Concrete

It's a bank holiday... the weather is okay... so work continued on my great civil engineering project.

Fuelled by a most excellent bacon mushroom and cheese sandwich for breakfast, much earth was dug and concrete was mixed and placed. I've never subscribed to the gym-freak idea that "feeling the burn" makes you feel oddly happy, but today, I am almost tempted to agree. After five hours of backbreaking physical work, I do feel strangely satisfied, and in more than just a look what we have achieved sense. So gym-freaks, ditch your annual memberships and rowing machines and treadmills, and get out in the garden and exercise doing something worthwhile!

Now I'm going to undo the good work by getting pissed...

Sun

It's the vernal equinox tomorrow, apparently. The start, properly, of spring. The sun however, had its own idea, and showed it's face today, which meant I could do some gardening unencumbered by jackets, jumpers, hats, etc. Except I maybe should have worn a hat, because I have actually managed to get a sunburnt head.

Supervolcano...

Previously I have refered to my interest in volcanoes, and on many occasions I have refered to my prediliction for fact based TV... so it will come as no suprise to hear that I spent the last two evenings glued to the telly watching "Supervolcano" on BBC1. The technology the key characters used was a bit sci-fi (their portable computers seem to have had everlasting batteries, holograms are still pretty tricky and the phone networks, both landline and mobile, would die very quickly in those conditions) but the rest was quite well done, and certainly within the sort of parameters of what could (and, as they kept saying, eventually will) happen. My only criticism is that the end was a bit upbeat. But that's telly, I suppose.

Anyway, for further reading I suggest visiting http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/index.html which is the website of the real Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. You may also want to obtain a copy of a book called "A Guide to the End of the World: everything you never wanted to know" by Bill McGuire which will really scare the shit out of you!

TV on the Radio

A few months ago, the great DJ John Peel passed away. His passing was noted by most, as was his contribution to the world of popular music. That contribution was huge. This weekend another DJ, Tommy Vance, has passed away. Nobody will ever claim for Tommy Vance the same influence on popular music as a whole that John Peel had, and he would, and now never will be, as feted as Peely. But for me, TV was the biggest influence.

For those of us who liked the terminally unfashionable heavy rock end of pop music, Tommy was the man. Every Friday, from the age of about 12, I used to tune in to the Friday Rock Show and get my weekly dose. I suspect it was actually a chance hearing of the Friday Rock Show that got me into rock in the first place, because I don't know how else it would have happened.

So Tommy Vance, thank you. You helped me be me.

Congestion

I have a stinking cold. I wouldn't mind so much if I hadn't taken a couple of days off work to do some stuff, get drunk etc, which I'm now struggling to do. If wanted to lie around in bed feeling ill, I would have taken the time off sick.

I'm drinking brandy tonight, for it's medicinal qualities, so hoping I'll feel better tomorrow...