Yuletide felicitations from Canada. My ever expanding carbon footprint has brought me back to Fernie, BC for Christmas and it's very good to be back. Unlike European resorts Fernie has had a cracking start to the season and yesterday Santa brought me exactly what I asked for: 10cms of soft new snow. It was a fantastic day's skiing made all the more unbelievable because I never needed to queue for a lift. The holiday crowds are due in tomorrow so yesterday the locals and I could help ourselves to a delicious powder buffet. Ah the pow! The cold smoke, the BC tea, call it what you like the skiing at Fernie is as good as I remembered it. In fact I think it's better because I've got better and I'm finally good enough to start to make the most of the terrain here. Mind you I've been wiping out left right and centre, but I'm wiping out in much steeper, deeper places than I used to. That's progress.

Last night I went to see my mate Dave Taylor's last gig in London. He's off to a new life in New Zealand with his lovely lady friend and fair play to him. But I couldn't miss his last outing.


I've been a faithful follower of Dave's bands since I first met him in 1996(?). From the early days in Tea, to the long running and hard rocking Electric Shocks and a final incarnation in Animal Maths. Not to mention his alt-country phase with my mate Jamie in the Pickups and then the Cheap Dates. I've always wanted to be in a band and I thought my best bet was as a Bez like figure "keeping up the vibe" in one of Dave's combos. Alas it was never to be, but I'm not bitter.

Last night it was Animal Maths. It was the first time I'd seen the Maths and it was cracking: I'm happy to say as he's got older the music's got louder and the songs have got shorter which is absolutely the way it should be. It's a shame he's leaving, without Dave I wouldn't have spent nearly as much time in dodgy North London pubs surrounded by rococo hairdos and indie chic. Jamie - I need you start gigging again or I'll never do anything cool!

But while I can thank him for the music the thing I'll always remember is the hair! To me hair is a precious commodity, something to be used wisely. One thing you can certainly say about our Dave - he had a rock n' roll barnet. No wanky Hoxton hair statements, he always looked like a guitarist in a kick-ass rock band. Which he is!

At last I feel like a proper blogger: I've been tagged! Ashley tagged me with her book meme, to whit:

"Grab the book nearest you. Turn to page 123. Go down to the fifth line. Type out the next three sentences."

Unfortunately, if this was a chance to prove my hard-piping literary mojo this doesn't turn out so well for me, to whit:

"In a saucepan melt butter and cook onion over a low heat until soft. Add flour and cook for 2-3 minutes. Slowly poor in milk and bring to the boil"

That's what happens when the only book on your desk is The Pocket Soup Cook Book.

Anyway - it's my turn to pass the baton: Smarty, Barry, Donald - over to you.

Got down to some actual Christmas decorating this weekend. My flat is really too small to deploy a tree and still be able to actually use the living room but the guys at the Christmas tree stall were happy to give me some off-cuts of holly and pine tree. So I splashed it all over...


A little bit here...

A bit here...


even my priceless Callum Innes collection got in on the act:


And a little bit of festive cheer in the kitchen.

You might want to send your thirty-something male friends out of the room for a moment as we construct this wonderful wall hanging...

Method:

• Take one of your old Take That picture disks.
• Nail it to the door
• Ta - da! A charming decoration...

For best results accessorise with one* of your Marillion picture disks.


* one = all!

Nothing beats the joy of listening to cricket on the radio whilst laying in bed. This was proved this morning as we were getting HAMMERED in Australia but I still wanted to listen. However the written word is probably best for summing it up afterwards...

The century comes off 57 balls, the second fastest in Test history. Absurd, incredible, brutal - take your pick. It's been like watching a grizzly bear play swing-ball with a salmon on a string.

Courtesy of Andy Bull in the Guardian

The Verdict: Good!

"Good?" You say "Not great?". "What the heck" I say "Great then!"

My first Streetcar trip was this evening and it all worked perfectly. The only difficulty was trying to find the car in the rather large Hammersmith NCP car park. Having finally located it, tucked away behind something else in the far corner the fun really began.

I haven't driven anything other than a second-hand (sorry, that's "preloved") automatic Micra for the last 3 years and to be honest I wasn't much good at that. So a manual and spanking new 1300 miles on the clock Golf took a bit of getting used to. After a few false starts I managed to get the car into gear (woo!) and out of the carpark (yay!). The brakes were a bit lively but I only stalled once and I hardly hit anything. A result.

Total cost for 3.5 hours and about 19 miles = £17.33. On its own that looks a bit steep but then that's all I'm going to pay for running a car this month (once I've disposed of the Micra) so I think it will work out well.

Outside the driving it was great to be back on the ice. The team were pleased to see me and I was pleased to see them - there are some very funny characters around the Westminster Statesmen. Also a lot of new faces so numbers are definitely up. Typically my first time back on the ice after a long lay off goes rather well as I don't try and think too much. Not this time though - I was RUBBISH! But the joy of playing and skating around was undiminished. I'm still a better skater than I am driver and that's the way I like it.

Well I'm trying an interesting experiment. In a bid to minimise my car use now that I don't need to drive to Oxford every weekend I'm going to pass my Micra on to my cousin. But I still want to use a car every know and then, especially for ice hockey practice on a Tuesday so I have signed up with Streetcar .

The idea is that I can book a car over the web for whenever I need it and only pay to use it, not to watch it depreciate in my car park space. I don't need my own insurance or road tax, they give you 30 miles 'free' petrol per day so it should work out more cost effective. It certainly makes the costs of motoring more visible which again will help me cut down on pointless journeys by car - in fact it already has.

Anyway my first trip is tomorrow night. So far so good: the booking online was very easy and they send you a text confirming the times you've booked and giving you the licence number and what seems to be the name of the car. My car is called Emanuel (unless there's a VW Golf Emanuel model out there that I don't know about) and I shall let you know how it works out.

A little nugget of interweb brilliance from the gals at GFY

And while we are on the subject of brilliance I'd like to tip my hat to the headline in yesterday's paper and salute the Admirable Collingwood. Come on England!!