Global weirding, media lies and why I miss knowing what month it is

That joke isn't funny any more.

I know when you get to this age, everything in the past looks better. But I'm pretty sure that when I was young, we had seasons.

I know people always complained about the Great British Summer, the same way that they complained about the Great British Rail Sandwich. Well, most of us miss British Rail now. And I miss knowing what time of year it is.

How to enjoy things that are not the Olympics

Someone I follow on Twitter posted the other day: 'Were just asked how we get enjoyment if not from London2012 - well, we build our own achievements rather than bask in those of others.'

‏'How do you get enjoyment if not from the Olympics' seems a pretty odd question to be asking. It assumes that it's only possible to get enjoyment every four years, which seems a bit sad.

Another Punk Britannia review, and some middle-aged angst

I've been thinking and writing a lot about punk lately. And I don't know if I want to think and write  about it any more. It's very easy when a lot of your thinking and writing is done online to find yourself trapped inside the same conversation. But I never wanted to be defined by my past.

You're history: Punk Britannia review

In honour of the jubilee (yes, I know), the Guardian asked some 60-year-old writers to ruminate on their lives. Sean O'Brien, in a rather good piece, wrote: 'One of the mixed benefits of ageing is reading accounts of your lifetime by people who weren't there.'

Shit. That means I'm going to have to get used to it.

Things I've learnt about shopping

There should have been a bank holiday on Monday. In the old days we called it Whitsun. In recent years we've called it something bureaucratic like 'late May bank holiday'. This year we call it 'the jubilee weekend' and the government has decided we have to have it next week because we all run our lives based around the queen.

I took the day off work, on principle. Unfortunately I had to go shopping.