well it's all very nice today

got a lovely long email and indeed a portion of her journal post from my correspondent, then i went downstairs to cook myself beakfast, something i should do moreof, i'm poorer than i was last year and i can't afford to go to cafe's as much (sadly), so i took down some music to listen to, and it was a recordong of a Hotel Full of Cops gig @ the spitz back in april 2001, late incarnation of the band, nippy on vocals and no N on guitar, the era when J the dj was shuffling further & further off stage with every gig, and you know people? it rocked,

really nice to hear it, 40 minute set, from one of my creations (rare) through J's tracks, one of J's based on my bassline (which i really love, nippy's great on it but beefy used to be soooo great on that track), through to S's more techno-esque tracks, ending with that great drum'n'bass version of inside straight we used to do, nippy coming through really nicely on the later tracks particularly, edge ckecking it out at one point, because nippy recycles so many of her vocals, he's playing the odd gig with her these days and he's stood there checking these lyrics he's familiar with, done in such a rudely different style... nice to hear myself in there, the different sounds i used to use, from the vintage keys and from the nanopiano,.... and then just the pleasure of hearing it when it's particularly working, music that i was a part of, we were a great band, albeit incredibly adhoc.

then i phoned orange, all ready with my line about why they should give me the phone i want for nothing, actually the same phone K has, damn near the same line she used as well, but F, the woman i spoke to, was just alright, there you go, that's fine no argument necessary, whereas earlier this week i'd had (and i forget her name) who was standing firm that with my tariff i would have to pay £29 for that phone,... it's all about who you get people,

several years ago when i started doing my tax return i was paralysed with fear. i rang up the helpline and an exceedingly helpful man calmed me down, told me what numbers to put where, made it all really easy, i thank you anonymous tax phone man even now. every year since then i've rung up this helpline only to find grumpy, begrudgingly helpful people... but of course you want it that way round, i don't need exceedingly helpful man quite so much now, i'm still afraid but with every passing year it gets easier, this year i did josiahs tax return as well, (look at me getting over my fears, you could almost write a bad made for tv movie about it, 80's style)

so that's it really, nice, nice, nice. getting my new phone on monday (between 9am and 5:30pm - helpfully), going to listen to the recording of the rehearsal the other day, then maybe find someone to go see bash with tonight...?

x