The Great White (Surfer)

Did you catch the news stories about the shark attacks here over the past few days? This one has been one of the most popular stories on the Guardian for the last few days, and there was another on Sydney's Northern Beaches, with video.

I went surfing on Boxing Day evening at just after six, at Maroubra. At half six the lifeguards pull the flags up and stop patrolling the beach, and they gave a tannoy annoucement saying as much, advising people not to swim anymore but if they did it was at their own risk etc. It was roasting so there was still loads of folk swimming, and probably about 20 surfers. A couple of minutes later the tannoy came on again and I thought they were repeating the same thing, it's hard to tell when the wind's blowing and you're in the water. My hearing got a wee bit sharper when I heard "Would everyone please get out of the water, a shark has been spotted in the water near the beach". Cue loads of folk getting the fuck out the water rather sharpish. Luckily (especially given my skill level) I managed to catch a wave that I surfed pretty much all the way in to shore. Quite the motivator so it was... from hearing the message to being on the sand took less than ten seconds, though that was plenty time for all the wee snippets of info (like sharks don't like the taste of humans but they often mistake surfers in black wetsuits and the shape of boards for seals, that sharks hunt at dawn and dusk, punch them on the nose and poke them in the eye if you're lucky enough to get that close to them...) to go tearing through my mind.
After a somewhat short but 'invigorating' session I found myself suitably 'pumped' and took myself home. I hope that's as exciting as my Aussie-themed stories get! (Unless I meet Warney or summat, but you lot have more chance of that seeing as he's buying a gaff in Brighton and spends most of his time when he's over here in Melbourne).

Merry Christmas Harj!

I was shopping in town the other day and outside David Jones (the big 'House Of Fraser' posh-style department store) were these pair of eager young kids filled with the spirit of Christmas, selling foam antlers for charity on a balmy Christmas afternoon. Not something you'd normally expect to take you back to a flat in north London where one of your best mates is spending his days bouncing off the walls with boredom, dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes, and eating his weight in potato croquettes on a daily basis.

Merry Christmas chaps.

Merry go round

There's one bus on my route that's all done up in deccies for charity, with a wee collection tin at the front to encourage you to give generously to the local kids hospital. Done up inside and out like a Sheppey family's idea of four wheeled festive fun, it's a weird feeling getting the thing home: everyone's slightly caught off guard, and it brings about an air of cheery amusement that is certainly not usual for a commute, but then up creeps the feeling that these are pikey decorations, and you start to think that big blankets of cotton wool spread all over the place, thread-bare tinsel, half blown sets of fairy lights and wrinkly ballons on public transport doesn't feel like the most hygenic thing going.

On the decorations front this year, I myself have opted for wooden representations of tribal Christmas spirits hand-carved by blind Somalian orphans, which I feel saves this post from making me sound like a pompous middle-class twat.

Get hold of this...

If you want to waste an afternoon with a grin on your mooey check out the rest of the videos the lad (23Daves) has posted, absolute quality. you can find most of the crackers by typing in 'indie chart show' in the search box. (skip to 3.02 to go to the start of the chart countdown)

Why does The Beloved tune remind me of a Mansun song? I've googled it but it doesn't say they covered it. One of their songs does the same thing of namechecking a load of celebrities and sounds the same, but I can't find it or remember, maybe I just always thought it was a Mansun song because they sound the same.

Anyhow, on the other side of the scale, but still from the Chart Show, check this out, jesus christ... I think this might tickle some surpressed memory from this period when having a ponytail meant you were the George Best of snooker.


have a good weekend lads

HBDD

Bay 8 lads! BAY 8!

It wasn't my first choice but Universal are twats and have removed the ability to embed the video I was originally going to stick up, but that's made it a 2-for-1 Brucey so click here and let it all come flooding back once again...

I'm currently under the speaker in the meat room pretending to do my laces up, but I'll see you up the fish room for the tikka bites in a minute. Dave, no doubt, is in the khazi with the latest Andy McNabb.

What's your favourite current method of skiving? No one can see my screen and thankfully long gone are the days when the boss/chargehand could tell if you were working or not just by looking at you, so most of my loafing consists of looking at stuff online. Unsurprisingly enough, today has been mostly about looking up old videos on Youtube. I've got an absolute stormer coming for you soon...

Up to here

Well, The Charlies played their first ever gigs down under, and according to this review, Friday's Sydney show was a stormer. (Weird that the lad dong the review has probably never seen them before, and probably doesn't know they always finish with Sproston Green).

I remember being told about them coming here but then I forgot and by the time I remembered it had sold out. The Forum is a new venue next to the SCG at Fox Studios and holds 1500, though it feels like less. There were hardly any tickets on ebay or Gumtree (though plenty of 'tickets wanted' posts from Brits now living here) but on the Thursday I got a call from the one lad who had a spare and was taking offers, my $100 offer was a winner apparently (they'd cost $61). I arranged to meet him outside the venue at half seven the next night so was over the moon when he phoned up at half five on the night and said there'd been a mix up and there weren't a spare.

Suffice to say I did not have the last laugh and was not loving the Drake. Mind you, I managed to go home and not lose the rag at the missus for something/anything, so there ya go, I'm growing as a human.

The Artic Monkeys are playing side shows to the Big Day Out in January, they go on sale December 1st, and whilst I'm not overly fussed, I'm feeling the pain of missing out on seeing the charlies so there's a good chance I'll be at my computer come 8.59am on the first of next month.