Bit of a strange old weekend just gone. Boiling hot, and finally the flowers on my balcony have decided to get into the act, after hiding in the dirt all spring away from the freezing cold. Went out to lunch on Saturday down at the Wapping Project which really is a fine restaurant. Then on Sunday I actually watched a bit of a football match. Never thought I would, but sitting on the previously mentioned balcony with a glass of celebratory champagne (More about that later) the whole of the Island had their windows open and all I could hear were shouts and moans, so I switched on the box and watched it through the windows. Blimey, no wonder we lost. It was like watching ballet dancers vs donkeys.
Talking of TV matters, since I’ve been doing this book on crime series, there seem to be new ones every day, and it’s difficult to keep up. There’s Human Target on ScyFI Channel which I can’t get on my satellite box, and Justified on Five USA which pixilates like a bugger(I’ll have to wait for the box sets of those). I really do need to update my system as I seem to be the only person left without a LCVD/LED/Plasma thin screen. Trouble is, when I priced up exactly what I wanted at John Lewis a while back, it came to an eye watering £2200 which didn’t include the 3D option, but did include an electric driven stand, and what fun that would be. But even so, very hard to justify in these straitened times. However, one new series I did catch was K-Ville which I thought was great.
Back to the celebrations as promised. On Friday I bought a copy of the Sun to check out the review pages, and lo and behold there was a top review of Guns Of Brixton. It’s weird when that happens as a surprise, as it can be a nasty surprise, believe me. Luckily the reviewer loved the book I’m glad to say, (what’s not to love?), and Superb was the word of the day (His, not mine) so, I’m getting his e-mail address soonest to thank him. Then on Saturday, Mr Maximum Crime himself phoned to tell me the book had gone to number one on the Amazon hard boiled crime chart. Never been number one before, so that’s why the bubbly. Don’t know how that might affect sales, but it can’t hurt. And if it does well someone might buy the film rights so’s I can afford that new TV set up.
Music wise, bought a couple of albums from Nick at Heyday. Sugarlumps 3 on Acid Jazz with fifteen ace psychedelic tracks, and A Phase We’re Going Through on Fruits De Mer (love that label) with more oldies revisited in a groovy way. It’s just like the summer of love revisited round here. Finally, I was very sorry to hear of the death of Pete Quaife from my very favourite band, The Kinks. RIP.See ya.
The England team were truly terrible – bloody gutting