A video of Jean (unplugged) with Sandie Shaw on vocals and Johnny Marr on acoustic guitar in Kew gardens surrounded by Morrissey, Rourke, Joyce and assorted children.
I think I might wake up tomorrow morning to discover I dreamt all this. If so, I apologise profusely in advance.
When you are in a crisis meeting, and a consultant or project manager says We desperately need an intervention from ABC - now !, do you ever find yourself idly scribbling the lyrics from Interpols Say Hello To the Angels on your pristine pad of white paper ?
This is a concept This is a bracelet This isn't no intervention
Two hours later, in the same crisis meeting, when the same consultant or project manager forcefully asks 'Is Freddie Geekmeister from Advanced Technical Support engaged ?', are you ever tempted to reply 'No. As far as I know, Freddie Geekmeister is currently a bachelor of this parish'.
When the ratio of the combined letters of the To: and Cc: distributions lists divided by the number of letters in the email is high, do you ever find that the relevance and worth of the actual content is correspondingly low ?
When you say to someone, 'I got your mobile phone number off your .signature so thanks for that and they reply 'You're welcome', are you ever tempted to reply 'Well actually no I didn't because you don't have a .signature so I had to ask 8 different colleagues from 3 different companies which wasted 37 minutes before I finally tracked you down'.
And when the crisis meeting finally draws to a close, and the project manager spontaneously asks you to read out aloud, to all 17 attendees, those three, crucial, important, decisive actions that he has seen you jotting down on your A4 pad, which will immediately rectify the situation, do you ever find yourself in a mild state of panic ?
Or is it just me ?
I just booked a flight to Oslo and noticed that under Meal Options alongside Vegetarian, Non-dairy and various religious preferences was the intriguing option of Bland so of course I immediately selected it.
I simply can not imagine how plastic airline fare could be made any more bland.
Will a cabin stewardess really waltz down the aisles demanding 'Did anyone ask for a bland meal ?'
Stay tuned.
I was enjoying a scan through the archives of Andrew Shermans incisive, witty (and occasionally downright scary) blog when I suddenly thought Hey Andrew - where are the links ?'
Then I realised. The hyperlinks are actually embedded in the title which is exactly where they should be.
At last. After 7 months, I have finally discovered something useful you can do in Blogger which is not (currently) supported in WordPress.
Dougs post about early memories of attending football matches got me thinking.
Years ago, I was a LMTB (League Match Ticket Book) holder at Manchester United and went to every home game at Old Trafford. An LMTB was similar to a season ticket but only entitled the holder to attend League Matches with no priority for FA Cup tickets.
Consequently, whenever United got to the latter stages of the FA Cup, there was a black market in the Manchester Evening News for the little numbered tokens that were printed in the matchday program. You needed a large number of tokens (including reserve games) to get a ticket.
However, my father was a bank manager and then, as now, the majority of tickets for big football matches went to corporate hospitality rather then the true fans.
So, on Saturday April 3 1976, on a beautiful sunny day, my Dad and I crossed the Pennines to see United play Derby in the FA Cup Semi Final at Hillsborough.
The tickets had 'Exeter FC' imprinted on the back and we were in the wrong end (Spion Kop) and all the United fans were at Leppings Lane but none of that mattered. I was so excited and nervous, I could barely converse properly.
We got into the ground early to watch the ground slowly fill up, soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the fans taunting each other. Inevitably, there were pockets of United fans scattered on the massive, steep terrace at Hillsborough.
United had a young team, managed by Tommy Docherty and were riding high in their first year back in Division 1 after promotion and Derby were the reigning champions.
Gerry Daly gave United the lead in the first half but my main abiding memory of this game was late in the second half when United were awarded a free-kick at our end. Gordon Hill stepped up and produced a swerving, curling free-kick past the despairing hands of the Derby keeper into the corner. 2-0 to United ! The ground exploded, the noise was unbelievable and the whole stadium was a moving sea of red and white.
When the game ended, United fans invaded the pitch to celebrate. Inevitably, a significant minority came to the Kop end to taunt the Derby fans. Some Derby fans responded and joined them on the pitch and the press carried pictures of the resulting 'ugly scenes'. I can vividly remember trying to leave the ground and taking refuge in a concrete backwater as United fans started to get onto the Kop terrace and most peace loving supporters desperately tried to get away from the chaos.
All in all, a fantastic day out.