Hardly rock and roll, but I like it!

Nothing particular of note to get my teeth into this week so just a few little tit bits to keep the BlackLOG ticking over.

Mrs B and I went to see the Bluetones at "O2". Sadly for the Bluetones (or at least their bank accounts) it was the Indigo "02" and not the main arena, which was full of "Girls Aloud". Taking an educated guess this would feature a large number of over-excited little girls, who mistakenly believe that they are at a music happening (they'll learn), a couple of sad old gits (No not me,I was otherwise engaged) and enough costume changes to disguise any lack of talent that manages to get through the constant high pitch squeals from the aforementioned over-excited little girls. From our point of view it is great because the Indigo happens to be a fantastic little venue. As an added bonus the drinks are pretty reasonably priced, £4 for a G&T(aside 1) and a bottle of water not bad for a London venue. The toilets are clean and plentiful - hardly rock and roll but very welcome all the same.

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for The Bluetones They are not a huge name in the music world, they have been around for over 10 years but never really hit the big time. They lost out in the Britpop wars of the 90's to the likes of Oasis and Blur. The sort of group where most people like a number of their songs, they just don't happen to realise they are by the Bluetones. They are also such a polite band - no swearing. Strangely enough this seems to work its way through to the audience who were wonderfully behaved. The support group were excellent, a Liverpool group called Amsterdam One word of warning however, if you do ever see Amsterdam live - stand well back. I have never seen so much spittle coming out of a lead singer, the first three rows were soaked. I'll give the lead singer the benefit of the doubt and put it down to his passion.

The wrong Bag
The German security at Berlin Tegel airport have definitely got it in for me. This time I was shouted at because my clear plastic bag with toiletries was not clear enough. I explained that I had got it from security in Stansted. Rather reluctantly they let it through, but it was through gritted teeth and very clenched jaws.

What will the next airport security initiative be? See-through clothes? God I hope not, some of those travellers are gross

The Test Drive
Mrs B and I had a test drive in a BMW. This went fairly well until the salesman started banging on about the special two tier indicators that the car was fitted with. In my opinion they were somewhat over-complicated. Indicators should be simple -you press the indicator switch, the indicator comes on, you go around the corner they turn off. He was a little taken aback when I proclaimed " Ah, so it's the complications involved in using the indicators that is the reason why BMW drivers don't bother indicating and I thought it was because they were an expensive option...." it went a little frosty for a while. Give him his due he did recover and he knew more about the product than most car salesmen that I have encountered. Things could have ended better if I had not let the car roll into the fence at the end of the test drive. Just a little bit embarrassing.
It was only a little bump, hardly left a scratch really, I'm sure they can polish it out easily enough......

Dancing, but not as you know it
For the last few months Tuesday night has been salsa dance night, as I reluctantly got talked into some private dance lessons with some friends. Mrs B would make occasional guest appearances but managed to hide behind not getting back from work in time. I have hung in gamely but as we moved from Salsa into the murky world that is Tango I have been found out. While my upper body is almost perfect, possibly championship standard (OK, OK I've got my fingers crossed behind my back and my tongue firmly in cheek "ash I shay ish")my legs are absolute rubbish, they either don't move at all or make huge steps that just don't gel with the music. With Salsa my body just about managed to cover up my legs' deficiencies but with Tango, depending much more on precise leg movements, the jig was up. I've always been a bit of a free spirit when it comes to dancing anyway so it was time to resign. My masochist friends will have to find someone else to step on their toes...

Yoga
To replace the dancing I have taken up Yoga. Who is the masochist now? During my second lesson Lorna, my Yoga instructor, demonstrated a position that my body is at least 10 years away from achieving. It does not help matters that it would be 10 years in my past.

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1) For some strange reason Mrs B only seems to really enjoy having a G&T when they are really expensive (I guess it's an atmosphere thing). Go to any high end restaurant and bar for instance and she can be seen knocking them back with the best of them. At the Indigo however, one reasonably priced drink proved more than enough to satisfy Mrs B's desire.
Now the question is, is this one of those reasonably priced G&T's or will we require another mortgage so Mrs B can have another one? (Return to text)