Paul Goodwin

For we are miserable sinners

Published on Sun 15 Jul 2007

What a difference a week makes. I've been downgraded from "unusually happy" to, "alright I suppose". I had a day off on Monday which was spent generally pottering about town, going to Gourmet Burger Kitchen (I thought I'd not been before but I'd had one in London about a year ago - I remembered when I saw their tomato shaped ketchup dispensers. The food was the same too - the burgers don't taste of anything, presumably because they're all natural and stuff and the chips were crap, but my blue cheese sauce was nice, if a bit hard to control, and the milkshake was gorgeous - I quite fancy one now - McDonalds will be fulfilling all my burger related needs for the foreseeable future though) and having a quick round of par 3 golf at The Lakes. I'm really bad at golf.

We did the pub quiz again on Tuesday, but only managed 2nd this time. The questions weren't really any better than before. There was an absolute classic, but I can't remember what it was. "Which super hero got his powers by being bitten by a radioactive spider and can shoot webs and do whatever a spider can as if he was some kind of cross between a spider and a man, a "spider man" if you will?" or something.

I actually got some recording done on Wednesday night. Well, mixing. I think "So Finally a Love Song", "A Folly or a Fortress" and "One Off" are pretty much there now, though I might change my mind again. "60 Miles With a Slow Puncture" isn't so far off. Though I might redo the guitar and singing, and maybe the drums. A lot of other songs are an acoustic guitar away, but I had to change my strings last weekend, so it'll be another couple of weeks of constant playing before they're in a fit state to use, but you never know, I might get this done by my latest self-imposed deadline.

We went out for my friend Ciaron's birthday last night straight from work, which got a bit messy - we didn't get to CB2 for dinner until 10 or so. The food there is amazing these days. Well, the chorizo and black pudding salad and the sausages and mash are at least. I got a bit obsessed by that Derek and Clive song about making someone jump from a burning building by pretending to have a blanket to catch them in. A few of us went to The Kambar after. Other than to get my monthly reminder of how dreadful Larrikin Love are (were?) I don't know why. It's always the same, and they always make you queue for ages to make it look busy even though it really isn't. I ended up having a discussion about whether, other than the Derek and Clive one about making someone jump from a burning building by pretending to have a blanket to catch them in, any properly good (to the standard of "Powder Blue" by Elbow, say) songs had been written before The Smiths. I don't think we managed to come up with any. Oh, I suppose there's "Ode to Billy Joe". I unwisely had a stab at writing this blog when I got in, to kill some time before "Linc's" came on Paramount Comedy, because I quite like it and it only seems to be on at half 3 in the morning (actually, maybe it's not so great - it's a pretty easy slot to fill as all you're up against is live roulette, and I'm pretty easily entertained at that kind of time) but fortunately I got distracted and wiped the page before posting it. I think it went along the lines of "Jump you fucker, jump, I'll catch you in this blanket and you will be alright... Bah, women... Bah, bad timing... Jump, you fucker jump... Bah, my inability to take my chances... Then The President called and I said "Hello Mr President"... Laugh? We nearly shat... That Larrikin Love song is the worst thing I've ever heard... Ahhhh soles." 

My right hand side barely moves at the moment due to overWiiing on Thursday. I am now a pro status at bowling and have a spangly ball, but I'm not as good as Mike. He's taken the Wii with him for the weekend, which is probably a good thing because my body needs time to recover, though I'm a little worried that I'll lose the knack.

I'm off to Hitchin in a bit to do a gig with Summerhouse at the Rhythms of the World Festival. It was really nice when I did a solo set there last year so I'm looking forward to it, despite my fuzzy head, but it looks a bit like it might rain.

I've accidentally started watching Big Brother (just for today). What a bunch of thickos. Ha! Good word!