This morning I received a call from Clive Smith who was the guitarist in Notts premier pub-rock band Gaffa. He's found some negatives suitable for the 80's book and will be dropping them off for scanning on Monday. I was going to put his details in my Psion organiser when I remembered I'd left it in the Ford Galaxy I've been driving all week. At least that's where I thought I'd left it? A quick call to Value Rent-a-Car located the missing organiser and put my mind at rest.

Also received a call from work to sort some stuff out. Is it possible to get away from work? Sometimes I wish we had been able to hide away in Cornwall as originally planned. At least there, mobile phone coverage is patchy.

posted by Paul Fillingham at 11:34 AM

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As the last few minutes of Valentines Day ebb away, a thousand couples are on the verge of killing each other. Maybe someone forgot their duty and didn't buy the flowers or card that were expected of them? Or perhaps someone received more than they bargained for through the post this morning? Whatever, Valentines Day remains problematic for many.

Clare and I don't really celebrate it. We have a candlelit dinner together virtually every evening, so there's nothing extraordinary about that particular activity. Flowers for Clare signifies death and she doesn't eat chocolate so we are kind of disenfranchised from the whole commercial aspect of today. Last year was the closest we came to celebrating the occasion when I bought a tin of mushy peas and wrote a message on the label. Clare was pregnant at the time and mushy peas was her particular craving. I don't think she's touched them since?

It was nice to chill out with our evening meal. It's been a hard week getting all those graphics done and stuff so that I could take time off from work. I always feel so guilty about leaving clients to their own devices, but sometimes ones own private life has to come first, and this long weekend I intend to spend some time with my family and myself.

posted by Paul Fillingham at 12:03 AM

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Appointment with Fear
The Physiotherapist was sick, so my appointment with fear at the City Hospital was postponed until the 22nd. I was kind of relieved, because my arm really ached after last week's session at the QMC. I'd like to think that I can get back near to full mobility myself by the 22nd.

Spent the morning preparing new graphics for the Machine Mart website. I'm trying to get the work done so that I can have a couple of days off around my birthday.

Received some good news from Riff regarding additional pics for our book when he got an email reply from Dawn Foxhall who was a backing singer in several local band line-ups during the 80's. Yesterday he sent me a great link from a thirteen year old boy who takes photos of burnt-out cars and posts them on his website. We wondered whether he and his mates actually had a hand in burning the vehicles in the first place?

posted by Paul Fillingham at 1:03 PM

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The undesirable is always desireable
This weekend, Gilbert was sleeping over at my Mum's and the girls staying with their Mother, providing a bit of a breathing space for Clare and myself.

It was only at my Mum's on Saturday afternoon that I discovered Princess Margaret had died. The respectful obituaries seemed strangely at odds with her real life persona, which was excessive and rebelious. Ironically, it was these (undesirable) qualities that endeared her to millions. Even Riff, an anti-royalist if ever their was one, admired her Park Drive and Whisky lifestyle. And it's true that she wouldn't have been out of place in Radford's sleezy Variety Club.

By Saturday evening the Royal spectacle was swept aside as the whole country came under the magical spell of the Pop Idols TV phenomenon. Tacky media events such as Pop Idols always make me feel kind of freakish, because you aren't supposed to turn off the TV set. But that's exactly what we did. Mexican food and Jonathan Richman's raw hispanic numbers hit-the-spot where pretty boy singers could not!

The media was still raking over the coals of Pop Idols the morning after as I read my art magazines and planned a trip to Tate Liverpool, the one Tate Gallery location we haven't yet visited. The evening concluded with a Channel 4 programme about Andy Warhol, confirming my fine art freakiness.

posted by Paul Fillingham at 11:34 AM

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