Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me Me

O yes, a bloggy all about my favourite subject - Me - for a change (ahem), with a liberal use of subtitles to help you focus on the subject under discussion. I know my readers appreciate pointers in my sometimes rambling blog entries.

iPod

I have a new iPod and I love it! My previous iPod was a 'mini' (henceforth to be known as Little iPey) and I loved it - a perfect size, easy to shove into a shirt pocket and holding just over 1000 songs. A miracle of design and entertainment. Wonderful.

And then the evil Apple Empire started taunting me with the new models it's just brought out. They were shinier. And they hold photos in glorious colour. And videos. I am weak, I know that. I succumb to temptation at the drop of a hat so had to get one. But, should I get the 30 or the 80 gig model? That translates as 7,500 or 20,000 songs? Well, as every man knows in his heart of hearts, size matters, so I went for the 80 gig. 80 gig of memory in that little thing is larger than most laptops.

Of course, now I have to load music onto it and, despite spending every waking minute copying and loading CDs I only have 3,815 songs on it so far. This is going to take forever. I have 605 photos on it and have downloaded 6 videos. I don't think I'm ever going to fill it up. Maybe I should've just got the 30 gig model after all.

I have just loaded 'Desolation Boulevard' by Sweet and am currently copying 'Electric Warrior' by T.Rex. Next in the pile of CDs beside the poota is P!nk followed by Lou Reed & John Cale. I don't actually have the Gorrilaz on mine - that's a stock photo.

Milestones

I achieved two milestones yesterday. As you might recall, when I started going to the gym with my personal trainer I couldn't do some exercises due to my back. Well, blow me, but I can now. A mixture of strengthening and flexibility exercises means that I can now do push-ups. Ok, so that's hardly earth shattering, but it's important to me. It means that the band of muscle around my middle is strong enough to protect my back when I put some pressure on it. That's good news.

The second milestone is my weight. Over the last couple of years in particular I've become what's known, in technical language, as a fat bastard (that's "fattus bastardus" for those of you with Latin 'O' level or GCSE). That's part of my whole health problem. I've never been too bothered about weight - it's more about waist size with me. After my strenuous workout yesterday I thought I'd try the scales in the changing room. I haven't weighed myself for a couple of weeks so imagine my delight at finally breaking the 100kg barrier - not by much, but I'm now in double numbers rather than triple at long last!

Debauchery

I've had a week of champagne, Guinness and Merlot-fueled debauchery - with cheesecake on the side. That is bad. Also very inconsistent. How can I be sufficiently strong-willed to say 'no' to having parmesan on my delicious pasta al arrabietta at the Val Tarro but say 'yes' to cheesecake for pudding? Hmmmm. Maybe it was the bottle of Merlot I'd polished off in the meantime... I must be strong and disciplined. Pepsi Max is my friend. The photo is me quaffing champagne at the RVT, courtesy of Chris.

Pills 'n' Spills

Sorting through my tablets this morning I realise I need to go back to the doctors for a repeat prescription. It also made me realise that I'm becoming very lax. I've started to forget to take them.

I forgot to take any at all on Monday - I can partially understand that, what with the stresses of the CfP event. I felt it on Tuesday as well, a rather strange feeling that I couldn't shake all day. On Wednesday I forgot to take my morning tablets and the same on Friday. I'm a three in the morning but five at night kinda guy. I really should carry some round with me for when I forget to take them.

That smacks of complacency to me. Because I'm not in pain then I forget to take the tablets. But if I don't take 'em, the pain returns to remind me to take 'em. Vicious circle. Discipline me lad, discipline!

'60s v '80s

I'm listening to The Four Tops as I type - they did some great tunes, happy and upbeat and had great voices. This reminds me of Chris's new DVD about The Temptations. The Four Tops v The Temptations? I couldn't choose between them - both have given us some fabulous songs. I loved watching the Temps DVD - some of these young wrappers and hippity hop people should watch it to see what cool really looks like.

I've also rediscovered The Thompson Twins this week when I invested in their greatest hits CD. I'd forgotten all about them until recently and that prompted me to sample them on iTunes and then go out and get the CD. Not in the same class or as immortal as bands like the Tops, but not bad!

Amanda

Just so that you don't think I've forgotten my heroes by doing a bloggy with no mention of them, here's some news about Amanda Dresden Doll.

Amanda has a new MySpace site - whokilledamandapalmer - and here is a delightful new photo of her at Glastonbury over the summer. We are so privileged to be offered the opportunity to lick her legs.