The Smell of the burgers, the sound of Mike Oldfield!

We are a sad bunch of bastards as a nation aren't we? I mean the temperature gets above 19c and out come the barbecues and the burgers, off come the shirts and the neighbourhood rejoices in the smell of burning flesh, the hissing of hosepipes and the smacking of children.

Last Sunday as the miasma of dead piggies hung above the neighbourhood so the sound of Tubular Bells drifted on the warm breeze. I was working on my computer when I heard the familiar sound of the late, great Vivian Stanshall working his way through the various instruments before proclaiming "plus, tubular bells!". It was a moment that made me laugh because their had been a newspaper advert on television the previous week for a free CD of the Mike Oldfield classic which was included with one of the Sunday tabloids - as the ad. finished Janis turned to me and said "which saddo would buy that?"

Well I did back in 1973, I bought the Quadraphonic version as it was the only one left in the shop, it had a sticker on the front which said "for people with four ears." Anyway the saddo in 2007 was a friend of Janis who is quite open about her nostalgic taste in music, rarely does a day pass in the summer without the local airwaves dancing to the sound of Slade, Led Zep, the Floyd or sometimes Bob Marley.