orbital blue

So Orbital have called it a day. They’ve had a good innings. Does this leave just The Chemical Brothers and Underworld as crossover dance acts that are actually good live?

I have all of Orbital’s albums apart from The Altogether which is awful. It’s so bad I’m convinced it was a contractual obligation. My favourite is undoubtedly Snivilisation, followed by In Sides, The Brown Album and Middle of Nowhere. I have just been given a copy of their new and final cd, The Blue Album. I really hope it’s good or at least not too disappointing.

the lights are on…

The other day I got a new superslim keyboard for my PC. It’s silver and has a nice, quiet, laptop-style keys. Unfortunately, while attempting to remove the one-time cable tie I slashed through the outer cable and severed one of the wires. Last night I mended it and it works. Well, it works on one of my PCs. This is one of those infuriating illogical PC problems that just don’t make sense. Let me explain.

culture vultures

We went down to London on Saturday. Considering it’s less than an hour’s train journey we don’t go very often: I think this is only our third trip there together in as many years. We killed some time window-shopping in the Burlington Arcade while waiting for the Portland Gallery to open: saw a hideous dinner service for only £7200! The gallery had an exhibition of Jack Vettriano paintings which was interesting. I found it very curious that he often paints exactly the same picture twice but in different sizes. They were selling signed, limited-edition prints but the only one we liked was sold out. Just as well really because once we got home we realised that it was far too big for the location we had in mind.

In the afternoon we went to the Edward Hopper exhibition at the Tate Modern. That was good but unfortunately my favourite painting, Room In New York, wasn’t on show. After all the art it was off to Covent Garden to do some shopping. HP got a poncho (she is convinced they are coming back into fashion, if they’re not already – we spotted several at Tate Modern) and we added to our collection of original paintings. Nothing highbrow – just a couple of pictures of cats!

Sunday evening was spent in the park listening to a free concert by the London Philharmonic as part of the Italia-themed Peterborough Festival. Luckily the weather was OK and there was a good turn-out with most people bringing their own picnics (including us). The music itself was good, if a little obscure for the type of event. Thanks to a stroke of luck with parking we were home in ten minutes. Overall, a very enjoyable weekend.

a gift from Miles

We woke up this morning to find a dead rabbit on the landing. It was very small but there was blood, guts and fur all over the place. We can’t work out how we didn’t hear any commotion during the night. Jebus knows what little Jack made of it all.

wreck your body

I’m playing football tonight. My first game since January and only my third since last July. I’m not looking forward to the pain on Thursday morning though.

I met up with Davy last night for a drink and a natter. Very enjoyable. Nice to note that we hadn’t changed too much during my time away… a bit less hair, a bit more weight but both still top geezers!

HP’s surprise weekend in London is coming up. She knows she’s going but not what for. I’d like to say that she’s been really good about not knowing but she’s been terrible about it. If you’re reading this, HP, yer a big squinney.

Jack your body

This is Jack, our new kitten.

ohm sweet ohm

I’m back home now for good. It’s wonderful.

Last week Bulldog switched on my ADSL and on Thursday evening I plugged in my Netgear DG834G wireless modem/router/firewall and it all worked perfectly first time. Now I can surf from the garden which is really great. Bulldog have impressed me just be the sheer smoothness of the process of ordering/installing broadband. The speed is good too; certainly faster than from work. And the Netgear kit was literally plug’n'play: fantastically easy to install with my wireless network up and running in 5 minutes.

run for home

My last day at work here in Italy… everything is pretty much sorted now. All I have to do this evening is a little cleaning in my apartment: all my remaining stuff is packed and ready to go. I suppose I should go around saying goodbye to people. Don’t know if I can be arsed…

ultimo

This is my last week in Italy. I leave on Thursday lunchtime.

I can’t say I’m sorry to be leaving; it can’t come soon enough. Leaving aside for a moment, HP, Miles and (soon) Jack, I’d still want to get back to the UK. Italy’s a nice place to visit but living here, and especially here in Fabriano, is not for me.