Category: Random Catchup

Posted on

anyone got a phone no. for the love unlimited orchestra.

OK, so my voice is back, just. The only problem is, everything I say sounds like the spoken intro to a Barry White song. My voice is about an octave lower than usual. And it still hurts to talk, even if it’s now possible.

Add to that how toxic I still feel (body fighting off infection, bound to feel rough), and I’m still an unhappy Stevie. But I do think I’m no the mend. I’m pretty sure this isn’t now going to turn into some sort of huge crippling disease that renders me unable to finish my tax accounts before I go away to the States in January…

Oh shit, before that I need to call the National Insurance people and find out what the hell is happening with this huge bill I got at the beginning of December…

better go do that!

Posted on

just don't bother phoning…

Today I woke up with no voice. Not the croaky sore throat voice of yesterday, but a proper only-just-able-to-whisper no voice at all. So don’t phone me, I won’t be able to answer it. Texts and emails are fine. It’s all a bit crap really. The rest of me still feels a little toxic, but generally no worse than yesterday. Guess I got good old fashioned Laryngitis – which could be anything. the suffix ‘itis’ just means infection – so laryngitis is an infection of the larynx, and could be really mild (this seems to be fairly mild) or some sort of ebola mutation that only affects the larynx (and therefor probably makes your head fall off given the speed with which ebola eats people up… i’m guessing in that situation calling it ‘laryngitis’ would be considered just a tad misleading, given the certain death that would follow. None of the usual lines about it ‘not being all that infectious once you’ve started showing symptoms’ wouldn’t really apply…)

In good news, by internet bandwidth thing seems to have been cleared up, which is reassuring.

And now I’m going to collapse in front of the tele with a duvet, cos that what you do when you’re ill.

Posted on

Peep Show

It’s not often I find myself agreeing with Ricky Gervais – I mean, I found The Office funny, but have never felt any real affinity with the co-writer and star of the show. However, when he commented on stage at the British Comedy Awards this week that it was a tragedy that Peep Show hadn’t been nominated for any awards, I almost applauded the TV (I didn’t, because people who actually applaud the TV are clearly insane, like middle aged blokes who shout at referees on televised football matches).

Peep Show is without doubt the most original comedy to hit the screens in the UK for quite a few years. At least since the Office, if not before. For those who’ve missed it thus far, it’s a sit-com about two losers who share a flat. All the camera work is POV – you’re always looking at the scene from one of the character’s point of view, so there’s no third person camera work – and there’s a running commentary by the two main characters in the from of their inner monologues. Brilliantly observed, hilariously funny, occasionally surreal and a little bit twisted, it’s just come to the end of the third series, and I so hope it gets recommissioned for a fourth.

Til then, you can catch up with the repeats on E4 (oh yes, we’ve finally gone and got a Freeview box!) or buy series one and two on DVD.

Posted on

Illness and website woes

Bugger, I’m ill. Been fighting off a sore throat for days, and this morning it’s finally taken hold. Was woken up in the night every time I tried to swallow – v. painful. And it’s affecting me ears too. So guzzling lemsip and throat-comfort tea, and staying dosed up on Echinacea, Sambucol, Zinc and Vit C.

Was meant to be going to see my grandparents today with my mum, but instead have had to lend mum our car to go on her own, which is crap.

Added to that, there’s been a balls-up with my webspace which is telling me I’m over my bandwidth allocation. Which is balls. it was initially 6gig, I then paid an extra tenner a year for an extra gig (when I first put downloadable albums up and had a rush on those), and then let that extra gig lapse last month. And now it’s dropped to 3gig/month!! Big mistake somewhere along the line, and not what I need in the run-up to christmas at all….

grrrrr. bah humbug.

Posted on

sidetracked…

ah, now I remember what I was going to talk about WRT Springer the Opera!

It’s the news story that Woolworths and Sainsbury’s have refused to stock the DVD. How ridiculous is this?? Both shops have no ethical trading policy that I’m aware of, and as Stewart Lee pointed out on the radio, both will receive far more calls to stop stocking Nestle or Proctor And Gamble products, but won’t do that because that’s about money. It’s a marketing balls-up, and just highlights the double standards of the big chainstores…

However, what it will also do is give a whole load of publicity to the DVD release of the show. After the loons at Christian Voice protested the stage show, attendance went up, when they complained about the TV show, it broke broadcasting records, hopefully the same will happen with the DVD…

When will these minority interest groups get their heads around the notion that picketing and complaining about stuff just gives it publicity. The same thing happened with ‘the Last Temptation of Christ’ – not, I’m told, a particularly good film, but a box office smash thanks to a bunch of well meaning complainers who made it a front page news item when it came out.

Right, so my next album is going to be called ‘all religions can kiss my arse… and atheists can piss off as well.’ With track title targeting each of them in turn. Hopefully I’ll get banned and sell a million.

Posted on

The king of herbal/fruit teas

I’m now coming up to my first anniversary of being caffeine-free – I had my last cup of caffeinated coffee on Dec 31st last year, and haven’t had any all this year. My only caffeine intake has been the trace amounts in decaf coffee, and even then I very rarely have more than one cup in day, often going a week or more without that.

The upshot is that I’ve become a connoisseur of herbal tea.

at the very bottom of the pile of so-called fruit teas is the Lipton mint-tea that you get in road-side cafes and cafes in the south of France. It’s shit, like some straight black tea that someone has dribbled into after chewing spearmint gum. Filth, and not fit to be thought of as mint-tea.

In the more than acceptable category come the likes of Heath And Heather and Twinings – both make a fine mint tea, and are to be celebrated when offered in a cafe or restaurant, fo’ sho’.

However, the king of herb and fruit tea is definitely Dr Stuart – I dunno what the good doctor does to make his tasty teas all the more tasty and infused with delicious tea-ness, but he’s doing it right, and it works for me. His mint tea is more minty, his peach spice is both spicy and peachy, and all the others I’ve tried have been much lovely too. Definitely just what the doctor ordered.

Posted on

Virtual Advent Calendar

the very talented Lorna has posted a marvellous virtual advent calendar on her website – click that link to have a look, and check back each day for a new picture!

Soundtrack – a new tune I recorded last night – finally, after a long while of no fresh ideas, I hit on one, and got a nice rough version of the tune recorded – am v. happy with it, great little jaunty shuffle tune. Far too long at the moment, but some judicious editing or more likely a rerecording may well do the trick.

© 2008 Steve Lawson and developed by Pretentia. | login

Top