Hey there...it's been a while.
I was just updating my old band website and remembered about this blog. I read through some of my old posts and also Mr Behi's. I love the comments people left - even when they were being nasty! So I thought I'd log in and write a new blog.
It's the beginning of the new year and all is very busy again. I got back from Sweden today. I was over there completing a crash test (the same one I mentioned in a post from last year). It went really well and it looks like we are on track to deliver the product we have been developing. I was staying in Gothenburg and crikey was it cold... -9 degrees centigrade, I tell you walking about my ears began to freeze.....brrrr.

If anyone reads this from Gothenburg I'm going to be in your local paper tomorrow! We did a bit of sightseeing this afternoon and whilst in a shopping centre (mall) these people approached me and asked me what the best thing about Gothenburg was, I said 'That you can pay taxi's by credit card' which frankly is a pretty poor answer considering I'd just been looking around the harbour and at the opera house! But what the hey! SO they took my picture and said it'll go in tomorrows paper!
Last weekend me and Rachel went to Bristol to see my best mate Ben. He got engaged and invited loads of people down for a meal and a night out - it was excellent, I really love Bristol. Bought myself these ace sheepskin gloves (which are probably very unfashionable - but I like them) they are super warm.
Decided to restart up the www.mrben.com band. WE hired a new guitar player a few weeks ago and started rehearsing, it's all going really well, playing some great new tunes...more Killers, Zutons, Kooks etc.... check out the site soon.
I'm on my own at the moment as Rach has gone to see her friend who's not too well...all personal stuff...so I have Ugly Betty and Big brother for company (both are pretty much rubbish).
I've been thinking a lot just lately about politics. In the UK we have a labour government (supposedly socialist and left wing) headed up by Tony Blair. In Coventry over the past couple of years we have lost the Peugeot assembly plant (4000 ish jobs) and the Jaguar Browns Lane assembly plant (1000 ish jobs). That's a lot of jobs...and the government basically did nothing to intervene, to be honest even the unions were pretty poor in there responses. It seems bizarre to me that this could happen with a supposedly overtly socialist government.
Then I started thinking about my situation. I am basically on the cusp of the higher tax bracket for the UK, if I get paid overtime or a small pay rise I'm going to be paying 40% tax on my earnings. I have a pretty massive mortgage (for a pretty basic British house - OK I realise this is better than 90% of the worlds population) which has just gone up by half a percent and will almost definitely increase again this year. I'm paying 90p+ for a litre of petrol (about 70% tax), my wife is a student and has to borrow money to pay for her education. Should I be looking to get involved with the right? I mean things couldn't get much worse for me could they?

• I can't earn any more as I'll have it all taken off me in tax
• I can't afford a bigger house or a new car even though I'm degree educated in a science with 7 years professional experience
  
• All of my friends and the dads have lost there jobs
• My prime minister isn't interested in my nations opinion on the war in Iraq
• I'm afraid to go on aeroplanes/trains and buses in case some one blows me up because my socialist prime minister helped invade there country.
• People think I'm as obnoxious as an average American

I think maybe I need to 'opt out', maybe become a nomad and hitch hike my way across the US....actually not the USA (just got Lou Reed running round my head)...maybe Russia - that seems like a sorted out democratic non-corrupt place to be.....hmmmm....

I'm going to write a top five list that always cheers me up. OK what'll it be...? How about top five women.

OK - just to set the story straight, obviously my Wife Rachel is number 1 - but no one will no her so I'll just put famous people in...

1. Meg Ryan - Incredible - When Harry Met Sally
2. Julia Roberts - Have never gotten over that foot being the same length as your forearm in Pretty Woman
3. Audrey Hepburn - ridiculously beautiful
   
4. Juliet (from dogtanian and the three muskerhounds - massive crush aged 8 - never forgotten).
5. Jennifer Aniston - like her more now she's been dumped a few times - used to think she was a bit snooty...

Crikey that was a terrible blog....