To make matters more interesting I’ve just received an email from Youtube telling me that the above video ‘may have content that is owned or licensed by UMG’, presumably because of the music playing.

Big Brother is apparently watching, but on balance I think Siouxsie would be more than willing to accompany my left knee.

Did I mention my daughter’s Youtube habit?

The only WordPress theme you’ll ever need.

Every time I sent a picture to Posterous it was posted to Twitter twice; blaming bugs I logged a support request with Twitterfeed and there was no double entry in the database and no indication of what might be happening. Following their suggestion I investigated both accounts & it turns out that I’ve configured Twitterfeed to send to Twitter as well as Posterous itself, I’d forgotten it could do that (probably too much wine of an evening) but it simplifies the process & means one less account t manage.

So, Twitterfeed sussed it & lost a customer. Sorry guys.

Now I just need to find out why the weekly tweet summary is posted twice. Hmmm …

• Measure the butter, sugar, eggs, treacle and almonds into a very large bowl and beat well. Add the flours and mixed spice and mix thoroughly until blended. Stir in the soaked fruit. Spoon into the prepared cake tin and level the surface.

• Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 4-4½ hours or until the cake feels firm to the touch and is a rich golden brown. Check after 2 hours, and, if the cake is a perfect colour, cover with foil. A skewer inserted into the centre of the cake should come out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

• When cool, pierce the cake at intervals with a fine skewer and feed with a little extra sherry. Wrap the completely cold cake in a double layer of greaseproof paper and again in foil and store in a cool place for up to 3 months, feeding at intervals with more sherry. Don’t remove the lining paper when storing as this helps to keep the cake moist.

• Put all the dried fruit in a large mixing bowl
• Pour the sherry over the mixed fruit
• Stir in the chopped orange zest
• Cover and leave to soak for around 3 days
• Stir daily
• Smell periodically
• Anticipate

I have just consumed my first pea widge in about fifteen years, and I offer the following to allow you to share the experience.

Ingredients:

Time to get the Christmas cake sorted, which is something I’ve been meaning to do. Following a trip to Tesco’s (and a to-do in the car park with a mad woman) I now have:

The hardware:

a big new mixing bowl, wooden spoons, wooden spatulas

The software:

175g (6 oz) raisins
350g (12 oz) glace cherries, rinsed, thoroughly dried and quartered
500g (1lb 2oz) currants
350g (12oz) sultanas
150ml (¼ pint) sherry, plus extra for feeding
Finely grated zest of 2 oranges
250g (9oz) butter, softened
250g (9oz) light muscovado sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp black treacle
75g (3oz) blanched almonds, chopped
75g (3oz) self-raising flour
175g (6oz) plain flour
1½ tsp mixed spice

& odds & sods to finish and decorate:
About 3 tbsp apricot jam, sieved and warmed
Icing sugar
675g shop-bought almond paste
Packet royal icing mix to cover 23cm/9in cake

Can’t you just taste it already?

Let’s take this from the top, the sleeve is dreadful. The  ‘Lord of the Manner’ portrait (no gatefold, no inserts, we’re hardly trying here) doesn’t hold much promise, even with the pre-Goth undertaker feel to the outfit. After the two year hiatus since ‘Bule Moves’ we were expecting big things, and had spent the interim coping with the possibility that ‘that was it’. ‘Shine On Through’ is a nice enough opening track but I’m not looking for ‘nice’, and things don’t improve much with ‘Return To Paradise’. I don’t think we’re even trying, and Jesus, are those trumpets? I am also firmly of the opinion that any drummer should be shot the moment he reaches for the easy listening brush-things. ‘I Don’t Care’ is a bit more like it but sadly I do, and I’m still waiting. ‘Big Dipper’ comes across as a Tumbleweed Connection reject and I hope that the closing line ‘Another reason for squeezin’ your Big Dipper’ doesn’t mean what I think it does. And even Bernie Taupin can’t convince me that ‘reason’ rhymes with ‘squeezin’. Skip on a couple & ‘Part Time Love’ starts the feet tapping, and ‘Georgia’ is almost there but we’ve got that cod-American thing happening again. I can also imagine people (metaphorically) holding their lighters in the air, and that can’t be good. Things are OK until we get to ‘Reverie’, a one-minute instrumental interlude (that’s more like it) Taking us straight into ‘Song For Guy’ – Life … isn’t ever-ee thi-ing, isn’t ever-ee thi-ing. I’m sorry Elton, but it is. Let’s take a moment to think about Guy though. Pity no-one wrote his last name down.

And that’s it (until the extended album rant), I stand vindicated and have no need to investigate the following thirty albums. Elton, go for a drink with Paul McCartney why don’t you. You’ve done enough, and had done in 1976.

So, on to The Who from My Generation to Quadrophenia. Or maybe not.