My son O has been expressing interest in vinyl records so I dusted off my "collection" from under the bed last night and he was quite suitably fascinated. Now that I took all that rubbish out, I'm feeling like all nostalgic and all and perhaps I should buy a record player? Just for the sake of indulging a nine year old? If not, what am I gonna do with all them records?

Anyhow, amongst my records is the Colourfield's Deception (wonder where my copy of Virgins and Philistines has gone???), and so reminds me of Terry Hall, aka top bloke, this from 10 yrs ago when his 1st and so far only solo album "Laugh" came out:



I love that song "Ballad of a Landlord" on that CD - I love the whole thing but that one is my favourite. The man is a genius. He now plays with Dub Pistols apparently, and released a cover of Blondie's Rapture (my gawd!) as a single earlier this year.

On a not altogether related musical note, tonight my six year old J, dug out the wind up radio his aunt gave him for his birthday. I found him sitting in his room winding it up, slightly hunched up shoulders, listening to radio 4 with his right ear all but two inches away from the tiny speakers, giving it his full attention. Like a wee old man in a damp basement bedsit.

Later in the evening he made me play this card game with him, involving an incomplete deck and lots of ten and twenty cent coins. There didn't seem to be any rules, apart from the fact that we had to hold on to a pile of cards and then put some down on the table, together with some coins, and call out "three thousand, and two hundred!" followed by the other party in the game going "okay here goes four million and a thousand and one!" etc.

When I had placed my last cards and coins, he did a sneaky and declared that the rules were now changed - meaning that when he puts down a ten of clubs, he "calls back" ten of my cards to my deck, at which moment I felt a distinct "oh dear, I am trapped in the cycle of parenting hell" kind of doom. It's kinda cute, but only if you are masochistic in that kind of way.