A couple of things that relate to the title to be covered; firstly the estate agent Stratton Creber who just keep on turning up whenever they feel like it. They arrived at the door today at 3:15pm, and I didn’t know anything about it, they reckoned they called me to arrange the viewing, which they obviously didn’t. I gave them my phone number so they can contact me as I am the one most likely to be home as I work nights. It’s annoying as I found out today that they want to come around at 9:30am tomorrow, something else they reckon they had arranged with me previously, also complete crap. The original agreement was they they would give us 48 hours notice of any viewings which was fine, it gave us time to make sure the house is tidy for the viewing. Other things that has become a joke is the flooding of the kitchen which has happened twice this week and the owner said that it would be fixed this week, which obviously didn’t happen! It does beg the question, is it really worth staying in this house with all the problems, extortionate rent and Stratton Creber turning up without notice, it really does takes the piss big time, something has to change!
Second thing is Voodoo Lounge asking me to come in all the time to sort out the PA for DJ nights and paying me in beer, the first couple of times I didn’t mind too much, but now I am getting pissed off with it. At the end of the day if I need to be there quickly I need to catch a taxi there and a taxi back, so I am losing £10 to help them out, and all I get in return is four free beers, which in reality costs them £4. It wouldn’t be so bad if I lived close by, but I live almost three miles away and it’s a real hassle for me to get there and back. I didn’t even just switch the kit on, I needed to be on hand as they sprung an MC on me, and I had to adjust levels on the desk as things were vibrating off shelves because of the insane amount of bass the system pushes out. also stopping the DJ’s/MC’s messing with levels the moment I went downstairs for the some rest bite from the loudness. I basically said to the supervisor in charge on the night that if they are going to have these kind of nights then they need to pay for an engineer or build the cost of an engineer into the cost of hiring the venue. We simply can’t have people that don’t know what their doing fucking around with the desk. I don’t see why I should put myself out for no money, I wouldn’t have gone into Derrys and worked for free, and they wouldn’t expect me to, so why should I let Voodoo get away with it, even if I really do like the venue and the people that work there, as it’s killing physically!
Speaking of Voodoo, I recorded a few tracks from the open mic night on Tuesday using a basic sound desk and minidisc recorder taking the record output into the minidisc; check out the results below; not bad for an on the fly live recording!
Finally, it’s time to talk cricket and how badly England are doing in the first test in the Ashes series. Australia knocked up 602 for 9 wickets declared, with England’s bowlers being completely ineffective apart from ‘Freddy’ Flintoff who took four wickets. England’s batting display was less than impressive as well finishing the second day 53 for 3 wickets, so things really aren’t looking good. England look a shadow of the team they were when they reclaimed the Ashes after years of Australian dominance. I would say that this game is already lost, and the chances of retaining the Ashes in Australia is looking increasingly unlikely as much as it pains me to say it; maybe I should do a rain dance to help England?