12 May 2007: Ticket

Went down to St Mary's at 8.15 this morning.

There was a rumour floating yesterday around the internet that the Saints - Derby playoff game was sold out. Then at lunchtime the ticket office announced that Derby had returned a bunch of tickets and thus there were more for sale. Poo, thought I, as I sat as my desk attempting to wrestle something useful out of UIMA while simultaneously attempting to find time to visit a Notary Public to authorise a copy of my passport (and that's a whole other story: I have to apply for a US tax number despite the fact I don't live there, I never have lived there, I have no income from there and the only connection with there is my wife, who also lives and works exclusively in the UK). So no chance of getting a ticket - indeed no thought even of trying to get a ticket.

However, checking the official website again before beddy-byes last night, and they said there were 800 tickets left for the home leg, available for open sale from 9am at the ticket office. Go for it, said Mrs McRae-Spencer, and that was enough for me. Up at 7, out the door at 8 and cycled down to the stadium by 8.15 to find a queue already in place including a man sitting on a fold-away chair and about eight people who looked like they'd been there all night. After a kind gentleman separated those queueing to buy tickets and those queueing just to pick up tickets they'd paid for, I found myself twenty-first in the line, meaning that unless everyone in front of me bought 40 tickets I'd be able to get my seat. (Isn't it odd, by the way, the things you think of at times like this?)

Phoned Leaside Way to see if Kev was around and wanted to come on a spur-of-the-moment decision but sadly the chess club seems to have won his affections over the Saints at present, as he had already left. Then up rolled the ticket window covers, and as everyone moved to the different positions I found myself second - second - in line. And sure enough, three minutes later, there I was with my ticket for the noon kick off playoff first leg, Saints' biggest match since Man Ure sent us down a couple of years ago.

The thing that confuses me a little is this: these tickets became available, according to the official website and ticket office, because Derby returned some of their unwanted ones. So how, dear blogophile, do we explain the fact that not only am I in a Saints supporter section, but I'm actually on the diametrically opposite corner of the ground from the Derby fans? Yup, I'm in the Chapel End, notorious for being the 'library' of St Mary's where any shout is greeted by glances from neighbouring (and generally older) fans who give you a look like you just shouted 'AYYY- men' in the middle of the Archbishop of Canterbury's easter sermon. (Which, incidentally, we didn't, in fact the acoustics were so bad we could barely hear him despite sitting almost directly underneath the pulpit, and that's another story again).

So anyway, forty minutes from now I'll head off down Portswood Road, through Bevois Valley and back to St Mary's for my first and last game of the season. Just drinking Wittards lemon-and-lime tea right now to get my voice-box in order (don't want to sound like LaKisha on this week's American Idol... that last note was the nail in her Idol coffin) and see if I can remember the songs...

'When I was just a little boy...'

Postscript: The match itself does not merit another blog entry. Saints lost 2-1, after taking an early lead, largely due to the usual very dubious refereeing, Saints hitting the bar twice, Pele giving away a truly dumb penalty and Kenwyne Jones missing some really quite simple chances. Both Saints and Derby have been greatly inconsistent this season, and so it showed through the game. Now highly unlikely for Saints to get through, but still, roll on next Tuesday and the away leg... two clear goals or penalties...

9 May 2007: Demolition

This AKTing lark is somewhat slowed today by the action taking place outside. When we moved into the new 'Building-To-Be-Named-Later' (now EEEEEE) back at the turn of the year, I was very excited because (1) I was getting a window seat (more than Northwest Airlines have ever given me) and (2) said window had a nice eastish-facing view of some trees, Stoneham tower and the hills beyond. Better than looking at Steve Harris all day (no offence).

However, coming back from a rather sick week, I found to my astonishment that the houses across the road were no more. Or at least bits of them were no more. Being in many ways still four years old, I found the big digger and quickly-vanishing row of semi-detached dwellings to be quite fascinating. Dong, who sits across from me when he's not going to conference in Hawaii (I clearly need to write different types of papers), has been quite unenthusiastic to my constant screams of "Wow!", "How about that?" and "Sheesh, there goes the roof!", so I instead offer it up for you, humble blogophile, to share in my excitement.

Thus, in came the webcam this afternoon, and out came the following vid (340kbps, so don't bother if you're on dial-up):

See the window come down...

