A blast from the past (two weeks)

And the good Lord Of NTL said "Let there be a broadband connection!" and it was so. Thus it is that, after an absence of a little over a week (but which feels more like two or three), I return to the blogging fray. A few preliminary observations about Cardiff to follow tomorrow, but first...

Prior to my enforced internet hibernation, I was asked by both Alex and Pete to give the following meme a go. I promised to do so when back online, and as I'm always (er, knowingly, at least) true to my word, here goes…

Four jobs I've had
(Those of you that know me personally - no sniggering at the back, OK?)
Saturday assistant, Superdrug
Seasonal assistant, Malham Youth Hostel
Cafeteria assistant, Whitehouse Farm Centre
Secreterial assistant, Birmingham City Council
(I should be quite good at assisting by now, I reckon...)

Four movies I can watch over and over
'American Beauty'
'The Big Lebowski'
'The Shining'
'The Goonies'
(If anyone wants the rules of a drinking game to be played while watching the latter, let me know and I'll post 'em here.)

Four places I have lived
(Multimap at the ready...)
Morpeth (NE62 2BY - 1977-1997)
Nottingham (NG7 2RD / NG7 1SP / NG7 1PY / NG7 1PE / NG7 1PW - 1997-2004)
Birmingham (B4 7EG - 2004-2006)
Cardiff (CF24 2PA - 2006-present)

Four TV shows I like to watch
(Well, what I've been enjoying of late, at least...)
'Coronation Street'
'Balderdash & Piffle'
'The Thick Of It'
'Match Of The Day'

Four foods that I like
Deep pan pepperoni, chicken tikka, green chilli and green pepper pizza from El Paso in Nottingham
Crusty bake steak pie from the 19 Gales stall at the Birmingham Farmers' Market
Pork scratchings
Hot 'n' sour soup and Vietnamese-style hot 'n' spicy noodles (both from Cafe Soya - my mouth's watering just thinking about them...)

Four websites I visit daily
NUFC.com
BBC News
Troubled Diva
Casino Avenue

Four things I want to do before I die
Write a book of some description (and knowing me, it'll have A LOT of description...)
See Newcastle Utd win something, anything
Have children
Live

Four places I would rather be right now
Selectadisc, Nottingham
The Anchor, Birmingham
My local pub in Morpeth at 7pm on Christmas Eve
Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon's house

Four people I'm tagging
(Don't feel obliged, and apologies if you've already done it, somewhere back in the mists of time...)
Paul
He Who Cannot Be Named
Del
Jonathan
(I'm guessing that Paul and Jonathan might share one of my "Four things I want to do before I die"...)