Should I stay or should I go?

I do believe that this the longest I've gone without posting since I started melvtopia. Why? Well, mainly because it's been a bit mental at work over the last couple of weeks - back-to-back meetings, 2010 budgets, annual appraisals and even a management training morning on Friday.

It's been a time to keep my head above water while also taking a step back and re-evaluating how I can be more effective, more succesful and a better leader as we go into 2010. Busy, busy.

Back to melvtopia. It's almost exactly a year since I posted my first blog post. At that time the zavvi adventure was unravelling and I was in an environment that demanded a degree of positivity. melvtopia had a purpose. And it was cathartic for me.

It's seen me through the the fall of zavvi, the (thankfully short) period of jobhunting, the highs and lows of my time at Ministry of Sound as well as good times with friends, good and bad times supporting Rangers and various random musings that may or may not have hit the mark.

One year on, the question is, is melvtopia still relevant (if indeed it ever was) and is it worth carrying on? Or has it served its purpose and is nothing more than vanity blogging now.

I can't answer that question - but you can. So, should I stay or should I go? You decide. Answers on a postcard, comment or intelligent duck.

And by the way, I've just missed my frigging train stop while I was writing this so I'm standing at New Southgate station at 8.00 on a Friday night waiting for a train back into London. You can't accuse me of not making sacrifices for the melvtopia cause...


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Scots wha hae

It's been a good weekend to be a Rangers and Scotland supporter.

On Saturday Rangers beat Kilmarnock 3-0 to go back to the top of the league, albeit only for 24 hours if Celtic beat Dundee United 24 hours later.

Then, Scotland beat Australia at rugby for the first time since 1982. I only saw the last, desperate goal-line stand from the Scots that ended in an overtime try for Australia that they failed to convert. 9-8 to Scotland. Obviously England losing to the All Blacks made the win all the sweeter.

On Sunday, while I was buying some very bright - some might say brave - 5-a-side shoes, Celtic managed to lose two late goals in Dundee to make sure Rangers stay at the top, and with a game in hand. Lovely.

Meanwhile, at the O2 Arena Andy Murray was doing his bit for Scotland by despatching Juan Martin del Potro in the ATP World Tour finals.

So, all in all a pretty good sporting weekend, although not if you're an English rugby-following Wigan supporter, who got humped 9-1 by Tottenham.

The sporting weekend ended with one final piece of good news with The Eagles beating the Bears 24-20 in Chicago.

It doesn't happen very often, so allow me my indulgence...

Oh yes

Ok, so I now like a bit of Above and Beyond, and I can number Sucker DJs and Thievery Corporation among my iPod favourites; but still, show me a Yes gig and I'll be there, which is what happened tonight when
Sav, Sav's son Christopher, Welsh Pete and I went to see Yes at Hammersmith Apollo.

This has been an oft-travelled journey for Sav and me but it was a new experience for the others.

Some of the shine was taken off the occasion since this time there was no Jon Anderson - due to a combination of illness and a fallout with the rest of the band. For those of you unfamiliar with Yes (and I hope that won't be many of you once this post inspires you to discover their work...), it's the coupling of Jon Anderson's child-like voice with the big, complex layers of sound that makes Yes sound so unique. So Yes without Jon Anderson is a bit like Liverpool without Torres. Or The Wire without McNulty.

It was a relief, then, to find that the replacement singer was not bad at all, and sounded pretty much like the original.

I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say it was a fine show, featuring the old favourites, a few surprises, and ending with an epic encore of Starship Trooper with enough bass to power a small city.

But no Jon Anderson. Maybe next time...

Hitler-arious

It's been a fun week at Ministry of Sound. On Wednesday we launched a new homepage at ministryofsound.com; making it a bit more interesting, adding more rich content, some community elements and for the first time selling straight from the page. Here's hoping it gives our currently modest sales a pre-Christmas push.

We're hosting a massive New Year's Eve party at the O2, and the marketing is starting to ramp up. Yesterday one of the guys at work put this together in his downtime - enjoy and share...

That Friday feeling

There's something about Ministry of Sound on a Friday. Being a club, while most businesses are winding down for the weekend the club guys are ramping up their preparations for the big Friday and Saturday nights. There's always music being played in the office, but on a Friday it's a little more funky and a little louder.

Then there's the traditional trip up to Borough Market - I didn't go this week but as a food lover it's a fantastic place to spend Friday lunchtime.

Ministry of Sound is definitely not a 9 till 5 environment, but Friday is the one day when most people down tools at 5.30 - and we take over the company watering hole, The Libertine, for pre-weekend refreshments.

That's in an average week. An email came round today with potential dates for the Christmas party, which will be in the club. That'll be anything but an average week...

In God's country

Wenge and I went up to Edinburgh at the weekend for a whistle stop visit. It was supposed to be a surprise party for my younger bruv Nigel, who celebrated his 50th a couple of weeks ago. Then, when he announced that he was getting engaged, it became a double celebration. Except that he found out about it, so it was no longer a surprise. Still, that helped with the pickup arrangements.

We left Luton on Saturday morning in torrential rain, and arrived in Edinburgh in glorious sunshine. We had a couple of hours in the centre - most of it at the Debenham's sale - before heading out to Torphichen, where Nigel and Fiona live. My older brother, Scott, was also there with his girlfriend Rosemary.

The day was spent eating, drinking (yes, in moderation) and walking into the village. At night we went to nearby Linlithgow for a pretty average but enjoyable Italian at Bar Leo.

