Pardon my ignorance but this is one of the great "Pommy" myths (or not) in Australia, where beer is ALWAYS cold, in fact the phrase "a cold one" refers to a beer not the weather the other day.

I have to say I cannot imagine drinking beer that is not cold. We go to great lengths to chill the stuff, we buy bags of ice at service stations for $5 a pop solely for the purpose of keeping the beer cold at a picnic.

My enquiry is prompted by the threads about Massive meet-ups etc - if I was in the UK I would love to attend but I couldn't face the thought of a tepid lager.

Earlier today I was walking down the road with not a care in the world when I became aware that my shoelace was undone. As I "bent down to tie the laces of my shoes" I found myself singing the line from Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue". As I had last time this minor inconvenience occurred.

Which reminded me that when I'm hanging out the washing I often relieve the tedium by singing in my best inner Daltrey voice "at least I'll get my washing done..."

Or even "I can see you in the morning time - washing day, the weather's fine" from Manfred Mann's "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James". Then I usually end up singing "Todays' Monday.....Monday's washing day" etc by The Scaffold. Which is actually an amazingly good George Martin production.

But I digress.

Does anyone else find themselves humming mindless ditties from yesterday on a regular basis as they confront daily chores or regular occurrences?

You know the scenario - at the local pub the singer announces they've got a "technical problem" and the guitarist's mate, who borrowed the PA from his girlfriend's brother scurries to tweak a lead or replace the mic or whatever.

I may have posted a version of this story before but it's still a good 'un...

In 1972 I was a pimply but excited adolescent crowding into Western Springs stadium in Auckland to see Led Zeppelin. The limos drove on to the ground and as the sun began to set they came on, the stage lights revealing the gods themselves thundering into Immigrant Song. After the first wail or two from Percy the stage lights suddenly went out. Collective gasp. The band kept playing and a couple of minutes later the lights miraculously came on again. Collective sigh.

I found out many years later that they had blown the entire South Auckland power grid but had the foresight to carry their own generator.

Any other tales of technical disasters??

Earlier today I drove under a railway line as a train was passing overhead.

As a child I remember this was always something my Dad always wanted to do.

(I should add that this was in New Zealand, where we don't have railway/tube lines in the city, so it was a special event as it could only ever happen on holidays, traveling up the North Island, and being on the highway the same time a country train passed over a bridge).

I found myself feeling triumphant and wishing my Dad was there to experience this momentous event.

Any other silly/superstitious kind of events like this?

Pure badger shaving brush

Supermarket lather shaving cream in a tube

BIC disposable double blade razor

Always in the shower, with hand held mirror

And you sir?

The other day I was getting my hair cut and the guy doing it had a Pommy accent so I asked (as you do) where he was from. (I'm in Sydney),

"Birmingham" said he.

"Ahh, The Move" said I.

There followed a conversation in which it was revealed this young chap had NEVER HEARD of The Move despite being from their locale.

He did, however know of ELO and Wizzard (I explained the connection) and also named Duran Duran and Ozzy Osbourne as folks from that particular region.

So my thoughts are twofold - firstly, aren't The Move "criminally underrated", and secondly, what's with the Birmingham sense of history? Surely The Move should be city fathers, celebrated heroes, known to all. Anywhere else in the world would honour them and teach "Fire Brigade" in kindergarten.

And now for the obligatory YouTube clip which appears to be a live performance

Earlier today I asked my 14yr old daughter to put out the recycling - the third request in half an hour - and my voice obviously showed some anger/frustration because she looked at me disparagingly and said "calm your farm Dad".

Brilliant.

What could I say?

Any other awesome teenage put-downs out there?

I recently bought "Them Crooked Vultures" and the Paul McCartney Live in NYC albums as iTunes downloads, also the Clapton/Winwood live concerts.

Then today I was in a CD store buying a present for someone and saw these on the shelves and thought wow I'd love to have the actual CD - maybe it's got something interesting to read on the cover etc etc.

Yet when I bought them as downloads I just wanted to hear them straight away and thought if I want any more info I can look it up on the internet etc.

Does anyone else do this - download something and then wish you'd waited?

Or is this just the old record collector in me - need the LP, the cover etc, to hold in my hand.

My teenage daughters just spent a happy afternoon doing a jigsaw puzzle that we were given for Christmas. We also spent time on our extended family Christmas holiday playing scrabble and 500 (card game). Whenever we do this stuff I am firstly reminded of a childhood a very long time ago and secondly how much I/we really enjoy these old fashioned activities.

Anyone else have favourite games from yesteryear that everyone still enjoys?

