Wednesday 16 April 2008

It means nothing to me....

Finally back! I've been offline for a week now having my laptop detoxed...

Our weekend was non-stop by our standards. Entertained at home on Friday with a shrimp starter and a fish main course.
On Saturday I mixed up a dough for Michael's Foccacia Bread (see below). This was going to be the best ever. I returned from the market to add the topping and "ping", the oven door latch broke. Now this is the second time in 9 years. Ok so it doesn't happen every day, but there is a basic design flaw with this part. It is such a crappy design. I expect more from Gaggenau. Ordering a new part was relatively painless though except for the €19 charge!!! More on this later...Carola had to run the bread over to the neighbors house to use their oven. 20 minutes later and we were serving up delicious, hot Foccacia with pasta and tomato sauce.
Saturday evening we went to a friends 40th birthday. Genius! The party was organised in an indoor ski centre. We skiied for 4 hours, worked up a big appetite and started on the apres-ski. One traditional German dinner (BIG and meaty) and many beers later we stumbled into a taxi for home.
Next day, weather was finally springlike. We went to our pool with the boys to work out some of the excess from the night before. However, the repairs weren't quite finished so only the 50m pool was open. Way too cool to stay long. We had a hot shower and detoured to Stadtwald to enjoy the sun. Kicked around for an hour or so and then back home to get ready for the weekend finale.
We don't go to concerts as often as we used to. With two boys to look after we haven't got time. But we made an exception on Sunday night to see Midge Ure. Now I've liked Midge for years, and most of the bands he has played in, but our paths never crossed on the tour circuit. Back in the day, when I collected singles (that's 45's) I even bought a couple of his tracks: Visage-Fade to Grey (still sounds good) and Ultravox-Vienna. Midge (God! It sounds like I actually know him) is actually up in that pantheon of distinguished people I admire and respect. Right up there with John Peel, Pat Kane and Jools Holland. If he were politically inclined I'd vote for him tomorrow (I don't care which party! I just trust him more, because he is demonstrably more trustworthy than the current incumbents). The concert was excellent. An energetic acoustic set with plenty of familiar hits and a few more recent songs. Unusually, for Krefeld, the crowd were very enthusiastic. Maybe a reflection of the energy and passion Midge displayed. A sure sign of a great artist is one who has time to meet fans after the show and just be himself. A very normal bloke with a very exceptional talent.

A mention also to the young chap in support. Richard John Thompson. A very accomplished set, great guitar work and quite a distinctive style. I may be slightly biased because he comes from the best place on Earth but I look forward to hearing more from RJT...
Check out: http://www.myspace.com/rjtacoustic
If you get the chance to see either of these talents DO IT!
Take the person you love most and get off myspace and enjoy realspace!

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