gig
Look Dad No Tunes
Twydale’s Lament (ending only)
All I Want for Christmas is a Dukla Prague Away Kit
The Best Things in Life (ending only)
Numanoid Hanglide
Running order squabble fest
For What is Chatteris
Everythings A.O.R
Vatican Broadside
24 Hour Garage People
Joy Division Ovengloves

encore:
Rubber Bullets (10cc)
We built this village on a Trad. Arr. tune

• I actually moved into my house 11 years ago today.
• Thanks to a late visit from the postman, I’ve now reached the worrying heights of owning 400 DVDs

Also, it’s Half Man Half Biscuit in Frome tonight.

Housing Admin will be disbanding at the end of the current season. After 14 seasons my skittles career will be coming to a premature end.

Tonight was the fastest match of the season so far, it was all over by 9:30.

We took a straight 5-0 win, and were 40 pins or so in the lead by the end. Housing Admin took the full 8 points, Bluecoat House went home empty handed.

The next match is the nomination cup semi-final on Wednesday, however I won’t be playing due to a prior committment with Half Man Half Biscuit.

I actually rode a bike today!

I took the 456 round the usual Uni route, and it was probably the muddiest I’ve ever seen it in places. It’s amazing how unfit I feel having not ridden properly for over a month, but it was still good fun.

More photos: http://gallery.dynamite.org/Uni20070226

Frome gig (28 Feb) still has tickets available. Support comes from a Wurzels tribute band, HMHB on stage just after 9pm.

From http://www.hmhb.co.uk/

I looked out of the front window and saw sunshine. I stuck my head out the back window and it looked OK, so I sorted out the rucksack, fitted the hipflask cage, got changed into my cycling kit and went to get the bike. However in the 5 minutes that took it had started pouring with rain again.

Back to watching the rugby then.

The 456 is now equipped with a Shimano Hone 22/32/Bash chainset. I’m living dangerously by not getting the BB shell faced, but as and when the first set of bearings fail, I’ll get the shell faced and some replacements fitted, then send the old cups off to Sideways and get the Phil Wood bearings fitted.

I might head out for a ride after the World Cup cycling on telly finishes, provided the weather holds out.

Update: The weather didn’t hold out

This week has been a particularly lazy week. Apart from the 14 mile walk on Tuesday, I’ve not done anything energetic mainly due to the seemingly incessant rain. I have done a fair amount of shopping though. I splashed out on a new mobile phone, an Alpkit Fat Airic camping mat, a handful of DVDs from Play and the Woolworths sale, and a new Hone chainset and requisite tools for the 456.

Hopefully next weeks weather will be better and I can get a bit of riding done, although given the fact that the ground is almost totally waterlogged, it’ll no doubt still be a mucky ride even if it isn’t raining.

Hobbes seems to be enjoying the remains of the baked bean juice left on my dinner plate, which seems slightly strange. He’s obviously recoved from the mustard incident which gave him something of an aversion to licking plates.

So far it’s been

• The Assassination of Richard Nixon
• Once Upon a time in China
• Freeborn John Live
• Clerks II
• Severance

and we’ll probably finish off with

• Justin Sullivan & Friends Live

All aided by copious quantites of lager, pizza, and garlic bread.

Update: We actually finished off with

• Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

Fueled by nothing more than a Big Boy from Matty’s Cafe, Al, Big Dan, and myself walked the 14 miles from Tormarton, that well renowned badger watching spot, back to Bath. We weren’t exactly hurrying so it ended up taking us 6.5 hours including the pub stop near the end. I think it’s the furthest I’ve walked for a good few years now.

Luckily the weather held out and we had a good day apart from the slippery mud undefoot in places.

Time for a bath, then a trip to the pub before we head out for a curry.

Tonight was possibly one of the best games we’ve played for years. It was neck-and-neck for the first 8 legs, leaving the score at 4-4 with the pins tied. They showed a 51 which was pretty good, but luckily we started well. It got down to the last man who needed to get 3, just to taunt us he managed to put the first two balls through, then got 5 with the last ball.

Housing Admin won 5-4, and took the pins by 2 giving us the full 8 points, Picadillys took 4.

Guinness Marmite, available for a limited period from a supermarket near you (maybe).

Superb.

I feel well enough to ride tonight, and it’s currently nice and sunny out which can mean only one thing….

I’m staying in because I’ve got to go out later and won’t have enough time to ride beforehand. Maybe tomorrow.

We won the first leg quite comfortably, but a rare demonstration of form saw Picadillys win the second leg. However after that we were almost unstoppable and built up a decent margin. We only just managed to beat their sixth leg, but that meant we won 5-1 and beat them by over 40 pins.

Housing Admin took the full 8 points, Picadillys took 1.

Today has mostly been spent building an excessively large amount of Pax units from Ikea in my parents study. I think we built 8 units in the end to cover two walls of the room, it’s the most work I’ve done on a Sunday for ages. Time to relax in front of the TV with a bottle of wine now.

It just feels like it.

I’ve still got the sore throat and annoying cough that I’ve had for getting on for two weeks, and I’ve now got an abcess in the root of a tooth just to make things worse. After todays visit to the dentist I still have the tooth, but I’ve now got a course of anti-biotics to go with it. I’ve got to go back again Tuesday to see my proper dentist to arrange to have the tooth removed. That’ll be fun.

In slightly better news, at long last I’ve finished reading The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. I think I started the first book nearly a year ago. A very good read, just a little bit long winded at times.

We braved the reports of the impending end of the world, or a little bit of snow as it’s more commonly known, and headed up to Weston Bowls Club to play the return match against the Police tongiht. Unfortunately I didn’t play as well tonight as I did last week when I wasn’t there, and after trading legs for a while we hit a losing streak and eventually lost 5-3.

Police took the full 8 points Housing Admin took 3.

I’m not sure how much longer Housing Admin will last as a team. Two players are emigrating to Spain in a month, and another will be moving away next year. Given that we already struggle for players at the moment, I can’t see the team surving until next season unless the captain breaks the habit of a lifetime and recruits new players. I think this is my fourteenth season playing for the team, so I’m still classed as a newcomer.

The Stiffee has well and truly been retired now. I’ve ridden the 456 enough to realise that it’s not going straight onto the junk pile, so I finally got around to stripping the last of the components off the Stiffee, before hosing it down to clean the mud off. Once it had dried I gave it a final wipe down before relegating it to a life sat on top of the shelving unit in the back bedroom.

It was an interesting 5 years.