...said my daughter, home for Christmas. So we listened in the car and I was amazed. Interesting tunes, chord progressions - check the bridge at 1.37; slightly off-puttingly camp vocal style etc but essentially this is Good Pop Music according to my definition which means it's got to have some relation to ... um, the HJH.

Anyway this is a band called Of Montreal, I had never heard of them but I bought (ie downloaded from iTunes) the album that this track comes from - released 2004 apparently - they're quite prolific - anyway this is "Eros' Entropic Tundra" by Of Montreal from the album "Satanic Panic in the Attic".

Has anyone else heard of these guys????

Someone on another post mentioned their Dad having an 8 track in their car - set me thinking - wonder what everyone's hifi history is?

We had a "gramophone" that played 78s (my Dad had a trunk full of 78s he'd bought in the 30's/40's - fabulous stuff - Count Basie, Jimmy Yancey, The Rite of Spring over about 8 discs).

Then in about 1965 he bought a Phillips 60's mono "record player" that enabled me to go out and buy my first single (Manfred Mann's "Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James").

That was all we had for the next few years - while my friends all had "stereos" we had this little Dansette type thing in the house.

In about 1972 when I was at University I saved up enough in my holidays to get a "stereo" and I was in heaven - wow, listen to the separation on "Revolver" etc.

Later, in the 1980's, I bought Quad speakers (the ones that look like heaters) and did the whole hi-fi nerd thing, I still like listening to records on my Thorens turntable through the Rogers LS35A speakers (otherwise known as BBC monitors).

I'm astonished at my kids being happy to listen to ANYTHING through crappy iPod/computer speakers.

I read somewhere recently that this song's title comes from the name of a Chinese dish of chicken and eggs. And that much of the song is about when his dog got run over. That information doesn't really make the song any more comprehensible - but somehow that doesn't matter, I still really like it - catchy as hell, great to sing along to, great band and arrangement, etc etc.

The other day I was driving my 17 yr old son to school and he put on a CD of a Mendelssohn string quartet (we're talking "classical music" here).

He kept interrupting saying "listen to this bit" and "here's my favourite part" etc, the same way I used to with my favourite songs/records.

Then he asked the killer question "don't you like it Dad?" to which I replied "yes I'm enjoying it".

Which I was, I just wasn't so passionate about it as he was.

So what I'm thinking is, for us older folks, and there's a few of us here who are worried that we can't get as excited as we used to about music - maybe that's OK. Maybe it's just about "enjoying" at this stage of our lives, rather than thinking something new is not worthwhile because "we've heard it before" or "well The (insert band name here) did it all back in 1969".

Realising this has given me a whole new lease of life as regards "new" music - a new recording doesn't have to knock me out the way "Strawberry Fields Forever" did, because (probably) music is not going to have that effect on me again. I'll just enjoy whatever I like about it and accept (with relief) that it doesn't have to change the world.

Today I went to see "It Might Get Loud" - a film about guitarists JP, The Edge and Jack White talking about and playing guitars guitars guitars.

It contained several memorable moments for me - three especially

1. Jimmy Page walking in to Headley Grange and describing how Bonzo's roadie had set up the drums in the foyer and they sounded so good there with all the reverb etc so that's where they recorded "When The Levee Breaks"

2. When he played the "Whole Lotta Love" riff in front of the others - up till then it had been looking like a very serious set-up along the lines of "oh no these guys aren't really getting along" - but the grins on the faces of Edge and Jack were wonderful and kind of broke the ice.

3. But the best one for me was Jimmy going through his records and playing Link Wray's "Rumble" and his smiles of delight after so many years listening to one of his obviously favourite records. I mean, Jack White didn't seem so visually delighted about the Son House track that was supposed to be his all-time fave.

But what I REALLY want to know is - what were the other records in Jimmy's room? What was in his fridge? What are the books beside his bed? Etc etc. So tantalizing.

So - James Taylor and Carole King are touring next year. I loved JT in his prime, and couldn't avoid Tapestry even tho I never owned it. But I like Carole.

And I've seen James a couple of times - in England in '74 (at a festival with Tony Joe White and Lou Reed no less!) and again in Sydney in '81 - with Bill Payne on keyboards and the usual great bunch of musicians.

So why am I resisting going this time?

On the negative side - I do kind of hate the "chain lightning" phenomenon - here we all are to worship. And they'll be so far away (unintentional joke there) at the venue that I'll need binoculars to see them. And it will cost an arm and a leg.

On the positive side - James always has a good band. I will like most of the songs.

Also, I didn't go to Stevie Wonder cos I thought it would be a showbiz kind of gig with all the best Motown hits done as a throwaway medley. Friends that went said it was fantastic. On the other hand I didn't go to Simon and Garfunkel for many of the reasons outlined above for JT and Carole, and reports were it wasn't worth it.

Any similar dilemmas?