The next morning was torrential again but we made it back without any problems - I'd maintained radio silence since getting on the plane so that I could watch the Rangers game when I got home, only for it to be abandoned at half time due to the waterlogged pitch.

Have I mentioned the new kitchen we're having fitted? It should have been done and dusted by now, but another week's gone by and Lincoln is still here. I won't bore you with the details but suffice to say I'm looking forward to christening it by cooking something special - I'm just hoping it won't be Christmas dinner...

How life is in 2009

Things have changed. Here's how I found out today that my brother is getting married...

Up

The new Pixar movie Up, which I haven't yet seen, apparently features the adventures of a grumpy old man and a young boy. In movies there's the concept of a composite character - one that combines the personalities of multiple characters. It struck me that in Chiswick Casuals terms it would be fairly obvious who the old man was a composite of (for legal reasons, answers on a postcard only please).

Anyway, I digress. Up has been the key word of the last week or so. Things are definitely looking up at work - I enjoyed last week more than any for a long time, and the arrival of Claire, my new Digital Marketing Manager, is a vital step towards a full strength team. We have a team night out on Thursday (bowling & curry) which should be a laugh.

Last week I met up with Ian and Soapy for beers, margaritas and Mexican food at La Perla, which is becoming a favourite haunt for me when I'm in Covent Garden.

The weekend was about preparing for our new kitchen to be fitted - first ever wooden worktop for me and I may have gone a bit mad with the linseed oil... I got a good game of footie in without injuring anything, which is a bonus, and Rangers went back to the top of the league with a win at St Johnstone while Celtic could only draw. Good times.

A walk in Hampstead Heath yesterday, followed by a roast dinner, finished the weekend off nicely.

Meanwhile, as I write I'm listening to our latest release 'The Chilled House Session' - gorgeous and ever so reasonably priced at ministryofsound.com.

TV heaven

I met Ana for a coffee today. An exchange took place. I returned her The Wire DVDs and borrowed the final season plus the next on my list - The Sopranos. Can't wait.

Here goes

I've been searching for an iPhone app that will let me post directly from my new (work) iPhone. This blogpress one has just been released so let's see how it fares.
Bit of a quiet weekend so far. I pulled a hamstring last week at 5-a-side so instead of playing today I've been traipsing round Covent Garden with Wenge. Seemed like a good idea at the time but too busy and I didn't want to buy anything, so it wasn't the most fruitful trip. Maybe we can kick start the weekend with a good meal out later.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Criminally good

All this week Wenge and I have been glued to BBC's Criminal Justice. Slow moving, tense and at times harrowing, it's not exactly a barrel of laughs. But there's top class acting from an excellent cast and it's a reminder of what BBC does best. Last episode tonight - can't wait.

Talking of reminders, some of you may have noticed that melvtopia has had a 1984 style spring clean. I was reminded this week that what goes in the blog doesn't necessarily stay in the blog, and that a few of my recent posts have been, let's say, a bit hard-hitting for public comsumption. Thankfully the colleagues who read them had the consideration to tell me and I'm grateful for that.

Weekend treats

I've been a bit remiss with my updates lately, for reasons I've covered previously. So, a quick catch-up ...

Last Sunday saw the first Chiswick Casuals barbecue. The boys gave me my barbecue for my birthday last year so it was my way of saying thanks. The weather was fine and we had a good turnout - all in all a great afternoon. The menu featured a chicken dish I learned at my Indian cookery course last year, sausages from the Farmers' Market, sweetcorn, vegetable kebabs, home made guacamole and coleslaw and a few other bits - it all seemed to go down well.

Wenge I and spent this weekend with the Arch, Debs, Marc and Margaret at Arch & Debs' holiday cottage in Orford, a couple of hours up the A12 in Suffolk. It was a welcome break (tm) from London, in beautiful surroundings, with great weather and of course great company. From our arrival on Saturday morning just in time for a hearty breakfast, to leaving on Sunday afternoon, it was a peaceful and relaxing time for all. In between we had a very enjoyable walk in glorious sunshine, including a ferry (rowing boat) trip and a pub stop; another walk through the village to the quay, and a meal at a nearby pub/restaurant. The only sour note of the weekend was our host's failure to bring a clean shirt for dinner which, frankly, let the side down. No matter, it was one less thing to crumple when he fell asleep in front of Match of the Day on our return.

So, another part of Britain that I now know, having never set foot in Suffolk previously. It moved the dream of a place away from it all closer in my mind... tomorrow would be nice.

My dad the hero

We're all proud of our parents. My dad was Chairman of Rangers for about 4 years and for a while was quite a well known figure in Scotland, so that was quite a big deal for me.

As you'd imagine, we used to talk a lot about football and Rangers. We didn't talk so much about his day job though, which was an orthopedic surgeon. But this week I saw this incredible story that made me realise that he was a great man for more than just football.

Now that really does make me proud.

Holiday? What holiday?

The good news is that Wenge and I had 10 wonderful days in the south of France. The sun shone relentlessly, with the mercury by the pool reaching 47 degrees one afternoon and a sea temperature of 25 degrees, so it was a holiday for relaxation rather than activity.

Since we were in the foothills of the Pyrenees, we had planned to spend some time walking, but it was too hot and frankly more enjoyable to spend it by the pool or just reading a book. Or cooking, which I did a fair bit of.

