There's a great line in a song on the new Jarvis Cocker album:

Life is like a carrier bag, put too much in it and the handles will snap

Isn't that great? He's still got it. After one month and multiple full play-throughs I can now confirm that the new Depeche Mode album is a work of sublime beauty without a duff track on it. It's early days yet but I have a good feeling the new Manic Street Preachers album will become one of their best (though I do think the Holy Bible comparisons are a bit off the mark). It's been raining every day here for weeks now and I'm becoming a bit ticked off about it. Usually the sky darkens about an hour before I go to work at about 3 or 4pm and then the rain starts as I'm getting my motorbike out. Still, that's what you get when you move to the seaside. A doctor with a house on the seafront in St Anne's has bulldozed the sand dunes in front of his house to get a view of the beach and the sea. The conservationists are furious but apparently the houses on the front actually own the dunes in front of the properties so he's not done anything wrong (ancient bylaws are great aren't they). Look, it was even on the news! We're of to Majorca next month and I can't wait. Darren is a Balearic virgin but I've been to 'the big island' several times and I can't wait to show him round. We're staying inland at the new Hilton Spa and we've hired a car so we can swim in little coves and visit deserted beaches and then have dinner in mountain top villages.
Right, there's the rain hitting the window which means it's time to prepare my sandwiches, get my uniform on and go to work.