Hello Beautiful

File under using song titles as post titles. A brilliant comeback song from Dodgy.

If 'Hello Beautiful' isn't in my Spotify Top Ten at the end of the year, then Unwrapped is a crock of bogus shite.

82/50

The Way It Is

Posted 31st May (3.23 am)

Where's that second wind? My eyes are drooping for christ sake. It's not looking good for early morning laundry  . . . it's not looking good if I don't do early morning laundry. Decisions, decisions  . . . just to avoid the deserved decibels.

Still on an Elvis Costello tip. Listening to this Friday Playlist from 2007 whilst typing this up. A bit obvious in places but enough left-field tracks (including a Costello album track) to suggest that I still had my music mojo in the 2000s. 

Nicole Atkins should be at the Las Vegas residency level this point, folks. What the hell happened . . . or, rather, didn't happen? And check out that Duran Duran track on the playlist. A banger that I've not listened to in years. They were always good for the deep cuts.

75/50

"The Name of the Game"

A 180 at a local Luck of the Draw. Sadly, it wasn't during an actual match. Just a practice session.

Equally sad, is that I played actual garbage during the event itself. Got down to the last 7 from 27 entrants, but this was more from luck than design. My only half-decent performance was during a Cricket doubles game with J.F., where the gamesmanship from one of the opponents was off the chart. I'd played him in league darts on Monday nights in the past but I don't remember him previously playing these tricks to fuck with my head. A strange occurrence, but we won in the end. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, and all that jazz.

59/50

Hunting High and Low*

Another 180 whilst practicing before a league match. It's never an indication that I'm going to play well on the actual night itself (I was okay, as it goes).

Sadly, we lost the match 15-12. Even sadder is that I came home with those stickers still in my pocket. I need to sort that.

54/50

*Another song title as a post title. This time to give a clue as to where I was actually playing. Pretty straightforward, to be honest. When you get it, it will be an 'A-ha' moment for you.

Breakfast Time

Posting Wednesday afternoon (22nd April).

Bear with me on this one. It's a bit of a ramble. And there's a pic of a 180 at the end.

I'm coming to Dominic Sandbrook late in the day. I don't know why. I've been aware of him and his popularity as a Celebrity Historian for years now. Maybe I've unfairly misjudged him because of the newspapers he usually writes for; maybe it's because I read Alwyn Turner's accounts of the 1960s/70s and 80s, and there's only so much British social history you can digest. Anyway, I've done him a disservice and I only discovered that via his new The Book Club podcast with Tabitha Syrett. I was aware of the podcast, but never checked it out and then it popped up on Spotify where it started playing automatically after another podcast finished. They were discussing Sally Rooney's Normal People, and it was engaging enough that I went looking for other Dominic Sandbrook related podcasts on spotify. What I found was a Dominic Sandbrook 80s playlist, which wasn't compiled by him but was put together by someone else in connection with either a book of Sandbrook's or a TV series.

In amongst a rather fine selection of 80s pop classic was this deep cut from Orange Juice, from their Rip It Up album. Though I had the album on cassette back in the day, this song passed me by. Mr Sandbrook rectified that. Many thanks.

46/50

Marguerita Time

Posting Wednesday afternoon (22nd April).

Apparently the board isn't placed correctly. It's too high . . . but I only discovered this after I hit the 180. I don't care. A 180 is a 180. It's not the first I've hit a 180 in this bar.

The business with the wrongly positioned board? That'll make the King of Brooklyn interesting.

45/50

I Don't Like Mondays . . .

Nearly fell down the stairs whilst taking the dog out; I literally had to headbutt the wall (hard) to stop that falling-in-slow-motion action that happens when you're about to go arse over tit. Came back to find that someone had stolen our mail/packages again, with the only piece of mail left telling us that K. had got a speeding ticket. 

So, yeah, Mondays can be a pain in the arse . . . even when you do hit 180s.

160/50

Say Hello, Wave Goodbye . . .*

I really should read Marc Almond's autobiography . . . does he have one? I know Dave Ball has published his.

In other news, I just hit a 14-darter. Yes, that still means something to me. Roll out the stats, Russ:

81, 125, 100, 140, 55. (107.4 average)

*Yes, Soft Cell were playing during the composition of this post.

Where Were You?

Usual schtick . . . where were you last night? A relative painless, dartitis free 180. They still happen occasionally. 

PS - God bless The Mekons.

84/50

Suspicious minds

Looks fake, doesn't it? 

The darts are bit too neatly placed and well distanced from each other. Looks like one of those posts in Darts groups on Facebook: 'I got my first set of darts four days ago, and I just hit my first 180. Here's a picture'.

You'll just have to take my word for it. The third dart was the middle one. Dartitis played its part.

70/50

"I'm Eighteen"

'I'm eighteen and I like it

Yes I like it, oh I like it, love it, like it, love it

Eighteen, eighteen!

Eighteen, eighteen and I like it'

Apologies to Alice Cooper. 

18/50

Let's be honest, the Janis Ian post was better.

At Seventeen

'And those of us with ravaged faces

Lacking in the social graces

Desperately remained at home

Photographing 180s on the phone . . .'

Apologies to Janis Ian. 

17/50 

Ooh La La

No more moaning about Monday evenings . . . famous last words.

45/50

Friday Night, Saturday Morning

 Late night darts sometimes brings its rewards.

28/50

Falling and Laughing . . .

With the news that Alan Milburn is possibly being brought in by the incoming Labour Govt to help with the *cough* 'reform' of the National Health Service, a NHS Clinical Oncologist is already regretting voting for the Labour Party four days ago:

Just realised, Starmer - an ex-Trot - is bringing back Milburn, another ex-Trot. It's a countdown to the right-wing conspiracy theories about the Trotskification of Britain.

'Hey lads, grab your papers and your petitions, we're getting the Fourth International back together again . . . '

'Can't get you out of my head'

 

6/50

An Uncertain Smile

 

4/50

Do It Clean . . .

One of those Facebook 'This was you a year ago' memories that just popped up on my timeline today. Nice to see that one year ago I was using what I now considered my *cough* forever darts. Less nice to see that they were once so clean and shiny. I think I might need to give them an overhaul.

Doctor, Doctor!

1 Thompson Twins album, 2 180s.  I'm not sure I like the implications of this . . .

. . . before you ask, I did rotate the board in between 180s. Even dartboards at death's door deserve the dignity of the occasional rotation. 

24/50

You Take Me Up

 Thank you Tom, Alannah and Joe.

23/50