Goodness, how did I miss The Beatles Complete on Ukelele? Before you cringe irrevocably, it turns out to be considerably distant from being crap, although one might quibble over the amount of uke audible on many tracks.

They've only done 71/185 so far, too - July 2012 is the scheduled completion date.

My immediate reaction on discovering the site was ( Read more... )

If you count my previous (1996-7) employment in a different function, department, profit centre and indeed company within the same group, then I have spent more time being paid by Deutsche Bank than anywhere else. Even not counting the earlier time I'm only seven or eight months away from the all-time record (5 years ( Read more... )

... Stanley

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The ongoing will-they-won't-they discussions, Birks' latest commentary and this excellent representation of the various parties' failure adequately to address the spending deficit in any useful way have me feeling that my normal emotional state has seldom been more justified.

Remember the bankers who knew (or suspected) mortgages were ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

gunga_galunga  asked, very reasonably, "How come you only post when grumpy?"

Some people have a religion on which to fall back; lacking one, I require an alternative pyschological crutch. I think grumpy rather suits me. It's more than a transient state of mind, it's a way of life. I mean, consider my current state of existence:

To pick a few of the more prominent ( Read more... )

Over the weekend I watched Oil City Confidential on BBC Four, a film I'd never heard of and which I only happened upon by pure nearly-went-to-bed-and-missed-it good fortune. It would probably be enjoyable even if you hadn't heard of or never liked Dr Feelgood. I frickin' loved it.

I don't suppose our charming Prime Minister is feeling quite so good ( Read more... )

There's a billboard on the platform of a station that I pass* and on it is a message from Microsoft: a picture of an obvious geek tending to some knitting, with a caption of "the new busy is not like the old busy". The whole thing, from the link in the bottom-right corner, is supposed to be directing me towards Hotmail.

OK, so I'm clearly an "old ( Read more... )

Swims: only 6 ( Read more... )

The female half of the family having headed to an Italian Alp for the school skiing holiday, Johnny and I decamped to CentreParcs in Suffolk (must be only a stone's throw or two from Norfolk) for our own Easter break. Sadly the good weather we had earlier this month is a distant memory and it's been cold and rain all the way. Fortunately, the ( Read more... )

... I think I'm starting to "get" the White Stripes.

If that seems slow, bear in mind that it's only in the last couple of years that I started to be able to listen to Led Zeppelin.

And, while I still find most U2 output tedious in the extreme, I don't have any particular gripe with The Edge.

All of which probably goes some way toward explaining why I ( Read more... )