We treated ourselves to a couple of days in Collioure, and found ourselves in the most beautiful sanctuary of a hotel just a few hundred yards off one of the main streets - a real oasis of elegance and calm in the throng of holiday crowds.

I had my own treat - my annual visit to the local wine merchant who gave me a guided tour around his selection of local wines (I swear he knows every winemaker personally) and helped me get my credit card bill to a respectable level. Our neighbours, who let us use their house, arrived as we left and are going to bring my purchases back in the car with them when come home - now that's what I call good neighbours.

There was a slight hiccup on the way home, when we had to get off our plane on the runway due to a technical fault and wait 5 hours for a replacement plane. Still, as it was Ryanair we were expecting them to just refund the £29 fare and tell us to f*#k off and make our own way home, so it wasn't too bad.

A long bank holiday weekend and it was back to work - my first week in my new position as Head of Internet. As I write it's Thursday evening, 3 days in, and I can't pretend that it hasn't been tough going so far. I'll be glad to get the week over and make a fresh start next week. Thank goodness for the weekend.

Melvis has definitely left the building

So, I'm sitting at the computer in our next door neighbours' house in Foix, that they've let us borrow for a couple of weeks.

I know it can get irritating hearing people go on about their holidays when you're slaving away at work, so I'll skim over the details: a beautiful old stone farmhouse in the foothills of the Pyrenees, overlooking a gorgeous valley; 38 degrees outside, the sun blazing on the crystal clear swimming pool; a fantastic kitchen and a Bang & Olufsson sound system. Ever the company man, though, I'm doing my bit right now by listening to the original Ministry of Sound 'Chilled' album.

Tomorrow, we drive to Collioure on the Mediterranean coast for a couple of days by the sea, then back here. I'll stop at my favourite Caves and let the owner guide me through some of the best of the local wines with a view to trying some out in the remainder of the holiday. Forgive me if I don't blog very much until I get back.

The glass is more than half full, by the way; a Minervois fresh out of the fridge to be precise...

Arse

It was a footballing weekend as Rangers came to Town for the Emirates tournament. Two double headers in two days, and a chance to see how the Scottish champions would fare against Arsenal, Paris St Germain and Atletico Madrid.

My brother Nigel came down with tickets, and shortly after midday on Saturday we set off for the first day. Our seats were right at the back, but we were able to move forward to empty seats much nearer the front. The view was fantastic.

The football was less fantastic. Rangers beat PSG 1-0 in a dull encounter that had pre-season friendly written all over it. Tidy in possession but not much in the way of action. The decent sized Rangers support did its best to liven things up and we had a good singalong - the only problem being the paucity of songs that aren't anti-catholic which, frankly, embarrases me as a Rangers fan. A shame, because some of the tunes are quite good. Arsenal then beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 with all the goals coming in the last 5 minutes... just after I'd received a text from James to say that he and his mate had left to get the tube.

On Sunday we watched a very entertaining PSG v Atletico game while the atmosphere built up for the main event; Rangers v Arsenal. All the noise was coming from a full Rangers end, but unfortunately it didn't take long for spirits to be dampened. Just 2 minutes in fact when Eduardo - offside by the way - laid off nicely to Wilshere to slot home. What a player he is, by the way. Less than 10 minutes later Eduardo scored and the game was over as a contest.

Arsenal showed the gulf in class between the English and Scottish leagues and when Wilshere scored a third nobody could say it was an unfair reflection of play. Rangers should have scored at least one but poor finishing saw to that.

We did at least win the battle of the supporters - singing for most of the game while the best Arsenal could do was the Mexican wave, which has no place in football. Once again, though, I was reminded how unpleasant some of the Rangers support can be. Thankfully there are also many decent ones who made the long journey down t support their team.

In the end, it wasn't the greatest of tournaments and a disappointing second day but a rare chance to see the Gers. A chance, also, to see a free-flowing Arsenal side that will excite again this year. Next up, Man City at Ibrox.

Uncertainty

For the last couple of weeks I've been poised and ready to write an update on my position here at Ministry of Sound. There have been a number of possibilities floating around that could see me stay here until Christmas or staying permanently; on a full or part-time basis; either doing what I'm doing now or in a new role.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Sound is turning 18 in September and is undergoing a period of reflection on how it needs to change to ensure it's as relevant in another 18 years.

The combination of those two things mean that they're finding decision making very hard right now, and for me it's resulting in a very frustrating time.

Where's the glass half full bit? I'll have to get back to you on that.

So the Ministry party was everything it should have been. A great party atmosphere, a more than decent barbecue, and most of all some stonking music.

When you think of a Ministry of Sound party you don't naturally expect to hear Stevie Wonder, New Order or Happy Mondays. But the assorted DJs rocked it with an awesome mix of old and new.

We stayed in the courtyard until around 10.00 then moved into the club - my first time there at night. Taking over The Loft, the music was just as good as it was outside. It was everything I'd hoped a Ministry of Sound party would be.

Then, just after 10.30, the club opened. Punters started to arrive, most of them male, and the music changed to a formula that presumably works commercially, but sounds like shit. We had a party going on, but it was funny seeing all those blokes arriving and trying to join in - especially with Wonder Woman, Catwoman and nurse Sara (did I mention that it was a fancy dress party?).

After a while a few of us decided it was time to call it a night (the lightweights had already left) and went through a side door back into the office to pick up our stuff.

All in all, a fantastic night. There's some stuff at Ministry of Sound that isn't all that wonderful, but they do know how to throw a party. I should probably make the effort to stay until the Christmas one...