Aah, the wonder of it all. Now, if only I can get them to take the same approach to our sickly, good-for-nothing Citeseer server...

Postscript: If, as I hope is the case, you occasionally follow the links I carefully pick out for this blog, you'll thoroughly enjoy the official response to the question 'what is happening to Stoneham' that informs us that the University is "setting aside money for the Stoneham JCR to use should any students be placed in the Tower." So that's what they do with students who talk in lectures...

6 May 2007: Playoffs

How about that, Saints are in the playoffs!

Holding off the might of Preston and Stoke to claim sixth place in the Championship and the final play-off berth, the final scale of the 4-1 home victory over relegated Southend actually belies the fact that the playoffs were looking shaky until the third and then fourth goals went in right at the end. Still, it's encouraging that they were able to do it, Leon Best proving that you don't actually need names like Rasiak and Skacel on the team sheet in order to score a bunch of goals.

It was interesting to listen to the game on Solent, who had reporters at all the other relevant games, butting in 'France Football'-style as required when anything happened. Partly because of the 'live' aspect it brought to the game, but also because of the unfeasibly high number of ex-Saints strikers playing in the other games: Brett Ormerod, Kevin Phillips (Bong), Ricardo Fuller and Dexter Blackstock all featured, to a greater or lesser extent, in the key games. Beattie and Crouch didn't, they're waiting upstairs in the Prem for when Saints return.

So roll on playoff semi-final first leg against Derby next Saturday. Anyone got a spare ticket or two?

30 April 2006: Mascara

Saw an interesting claim on an advertisement in the middle of Takeshi's Castle this evening.

Rimmel London are selling some mascara that not only makes your eyelashes look bigger, but towards the end of the commercial it features Kate Moss, having applied said makeup, walking across the street, a taxi stopping as she crosses, the voiceover claiming the look to be "traffic stopping."

OK. How do they know?

I have to assume, given that the commercial has not been challenged or removed by the advertising standards agency, that these claims are true. Which means field tests must have been conducted with some subjects wearing the Rimmel mascara and some subjects wearing a nasty inferior product. The subjects must then have been told to stand in the middle of a busy street and a statistically-relevant number of the first group of subjects must have survived the bloody carnage that followed.

I don't know about you, but it sounds more fun to watch than Bridge Ball to me.

26 April 2007: Doves

Chapman Only Wins One Award At Own Ceremony

The 38th Annual Steven Curtis Chapman Awards last night proved successful for artists Chris Tomlin and Aaron Shust, while leaving Chapman himself to reflect on the fact that he might have to start producing new material in order to win any awards in the future.

While Shust headlined the big awards for 'Best Song' (My Savior, My God) and 'Best Songwriter', Tomlin carried off a total of six 'Stevies', including 'Artist of the Year' and 'Male Vocalist of the Year', carrying on his 2006 success where he won everything that Casting Crowns didn't.

"Like wow," said Tomlin, a Texas man who says he spends his time writing and recording songs.

Shust, meanwhile, garnered his first successes at the 'Stevies' on the back of the massive radio single 'My Savior, My God' which last year spent about 3000 weeks at number one in the various charts that reflect downloading and radio play.

"My mum used to let me sing into a turkey baster when I was three," he said as he accepted his award from someone on the stage. "Fortunately my producer gave me a real microphone when it came to recording the recording. What? Braves lost in the ninth after being three nothing up? Oh fiddlesticks."

Shust denied reports that he really is Sanjaya from American Idol.

It wasn't all male-dominated, however, as Natalie Grant proved, doubling up as awards host and winner of 'Best Female Vocalist', an award she also won last year, probably for the same song. Amy Grant also won one of the little awards down at the bottom of the page for a video or something.

"There are other women here tonight, honestly," one of the Grants told reporters at a secret telephone Press Conference. "And no, I'm not related to Hugh Grant. Or Cary Grant. How did you get my number, anyway?"

Group of the year Casting Crowns won the award for 'Group of the Year' and stated they were "looking forward to meeting Rob at Kentish Town in June", referencing reports that Rob will be attempting to heckle the band into singing "Is this the way to Amarillo" during their forthcoming London concert.

