Kids

Parenthood is, as every parent knows, a unique, wonderful and enriching experience. For all of the unconditional love etc. etc. it can, however be a bit one-way especially as children get older.

So it's with great pleasure that I report on two significant firsts over the last few days:

1. Out for a meal at La Bota with Soapy and Fran on Saturday night, instead of having to wait for the bus home we were driven to our door by their daughter. That's real progress and probably fair after the taxi service that all four of us have ran for so many years.

2. Whilst on the subject of daughters, Laura started her first permanent job on Monday. It's probably premature to start thinking about payback, but again it's progress and no doubt she'll want to pay her way and more now that she's earning...

I just need James to get a job as a banker and we're sorted.


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Wedding bliss

I shared a few drinks tonight to celebrate Suzanne's engagement to Mark (not before time, I hear someone say).

The slightly weird part is that as she - and a friend of hers - were describing their forthcoming weddings this year I was reminded that this year is Wenge and my 25th wedding anniversary.

Anyway, I wish SJ and Mark all the best - and I must remember to book something special on April 20...


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Back to work

Having had such a relaxing Christmas and New Year, it was always going to be 50:50 whether going back to work was going to burst the bubble and bring it all back to reality. I'm very pleased to say that the first week back was remarkably good. The positivity has continued into week two although the workload is increasing fast.

It's been all about the snow, mind you. I won't repeat the usual complaints about Britain not being able to deal with any extremes of weather but I did like the quote from the mayor of some Siberian town who pointed out that they'd observed that winter came at around the same time every year and therefore put plans in place for just that eventuality. Personally, I love extremes of weather

Sports wise, last week wasn't so good. Rangers drew 3-3 at Hamilton in the Scottish Cup, but have a replay to retrieve the situation (losing goal machine Kris Boyd for up to 6 weeks is a big blow though). The Eagles, on the other hand, don't get a second chance after losing with a whimper to bitter enemies Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs. Next year? Again?


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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...


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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...