Trophy Nigger

Today turned out to be an excellent day. It started off very annoyingly though, as I spent the morning trying to get hold of Revenue & Customs to sort out my tax: basically last years I paid just over £800 tax when I should have paid precisely £0. I challenge you to get hold of someone to sort this out. Once I finally was granted the time of a call handler who was human, she confirmed I was due the £800+ to be refunded and to get this, I have to write a letter, requesting a review of the last financial year and all that I earned in it, send my P60 off to them, and basically wait for all this to be completed before I claim my own money back. It bugs me as it is my money that I've got to traverse no end of bureaucracy to reclaim.

Moving on however, I went a long walk with Merlin, our puppy. It was his first proper walk, and he spent most of the time jumping to attention at any of the sounds of the forest and being terrified of any people of other dogs we met. We went right over the top of the hills behind Borlum and down Bunloit, going along the main road back to my house: a massive circle. It's a lovely route except for the part just before you get to Borlum which is perpetually boggy: I always get slightly wet feet at this part but today I was doing a fairly good job in negotiating a somewhat sturdy path across it until I suddenly dropped about two feet, finding the majority of one leg entombed in the stagnant muck. It took a worrying amount of effort to retrieve my foot, clinging on to a nearby tree, using my full force to yank my leg out. The remainder of the walk was replete with a squishy, sloshing sensation in my left shoe which was at first unpleasant, but once the water warmed up it actually had a massaging quality to it strangely.

At dinner, my 7 year old brother, Kyle, was watching Kerrang with me and rating each of the songs played. I was pleased that he gave Bullet For My Valentine 10/10 whilst Paramore only achieved 5/10. It's ridiculously cool that I have managed to train a 7 year old metalhead.

This evening I got a surprise phone call from Angus saying he had a spare ticket for Reginald D Hunter at the Ironworks tonight. I took the opportunity and it was an excellent show. It wasn't billed but he had a support act in the form of Steve Hughes, a metalhead, anti-corporate semi-comedian. I say semi-comedian as he simply stood on stage for an hour rattling off his extreme views in an honest, concise manner, but presenting this in a somewhat humorous way. He was very funny but he wasn't so much making jokes. Sitting in the front row, wearing a Dragonforce T-Shirt he immediately noticed me, and inquired as to whether I approved of each of the metal bands he spoke of during the show.

Finally Reginald D Hunter appeared and he was very good. He doesn't have any gimmicks and his show is 90% written with very little improvisation (although when called for, he immediately retorts to heckling or audience participation), and he is very good at it, making it feel very realistic, rather than a lot of over-rehearsed, wooden comedians of that sort. Tthis wasn't billed for obvious reasons, but the tour it was part of is called Trophy Nigger. His comedy was very clever and surprisingly insightful. Basically he was supporting individual's opinions, as opposed to the state-decided political correctness and such.

It's a long post which would usually suggest a hectic day, but it's actually been nice and laid-back really; an excellent day save for the leg-smeared-in-stagnant-bog-water part.