Bellend Sebastian

I MUCH prefer the session versions of What Difference Does it Make? and Back To the Old House on HOH. They should release all the session stuff on something. I've got the versions of William it was Really Nothing and Nowhere Fast on an old CD single of Last Night... but the version of Half a Person I don't think has ever been on anything other than the radio. It's on YouTube, where of course it sounds shite

It's literally where I started, in about 1990. I knew William it was Really Nothing, How Soon is Now and Heaven Knows I'm Miserable now already but the rest of it was all very mysterious to me. It was years later that I realised it was a compilation. I think it was really cheap when it first came out, what a bargain

This has actually given me constipation

If I were in charge this is exactly the sort of stuff I'd be looking to dismantle

I wholeheartedly agree. My favourite Smiths album. I know there's some debate over which is "the best", but I think of the four, the last three are all equally brilliant. It's only the debut that, due to slightly of its time production and if I'm being super critical, them not quite having cracked writing true pop songs (which I think most of the Smiths' output is and there's no shame in that), that falls short of greatness

Bit of a good news story with a cautionary element. A mate of mine discovered that he'd been charged over £900 for a taxi ride from Leicester station. He'd paid for this via Applepay, and as a result of not having a receipt his bank was unable/unwilling to help. All he's got to go on is a name against the payment, but no clue if it's a first name, surname, company name or whatever. Unsure of what else he can do, he goes to the station (bearing in mind this is now a week since the fateful journey), and literally the first taxi driver he speaks to says that the driver in question is his best mate, he's been worried sick about it and has been trying to work out how to pay him back all week, but not being tech savvy hasn't managed to. He puts him and my mate in touch and basically within about 3 hours of realising there's a problem, he's had his money back. Obviously that's a GREAT outcome but crikey I had no idea that you could have that kind of money taken from you in a contactless transaction, but apparently, you can

We've been freezing our nuts off for no reason then. Probably saved a few quid though

My central heating hasn't been on this Autumn as I've got two radiators off the wall pending replacement while decorating and stuff is going on. While the sparky was here yesterday he moved the wireless thermostat and in doing so turned the whole system on again. It seems to work fine, and I'm wondering if it's ok to have on? I'm thinking it was maybe my old house where I was once told the heating wouldn't work with a rad off

Well it's real in that it was in The Telegraph. I've always been sceptical about stories about people's lived experiences in certain sections of the press after the DM ran one of their "look at this jobless foreigner living the life of Riley on all these benefits' and the lady in question was an actor with an agent, of which no mention was made in the story for some reason

Went to see my physio today, first time for literally years. Sorted out a couple of niggling injuries - a hip flexor, which has been gradually getting worse for ages, and what I thought was my arthritic big toe but turned out to be a strain of a small muscle between the metatarsals. Naturally he decided to bend the arthritic toe to test the range of movement, and bearing in mind it's effectively not moved for literally years, just yanks it downwards by about 90 degrees. I pretty much hit the roof, but when he repeats this a few seconds later, it barely hurts at all. I ended up almost skipping out of there. It's very easy to convince yourself that your body's had it (especially when, like me, you're REALLY not getting any younger) but you forget how much of this stuff can be fixed relatively easily

Currently enjoying the Twitter comments beneath Martin Lewis's post about inheritance tax on pensions. As always, high on drama and incredibly low on understanding, with massive emphasis on how this has ruined their lives. "This has literally halved my children's inheritance!" This is British culture now isn't it? Claiming you've been f***ed over, sometimes with good reason, but often with none at all

Yes, and when this was put to them a lot of them on Twitter said well watch the documentary then to learn the truth and do you know what I actually did and weirdly I did not feel like I did find out the truth by doing so even though he says the words "truth" "narrative" "journalism" and "agenda" in it over and over again, before starting to go on about Asian grooming gangs as per bloody usual. In fairness to him if I'd stuck it out to the end perhaps I would have learned the truth, but it was a very difficult watch that I didn't have the stamina for but is probably an excellent documentary if you don't know what a documentary is or don't have any concept of what ordinarily constitutes journalism

I've said LOADS of things on the internet, I reckon I must be looking at a spell inside of between 25,000 - 30,000 years by now if they ever catch up with me

I was slagging off Magaluf the other day but to balance it out, Palma Nova just down the road is pretty nice and I thought Palma itself was GREAT

I got down to about 24:00 and that's about as far as I could do. More optimistic about improving on my 10k PB (51:34). As for gels, I've only ever used Science in Sport and never had any problems, but they gave someone I recommended them to the shits to the extent that I think they thought I was pranking them

Perfectly decent hotel to be fair. Think we might need to up the budget next year. Although a lot have buggered off home now, there were a few too many of the not-quite-sure-how-to-act-in-public lot for my liking at first. One woman screamed at her kids so much she had to explain why to the four Guarda Civilia that showed up in front of everybody in the hotel reception, which was a bit grim for everyone. Security also had to remove two pissed up women from the kids only pool after repeatedly being told they shouldn't be there. Must be a lot of Harry Potter fans here as loads of kids seem to be cosplaying Dudley Dursley

In Magaluf. What a shihole, LOLZ

Well it's certainly 3D and I went "wow" when I saw it. I'm all for outsider art but it's a fine line between not compromising your artistic integrity and just acting like a twat

These are entirely legitimate concerns but look at the state of him, if he goes another two years without shitting himself to death I'll be amazed. You don't look like that, have an apparently cheeseburger heavy diet and get to enjoy massive longevity

Bad times for Sovereign Citizens or whatever they're calling themselves at the minute: https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2024/october/tfl-steps-up-enforcement-against-persistent-ulez-penalty-charge-evaders

Old Session Hen is a quid at Morrisons and is actually really nice. Must admit I didn't really know what session beer is but I've interpreted what I've read as meaning you can drink it all the time, forever. Chin chin

Strength Through Joy LOLZ

It will be interesting to see what there is on pensions in the Autumn Statement - my guess would be not much. Whatever the truth turns out to be, the press have done an amazing job of panicking people, and I'm sure convinced a lot of folk to take action that's not in their interests

Twat it with a spade, hopefully. That's what UB40 advised, isn't it?

They're ALRIGHT, and I'd be perfectly content if they were no better than the Soundmagics, it's just that they're not as good. I've no problems with the detail levels - they're probably actually better - it's the lack of any sparkle; there's none of the crispness around the higher frequencies or sense of space around them - I'm aware I'm explaining this very badly. I wonder if it's just what all Bluetooth headphones sound like - I've not heard many but I've listened to far more expensive over ear sets and found much the same thing