All in All

So when Mac took this job in Glasgow for the year and we came to terms with exactly how much time we would be spending apart during the year, we agreed that we would do our best to make the most of the time we do spend together. Friday night probably took this to the limit.

It started a month or so ago when I flicked through the South bank website and found that the Ether festival would be having both Jimi Tenor and Ladytron on the same night doing separate shows. Obviously we got tickets for both.

Jimi Tenor, Norwegian jazz with a bit of funk and the key to the fancy dress box, was performing a specially commissioned live soundtrack to long forgotten 1969 film 'Mr Freedom'. Jimi and his band were as usual, excellent. Mr Freedom was astonishing, a cutting satire on America's aggressive attitude of 'our way is right and if you don't agree you are the enemy' (almost prophetic in that it could have been a dig at George W Bush). Filmed on what looked like next to no budget at all because all the budget went on drugs. Is it a good film? Probably not, but it was a great show (I later broke the habit of a lifetime by walking into Jimi Tenor in the foyer of the QEH and I told him I thought it was great. He was very polite but I have a feeling he thought I was someone he knew and didn't realise until it was too late to back away).

With 45 minutes to spare before the next session we popped across the way to the hayward Gallery to catch the Dan Flavin exhibition. Everything you could ever wish to do with a fluorescent light bulb tube and more. I like his work a lot and it is a good show (now in it's final week so go if you can)

Back to QEH to meet Kieran and Janet, catch a strange Russian going under the name of 386DX who seems to use a Stephen Hawking voicebox thing to sing tunes like Light my Fire and California Dreaming. Amusing but you wouldn't want to sit through more than 10 minutes of it. Finally (once we'd thrown out the couple sitting in our seats) Ladytron came on and they just get better and better. Poppy yet stark, if only the bouncers had let people dance down the front it would have been perfect.

So there we have it. In one evening we went out to dinner, saw a film, an art exhibition, and a few great bands. Phew!

So I'm just walking along Cromwell Road in London to go to the supermarket when there is a rush of flashing police motorcycles and lights etc. All the traffic has to stop to let the cars through.

What could this emergency be, I wonder? Oh, as the main car passes I see inside it are Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles (and a bouquet of flowers). Yes, the man is too good to sit in traffic like the rest of us, and we all must get out of the way for him.

I'm sorry, but I feel that he personifies everything that's wrong with the Royal family, especially after all the recent revelations, such as being disgruntled at only flying first class, having a man squeeze his toothpaste onto his toothbrush for him, etc. He really makes me wish we were a Republic at times.

What a cock!