Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Girls 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

i.e., at Brighton Sealife Centre.

Posted via email from Rob Thorley's Posterous Site

Monday, October 11, 2010

Brainbloodvolume

So, I bought Ned's Atomic Dustbin's third album from Amazon Marketplace, for close to £2.50, including P+P.

It's very noisy.

I've not listened to the whole thing yet, but maybe this was a purchase too far for me...

TTFN.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Mudhoney

You probably know by now, I managed to check out Mudhoney at Concorde II in Brighton, on Tues 5th October 2010. When I checked the Concorde website and saw tickets were still available, I knew I had to go.

They rocked.

Seriously, from the first strum of the guitars, from the first beat of the drums, they were on the money. They tapped in to a visceral, raw groove which got my attention. They had a take on rock n' roll which pulled me in, even though they were playing tunes I don't think I'd heard before. Of course I recognised "Touch Me I'm Sick", and I identified "Sweet Young Thing (Ain't Sweet No More)" as the lyrics were pretty clear. The rest was a joyous rock noise which I loved.

I probably had one or two beers too many, and the McDonalds meal probably didn't help, but I was feeling a bit dicky by the end. I was glad to get home. Maybe I'm getting too old for this...

I can still track down some Mudhoney back-catalogue, though, and enjoy it in the comfortable surroundings of the dining room, or more likely my Sennheisers on the way to work (!).

TTFN.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Loss of Child Benefit

Its not such a big deal, in my view. True, it doesn't impact me - I'd have to earn a bit more than I do now - but I support TW and three children on my wage. TW has a couple of pounds coming in from her Phoenix and Micro-Scooter sales, but it's not enough to worry the taxman.

If I earned enough to pay the higher rate of income tax, we'd be rock steady. Currently we rely on the child benefit, but that's because I spend a lot on booze and TW spends a lot on food. We could trim our sails if required (and I am trying to do that...!). It'd be nice to be in the position a lot of my friends find themselves:
"Child benefit? We bank it for his future", so it's not used for its intended purpose.

One point made on the radio last night was that if a household had a higher tax rate payer and a stay-at-home Mum, they would be impacted, but the next-door DITKYs (Double Income Two Kids) both paying lower rate tax would be unaffected.
The interviewee responded that maybe the DITKYs should, as a unit, be paying some higher rate tax on their income. At the moment tax is an individual affair, and so the marker was set as it was. There will be winners and losers at the margin, as there always is with tax changes.

So let's not make it a universal benefit, let's target it at those who need it most - which is still me, for the time being. Phew!
TTFN.