I'm very happy to finally say that we won the race! Our full band line-up is completed, and we're all really looking forward to playing some shows in the New Year.

After holidaying in the south of France and the attempts to further one's French studies that inevitably went with it, it got me thinking about the English language, and since reading a few books I have picked up on a few words that I have decided I must use more if I can. I've also included a list that I feel the opposite way about.

4 Words that sound cool:
Compelling
Syndication
Disenfranchised (this one I am proud to say I have used before!)
Broadcasting

4 Words that make you feel dirty when you say them:
Corporation
Magnanimous
Sellotape
Affluent

Something I also learned recently is that the Chinese words for 'problem' and 'opportunity' are the same. No wonder they're so optimistic and productive.

You know when you're not as young as you were when you start enjoying certain things more than you know you should if you want to stay cool. I found myself tightening up the hinges on all my kitchen cupboard doors last night and could not get enough. I also bought a Carafe during my time away and eagerly await using it at the dinner table. These are sad stories but ones that I promise are true.

A few other facts/bits:
- In lighter news, David Cameron did a fantastic job of alienating Pakistan. SPECIAL THUMBS UP for Dave!!! (at some point I must take a picture of myself or someone else doing the 'special thumbs up' so people are on the same page with this).

- The 'American Anthems' compilation album is dominated by male singers, at least the first CD is. We'll see if the trend continues.

- Every time I hear my email client do its 'you've got a message mate!' sound I get excited. Unfortunately most of the time it's spam going into the 'Mark Holland Music Mailing List' junk box. The 'ding' goes once the email has been received JUST before it's put into the junk box. Frustration 2.0.

Emotional quote of the decade/century: 'we will always be with each other through the eyes of our children' - Chris Evan's father to his wife upon hearing he had terminal cancer. What an awesome man.

That stupid email 'ding' just went again, armed with its trademark false hopes!!! Does anybody know if I can do anything about this? I still want the sound. I guess I want to have my cake and eat it.

'Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window' - Steve Wozniak.

I'm starting this blog having no idea what to write for the first time since beginning to blog. Let's just see what happens...

On Sunday I visited my family for Mother's Day (yes, I took flowers too). We went to a pub for lunch and I was very happy to see that it sold Proper, Traditional English food - as a Proper, Traditional English pub should do. I get really annoyed when I go to what looks like a Proper, Traditional English (hereby referred to as PTE) pub and find weird things on the menu. Such as 'Pan-fried East-Indonesian Something with Lobster seasoned and part-baked in Micronesia'. Ok, so I'm exaggerating a bit, but hopefully you see where I'm coming from (needless to say, I have no issue with Eastern Indonesia, nor Micronesia. I was simply using countries miles from here as examples to put my point across). That is simply not PTE.

No, on this menu we had roast (beef, lamb, pork and chicken), pie and the other choices we hope to find, sourced locally in typical PTE style. There is certainly nothing wrong with pie, that's for sure. Unless it contains something random like Elephant, or Aardvark. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I think Plato said that. I would just like to say before moving on that Elephant pie might actually taste good... not sure about Aardvark though. Anyone tried Aardvark?

I'm enjoying rambling so I'll continue.... think think think...

I'm thinking about starting to video blog too, but not sure what on earth I'd vlog about. I hate the word 'vlog' with a passion. I have no idea why I just said it. It took my immune system a while to build up enough to sufficiently combat 'blog', so you can imagine the amount of Vit-C I'm going to have to start taking now (not such a bad thing, I really like those effervescent blackcurrant flavour things). Maybe I could 'video-blog' (I can cope with that) about new songs or lyrics or artists I like, or even PTE pubs. I think the last one sounds most appealing, as I believe there are lots of others like me who sometimes just want a simple steak and chips with a pint of ale, done and done. Maybe I could just video-blog about ale.

Thanks for reading, now I'm going to go back and see what I wrote! This has been like free-running but with words. I'll be doing it again sometime.

Mark

Welcome to my first blog in a little while. The festive period took my mind and showed it how to not think for a while (or at least, think about non-music things), which means I'm having to re-immerse myself. That's definitely a good thing, by the way.