Fancy that...

It's Ministry of Sound's Summer Party this afternoon and evening. Starting with cocktails in the courtyard and moving into the club later. Competitions with cash prizes. Oh, and it's fancy dress too - "what did you want to be when you grew up?".

Since I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, I'm not treating it too literally - so I've looked out a Scotland shirt and found the official Scotland tracksuit that my Dad brought back from the Spain World Cup in 1982. It should be fun. I'm looking forward to sampling the club for the first time, and of course to seeing what some of the girls wanted to be when they grew up...

Day 3 - damage assessment

One by one we woke. Mugs of tea and hobnobs were handed round as the damage assessment began. To no-one's surprise, the Black Rat had taken the greatest toll on Nigel and Soapy.

While Nigel was doing an impression of Ian without the tablecloth, Soapy had clearly found succour in the arms of Brian, the pair sharing a blow-up bed like a modern day Morecambe and Wise. Actually, it was more John Inman and Michael Barrymore (should have checked Pete's swimming pool before we left...).

Ablutions duly dealt with, we headed off to our favoured service station on the M4 for a final breakfast before saying our final goodbyes. Even the closure of Northwood tube station couldn't dampen the spirits, as captain fantastic made an unplanned and selfless 45 minute detour to take Soapy and me to South Ruislip.

In the annals of Casuals history this will go down as one of the special tours. And last night was without doubt one of the most memorable of all Casuals nights.

As for Pete and his beaten Welsh team? Well, they just can't help believing...

Day 2 - Football comes home and Elvis has left the building

We woke up around 8.30 after a good sleep; wandered into town for breakfast at Annette's and to buy supplies of sports drinks. Then it was back to Pete's house, where we sat in the sun until Graham, Brian, John, Klaus and Nigel arrived.

The warm-up sporting event was the South Africa v Lions 2nd test which, agonisingly, the Lions lost with the last kick of the ball. Gouging is bad by the way, except in the right circumstances.

Then, the big game. Pete's team was ready and waiting when we arrived at the sports hall. It was clearly a younger, fitter team, assembled with one purpose - to win the trophy back for Wales.

It was a quiet and focused Casuals dressing room, some players geeing up their comrades while others prepared within their own private zones. But we were ready.

The home team started brightly, with the Casuals struggling to impose their style of play and Aber looking the most likely to score first. And score they did. Powering from the back, Greg cut inside and lashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner. Aber continued to dominate for most of the first half, with some excellent interplay from defence causing problems for the Casuals midfield. The defence, however, held fast.

Then, with barely two minutes to go, Graham spotted a Melv v Woolley mismatch and played a measured ball over the top. Simpson duly delivered a clinical finish to take the game to half time all square.

With the sun beating down mercilessly, the Casuals regrouped at half time and came out determined to impose their own style of play. The second half was more evenly matched, but still it was Aber who drew first blood. Graham, who had been faultless, had a Petr Cech moment and spilled a corner to Elliot, who couldn't believe his luck as he slid the ball home for a 2-1 lead.

The Casuals pressed for an equaliser, and it came in the shape of an Alan Dovey strike that would grace any game. Collecting the ball with his back to goal, Alan spun and hit a beauty that goalkeeper Mark Tovey could only admire. 2-2. There were half chances at either end, but no more goals by the time referee Nigel brought the game to an end.

Then it was all down to penalties - the ultimate test of nerve. Woolley set the trend with a poor attempt, easily saved by Graham. Melvin, Ian and Brian all missed, as did all but one of the home team. So at 4-5 Alan had to score to keep Casuals' hopes alive. Score he did, taking the contest into sudden death.

A brilliant save from Graham, truly earning the Petr Cech mantle, saw the hopes and dreams of three nations rest upon Captain Courageous, Simon Jobling. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Jobbo calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner to send one half of Abergavenny into raptures while the other half looked for a scapegoat.

Football came home.

After the match, and a detour to the local cricket club, both teams enjoyed Sharon's legendary hospitality and a few beers at Chateau Woolley, where we accepted the trophy from a clearly shaken Peter.

There followed a trip to the Kings Arms that developed into an epic Karaoke session led by - who else - The Welsh Mouth (TM).

Unbelievably, Elvis Presley happened to be in the bar and he treated us to an impromptu greatest hits performance, culminating in a moving performance of 'In the Ghetto'. Even more unbelievably, he was later joined by a second Elvis for 'Return to Sender', although if truth be told it was probably one classic too far.

There was one other, special moment, that none of us who were there will ever forget. Elvis left the building, but was brought back by popular demand for one last song: a mesmerising 'I Just Can't Help Believing'. Even more special, he then morphed into Meatloaf for an inspired 'Two out of Three Ain't Bad'.

One of the all-time Casuals nights came to an end and, unable to get into Abergavenny's only nightclub, we retired to Pete's for a nightcap, and for a hard core few, a final hot tub session, under a crescent moon and a starlit sky...

Chiswick Casuals on tour. Day 1 - arrival

Forget the FA Cup or Champions League finals. The big event in the football calendar is the annual Chiswick Casuals trip down to Abergavenny to take on the Valleys' finest.   This is the story of this year's tour...

With the sun beating down and the M4 ahead of us, it was an optimistic Jobbo, Soapy and me who spearheaded this year's advance party on Friday afternoon. A couple of ibuprofen tablets for the road, a 'Music for Middle Aged Men' playlist courtesy of Jobbo, and off we set. An 80's A&R man's dream, that boy - a random selection included AHA, Simple Minds, Phil Collins, Anastacia... you get the picture.  

