Matt (after I asked, as no-one else spontaneously passed it on - snif) has passed me the meme of the moment: the musical baton. Total volume I think iTunes contains about 12.5 GB of music: a mixture of my own CDs, downloaded CCmusic, free singles from iTMS, and podcasts. Last CD bought Ben Folds: Ben Folds Five Song playing right now Jazz Cafe 8/01/2005 Track 07 by The Bays Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me Count To Six (I Am Robot And Proud mix) by The Überkids She Goes On by Crowded House Lonely Soul by U. Read more...

I’m late to the party, if that’s not an unfortunate choice of words under the circumstances, but Southampton (contrary to my previous optimism) were relegated to the Coca Cola Championship (“fizzy pop league”) last Sunday, losing 2-1 to Man. Utd. I’m over my initial doom and gloom; Harry seems to be indicating that he’ll stay, and most of the better players probably will too. A long-overdue clearance of the dead wood is also in the works. Read more...

Lib Dems gain seats, but not as many as the Conservatives. Labour retain power, but with a reduced majority. Move along. Nothing to see here.

At Bristol Temple Meads railway station the travel centre has been renamed “Advanced Ticket Sales”. Shouldn’t that be “Advance Ticket Sales”, or are these tickets in possession of a higher-than-average IQ? I should have taken a photo with my phonecam.

I was lucky enough to be able to use a friend’s season ticket on Saturday (thanks Richard!) and be at St. Mary’s Stadium in Southampton as The Saints narrowly beat fellow-strugglers Norwich 4-3 in what was truly a game of two halves. Saints fell behind after only 3 minutes - sloppy defending. Then Matty Oakley equalised - quality goal. Crouchy then scored with his feet (!) to put us 2-1 up before more sloppy defending led to a Higgy own-goal. Read more...

The Peugeot 106 is faltering. We’re considering replacing it with one of the following cars (in order of preference): Honda Jazz Toyota Yaris Skoda Fabia Nissan Micra Hyundai Getz Fiat Panda Why the Jazz? June’s What Car (UK) magazine contained the results of the annual JD Power Customer Satisfaction Index survey. The Jazz came first. Out of all types of car. Not bad for a supermini. We’re keen on it because it’s a roomy small car. Read more...

…and one collection of eleven footballers who just happen to be wearing the same (red and white) kit. Portsmouth destroyed - not just beat - Southampton yesterday. We are now bottom of the table, with the only good news being that we still have to play two fellow strugglers: Norwich and Crystal Palace. Saints also recently threw away a 2-0 lead against Aston Villa to lose 3-2; that alone makes us worthy of relegation in my book. Read more...

Plusnet - oops, they did it again.

Morrisons (buyer of Safeway UK): you’re cheap. Your brand image is cheap and ugly. Your image is distinctive, but distinctive in the way that Janet Street-Porter’s teeth are distinctive. Not good. Oh, and your products suck too.

An heroic performance yesterday from Harry’s boys led to a 3-1 win at Middlesbrough, Southampton’s first away win of the season. Two goals from Peter Crouch (and [two references to him as "the lanky striker" in the BBC News report][1]) and one from Andreas Jakobsson were too much for the Smoggies. After leading 2-0 against them at home and then drawing 2-2, this was a moral, if not actual, double against the Teeside team. Read more...