And they wonder why we binge drink

Published on Sat 26 Dec 2009

I knew the snow was going to be a bad thing. I stacked it no fewer than 3 times on the ridiculous gritless streets and pavements of Cambridge. The first two falls did some damage to my right shoulder and the final one landed me very heavily on my arse. All of that still hurts - I think a promising snooker career may have been cut short. The day after that I went to a stag do in Birmingham, of which the manly activity (recently the trend for going abroad for a few days for a stag do seems to have given way to going to a city beginning with B to take part in a manly activity followed by spicy food and a heavy drinking session) was five a side football. I'm a pretty ordinary football player at the best of times, but what with being in a fair bit of pain whenever I started or stopped running I was comfortably the worst there. It was like being at school again. Ho hum. On the plus side the aches from the football took my mind of the injuries from falling over for a few days. And the train ride back was really pretty.

The day after we did a band gig at The Cornerhouse. We were playing with 2 acts who'd come up from Deal (long way to come on the Sunday before Christmas, but I'm glad they did), both of which I enjoyed. The first, Will Varley, had a some nice clever lines about the state of the nation, and a great voice. There was a slightly unfortunate moment when he went from a really loud bit to a really quiet bit just as Dave, for reasons I only half got to the bottom of, was forcefully saying the word "enshittenator". At least it didn't happen to me for once. We were on in the middle, and I was a bit dopey from having been wandering round our Second City until 4am looking for a cashpoint so my intersong banter was rubbish. I mostly enjoyed the playing, though it is a bit weird when the audience is 90% people you go to the pub with most weeks. We did: Muscle Memory, 60 Miles with a Slow Puncture, Watertight, Cold Case, The Forked Tongue and the Blind Eye Turned, You Won't Break My Heart, Soaked to the Skin and maybe something else.

It's the 3rd time I've seen the headliners Coco's Lovers and they seem to actually be getting somewhere, based on other places they're playing. And good for them. They make a joyful kick drum and banjo strewn million part harmony hoedown kind of noise (not so unlike Mumford and Sons, but with more instruments and some lyrical depth) and it's brilliant to watch. And they're extremely nice people. The front man Will remembered having a conversation with me about how I was going to see The Ashes after the last time I'd seen them, which is significantly more than I remembered. They were missing a few members this time, but I didn't think it made any difference to the sound of things.

Christmas has been nice. Andy and I (and another guy from school, Devang) did our traditional Christmas Eve drinks in Barkingside and Ilford, and it got messy even by our own standards. Andy moved us onto the JD and cokes in The Great Spoon, which is far earlier in the evening than I'd have thought sensible. It's interesting to see the place you grew up in change every year. I suspect that Ilford now has the highest density of pound shops this side of Great Yarmouth. And the worst Oirish entertainers this side of, well, anywhere. However, I did work my way even further into credit with Charlie Boorman's By Any Means. And it was all good fun.

My nephew is here this year, aged one and a bit. He's a remarkably happy baby. And babies smiling at you is a pretty amazing thing. As far as presents go I got a hedgehog habitat for the garden (my garden is turning into a right nature reserve) a Lego board game and a duck hunting game where you have to shoot a plastic duck/plane thing as it flies around the room.

I was really quite shocked to hear about Vic Chesnutt's death. I wasn't a massive fan or anything (though I did play his song "See You Around" at my first "proper" gig and I liked everything I heard) and I probably don't know enough to comment, but from what I've read it does seem like an unfeasibly tragic situation.