Sadly, when his iPod ran out of power his adaptor wouldn't fit mine, so we had to rely on Radio 2, which incidentally is about 20 years more up to date that Jobbo, for the rest of the journey.
Predictably, if a little stereotypically, it started raining as soon as we crossed the Severn bridge, but thankfully the rain didn't last long and the sun was soon out again.

When we arrived in Abergavenny, we went straight to Pete's house, where Alan and Ian had already arrived. There began an unseemly rush for the comfortable bedding, which left us all relatively happy with our lot.

We walked into town for beers, and Soapy made an early bid for one-liner of the tour.  While enjoying a hotdog at the pub, I had a little ketchup around my mouth.  Soapy: "Bloody hell, Melv. You look like you've just given a blowjob to some roadkill."

After a short stop in another bar we we went for a curry, and were in the restaurant when Pete arrived.  We all finished up and moved on to Wetherspoons.

Now one of the themes of the weekend - perhaps inspired by this very blog - was positivity. Soapy in particular is prone to morphing into Victor Meldrew very easily.  We tried to put a fine system in place but to be honest it didn't work.  By the time we reached Wetherspoons who had run out of ice for Soapy's gin and tonic, he had reverted to type: "That's the problem with the world - it's all gone to shit".

Back to Pete's for some hot tub action followed by the blissful sleep of the righteous.

His Royal Highness

I love this. While doing some research I checked out the Harrods website. When you register for most websites, you're asked to select from a drop-down list of Mr, Mrs, Ms and maybe one or two others.

Not so with The World's Greatest Department Store. Showing an impressive appreciati0n of their customer base in an otherwise unimpressive website, Harrods pushes the drop-down envelope...

Should gypsies be allowed to jump NHS queues?

Ask Daily Mail readers whether gypsies should be allowed to jump NHS queues and you'd think the answer would be a foregone conclusion.  But that was before Twitter.

On Friday I witnessed for myself just how powerful Twitter is becoming, and more important, how it has the power to harness and mobilise public opinion to create action.

There's a lot of talk right now about how this is happening in Iran - opposition supporters using Twitter to bypass the ban on media reporting from the country and get pictures and information to the outside world.  

In fact, as I write, I'm looking at Twitscoop, a website that tracks in real time the current hot topics on Twitter, and I can see that people are appealing for blood donors to address a shortage in hospitals.  More chilling, I can see trending topics 'rumors', 'clashes' and 'tanks', all clicking through to reports of clashes between police and protesters - being called terrorists by the Iranian government - in Tehran. 

Back to my original story.  On Friday, I was looking at Tweetdeck  - an application that sites on your desktop and allows you to see and post Twitter and Facebook updates - and I saw the word 'Skew' as one of the big trending topics.

Wondering what people would be writing about that included the word 'Skew', I clicked through to Twitscoop where I saw that it was all about the Daily Mail poll on gypsies.  Some of the comments were just about how low The Daily Mail had stooped, but many were taking it further, posting a link to the poll and encouraging people to register a Yes vote to skew the poll.   Because Twitter users can 're-tweet', this particular message was being duplicated and resent around the community, gaining momentum all the time.

So I clicked through to the poll, registered my Yes vote, and looked at the results.  How many Daily Mail readers think that gypsies should be able to jump NHS queues?  As of yesterday 

afternoon, 93% of them do, apparently.  I can't see the result today because funnily enough the poll has been removed.

Twitter helped to get Barack Obama elected; it's helping to highlight injustices in oppressed countries; it's helping the mass of the people and interest groups to spread their messages faster than ever.  Yes, you can probably still find out what Britney's eating for breakfast, but if you dismiss Twitter as just a frivolous fad you do so at your peril.

So I'm watching Andy Murray playing in the final at Queens.  Unlike most of the media, I'm of the opinion that he's Scottish all of the time - not just when he wins.  I expect him to nail James Blake but, hey, it's a final - anything can happen.

It could be an interesting week.  When I arrived at Ministry of Sound, I had a Plan B in mind, and last week brought that a little closer.  If things go the way I'm hoping this week I could get closer still.

If it does, as is the way of modern media, followers of Melvtopia will find out first...  Media exclusives, that's got to be the way to go.

A Hed of the game

We finally launched the all-new www.hedkandi.com on Thursday.  Just as with the Ministry of Sound relaunch in April, this was a race against time, and it was a relief to get it launched with no significant problems.

I remember when I used to work in live events, there was so much adrenaline involved that when each event was finally over we used to need a period of cooling down before we moved on to the next project.

That's what it's been since Thursday - a bit flat. Not helped, of course, by an epic celebration with the team on Thursday night which ended with me falling asleep on the Piccadilly Line and ending up in Southate at around 1.00 am.  Friday was a day of recovery.

The weekend was pretty sh#t.  I had an injury that prevented me playing football on Saturday, so after a double session with my osteopath, Wenge and I drove out to Abingdon.  Not much there, although we did see Helena Bonham Carter shopping.  Yesterday was just a day of doing nothing, and getting frustrated by not doing what I had planned to do.  One highlight, though, was watching 'The Butterfly Effect' on Friday night.  A very clever film - the first time I've seen Ashton Kutcher acting - that keeps you on edge right to the end.  And I finished Season 3 of The Wire.

