Rugby, excitement, drunkenness, fun

This Saturday, the Six Nations begins again. It's an annual thing, and for me, an Englishman, more exciting than the Rugby World Cup that they're doing this summer.

Andy Farrell (is that right?) is back. No idea who he is, but it's probably a good thing. Jonny Wilkinson, the man many not-English people described as 'The England Rugby Team' during the last world cup (portentiously) is back. Most excitingly for me, Jason Robinson, the most intensely intense man I've ever seen charge down the wing for the England Rugby Team, is back. There was a moment right at the end of the Six Nations in 2004 where he hit the French line at a hundred miles an hour, and no one could have stopped him (but of course they did) where I saw how much you could achieve with sheer determination.

I can't wait for Saturday. Even if these aren't our finest players, they're England Rugby's biggest names (with the exception of Tetley and Carling). That's going to make a difference. Not enough for us to win this summer's world cup. Not enough for us to take the 6 nations title. But enough for me, at least, to be proud of a sporting team that bears the name England again. I hope. Which is what international sport is all about.

One month to go!

With thanks to DoctorWhen for the image.

Today is the last day in January. On the last day in February, I leave my current employment at Abel & Cole - a first step in a series of events that lands me on the other side of the planet with nothing but a bag full of clothing and a credit card. It's all rather exciting really.

I've really enjoyed working at Abel & Cole - I've really enjoyed meeting people with principles that they actually work for, and I've enjoyed being given opportunities to move my work forward; though I'm not sure I moved it in quite the right direction in the end. I've worked here for four and a half years though, and I can't wait to get out and not work at all for a while, and then later, work somewhere else. There's a lot of people I'm really going to miss, but I'm pretty sure I'll see some of them again.

Let's hope that Sydney is paved with tuna when I get there - at least metaphorically.

Slagging off Paul Verhoeven

Apparently Paul Verhoeven has a new film. It's an intense drama about a woman in occupied Holland who is working with the resistance, and makes friends with a stamp collector. After Total Recall and Starship Troopers, I've always seen Verhoeven as someone to whom the term 'lowest common denominator' wouldn't apply, merely because his characters would never use a word like denominator. Jonathon Ross says I should probably change my mind, and give Black Book a try. I might, yet.

IMDB says "Rated R for some strong violence, graphic nudity, sexuality and language" - so it is true to form.

And what do pints mean?! PRIZES!!!

Here's the pictures of the two prizes on offer at the Pub Golf! Click them for bigness.

The cup is for the outright winner, the medal for the best outfit.

Practice run

This evening I'm going to the Dover Castle to meet up with some folks I haven't seen for a few weeks. The Dover Castle is a little pub on a little mews in Marylebone - just south of Weymouth Street in fact. You could walk within twenty metres of it and not know it was there. It's also somewhere Braunwin and I used to meet up, as it's conveniently between Newman House and the Royal Academy of Music.

There's a photo of the bar in the Dover Castle - as you can see it's a very traditional bar, very 'British pub'. I suppose that's pretty convenient given their location and the nature of their business.

This site says that The Who used this pub for a quick pint between sessions, as well as describing it as hard to find, but well worth persevering. I agree.

Russian Winter Festival, 13th Jan 2007

Trafalgar Square went properly Russian on Saturday, with lots of traditional entertainment, dancing Cossacks, vodka, Baltika, Russian pop (their Eurovision entry was just as bad as ours) and some excellent music from a young woman called Pelageya, with a band of the same name. She had the most incredible vocal range, and when a few chords started sounding familiar we realised they were playing Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd, which brought a big smile to my face. It's a tricky one to do well,. but it was well within her capabilities. If the UK market ever opens its doors to Russian-speaking acts, she'll be one of the first through the door.

Sing sing sing!

I watched Corpse Bride last night, and they had a wonderful section of big band music in the background, in the style of Sing sing sing!, which is (I think) a Benny Goodman number. It's that chaotic sort of piece one might associate with a descent into Hell, and one that my old big band used to do. The film itself was great fun, full of famous voices and weird and wonderful animations. I was delighted to see it was done in stop-motion - I'll find out more today perhaps.

Tonight I may or may not be going to join a choir in Balham. It seems a bit daft, for two reasons. Firstly I'm off to Australia soon, and secondly I'm not in the best voice (I'm still coughing and spluttering from the continuous series of coughs I've had since September). Still, I'm much clearer than I was yesterday, so perhaps it will all go well. And if I like it, they've got choirs in Australia.

Aren't dreams weird?

I had this really strange dream last night. I was at Ben and Emma's first wedding anniversary party. That's strange in itself, as I know I'll be out of the country when that comes round. It was in Camden. That's also weird, they'd never host a big party in Camden. Plus it wasn't camden anyway, as it was the countryside. Beautiful rolling hills, green fields, and a little country railway that brought us there. Steam trains too.

I walked through the village and arrived at this beautiful church hall. I think I was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, though everyone else was very well dressed. I kept thinking "but they're already married, I saw it, why are they getting married again?". It was very confusing. All the usual suspects were there, we had a great time, but I remember leaving pretty early, and going back to Camden station to take the train to Kings Cross. On the walk back to the station the whole wedding one year, anniversary the next thing suddenly made sense, but it seemed rather late to bring it up. In the end I decided to walk to Kings Cross, so I set off into the woods, down a single track road (single track roads and large wooded areas being abundant between Camden and Kings Cross. It took me a couple of trys though, because at first I started walking on the rail lines instead of the road, which is always a bad idea.

I'll never know what this means.

Happy New Year

I've completely failed to post anything about Christmas or New Year so far. I have New Year's Resolutions, which are to stop keeping my Australian friend awake on MSN Messenger, and to behave just a little bit more like an adult in certain social situations. I'd make one about dieting, or drinking less, or stopping having the occasional cigarette when drinking, or any number of other things, but I'm figuring those will follow from being a bit more grown up.

New Year's Eve was typically drunken, I ended up with an Amaretto and Coke in my hand at one point for some reason. Lots of fun though, the folks at the big house in Mile End were on excellent form. Christmas was drunken too, towards the end - lots of port particularly. Some excellent food though, the geese were delicious and they did wonders to the potatoes.

Now I'm just looking forward to getting everything sorted for March and getting out of here. Trying to squeeze a few good nights out into the schedule in the meantime - Ben Folds is playing later this month (23rd?), and Buena Vista Social Club, early in March (8th). I think Ojos de Brujo are at the Roundhouse in February too. We'll have to see what's happening...