I've been thinking about the associations I make between songs and people. Typically it goes from a song to a person - i.e. I hear a song and immediately a person comes to mind. I don't mean the singer/band member (except for one or two cases), just 'ordinary' friends of mine. The reason it's interesting is because I don't know that I really make any other association with people so consistently (except for the obvious ones of name and where they live, or places I've been on holiday with people).

I don't associate different drinks or food or smells or words with different people, or films. Possibly books, I suppose, if I've been introduced to an author/series by a particular person. It's not usually 'special' songs (in the sense "this is our song"), again with the exception of one or two instances.

No, songs are quite different. For example, everytime I hear or think of the song "Jolene" by Dolly P, my mate penguin immediately comes to mind. Similarly, "Girl I'm Gonna Miss You" (Milli Vanilli) and "Poison" (Alice Cooper) is immediately an almost-girlfriend from when I was 15. Either "Revival" (Euthryhmics) or "Soul Man" (Sam & Dave) is Mark who I was at school with. "Unchained Melody" is another almost-girlfriend I slow-danced with to this track (which is an obvious connection, I guess). Several tracks from Avril Lavigne's first album remind me of Al (I think, perhaps, because of a heart-felt "bl**dy Avril Lavigne" when we were discussing the social ramifications of "Sk8r Boi"). "Listen to Band" (Monkees) (which co-incidentally has just come on MP3) is one of my sisters.

"Eternal Flame" (Bangles) always brings to mind a young lady called Catherine, who randomly turned up with a friend at my 15th birthday party. I fell hopelessly head over heels in love with her at first sight, and never saw her again - but this song (newly released) captured what I was feeling. Probably a very un-original story. "Pump up the Jam" (Technotronic) bring to mind a posse of friends from secondary school.

"Something Inside So Strong" (Labi Siffre) is a very strong link with my IC Radio contempories (for a reason I never got to the bottom of). "The Time Warp" (original, if you please, not the nonsense by Damian or anyone else) brings to mind my first girlfriend, because I went with her to the Rocky Horror Picture Show at a West End cult-cinema who's name escapes me (which was certainly an eye-opening experience - my first experience of audience-participation cinema (and no, I didn't dress up or take a water pistol)).

Casting the net wider, "One of us" (Joan Osborne) always makes me think of Zoe Ball, and "Here's The Love" (Hayley Hutchinson) brings to mind Terry Wogan.

I think the connection is usually with the very first time I heard the track or heard of the singer/band, especially (but not always) if the lyrics re-inforce that connection. Alternatively, if I have a particularly string association with a song and a event, the people who were also there come to mind. For instance, "Venus" (Bananarama) brings to mind when I worked at PGL, and "Don't Leave Me This Way" (Communards) always reminds me of Southside Discos at university.

Curiously, while typing this, I realise that there are some songs I have previously associated with people, but I can't remember who that person is anymore! Similarly, there are people who I'm sure I have associated songs with previously, but I can't remember which one.

... now I've thought about it some more, I might have been lying about food. Wagamama always brings to mind Penguin and also Kie. Mongolian Barbeque brings to mind another ex, and Pizza Express is inextricably linked with my lovely wife in my mind. Perhaps it's just that I listen to music far more than I go out for meals.

Came across this interesting experiment on the beeb website:

BBC News embarks on a unique project telling the story of international trade by tracking a shipping container around the world for a year.
The Box

It caught my eye for all sorts of reasons:

1. I was at college with Declan, who is fronting it (or at least, did the first bit - dunno if he's doing all of the reports?)
2. It's a really nice use of current technology. Live tracking is "in" at the moment, and it's nice to see it being given a showcase.
3. The whole concept is just cool. Let's stick a GPS device on a shipping container, and see where it goes. It's like the guy who did the (self claimed) Biggest drawing in the world (with the help of GPS and DHL)
4. The name (and, sadly, this only just struck me). Watch The Box on The Box. :)
5. They've put together a live mashup so you can see exactly where it is all the time (pirates taking note? Avast me hearties!)

Good job - I shall look forward to tracking The Box!

My son and heir is often coming out with very funny things. The ones he doesn't intend are generally more amusing:

God knows everything.
... Just like Funky Monkey

(Funky Monkey is a glove puppet, by the way).

On another occasion, the three of us are snuggling up in bed on a Saturday morning, in companionable silence. Then

Mummy, I've got something to ask you
Mummy turns over to look at Ben: Yes?
Actually, I've got something to tell you, and then something to ask you.
Ok
Mummy, the thing I've got to tell you is that your nose is in my eye, and the thing I want to ask is....

