this almighty pop!

i'm gonna walk up the side of the mountain then walk down the other side of the mountain

It was my 36th birthday on Monday, I had the day off work, I think I always do when it's my birthday, not really sure why, I never really do much, just spend it on my own, usually buying myself the presents I wish other people had bought me , how ungrateful is that?. In my twenties I used to feel like I was getting so old when it was my birthday but these days it doesn't seem to bother me ....bring on the mid-life crisis! I did get one really good present ,R bought me Grandaddy's new l.p. Sumday which on the first few listens seems better than "the sophtware slump", sometimes the guitars remind me of the Lavender Faction ,sometimes the vocals remind me of the Boo Radleys and sometimes the synth sounds remind me of Daft Punk . I didn't think a band with beards could sound as good as this, well except for the Beatles just before they split.

With some of my birthday money I went and bought myself some waterproofs for when I go to work on my bike, ain't nothing worse than getting soaked to the skin before you've even done a days work, it's not so bad on the way back , I can handle getting wet then, I might be tempting fate though because we've been having some gorgeous sunshine summer weather lately , 26 degrees apparently in the North East today. Riding my bike is all part of my new trying to get fit campaign, I've started doing sit ups and press ups aswell, maybe that mid-life crisis is just around the corner? The bike ride is only 4 miles there and back but it's got to get me a little bit fitter, I've even been going out riding on an evening with my sister-in-law, not that we get very far before she's got a stitch. I've been doing it for about 4 weeks now and I do feel better for it. Everyone should get on their bikes, stop driving those cars.

Not only was Monday my birthday but it was also the official release date for Slipslide's debut album The world can wait on Matinée. The main man in Slipslide is Graeme Elston, who I have known since he was 17 and in a band called The Very Dabs, who I thought were the bees knees the first time I saw them playing live at the Broken Doll in Newcastle back in 1989, Total Pop Experience! He's since gone through a host of band names ....the Love Parade,Pure and Eva Luna, releasing pearl after pearl after pearl. Wouldn't it be nice if some label did a compilation of all those bands releases, so we can have them all in one place? At last he's managed to record a full l.p. of songs, which I've been waiting god knows how long for, it was certainly worth the wait though, if only for the last track "the world can wait" which apparently nearly didn't make it onto the record, imagine if that had had happened , we would have been deprived of possibly his best song yet, a great combination of the orchids, sugargliders and edwyn collins all at their very best. Listen to it, sing along to it and fall for it , just like I do everytime it's on, soundtrack to my summer.

While the sun was in the sky today I laid on my back looking up at the clouds trying to find something in them, me and Susan Robinson used to do it when we were kids I can remember we once saw an elephant, I even wrote a short story about it, no elephant clouds today though but I swear puff the magic dragon was up there. Everyone should lie on their backs on the grass and find something in the clouds at least once a week in the summer.