melancholy January
Spent a lovely day in Brighton today but couldn't shake of the sadness at seeing the sad trashed ruins of Brighton's half-collapsed West Pier. Why the fuck was such a beautiful construction allowed to fall into such ruin? (expect some photos on the site soon)

And if that wasn't bad enough, Cardiff City lost.
To the bottom club - aaargh!!

The office is currently reverberating to...
Tom Waits, 'Closing Time'
Ms Dynamite, 'a little deeper'
Monochrome Set, 'Dante's Casino'
Psychedelic Furs, 'Forever Now'
Hem, 'Rabbit Songs'

The bulletin boards are back!
After much techie fiddling about, I'm delighted to say that the urban75 bulletin boards are now back in full swing. Yipee!
I was worried that after being down for three days, it might take people a while to come back. I was wrong: within 10 minutes of the boards going live (unannounced), there were already 140 people happily posting away!

Lovely, lovely Wales!
Here's some remotely interesting facts about my home country:
Mount Everest was named after a Welshman (Sir George Everest from Crickhowell - surveyor-general of India 1865).
The Welsh invented Whiskey and most corn-based liquor.
30% of all UK volunteers in World War I were Welsh
World's first co-operative was started by a Welshman.
11 American Presidents are estimated to have had Welsh blood!
18 people of Welsh descent were signatories The Declaration of Independence
Las Vegas was founded mostly by Welsh Mormons.
Loads more facts about Wales here!

Battling with bulletin boards
After the original boards finally melted down due to sheer weight of traffic, die-hard urbanites have been huddled together in this makeshift freebie forum. Meanwhile our man at 1&1 has been sorting out a swanky new dedicated server, so things should be back to normal soon...

Woe is me!
I've just endured the uncomfortable spectacle of watching the, err, mighty Cardiff City being blasted out of the FA cup by Coventry City. The jammy gits soaked a ton of pressure while two of Cardiff's strikes hit the bar. Oh well. I guess we're now free to concentrate on the league...

We watched the game in the Prince Of Wales pub in Coldharbour Lane, Brixton and what an awful pub it is - like a warehouse with a bar. As soon as the game was over, we declined their 'bargain' offer of a bottle of Stella for £2.90 and beat a hasty retreat to the Albert where big, frothy pints of Stella were a mere £2.40. And after tonight's football, I needed some alcohol!

King of the Hangovers!
After a hard week battling with a writing deadline, I figured I was entitled to a beer or two last night.Sadly, it turned into an alcoholic extravaganza, starting off in the Brixton Prince Albert and finishing off at the Hobgoblin. Lordy.
Drink. Don't do it kids!

(Yeah, right!)

New tunes!
I forgot to mention this on Saturday, but Londoners be sure to check out the excellent FOPP music store in Covent Garden: it's got a great stock of cheapo CDs/dance vinyl/music books and I went a bit berserk in there. I'd popped in for the new Flaming Lips album and left with: two Kate Bush remastered CDs, two Smiths CDs, Gorky's Zygotic Monki, Bowie Heroes', Puressence, Prefab Sprout and Coldplay.

Add to that the recent purchases of The Coral, Ms Dynamite, The Streets, Dave Brubeck and a reissue of the Monochrome Set's 'Dante's Casino' (which I played on!) and I've got my sounds well and truly sorted!

Well, for the next week, at least!

(Oh, and I didn't manage to get the Flaming Lips CD either- they were out of stock!)

Snow! Woohoo!!!
Just been walking around Brixton, covered in three inches of lovely, crunchy, white snow - I love it!

Naturally, I had my camera with me and I managed to grab three panoramas, despite the disconcerting gusts of snow in my face!
Check 'em out here:
Coldharbour Lane,
Brixton Oval and
Windrush Gardens
(Note: you'll need Java enabled and the images are around 180k, so they may take a while to download)

Snow rocks!

Happy New Year!
OK, it's a bit belated, but it's taken me a day or two to get over the fierce quaffing!
The weather in London remains a most unseasonal deluge although there's the remotest hint of snow next week: bring it on!
I spent Christmas up in lovely Wales (see photos) and then back to London to flail around an ice rink at the wonderful Somerset House (see 180k panorama: java needed).
And I've just managed to find the time to update the story of the titanic urban75 vs Barney legal battle!