This week I have a couple of meetings with recruiters, and a proper interview, so along with planning a development schedule for Ministry of Sound I should be pretty busy. My challenge, though, is to break the in-early, leave-late cycle that I've fallen into while working on Hed Kandi. 

Oh, and it would be nice to see some sun again...

Here comes the weekend...

With the launch of hedkandi.com just a week away, it's good to have Lee beside me at Ministry of Sound for the week to manage testing. After recent events, the last thing I need is to launch a site with any undiscovered bugs (although, I suppose if they went undiscovered until September it wouldn't hurt that much... only joking - I'm a pro, remember?)

And Lee provided the good news story of the week. A call on Wednesday afternoon, interview on Thursday morning and starts work next Thursday at the world's most famous department store. They're going to become even more famous when Lee gets his teeth into the website.

A sunny weekend is forecast so that means plenty of barbie action.  I'm picking James up at the end of his first year at Uni on Saturday, and if I'm very lucky will get to meet his hot new girlfriend.  

And of course it's Rangers v Falkirk in the Scottish Cup Final.  Football's truly coming home...

That winning feeling...

In the end, it was easy. A comfortable 3-0 win for Rangers at Tannadice while Celtic were unable to score against Hearts meant that the league championship returned to its rightful home in Govan. The helicopter didn't even have to change direction this time, as it had when Celtic lost two late goals in Motherwell to give Rangers the league in 2005.

I was preparing for a far more tense afternoon. Up early on Saturday morning, I went through my usual routine for important games: make sure that there's no hint of any green in any of my clothes, and enjoy a cup of coffee in my Rangers mug. Hoping for the best, but fearing the worst, I nervously got through the morning, only allowing myself one short period of absolute belief that my boys would step up and do what was needed. However, our poor record against Dundee United over the last few years ensured that this was to be a short-lived high.

Ice cubes were prepared and a bottle of champagne was on standby in the cellar, but that's as far as I was going to tempt fate until I could be confident we had won. I've seen too many last minute twists.

I needn't have worried. It took only 6 minutes for last week's villain Kyle Lafferty to redeem himself with an early opener to settle the nerves. Then, on the stroke of half time Pedro Mendes powered a beauty through a cluster of Dundee United players to take us in 2-0 up at the break. Kris Boyd added the killer third and at that moment I knew it was safe to put the champagne on ice ready for full time.

Roll on the Champions League!

To cheat or not to cheat

In case you didn't know by now, I'm a Rangers fan. That means that when I'm with non-Rangers supporters (Steve K, for example) I'll usually try to support my team. But I'm also, I think, a reasonably balanced individual who doesn't always see things in black and white.

I found it impossible, for example, to defend the behaviour of a number of Rangers fans when we got to the UEFA cup final last year. The whole episode sickened me and ruined what was in all other respects a fantastic occasion.

Then, on Saturday, one of our players, Kyle Lafferty, managed to provide one of those moments that will be shown and shown again for years - cheating a fellow professional to get him sent off. Disgraceful, and unacceptable for any Rangers player - indeed for any professional footballer.

Lafferty has been villified in the media, and rightly so, but I do sometimes wonder about the accepted wisdom in football that cheating or spitting (oh, how the media love a spitting story) is somehow a more heinous crime than, for example, deliberately going over the top to injure someone.

I wouldn't dream of indulging in petty rivalry to make a point, but compare and contrast Kyle Lafferty's childish and despicable actions with Glenn Loovens' deliberate attempt to injure an opposition player. I know which I think is worse.

I can't say it's been a great week at work, again.  A small team, working under extreme pressure to meet very ambitious targets, and under these circumstances mistakes and errors of judgement are bound to happen.  

When it's a good team - and this one is - you make sure that when things do go wrong they're the minor things, not business critical ones.  That's how this week has been.  Making progress towards the hedkandi.com relaunch in the first week of June but also having to fit in a new Global Underground store, add clothing to the Ministry of Sound site and introduce membership functionality.  

It didn't all go smoothly, but we achieved all three things this week.  Now I hope we can move into next week in a positive frame of mind and have a good week on Hed Kandi.

We did have one piece of good cheer on Friday.  Ministry of Sound has released the new Chilled II album - with a cool chill pill offer on the site - and there's an accompanying TV ad.

The ad - beautifully directed, with the high production values you'd expect - is here.

The eCommerce team responded with this in-house remake.

You be the judge - which do you prefer?

Back on top

After the traumas of last week, the weekend lifted the spirits.  The weather was fantastic, allowing me to try my first prawn and asparagus combo on the barbecue, which went beautifully with a chilled Provence rose.

And of course Rangers beat Celtic 1-0 to take us to the top of the league with three games left.  Anything could still happen but if we'd lost it really would have been all over.

Next up, Hibs away on Wednesday..

Better days

A welcome relief to end the week - situation now amicably resolved and we move on.  The glass has been topped up for the weekend. Now I just need a Rangers victory tomorrow.

That damned glass

After the high, the low. For reasons that I can't detail here, things have got a bit tricky at work. I'm trying very hard to resolve it but the outcome is either going to be bad or very bad, and it's hanging over me like a yellow card in a Champions League semi final.

Steve knows very well how Maslow's hierarchy of needs kicks in rapidly in these situations so it's difficult, and frankly it's doing my head in. 

