Conan Doyle and the mysterious case of the laptop bag

I've noticed that I've started becoming a bit slack on putting regular postings up here at the moment - it's all to do with me procrastinating about finishing off my Olympic journal. Sigh. Well, I've decided not to let it get in the way.



It's noon on Saturday. To be honest a time when I'm usually just dragging my lazy arse out of bed. I've been quite productive so far today though.

1) nipped to the world's most inconveniently located City Link depot in Illkeston to pick up my Crumpler bag. This is about a 30 minute drive all the way across Nottingham, out the other side and into Derbyshire. They tried to deliver yesterday afternoon, but I was at work of course. Naturally they don't re-deliver on Saturdays. Grrr. Anyway. The bag looks good. A bit smaller than I was expecting, but big enough to comfortably fit my Thinkpad (and the next size bag up, which I saw in Selfridges last week is absolutely enourmous. Far, far too big for me)



2) I had noticed that my front driver's side tyre was getting a bit worn, and as I'm off to Ox next weekend, I thought I had better get it checked out. Popped into Kwik Fit, and it turns out that both my front tyres are practically bald on the inside edges and wearing through. One of those tyres was pretty new, which indicates that there is a problem with the tracking. Still, they sorted all of that out for me, which was nice. I think I timed it just perfectly as I had to wait about 2 minutes before they dealt with me. So I'm £200 poorer, but am the proud owner of a new set of Continental tyres and am that little bit less likely to die on the road - which must be a good thing, right?



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Went to the Playhouse with C last night to watch a 4 man production of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by the same director who did "Travels with my Aunt" last year. That was excellent, and so was this. The timing of the cast (who obviously all play multiple roles - frequently with 3 of them playing Watson at the same time) was really good. Interesting use of film projected onto the back of the stage to set the scene. As usual the seats in the playhouse weren't very comfortable, but at least you get royally entertained. Also a good excuse to have tea at Wagamama's.



One of the things that I find especially interesting about Holmes is the way that, in times of boredom, he resorts to injecting cocaine solution. This is clearly not something that sits comfortably with a modern audience (and as I recall, even Dr Watson is mildly judgmental about it in the books), but I was pleased to see that this production didn't duck the issue at all.



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Bravo to Franz Ferdinand for winning the Mercury Music Prize this week. They don't always give this to the right people (M-People anyone?) but I think they made a good choice this year. Was watching it on telly last night, and was struck by how many of the albums shortlisted this year that I own:

Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress

Franz Ferdinand

Keane - Hopes and Fears

Snow Patrol - Final Straw

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free

(there are 12 nominations in all)

Not sure what that says about me, other than that I like music by skinny white boys with guitars (excepting the Streets, obviously).



Before you know it, I'll be the old bloke tapping my foot at gigs.... Starting with the Hives at Rock City later this month..