I have nearly finished honing down my playlist for my Newbury Bayer 10K on Sunday. Strangely enough, the group with the most tracks on the playlist so far is New Musik. Who they? I hear my reader cry. Exactly. A relatively obscure 80s group, but they made some great tunes.

Great ad from Macmillan:

Quite pleased with my photo of the new Reading station above… I had to take several frames (as they say in the trade!) and jiggle with the controls to get the train a bit blurred while not whiting out the whole picture. As usual, Photomatix added the final lighting magic. For the first time I used the “surreal” setting, which seem to suit the setting well.

Anyway, Reading Railway station is still work in progress. It’s like an airport. But two friendly constants remain:

1. The Three Guineas
2. Those boards on platform 7b where you can look up your destination and see all the trains written up. It is my number one go-to place in the whole vast concrete and steel complex.

Taken at 04:43.

A very close family member of mine is fighting cancer of the oesophagus at the moment. It has been extremely comforting to her and her husband to have the support of the Macmillan Cancer Support people. In this very traumatic and, sometimes, frightening period, it has been great for them to have experienced and caring people to explain the scenarios and just be a listening ear over a cup of coffee at the local hospital.

All this has spurred me to get off my bottom and to go on my first ever sponsored run!

I’m running for “Team Macmillan” in the Newbury Bayer 10K run on Sunday 26th May. This is a very local run in Newbury. It starts and finishes in the central and historic Market Place with loads of people standing around looking at the runners.

So, I’m not taking any chances. I am making sure that I’m doing lots of training – I have done four 10ks in the last few months.

I’d be very grateful if you could sponsor me – even a little amount helps greatly – by using my Justgiving page here. All the funds will go directly to Macmillan Cancer Support.

I realize that 10k is modest in the scheme of things, but, for me, it’s a big deal – especially because if I fail (which, fingers crossed, I won’t) my failure will be seen very clearly by the whole of Newbury!

Taken at 05:55

It’s something to do with age.

You start getting laid back at work. You start actually talking to people, rather than coming in and sticking your head in spreadsheets.

You give up trying to look nice and get a real hard ass “American’s most wanted” profile pic.

You start enjoying the Eurovision Song Contest for the fascinating festival of kitsch that it is, content to leave your musical credibility at the door.

You start actually watching BBC Three.

And may I say well done BBC Three for some excellent Eurovision Song contestual programmes and for giving me the opportunity to explain to a teenager, who – of course – knows it all, that the UK doesn’t have to bother with peripheral fripperies (copyright the late lamented Scouser Ray Moore 1985) such as the Eurovision Song Contest Semi-final, simply because we bung a bung to the European Broadcasting Union?

No.

We are on the UN Security Council.

We lead the British Commonwealth of 2.2 billion people.

We run Montserrat, for pity’s sake!

We deserve to win the European Song Contest every four years.

Why don’t people love us more?

And “Why don’t people love me more?” – is the signature question of Tony Blair.

Answer: You invaded Iraq with that total fuckwit George W Bush, you numpty!

And as a result, after winning Eurovision around the time T Blair came into Downing Street, we have been consigned to the also-rans.

It’s all your fault Blair! That’s what I’d like to see you on trial for. To heck with war crimes!

Photo:Some rights reserved by kjelljoran

Brian Matthew played this one today on Sounds of Sixties. It is not one I remember hearing previously, but it is superb. It was released late in 1969 but wasn’t a hit (it got to number six) until 1970.

Arrival were from Liverpool. Their details are on Wikipedia here.

I have put two versions of the track below from YouTube.

The first is just the soundtrack with pictures of cats, which you might prefer to the second version, which includes Jimmy Savile at the beginning. You have been warned. Sorry about that, but the subsequent recording of the band playing the song on Top of the Pops on 29th January 1970 is a real gem.

It is Christian Aid Week.

Every year I drop exhausted from elcectioneering around May 10th. This year it was our by-election and I did, for example, 22,000 steps on Thursday, according to my pedometer.

And then, it’s straight into Christian Aid week. It’s a sort of “hair of the dog” thing. But I love it. It’s light relief to deliver 80 envelopes for charity, after delivering 2,000 hard sell political leaflets.

I do the same street every year for Christian Aid Week. I know the people quite well in some of the houses.

I always give the envelopes out on Friday and collect on Monday, if I can. That way you catch people in their best mood with their most money of the week!

Last night I gave out the envelopes with my trusty hound, Charlie.

A few seconds after I delivered an envelope to a flat, a man emerged. I wondered what he was going to say. He said:

Would you like some rice? We have some nice rice if you would like some.

At first I was confused and thought that he thought that because I was handing out envelopes asking for money for people who are hungry, it meant that I am hungry myself. No, that wasn’t what he thought.

It was immediately clear that he was offering me rice as a simple act of kindness to a stranger.

I said “I’m OK thanks” but thanked him profusely for his offer and bade him a good evening while (unusually for me) raising my hat to him in respect.

What a nice man! I will try to give him a thank you card and a nice photo of Newbury when I go back on Monday.

If you haven’t seen it, I thoroughly recommend watching Dave Allen: God’s own comedian on BBC iPlayer.

Dave Allen was a very funny man. Some of his gags were very simple – almost childish. But he had a deep anti-establishment, awkward squad streak and a great passion for pointing out stupidity in the world.

The programme shows some of his early career as a chat show host in Australia and the UK, as well as some very touching glimpses of his private world which suggest a very fulfilled, happy, family life.

Founded in 1900 by Keir Hardie, the Labour party has a very proud history of governing the country and it has staff and volunteers numbering into hundreds of thousands, with the support of countless union members.

Yet, yesterday in Newbury, Berkshire, the two candidates for that proud national Labour party were humiliated as they were beaten into sixth and eighth (last) place in a town council by-election by a wife and husband team who founded a little local party a few years ago in a pub.

How the mighty have fallen!

Keir Hardie! Michael Foot! Tony Benn! Tony Blair! Clement Atlee! Neil Kinnock! Ed Miliband! Your boy and girl took one hell of a beating!

Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera and Alex Payton with Judith Bunting yesterday.

9th May 2013

Turnout 25.8%

Bowler (Con)  292
Butler (Lab)  148
Fairweather (Con) 279
Farrow (Apol)  158
Alex Payton (Liberal Democrat)  335 ELECTED
Puffet (Lab)  130
Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera (Liberal Democrat)  315 ELECTED
Yates (Apol) 136

LD = 36.3%
Con = 31.8%
Apol = 16.4%
Lab = 15.5%
(all parties had 2 candidates)

Last Time in 2011:-

Turnout Aprox 41.6%

LD = 49.7% (4 Candidates)
Con = 37.8% (4 Candidates)
Lab = 3.7% (note only one candidate so fair to x 4 this = 14.8%)
Apol = 8.7% (4 Candidates)

Alex Payton and Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera are duly elected Town Councillors for Newbury.
Many congratulations to Alex and Ruwan! They will be first class councillors. Well done to Shaughan Dolan and team for a superb campaign!

Mostly deep in thought….

It was a great pleasure to break from campaigning activity this evening to listen to Steve Webb. He kindly travelled down from London to talk to a “Pizza and Politics” evening at the Dolphin Inn, Newbury.

As you’d expect, it was a “policy rich” discussion. I actually think that a minister like Steve Webb is what we went into government for. He can explain very exciting things like Workplace pension schemes. They don’t get wide publicity but they are actually very worthwhile with big long term benefits.

This is turning into a habit (as the first knitter of a monk’s garment said….). Oh well, I don’t have to get up for work… When you have a north facing garden, this is one of the few times of the day you can take advantage of the sun!