Printers

We've finally stopped for the day and are sitting in front of the X Factor on Catch Up. It's "judges' houses" but, for some ungodly reason they've decided to give it a trashy live aspect, so we no longer get to see the weepy scenes with people being told they're "going home" - which was always a bit weird, because, technically speaking, they're all going home from the judges' houses whether they're through or not.

In this incarnation of the tired-looking show, all the "acts" are shipped back from wherever the judges' houses are, and stuck in a studio where they're told the good or bad news live in front of the nation. The problem is that the studio looked really tacky and was really badly mic'd for sound, so the whole thing felt hugely shambolic. The other issue is that the two presenters are not hugely experienced when it comes to live shows, so they were cutting people off left, right and centre. It was all a bit embarrassing and very much made me think that the show is on its last legs...

We bought a printer from Friern Barnett today. It's very exciting. I can actually email it documents to print. It only cost fifty quid. In fact, a couple of ink cartridges and a packet of paper cost us more than the printer itself. It was a great relief to replace the one we've had for the last ten years, which stopped working entirely a week ago. I'm longing to throw it out of the window.

The rest of the day has been dedicated to the mystery project; contract wrangling, writing, inputting things into music software. Endless.

Anyway, that's all I can write. Anthony Ding Dong is staying in our loft tonight. He arrived at 11 and we listened to the whole of the Pepys Motet on headphones, which was fun. I'm excited about releasing that album. God knows when I'll find the time to do it, but it's all ready and waiting... I just need to generate some publicity. Any ideas? Shall I become infamous? As the son of a Coventrian, I ought to be considering some kind of Lady Godiva stunt! I wish I could ride a horse...