So long 2006; glad to see the back of you and hello 2007!

The Christmas lights may well be shining still, however the festive period is well and truly over. I return to the office this morning and despite the obligatory handshakes and pats on backs it is business as usual.
Customarily, this time of the year leaves one feeling low, depressed and disenchanted with the working world, as no matter how bleak ones Christmas was, sat on your arse watching TV and eating chocolate orange is far superior way of spending one's time than sat in this miserable old office. I however feel neither as I was here at work between Christmas and New year's, so naturally I felt low, depressed and disenchanted then, also more importantly, Lisa and I are going to Prague for a few days tomorrow. More uplifting than this is my impending job interview on the 10th- though due a surge of recently applied job positions, I regret that I chose not to keep the job specifications list provided for me and sadly I don't actually know what the job entails. No matter- hopefully I may be able to answer questions posed to be in a vague but convincing manner. Having been Council employee for some time, this should not be too hard an task to undertake. But seriously, I don't have a clue what this job is about. I don't feel for a minute that I have a snowball's chance in hell - but it ought to be a laugh!

Another reason to be cheerful is the new graffiti that I noticed for the first time on route to the office today:

"Kate Smith is a grass on her fella.
Mony (sic) grabber"

I find the thousands of vicious graffiti messages with spelling mistakes across this fine city hilarious. The band and I found the slogan " Kenny is a supper(sic) grass!" to be the best thus far as we used to pass it on route to our old rehearsal room.

Better that these handwritten musings was a piece of festive graffiti that I spotted on the Friday before Christmas. I was in fairly high spirits on that day. The majority of my shopping had been completed and I was looking forward to enjoying a couple of quiet ales in the evening. It wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that I had a spring in my step.
I had to do a double take as I strode towards my office when I first cast my eyes upon it. Naturally I had to stop and take a photo of it- as perhaps I could craft it into a Christmas card for next year.




I'm not going to bore you with the details of my Christmas but it was a good one despite my early reservations, suffice to say that I am exhausted and I am especially looking forward to getting some much need kip over in Prague. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I didn't see any television on 23-26th December. I don't think I missed too much, though I was a bit gutted that I didn't get to see the two Ricky Gervais Meets... with Christopher Guest and Garry Shandling. I did though see a few moments of the Garry Shandling episode, however as Lisa and I returned from our respective parents, and as we hadn't seen each other over the festive period I thought it may be a tad rude of me to gawp at the television whilst we talk. (like the other 364 days of the year) . From what I saw, Gervais was his usual funny self and Shandling appeared to be as rude and grumpy as his Larry Sander's alter-ego. I did see the bit where Shandling returns with a mug of coffee without offering Gervais one- who took offense at this.

Of course nothing quite highlights the Christmas spirit than the cast of Friends/other generic second rate US sitcom (Will & Grace et al) wishing you all the best and thank fuck almighty I missed that.
I did, much to my dismay see the Christmas edition of Bad Girls. It was utter crap with the exception of the Costa Cons having to deliver Janine's baby in their cell as the joyless Wing Gov.Body Bag refused to answer their distress alarm and watching her gruesomely and graphically give birth a dead baby- though after the adverts the baby had somehow regained consciousness and after a couple of hours was perfectly okay - thus proving to myself that I have outgrown the hilariously cheesy TV programmes that I used to love so. The writing was on the wall when i stopped watching Heartbeat after I became deeply cynical once Claude Greengrass' replacement; Vernon Scripps left the show- thus removing the only good performer and shattering my love of it's A-Team/Dukes of Hazzard type formulaic storyline. Plus it's been the nineteen sixties for the past 13 years. There's only so many times you can listen to 'Itchy Coo Park' whilst watching a lame car chase through the beautiful North Yorkshire countryside.

Anyhow, work to be done before I go etc.

The New Year -Disease

The Small Faces -Itchycoo Park