The World This Week

This week, I have:

Struggled with technology. After two weeks of battling with my truculent iPod I have finally emerged the winner (after iTunes made me download the latest version, the petulant little blighter refused to let me manually manage my playlist, but after much frustration and a pained phonecall to helpful Ben, humans finally triumphed over machinery).

Sadly the same can not be said for the wretched Freeview box. Despite sitting on top of the DVD player for three months, it has willfully refused to show me one single programme. So I have stuck it on eBay. Current bid price? £6.50 after eight bids and two days to go. They're welcome to it.

Finally got a new mobile phone after two years of my old one being laughed at by school children on the bus. Needless to say, I'm still at the stage where I cut callers off instead of answering the phone. But I'll get there in the end. (Environmentalists will be pleased to learn that my old phone is being recycled by the good folk at Oxfam).

Grown weary of the bullying in the Celebrity Big Brother house. The whole thing has been blown out of all proportion, but Jade's still proved herself to be a nasty bully. However, didn't we know that already?

Failed to read any more of "The Satanic Verses". Faced with the choice between Mr Rushdie's elitist book and the latest copy of Grazia, I chose fashion. I'm not proud of myself but I think I may have to take a raincheck on "The Satanic Verses" week of the MA. It's this term's "Ulysses" (also not finished).

Watched "Thank You For Smoking" on DVD and enjoyed it enormously. Rob Lowe especially, although his character was all too brief. The whole thing was an interesting take on the anti-smoking lobby and a very good piece of satire.

Despite the best efforts of my iPod (see above), I have finally managed to get the new Take That album on there, and proudly declare Jason Orange's "Wooden Boat" to be my current song of the week. (Followed by Howard Donald's "Mancunian Way" and little Mark Owen's "Shine". Sorry, Gary, but "Patience" is fourth.) Please rest assured that I still retain elements of good taste, and I've also been listening to Scritti (as per), Nina Simone, Duran Duran (ahem), DJ Shadow (did I tell you we saw him at Brixton in December and he was, quite seriously, awesome?) and Blur's "Think Tank".

Finally, this week I welcomed a Blossom Dearie album into my life, "Blossom Dearie For Cafe Apres-Midi". I've been trying to track down a copy of "I Like London In The Rain" for years (after only having a taped copy) and finally located one from an American seller on Amazon. When it arrived, I realised why it was so cheap - all the sleevenotes are in Japanese. Nonetheless, the music itself is faultless. There will be more on this when I've thoroughly absorbed it all.