Chapman, meanwhile, had to suffice with a minor credit on 'Instrumental Album of the Year', a far cry from the days when he would win every category (including all the female ones) whether or not he actually released any material during the year.

"It's good of them to name the awards after me," Chapman said, speaking through a cheap megaphone from the back of a rented three-wheel motorised watermelon. "Now stop following me."

In other awards, Kirk Franklin won 'Urban Recorded Song of the Year' for "Imagine Me", encouraging this reporter to dig out his old gospel/hip-hop crossover album and maybe even a do a little Stomp. Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber won a 'Stevie' for some vegetable-related children's material, although their winning album did not contain the controversial song that encouraged children to only eat bunnies. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything stayed true to their word and did not win anything.

The Steven Curtis Chapman Awards are also known as the Dove Awards or the GMA Music Awards.

18 April 2007: Higher

And up it spirals... The above appears to be a twenty-five year high for the pound against the dollar, and by the time you read this it may well have spiked even further. Sheesh. Haven't these people heard of profit taking? Surely it'll be back below $2 in a day or so when the momentum gives out?

The only observation I've made in all of this is that it's not interest rate rises that cause the pound to spike, but the promise of interest rate rises. In January, the face of BoE raised rates to 5.25% and took everyone by surprise: the pound spiked for half an hour and then was back down to where it was before. Now we have the almost certain prospect of rate hikes in about two weeks' time, and so everyone has time to salivate about it, thus pushing the pound up and up.

Meantime McDougal notes that one of the creators of Drupal, the freebie content management system that appears to be the only thing left of John Kerry's 2004 election campaign, is named John VanDyk and he appears to list his hobbies as 'squash hunting and raising children'. In that order, presumably. And if you've no idea what squash hunting is, click here to find out.

Who says there's nothing to do in Iowa?

17 April 2007: Cable

Yup, there it is - the magic two-dollar pound. It initially happened about 9.30 this morning, while I was at Mauro's getting the six-weekly mop chop. It happened again, for less than 30 seconds, at 10.20 (or 9.20 if you're Reuters), and rumour is that it'll be up there for good later on today. Why?

Mainly because UK annual inflation rose to 3.1% last month, which took a few people by surprise, not least the Governor of the Bank of England (one Mervyn King) who, for the moment, has to put his game of minesweeper aside in order to write a letter to the Government explaining why inflation is above 3%. (Answer: people are buying lots of stuff. I'd have thought it was pretty obvious.)

This has consequences beyond just the Governor's ability to play computer games. It means that people are spending lots, and the standard way to make people spend less and thus bring inflation down to the target figure of 2%, the Bank of England will raise interest rates to 5.5% in early May. Thus people with mortgages will have to pay more and so have less to spend on milk, petrol and furniture (apparently those three are the main causes of the latest inflation hike), thus demand drops in comparison to supply, and the pressure for prices to rise is lowered. And so inflation drops. And that's that and everyone's happy. Except for homeowners, of course. And a few other groups...

The thing about high interest rates is that it makes Sterling a rather attractive proposition for foreign investors. Nice high returns on investment mean that people are, this morning, selling their dollars and buying pounds instead, thus pushing up the pound-dollar rate (nicknamed 'cable' for some reason I can't fathom) to the $2 mark and beyond. Weak inflation data is expected from the US later today, especially from their housing sector, and that's expected to take the rate firmly beyond the $2.00 mark by close of play.

And while the $2 pound is good for us personally (Gloria this morning said "shame we didn't wait another week to do our latest transfer") it's bad for UK industry: nobody from another country really wants to buy from the UK when, effectively, our pound-priced products are just getting more and more expensive in their own currency. And it's a bummer for the tourist industry too: US visitors are much less likely to come when they don't get a lot of pound for their dollar, especially when you consider how expensive London already is as a destination. At least if they're not buying milk, petrol and furniture it might help inflation go back down.

So there it is, a landmark for my Dollars java program but very mixed news for the UK economy. Of course in really important news, a haircut at Mauro's still costs £8 but in the second major shock news story of the day, Mauro exclusively revealed to our reporter that his shop will cease to be as of next March: the fourteen-year contract is up and he's going to get a little van and do mobile haircutting instead.

Now why aren't the BBC carrying that as their top story?