In the interests of topping up the eponymous glass, Wenge and I went to Razorlight at the O2 last night and really enjoyed it. After a slow start the hits started flowing. Johnny Borrell has a great live presence, at times reminiscent of a young Jim Morrison. The highlights for me were Wire to Wire from Slipway Fires, accompanied by gospel singers, and a stonking America.

Today's going to be a difficult day - partly because of the situation at work, and partly because I somehow managed to leave my glasses at home. All of HMV's spamming is going to come to fruition - I'm going to have to Get Closer after all.

Oh, and there's the not so small matter of Rangers v Celtic tomorrow, of which doubtless more later...

Internet World 2009

I spent the day at Internet World, at Earls Court, hoping to learn a bit more about ecommerce best practices and also gen up on online marketing.

On my way there I was given two salutary reminders of the real world, the one that's still running in parallel with the digital world I inhabit for much of my time. Coming off the tube I saw my first evidence of the swine flu scare - two women in business suits sporting face masks. Ten minutes later, sitting in a café across from Earls Court, there was live coverage on BBC of a memorial ceremony for troops killed in Iraq - one by one platoon leaders would stand at a lectern and read the names of those who died fighting for us - very moving and of course just the thing to set me up for a day here.

They're all the same, these exhibitions. A mixture of clever companies trying to get noticed; desperate salesmen trying to drag anyone they can onto their stands; market leaders using their huge stands to brag to their industry; promotional girls and over-priced food.
First off, I realised that I had a practical need for a notebook, so I feigned interest in an email marketing solution - for the cost of five minutes of my time I gained a couple of brochures to bin and a handy notebook for the day.

My strategy was to concentrate on the seminars and keynote presentations. I always think that I'll learn at least one thing that makes the day worthwhile - I just don't know what it is and where I'll learn it. And so it turned out.

The first seminar, 'Innovate or die; lessons from 10 years of the internet, was pretty dull - the CEO of Cheapflights throwing a few facts and opinions around. Nothing I didn't know. The next one, on website usability, was far more useful. No rocket science, but a valuable round-up of some best practice in search and browse, product pages, basket and checkout. Some of it is available at www.webcredible.co.uk/ecommerce2008.

I treated myself to a shoulder and head massage before walking the floor for a bit, and then forking out the best part of a fiver for a sandwich. After lunch, a keynote by Justin Moodie, head of online at HMV, on multi-channel retailing. Really interesting, this one. He spoke about HMV's strategy of Messaging, Measurement and Improvement - aimed at achieving measurable improvements for a reason, not change for change's sake. And having demonstrated some of the testing they've done, the biggest shock for me was that they use the free Google Optimizer rather than an expensive tool to manage all of this activity.

I queued to get into a Chartered Institute of Marketing seminar on SEO. Fast, furious and a good top level overview of how search is evolving from keywords and links to more sophisticated measures of trust and user experience. Ten minutes later I was back in the same hall listening to the same speaker talk about SEM, and it hadn't got any cooler. The same format - an overview of things to consider when formulating and executing an ecommerce strategy.

Finally, I managed to talk to one of the developers at webjam about some bugs I'd found when setting up a webjam site for the Chiswick Casuals. Always thinking of my friends.

So was it worth the day out? The exhibition itself had very little to commend it but yes, I did find some nuggets that I'll take with me - enough to make it worthwhile. It's a draining way to spend a day though - right now I could do with a stiff drink...

Twitter for beginners

Twitter is one of those disruptive and decisive technologies. Some people use it all the time; some (like me) dabble in it, and there are lots who just don't see the point.

Twitter also has that fad factor, which can annoy people. You can't read a paper, or browse the internet, without reading about how Demi Moore is supporting someone on Britain's got Talent, or how 20,000 people knew when Stephen Fry was stuck in a lift because he was posting tweets about it.

I always think with these new technologies (if, indeed, a technology is the right way to describe Twitter - social media may be more accurate) the way to approach them is to look for the value they can give you personally. If you can find value, use them; if you don't, then don't use them. But it's worth taking a little time to explore and understand before you say no.

Facebook has value to me because it lets me keep in touch with friends and what they're up to. Of course I can call them and email them and - gasp - even meet them in person. But that's just not possible with everyone, or as often as I'd like, so Facebook fills that void.

LinkedIn fulfils a different need. It's my professional profile, and I have a different persona there. For those of us who have been in the job market LinkedIn is invaluable - these days it's a primary interface with recruiters. Over the last few months I've been contacted directly by Amazon, BestBuy and Waterstones, as well as by quite a few headhunters, because they saw my profile in LinkedIn.

With Twitter, I admit I haven't yet found the killer value, although I'm getting closer. According to Twanalysis I'm still a newbie, so I'm still learning.  What I've learned is that the basic "I'm on the train" or "I'm watching The Wire" or "I'm stuck in a lift" messages aren't the future of Twitter.  The future is in collaboration of the dissemination of information, in a way that's relevant and accessible.  

One example is citizen journalism.  During the demonstrations at the recent G20 summit, some of the most up-to-date news was coming from people on the streets who were posting real-time updates from across London.  It would be physically impossible for news organisations to cover so many locations on the ground.

At a more personal level, Derek Dunlop told me that he looks for my tweets on Rangers scores when he's travelling as it's the best way for him to keep up with games.

Or for a more imaginative use of Twitter, I saw that Dan was taking part in a Twitter wine tasting.  You get a bunch of people to buy the same wine and taste it at the same time regardless of where they are - then post comments and see what others are saying.  Maybe a gimmick, but a fun one.

