Year: 2007
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Paranoid? Sure, without Little Dirk to look out for me now…
Today is the 4th July, which is a public holiday here in the U.S. (officially, it’s Independence Day, although everyone just calls it “4th July” which makes me think they’ve forgotten exactly what they are celebrating). It’s probably the biggest public holiday of the year, which means that just about everything grinds to a halt. Except for me; I’m still in work. My colleagues couldn’t understand why I (a Briton) wasn’t out celebrating Independence Day, too. “Well, what are you celebrating independence from?”  I still think we should push for 200 years’ worth of back-taxes… The up-side to working on a public… Read more
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The Black Keys, The Warehouse, Houston
I’ve been back in Houston for four months now, and decided that it was about time I got back into the live music scene. There was no-one I desparately wanted to see, playing, but I fancied a night out, so I took my chances with The Black Keys, at the Warehouse. I hadn’t heard anything by The Black Keys, but I’d heard some positive things about them, so I thought I’d give it a go.  Finding out that Dinosaur Jr. were also on the bill was the decider – although I couldn’t believe that J. Mascis & co. were relegated… Read more
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Still got game
A couple of days ago I was rummaging around in one of the many boxes of crap piled up in my study, when I found my old Nintendo Donkey Kong game (you know, the old orange clam-shell one). I don’t know why I’ve still got it – maybe out of sentimental gratitude for all the dull church services it helped me through during my boarding school days. I showed it to my 8-year-old son (Finn) who was distinctly underwhelmed, until I told him that this was the ‘original Nintendo DS’ (hey, it has two screens…), and explained that the little guy was Mario of Super… Read more
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Bureaucracy: Belgium’s greatest export
I thought that I’d left all of the bureaucracy behind when I left Belgium earlier this year, but no. It seems that not content with foisting their arcane machinations on the rest of Europe, the Belgians have now set their sights on the global stage. On July 15th, a new law will come into effect in Belgium whereby any non-residents who work in Belgium for more than five days in any calendar month are required to obtain an L-1 LIMOSA declaration. Given that there’s an extremely good chance I’ll be sent back to Belgium on a business trip at some… Read more
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Road – it’s all the rage!
This commute is killing me. A couple of nights ago it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get home from work. For a 20-mile journey, on a single stretch of motorway – the infamous I-10 (a.k.a. the Katy Freeway). That’s an average of 12 mph – which just shows that the police are taking the piss by putting up “65-mph” speed limit signs. And 12mph is an average. For the last 5 miles of the journey I was hurtling along at closer to 80mph. Yes, that’s over the limit, but I dare the bastards to pull me over and… Read more