Cass and Molly have recently tracked me down which has caused me to hark back. I tend to do that a bit.

I found myself searching for some of the bands I used to listen to with my brother Charlie. We used to go to lots of gigs mainly around north London. The Artrockers', Sausage Machine in and around '91 was fantastic. We used to frequent the cellar of the Whitehorse pub in Hampstead. I remember the polystyrene ceiling tiles being torn off by The Plastic Bertrands(?) during a set. It later moved to the Camden, but the party for me was over. I remember being hypnotised by Stereolab in that crappy little cellar. Charlie was flirting with Harvey at every opportunity. I don't think you stood a chance mate. I'm not sure I can remember half the names... Gallon Drunk, Pram, Moonshake, The Pale, Plastic Bertrands.. and a bunch of others: Andy White, all them fantastic Irish Fleadh/Feile/Finsburty Park lot. The Orb and all that annoying, yet strangely compelling Industrial Ambient. None of them compared to the unjustly forgotten, 'Sultans of Ping'. They were awesome.

I pushed my recent youtube history into this playlist, they are all there, encased in the museum of YouTube. Crank up the speakers and enjoy.

What bands did it for you back in the day? Let me know in the comments...

I just returned from a night in Thirst Café as an extra on the set of the latest DarkLabs film. I found myself stuck with my back to the film set silently pretending to talk acting.

For some finished DarkLab films see Vimeo

Just got an email from Cheri in Singapore Airport. I guess that means she is well and truly on her way.

She is travelling around Burma for three weeks then Thailand for a week with a group of returning Burmese people.

I am dead jealous. It's bucketing with rain here in Soggy Sawtell and I'm slammed up in the RubeCube coding.

p.s attached is a pic of me girl just before Jay ran her to the airport...

Jason's cousin Kerri and her lovely family dropped in for a visit yesterday. On their way from a holiday in Sydney back home to Brisbane.

As you can see they were lucky enough to experience some of our Soggy Sawtell weather.

... as usual click the image to get a 'biggerer' version.

I can't believe it, I popped in to do a little site themeing work late this morning. Now it is 6.30pm - I have done so mush stuff today. I think it is now definitely time to log off.

I'm pretty excited cos I just got an email from an old pal. Hi Jo :)

Only 4 sleeps until I leave for my trip to Melbourne. I heard they have good patisseries. Woo hoo!

Emmy (age 9) and I just listed his KMX Kart on ebay. He is hoping to get some cash to put toward a bicycle like Jimmy's. He'd also like an electric motor or better still, a jet-pack.

This is my ebay ad:

I bought this fun bike for my son and have told him he can sell it and use the money to put toward a different bike. He is trying to save up a road bike as he has grown out of his current one.

The brand is KMX Kart and I think the model is Cyclone. There is an official website for it. I have also uploaded some more photos of it to my blog. I think ebay policy means you'll have to message me for the link.

It has obviously been used. The seat is faded, the mirror is broken, there are some spots of rust and it is generally a bit muddy. The robust mechanics work really nicely.

My nine year old loves riding it which is why he initially wanted to set a reserve of $999.99! After some discussion we decided to set it to 1 cent, that way we can ensure that another kid, like him, can have an awesome ride.

Unless you live in the Coffs Harbour region then I am sorry delivery is your own responsibility. However the surf here is great so it's definitely worth a trip :)

ebay formats like a twat, so I added in some paragraph breaks.

 Well, I was going to rebuild this website before 2012. I have a feeling I'm not going to manage it. You'll just have to deal with my embarassingly elderly and slow website for a bit longer. Oddly enough I've been inundated with incoming contracts which is great, but it puts things like this on the back burner.

As I'm posting this I have crammed on my headphones, trying to block out the hellish sound of the Glee Christmas Album. Somebody will burn for every cover of Wham's, "Last Christmas" that is ever played. Not Wham though, I expect they are snorting half a kilo of coke for every cover that gets released.

My oldest surfer-dude son, Ev, is in seventh heaven as there is apparently a bit of a cyclone off the coast which is causing the surf to, 'pump'. I may be getting the language mixed up here, but if it does indeed pump I would like to see that. It would be a very unusual phenomena. Apparently it will be 8 foot on Sunday (AKA - gravmas, christmas, yuletide, noodley holidays, xmas, shopping insanity, the world burns). With any luck there will be a freak tidal wave which takes out all the shopping centres and electrifies all those irritating twinkly illuminated houses.

My youngest surfer-dude son, Em, is ecstatic at the prospect of a day of frenzied presents and play.

I'm hoping for one of those horrible dummies that some parents seem to find amusing. It will save me fixing the rictus grin to my face for a whole day.

Actually I'm not really that grumpy. Really. I am looking forward to a lovely day down the beach reading a good book with buckets of mango's and prawns. You know I might even get into some surfing with Ev. 

Most mornings since my return from overseas Cheri and I have been taking the dogs for early morning walks. Pippy has grown into a crazy skinny mutt, she leaps around like a right nutter. During the day I am working at various website projects for some exceptionally patient clients. I am generally trying to get to grips with Drupal, CSS, HTML, SQL and PHP. On their own these technologies are all fairly straight forward but mixing them up and making them work in the myriad environments they are designed for, is a challenge.

A morning swim down at Boambee is the best start to a day of hard coding...

My life is haunted by shoe-boxes stuffed with memories. I'm listening to Kirsty MacColls beautiful interpretation of that Kinks song, Days. Instantly I'm sucked back into the past. Memories of despair, depression and frustration. When I think about it, the lyrics do not relate. Sigh.

I'm finding it very hard to get my head down and do some work today...

:(

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