All the time we've lived at Tea at Johnny's Towers we've had a boxhedge at the front of the house. Last year, for the first time, it was attacked by the box caterpillar.
We cut a couple of bits out and the rest seemed to survive but this year the caterpillar was back with a vengeance. The whole hedge has got to go. I started on that job this week but as the green recycling bin is now filled with hedge the rest will have to wait.
So, does that mean we've beaten the box caterpillar by getting rid of the hedge or has the box caterpillar beaten us by making us get rid of the hedge? I don't know.
And there are no clues in Beat Box by avant-gardesynth-pop combo Art of Noise either. A 1983 single this instrumental, experimental piece can be seen as fun, clever, annoying or possibly all three at times. Lovely bit of piano at the end if you get that far. And yes, it pretty much was the theme of The Krypton Factor for a while.
After describing symptoms he said I was most likely working through an infection and to carry on with hydration and resting up.
So, having been infected by something I can choose Infected by The The. Big fan of the album of the same name* that was released in 1986 and this single may be the best of it. Only reached number 48 though, travesty.
* There are a couple of tracks, Heartland and Sweet Bird of Truth, that lyrically are very much late 80s but also very appropriate to the world we live in today.
I've been unwell this week. Some sort of sinusitis thing I think. I'm not a doctor. Nor have I seen a doctor yet but I might have to if I can't shift it soon.
I don't usually get headaches but this has come with many headaches, or not many of long duration. I can't tell. What I can say is that it made me want to be like Worzel Gummidge or Kryten and be able to put a new head on.
Hey, 'head on'... that's a song!
Head On was a 1989 single by Scottish noise-merchants The Jesus and Mary Chain which also appeared on their album Automatic from the same year. But I'm not going with that one.
I'm going with the 1991 cover version by Pixies which was a single and featured on their tremendous album Trompe Le Monde. There weren't many who could out-Mary Chain the Mary Chain back then but this does comfortably.
Something a bit different this week as my friend and former colleague Craig invited me to join him in the hospitality suite for Swindon's game against Notts County.
Good company, good food and a good result. A 2-1 win engineered by comedy defending from the away side. (Although I do agree with Craig's daughter about the annoying way the host for the afternoon chose to quieten down the attendees.)
So, looking for a hospitality song this week I found an American indie band actually called Hospitality. That'll do. As Craig was clearly in the right job to get the tickets then The Right Profession fits the bill. It's from their 2012 self-titled album.
I know nothing about them or this song other than what I've found out writing this so let's all learn together.
I went to see Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) in Oxford with my friend Colin this week. I'd last seen them nearly 40 years ago and hadn't really paid them a lot of attention in between times as they went a bit over-poppy for me and then courted the American market.
It was a very good show, a nice mix of classic songs and tracks from their latest album Bauhaus Staircase. As is usual when I've been to a gig I've picked something from the set list as my 'track of the week'.
As an aside though, isn't merch expensive now? £30 for a t-shirt, £25 for a cap, £12 for a mug. I'll pass thanks.
And anyway, aren't memories the best sort of souvenir? Surely "feelings still remain" longer than merch. And isn't the memory of a song called Souvenir an even better souvenir?
Souvenir was the first single release from the 1981 album Architecture and Morality and reached a career high number three. Paul Humphreys is on vocals rather than Andy McCluskey who thought the song was 'a bit soppy'. Soppy or not, it's great.
Regular readers (thank you) will know it's about this time of year I have a couple of days at Cheltenham Festival. While I've long since given up on the idea of getting rich from the week I did have a profitable one this year.
That was almost entirely down to a Placepot bet on Gold Cup day. I was surprised it paid as much as it did as four favourites and a second favourite were all placed. It's probably the third race that sorted it out. None of the first three in the betting were placed and I was on fourth favourite, Dancing City, which came third.
I picked it because I thought it would win, not through any admiration of Marshall Hain's 1978 number three Dancing in the City but now the two are kind of tied together in my head.
Their follow-up to that hit, Coming Home, scraped into the top 40 and that was pretty much that for Marshall Hain. Kit Hain became a songwriter and novelist, Julian Marshall joined the marvellous Flying Lizards.