I think part of the problem with Twitter is that the website is so awful, and doesn't actually help newcomers to do anything but the most basic posting.  You can post links, photos, videos on twitter.  You can send and receive messages directly with friends. You can search for anything and see tweets relevant to that search term.  But those things can be pretty daunting for someone who's new to it.

As I said, I'm still pretty green so I don't pretend to be an expert.  Until recently my Twitter access has been mostly on my mobile (using Twitterberry) - just posting the odd update and seeing what friends are posting.  I've now discovered Tweetdeck, which I highly recommend. Tweetdeck allows you to view your Twitter activity including any groups or searches in neat columns in one dashboard.  As a bonus, you can also see all your friends' Facebook status updates, and update your status direct from Tweetdeck.  Awesome.

So my message is; don't think of Twitter in terms of learning what people are having for breakfast.  Think of it as a new and rapidly evolving form of social media that is here to stay. And the sooner you embrace it the better placed you'll be to use it to your benefit.

Follow me on twitter

Our man at the ministry

A few random observations from the world's greatest club...

Compared with zavvi, there's an obsession here about cleanliness. You could walk into the South side kitchen on any day when Trading were responsible for cleaning it, and you'd be lucky to see a square centimetre of worktop space - as for a clean sink or mug, forget it. Here, not only do people wash up their mugs after use but there's a team of cleaners who walk the floors all day, constantly cleaning up. The only problem is that it's almost impossible to use the toilet without bumping into a male or often female cleaner (sometimes both)...

A few weeks ago I moved desk as a new person joined the eCommerce team so the desk I was using got reallocated. It's a shame because I liked working in that team and the banter was always good. However, it's forced me into a bit of hot-desking and that in turn is allowing me to really find out how fantastic a machine my MacBook is. Running both Mac OS and Windows so I have the best of both worlds, with a good wireless network here, and with remote access to my Ministry emails and calendar, I'm not really missing having a permanent home. Having said that I'm sitting in the design area right now and anyone who works here will know what I mean when I say the view is sooo much better.

And I'm getting to know the neighbourhood. I've found a little cafe run by (I think) a Turkish couple. They make a fresh Greek salad on demand, which I mentioned to Chris, one of my colleagues here. Today, Chris went out early and picked up one of their salads. I mentioned it to the owner when I went to get some lunch, and when I went to pay not only did he round the amount down but he gave me a free slice of carrot cake on the house.

Maybe this could become my new manor...

Where are they now?

Delighted to get a call from Mike Moss, one of the good guys, to say he's starting a new job at Asda in a few weeks. Some of my most enjoyable times at zavvi were with Mike, so that news made my day, although it does mean that the cleaning of my hypothetical conservatory will have to wait...

Same old, same new

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary.  24 years since I drove out to High Wycombe on a scorching, sunny evening and got married a day later in snow - ah, the British weather!

Anyway, I left Wenge a card yesterday when I left for work, and when I got home there was one sitting on the table for me.  Yes, you've guessed it - of all the cards in all the world we both went out and got the same one... there's one for the romantics.

And, no, we don't wear matching woollen pullovers and jackets when we go out.

Good times

Last week was one of those good weeks, where everything just seemed to go right (apart from Chelsea beating Liverpool on Wednesday - but it was an absolute belter of a match so that made up for it...) and I seemed to be on top of things.

Relaxed by the long weekend and buoyed by the success of the ministryofsound.com relaunch, I got into the office on Tuesday fired up and ready to go.  Those who really know me know that I'm what in football circles is called a confidence player - when I'm feeling good about myself I operate so much better, so I was ready for a good week, and so it turned out.

Rudy was on holiday, so I hot-desked in his chair for the week with the rest of the eCommerce team - much more fun than the new desk that I moved to a couple of weeks ago.  The banter was flowing all week.  

I had one main thing I needed to achieve, and that was to produce a requirements document to give to the agency that we've appointed to design a new Hed Kandi site: the strangely-named but very impressive (so far) Code Computer Love from Manchester.  Team meetings, wireframes and mind maps all came together by Friday afternoon and I managed to do what I set out to do.  Box ticked.

Over the Easter weekend I had sent out an update to many of the recruiters and headhunters I've been in contact with - taking the opportunity to bring them up to speed with what I'm doing at Ministry of Sound.  I had a really good response with a number of them contacting me during the week and a couple of potential opportunities coming my way for consideration, so that's encouraging.  Having said that, if the right permanent opportunity came along here at Ministry (and I know exactly what that is) I'd definitely be interested.

To the weekend: always good to see the sun, and I took advantage of it on Saturday when Wenge and I had a walk in Hampstead Heath followed by lunch at Carluccios; later we went for a Thai at The John Baird and then saw "In the Loop" at the Odeon.  Some very funny moments and world class swearing, but still more suited to TV than film for me.

Yesterday I watched Rangers beat Hibs, a game that featured two of the best goals anyone will score this season (watch them - they're in the link).   There was even a minor bonus when I found out that Razorlight at the O2 is on Thursday 7th May and not Wednesday 6th when Chelsea are playing the second leg  of their Champions League tie against Barcelona. 

It's the end of Monday as I write, and the new week has started off reasonably well, so let's see if I can stay on the roll...

Tube mystery

Can anyone explain to me that curious London underground phenomenon where a train stops at the station, and there are people who stand on the platform and don't get on?

I'm not talking about packed trains, or lines where there are different destinations - just normal trains. What's going on there?