One of my favourite anecdotes is still him saying I love you...

I went karting on Friday, for a colleague's leaving do.

I have been before - once - at a Butlin's or something, but to be honest that was a bit noddy. The carts where single engined, and the track was indoor, but what fun!

It was absolutely fantastic, and I loved it. I wasn't particularly fast (over a second off the pace of the quickest in our group), and I was very aware of one corner in particular where I could have gone faster, but couldn't work out how - and instead got it wrong almost every lap. It's actually quite tricky assessing whether you've improved or not, as you have no real feedback about timing until you get out of the cart.

I hadn't really appreciate how physical it was - after a 10 minute session followed by a 15-20 minute session, when I got out my legs were shaking, and I felt shattered. When I got home and into bed, I discovered a large bruise on my back, which meant I had to sleep on my side.

Of course, I spent the weekend looking up karting tips, how to work out the racing line, etc - and I'm just gagging to have another go. Think I might have to organise my next birthday party around karting!

In the tradition of the best viral/memes/whatever the latest buzzword is for things your friends post and you post it too:

www.isthisyou.co.uk

Just got back from a lovely trip to the border county. Well, one of the border counties anyway. Of England. Turns out that a week is nowhere near long enough to even scratch the surface, especially as we could easily have spent 5 days building sandcastles in a Canutine attempt to withstand the tide.

I won't have time to write all about it now, but our itinerary was as follows, and I shall aim to expand over the next day or so:

1. Angel of the North, arrive
2. Holy Island
3. Alnmouth beach
4. Cragside
5. Seahouses and Farne islands
6. Barter Books, and Alnwick Garden
7. Dunstanburgh Castle and Embleton Bay
8. Leave, and High Force

Ok, so the first and the last aren't in Northumbria, but I consider them to be part of the trip!

It is a lovely place - more or less my first visit to the county, and I'm almost certain we'll be going back next year for another go. The beaches are awesome too!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - trailer

Promise it's not Rick Astley! Least it wasn't when I watched it.

When I was growing up, we had a bit of family joke. Us youngsters would ask "what's for supper?", and be told that it was "wait and see pie".

This happened so often, that "wait and see" pie actually became a specific meal - a steak and veg pie with a suet crust. It is one of my favourite dishes now, and while the exact recipe is a closely guarded secret, it is along these lines:

Wait and See pie
Serves approx 4-6

This is a two stage process - first you cook it on the hob, then transfer it into the oven, so it's best to use a casserole dish that can do both. I guess you could transfer the filling into a casserole instead.

Ingredients:
Filling:

• 2x 450g cans of stewed steak in gravy
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large courgette, sliced
• 4 medium carrots, sliced
• mushrooms, celery, .... (to taste), sliced

Pastry:

• 225g self-raising flour
• 110g shredded suet
• salt and pepper
• cold water to mix

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 220°C (200° fan)
2. Fry the chopped onion in a little oil until soft (about 5 mins)
3. Add all the other veg, and gently cook for 10 minutes or so with the lid on.
4. Add the meat, and simmer for another 5 - 10 minutes. You may need to add a spot of water/stock
5. While the dish is simmering, make the pastry - mix the flour, suet, and seasoning together.
6. Add a small amount (a tablespoon or so) of cold water, and mix using a spatula.
7. Keep adding small amounts of water and mixing, until the mixture just stops falling apart, and has formed a dough that doesn't stick to the bowl.
8. Knead for a few minutes to a smooth elastic dough.
9. Leave the dough to rest for 5 minutes.
10. Roll out the dough to a circle that just covers the casserole, and plonk it on the top. The sauce will bubble around it, but that's part of the meal! Transfer to the oven, and bake for 30-45 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Notes
You can't make the pastry in advance, as the self-raising magic starts as soon as the mixture gets wet. However, it's so quick to make, this doesn't really matter.

Was struck by two fairly random quotes in the media yesterday.

Good advertising creates a problem and its solution.

and

Doubt is not the opposite of faith. Certainty is the opposite of faith.

I know it's still in beta, but Firefox 3 is looking really really nice.

Really fast, funky drop-down preview/autocomplete thingy in the location bar, nice styling and look and feel. Lovely.

Give it a whirl from Mozilla:
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

PS It seems to co-exist fairly happily with FireFox 2 under Windows.