Thursday 18th December 2003

I got back into Wycombe, yesterday afternoon around 3.30pm. I have to admit that it is a great feeling to be back home. The plans for Christmas can now be put into full swing. Wednesday was quite a hectic day, packing everything, sorting out everything at my house. Saying goodbye to my housemates until the new year. I have noticed that the Christmas period does tend to creep up on you more when you are a student, rather than a everyday, worker. The reason I suppose for this is because you are too busy with deadlines and in your own student bubble, that starts and ends on campus. This is not to say you are completely detached from the outside world, but you access the reality of the rest of the world remotely, via the television and internet. When I was on placement last year, Christmas appeared to be more of a steady heartbeat, from mid November, rather than a mad stroke a week before, as is the case now. I do appreciate life as a student, having been on the other side of the fence and realized that perhaps, working life is not what it is all made up to be. The prospects of seeing all my friends again is great. I haven’t got in touch with many yet but should do by the time the weekend comes around. Great to see how things have been getting along, since the end of the summer. Although I am going to try my best and enjoy myself while at home with my family. The promise of a new year are great reasons to celebrate, the holiday itself is far from fore filled, as exams play on your mind and are just around the corner. There is no escape.

Think Of A Letter. That was one of the Royal Mail’s advertising campaigns several years ago. Before Elton, before they decided to brand themselves as the Real Network. However, most of their vans and lorries still have this corporate message. One drove passed me on Wednesday morning when I headed onto Welford Road for a haircut. What made me notice this vehicle from the many others heading around the busy Leicester Ring Road? The number plate. “R590TEG”. It has been some time since I had seen that plate, mainly because I hadn’t ventured beyond my regular journeys to and from Queens and Gateway on the DMU City Campus. Now that my blog has reached a substantial size, with nearly two years of the archive, I have decided to have it listed with several blogs rings and listings. Blogging Brits was re-opened on Monday after being down two weeks, well for membership adds. I added myself to the blog ring, and await successful addition to their listing. I also added myself to BlogWise, expecting to be added to their UK listing within a few days. To my dismay, it will be some 24 days before my site is even considered for inclusion. Hopefully, this will raise the profile of my blog and get it many more hits from a variety of sources. I was checking my stats for the site, over the past few days. I was amazed to discover, that my site has been viewed by people, in the Netherlands, Italy, Romania and Canada. Not just that, but also far-flung places such as Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Singapore. If you have recently surfed on, from any of these exotic locations, please get in touch. It would be great to hear how things are going in your part of the world. As anyone else noticed the overexposure of perfume advertisements on TV recently? I think I counted over eight in one ad break alone. What is the world coming to? Perfume must be one of the few products in the world where the manufacturer, has to sell you an experience rather than just a box. With other products, the Unique Selling Point will alone, drive a product or service to the consumer, but with perfume? What can you sell about it across a medium like the television? From what I can remember, I noted the following: Glow (JLo), No.5 (Chanel), Tommy (Hilfiger), Lacoste, Elizabeth Arden (starring one Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Hugo Boss. Not sure how many of you have seen the most recent of the BBC Promotions for Digital Radio. Well all the promotional slots, well I cannot call them advertisements as this is a public broadcaster, follow a very familiar theme. The ‘stars’ have to reduce time spent on other activities to be able to enjoy all the new content on 8 new digital channels from the BBC. One of the more humorous, if rather bizarre, clips was of a middle-aged business executive, not dressing properly (or should I say fully), to the dismay of her colleagues, all to enjoy an episode of the Archers. The most recent of these has been focusing on the BBC’s Asian Network and it’s now countrywide availability on DAB. The scene is a restaurant and the couple are being served their starter. All seems well, but the waiters return to serve up second and third courses. The other customers in the restaurant look on in a mixture of shock and bemusement. Then the couple return home and the man turns on his DAB radio, for a banging Bhangra track to fill the room. The tag line: “Eat all courses at ones. Time Saved: 32 minutes”. For some time, the song that was played during this sketch evaded me. I asked my sisters, even a friend who is a DJ at a rival digital radio station. However, still no joy. Until last night. My sister had purchased the album Urban Fusion, very familiar to Urban Explosion released earlier this year. Before I fell asleep, I thought I would look at the tracklisting and see if I was familiar with any of the songs. I wasn’t. Then I noticed disc two and the artist called Zeus. He had featured on Urban Explosion, with a remix of the Sugar Jones cover of “Days Like That”. This was originally a hit for Fierce back in 1999. I played the track by Zeus and immediately, it clicked. This was the song that I had been searching for. I love it when a play comes together. Just need to rinse the track in the car now. The name of the song, how could I leave you in any more suspense – Zeus featuring Master Rakesh – “Kangna”.

Some of the luxuries of being at home…

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