I like to go a wandering...

Hello hello.

I would have posted earlier, but my browser crashed, at precisely the moment after I had completed a leviathan of a post, but - crucially - before I could hit the "Publish Post" button. I must have sat inert in front of the monitor for 15 minutes, stunned at the treachery. You Fox bastard!

Well anyway, I'm pretty sure this post won't become too bloated, I've worked late, been to the gym, and elicited cacophonic tones from the piano down in the band room, and if I don't feck off from the premises soon, I'll be looking at a long walk home through the snow. Actually, that's quite appealing. It's been chilly here, around -15 or so for the last few days. This is just cold enough so that when you breath in, you become aware of your lungs.

Now, catch up time. The Stockholm trip almost two weekends ago is fast becoming the stuff of legend, at least amongst the participants - excellent folk all. So excellent, in fact, that I actually enjoyed the ferry trip over. Then again, it's hard not to be amused by the helpless stumblings of a dancefloor of drunks in high seas. Here's the thing, though, everyone stumbles in synch. It's like some fantastically clumsy ballet. Stockholm itself was great - more of a big city than Helsinki, and a little prettier too. Apologies to the woman who backed in to me whilst carrying a round to our group in the corner over my head.

Amsterdam: beautiful. I've never seen a more beautiful inner city. It's not grandiose, it's not overblown, it's just got such character. The gigs were great (The Frames were missing Colm Mac Con Iomaire, which was disappointing). Paul Noonan seemed determined to kick the monitor off the stage and on to our toes whilst doing his usual epileptic on E live routine - intimidating from that close! The next album's going to be a cracker btw. We pretty much covered all the bases, my tulip and I: the Van Gogh Museum, Rembrandt's House, the Red Light district, a (dull, frankly) coffeeshop, some good cafés (bars), a jazz club, a comedy club, and every major ice-cream vendor in the city, I think (the zenith of our ice-creaming was a valentines chocolate fondue in the Häagen Dazs Café... mmm).

Both our flights were delayed on the way back, so Niamh missed her train to Sligo, and I worried I'd miss my connecting flight, but we got to spend an extra hour with each other (albeit, in the airport, whose charm began to tarnish after the fourth hour...) When I say that I worried about my connection, I needn't have bothered. I know that SAS would have waited me. I know this, because after sprinting to the correct gate, and getting seated twenty minutes after boarding time, the last of our passengers found theirs about an hour later. At this point it became apparent that the man who drives the little kart that tows the plane from the gate had gone home, leaving us stranded at said gate until a qualified candidate could be found. It musn't be quite so easy as it looks, as this took about an hour. Or perhaps they trained someone in from scratch. We then joined the (long) queue for de-icing... I'll just skip to the end and say that, while we were due to land in Helsinki at 22:15, I had the pleasure of confirming that, yes, all the buses had long ceased to run, at 1:40. The queue for the taxis was about 300 yards long. I was on the verge of cosying up on the floor for a bit, when I had an epiphany, and got a seat on a minibus cab. My unfashionable North Helsinki address saved the day - the road from the airport to the centre passes my block of flats, w00t- a happy ending!

In other news, I've been "concepting" lately. This seems to be business speak for "being imaginative". As any imaginative, devilishly attractive, panache oozing, creative type like me (I know, *too* imaginative) will attest, you need inspiration to be at your visionary best. Lately I've been drawing mine (as usual) from other people's blogs. Gatochy has had some achingly beautiful posts lately (the story of her family will whip you into perspective, as will a trip to Rob's blog), our long haired Texas friend is treating us to simultaneous fonts of wit and wisdom (many thanks), Skipn_Easy is [censored :p], Bob the killer goldfish is once more on the hallowed path to world domination (show that flu who's boss!), Hedonist has some pretty pictures (the rest is lost on me!)... I could go on all day and get all cyclical, but if you're spending time, there are much less enjoyable, educational, amusing, and elightening ways than clicking those links on the right.

Now pray to a deity of your choice while I hit this button... Oh great Agnos...