[photo: Jule Hering -- via Rugby 1823]

On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Berliner Philharmoniker give us all an exclusive, free online broadcast tonight at 8PM EST (that’s 2AM CET and 1AM in UK!).

To enter the BP Digital Concert Hall, please register here: http://www.db.com/index_e.htm and keep in mind “doors” open 15 minutes before curtain time.

Took me a few days to get over the fact that all I’ll be allowed to do on a sport/fitness front for a while is cardio fitness.

I don’t even know what’s that. And I’m praying cardio soddin’ fitness at least includes some decent running. Does it? Pretty please?

I still have to tell my touch rugby team mates about this — and I know that touch rugby isn’t rugby, but when I explained the doctor what was it all about he said that no, chasing people carrying an oval ball, albeit without the tackling, and especially the pre-training fitness routine is not recommended for me, at least for the moment. No way, José. Heh.

Ah, well, I should’ve known.

Anyway, while I discover what the heck is “cardio fitness” and how much I’m allowed to run etc, I’ve refined my usual running tracklist hoping I’ll be allowed to use it, just to realise there are a few recurring artists in about 1.5 hr worth of music:

1. Road to nowhere (Talking heads)
2. Jenny don’t be hasty (Paolo Nutini)
3. Bite hard (Franz Ferdinand)
4. Everything she wants ‘97 (Wham!)
5. Wonderwall (Paul Anka)
6. Heavy cross (Gossip)
7. Kings of the wild frontier (Adam and the ants)
8. Miss America (David Byrne)
9. Love can move mountains (The Proclaimers)
10. Perfect (Fairground attraction)
11. (Nothing but) Flowers (Talking heads)
12. Something worth fighting for (The Silencers)
13. The edge of heaven (Wham!)
14. Single ladies (Beyonce) (yes, I mean seriously)
15. I’m gonna be (500 miles) (The Proclaimers) (OF COURSE.)
16. The Time Warp (Rocky Horror Picture Show OST)
17. Wild wild life (Talking heads)
18. This is the life (Amy Macdonald)
19. Wake me up before you go-go (Wham!) (stop laughing.)
20. Willie Stewart (Eddie Reader & the RSNO)
21. I know (The Proclaimers)
22. I know (reprise) (The Proclaimers) (I just love those drums)

Stop laughing, I said.

– Baby niece will be let out of hospital tomorrow (huzzah!);

– Chris Paterson resumed training the other day (huzzah!) with the Scotland squad after recovering from foot injury (he’s looking wafer thin, though — look at the picture to the right, here. Mossy, please, do yourself and us all a favour: EAT!);

– I have won a Rabbie Burns t-shirt from Scotland.org (huzzah!);

– Shakespeare’s not been paid yet, but we’re working on that (reserving the “huzzah!”-ing for when Shakespeare finally receives payment).

p.s.: I’ve also realised I need to add a graphics tablet to my wishlist.

(apologies in advance.)

To the tune of Roses in the hospital by Manic Street Preachers (yes, there’s been a time when James Dean Bradfield was thin, and I can actually remember that. I’m decrepit.):

Mossy in the hospital
Try to beat foot infection out
Mossy in the hospital
He wants to grasp an oval ball
Mossy in the hospital
Progressing like a constant war [didn't change this line, fits perfectly in my version]
Mossy in the hospital
There’s no one to kick conversions

All we wanted was a home win
But Phil Godman just can’t nail them in
Like a doom over Murrayfield
it’s the right foot — yep, the one that kicks
We don’t want that feckin’ drip!

Mossy in the hospital… [etc]

Have been singing this all afternoon.

Meh.

Apart from the fourteenth, of course, that was a ni(e)ce day (by the way, she is still in ICU, slowly getting better, but still in the incubator, being given oxygen and antibiotics. Suppose not the same antibiotics as the ones they’re giving Mossy, as she has bronchiolitis, not a foot infection, still she’s on a drip as well.).

Oh, and surely yesterday, albeit being November already, was just an October leftover, right?

(get well soon, Mossy!)

Hope you get this subtle message, dude:

…since I know you read my blog and pretend not to get it when I openly tell you that YOU. OWE. ME. MONEY.

[image via Married to the sea]

(couldn’t help it.)

Quick ML lineup update, as I’m not really in the mood for writing anything, my fifteen days old niece is currently hospitalised with a respiratory system issue and, honest, all I can think of is her (if you have a spare thought for her, prayers, good karma vibes, positive thoughts to send over, anything, really, they would be much appreciated.) — so who cares about attending a rugby game, and who cares about Magners League, sorry.

Edinburgh will be playing against Newport Dragons at Murrayfield on Sunday, hope they do well and have fun etc. — here’s the lineup (sorry, I didn’t even really look at it properly, just copied and pasted it in here, didn’t check who’s in, who’s out, who’s on the bench, what time the game kicks off… my apologies to everyone. Thought to write this blog entry to focus on something else for five minutes, but it didn’t work.):

Edinburgh: Chris Paterson Steve Jones, John Houston, Ben Cairns, Nick De Luca, Tim Visser, Phil Godman, Greig Laidlaw, Allan Jacobsen, Ross Ford, Geoff Cross, Steve Turnbull, Scott MacLeod, Scott Newlands, Alan MacDonald, Allister Hogg (captain)
Replacements: Andrew Kelly, Kyle Traynor, Craig Hamilton, Roddy Grant, Mike Blair, Mark Robertson, Steve Jones Andrew Turnbull.

OK, I’m still on antibiotics, but I’m not imagining things here, as OC posted about it too — so could somebody please explain to me what’s with women getting their chin(s) photoshopped away and then their head photoshopped back onto a man’s body?

above: Cecilia Bartoli’s latest album cover (hat tip to Opera Chic)

below: Mina, Rane supreme album cover, circa 1987