“Well I looked my demons in the eye
Laid bare my chest said do your best destroy me
See I’ve been to hell and back so many times
I must admit you kinda bore me”

-Ray LaMontagne

A great sci-fi/fantasy book like no other; the SFX describes it as “An extremely unusual, familiar, yet at the same time extraordinarily original novel”

It’s the second I’ve read by the author Steph Swainson, the first was called ‘The Year of Our War’.

Of note is that the female author has gone with a male central character. And what a character. Addicted to drugs, an outcast, a rebel and a rogue, a thief and an Immortal. But fragile and immensely likeable.

Which made me think that perhaps this was a deliberate ploy to get to her mainly-male audience? I’m not even sure if there is a gender imbalance between readers of this genre.

Here’s an excerpt

“I never believed love existed. I wanted to smash it all into shards and cut myself with the sharpest.”

The European Space Agency will be recruiting citizens of the EU as astronauts from the 18th of this month. Apparently they need a lot more men (and women) for present and future projects. Which reminds me of the movie Starship Troopers where people were needed to fight giant bug-aliens.

“Fluent English required, Russian an asset”.

So I’ve ticked that box. But that’s the good news. The bad news for me is-

“Applicants … should exhibit personality traits such as high motivation, flexibility, team competence, empathy with others and emotional stability…”

“…should have demonstrated outstanding abilities in research, applications or the educational field, preferably including operational skills…”

“…characteristics expected of all applicants include a good memory and reasoning ability, concentration, aptitude for spatial orientation, and manual dexterity…”

I guess I could fake the “motivation” and “empathy” bits…

Surely these humanitarian agencies could have been more careful dropping food on towns? Jaysus!

Ok, Rock Radio 106.1 launches on Monday. It’s a Bank Holiday, so I’ll be heading down to the launch party with Bad Company playing live (for free) and other groups like Gun, Salford Jets, and… others.

The songs they’ve been playing have already been brilliant (except for occasional flashes of Bryan Adams) and the station has already replaced Classic Fm on my work commute.

Thanks to Ioannis and his impatient twiddling with his knob. His radio knob.

I very rarely get nervous watching 22 people play football on the telly. But yesterday’s 1-0 against Barcelona ended with 20 minutes of real terror for me.

Am I the only one who thinks that it’s real disappointing for Man U to play a European final with English opposition? It’s a sound endorsement of the quality of English football (money, not the game iself as the EURO results showed) but there’s something decidedly un-European about this final.

On yesterday’s game itself, each team had one outstanding player, both South Americans. Masterful Messi and Tireless Tevez were both a joy to watch.