Raging Against The Machine

I head down to the dog training venue as today is the day they move the equipment from the old place to the new place. I lend a hand loading the lorry up which I thought would just be loading up the equipment that we usually train with. What I didn’t consider and I don’t think many others did either is that there was loads of stuff at the back of the store room that we didn’t know we had or had forgotten we had. Stuff we certainly didn’t want now but had to take anyway. At one stage it looked like we might need a bigger lorry but somehow it all went aboard.

Afterwards some of the other collies are looking for somewhere different to stretch their paws so Doggo and MD offer to show them Wollaton Park. So the boys get to run on the park with three other dogs and predictable chaos ensures but at least they’ll sleep for the rest of the day. The park itself is looking particularly scenic, covered as it is in a thin layer of last night’s snow.

We get another slight flurry of snow in the afternoon as we do a bit of shopping and I look at training cages for MD at Pets Sat at Home or whatever it’s called. Then rather naughtily I get home and order one off the internet for half the price.

Later as running and cycling are a bit dodgy because of the weather, I head to the gym with L. 5km Bike, 1km row, some leg weights and a 3km run at near race pace. Things are looking up, I couldn’t manage either a row or all the weight machines last time and I don’t bitch at anyone. According to L, my competitively in the gym would make me a gym-bitch if I was a girl. I do quite a bit of my exercise to Marilyn which is a bit risqué as I keep getting the urge to scream along to the ‘f*** you’ bits. Not really the done thing in the gym.

Talking of ‘f*** you’. The X-Factor has ‘kindly’ given us the Christmas number one for the last four years but not this time Mr Cowell. I'm no Rage Against The Machine fan and was no fan of 'Killing In The Name' first time around back in 1992 but I do admit it's become a bit of timeless classic since.

When a part-time DJ called Jon Morter decided it was time to rage against Simon Cowell’s machine, I wasn’t sure he’d picked the right record. It wasn't a song that I thought would appeal to enough people but it was certainly 'on message', 'F**k you I won't do what you tell me' indeed.

It started as so many things do now, on Facebook, with a fan page 'Rage Against The Machine For Christmas No. 1' which pointed people to music sites where the track could be downloaded.

It wasn’t though, until the band was invited on to Five Live to play the track live that it went stratospheric. Asked to play a censored version and drop the 'F**k you’, naturally they didn't and they got the publicity they needed propelling the single to number one, becoming the first one to do so on download sales alone.

Whilst Cowell will still be counting his money after coming a close second, the charity Shelter will benefit from Rage Against The Machine’s sales. Well it is Christmas, and that probably makes them worthy winners.

The Unmistakable Tones

As I listen to the unmistakable tones of MD trying to savage the bin lorry, that had just upset him, I decide to continue with my ‘front loading’ policy. I need the car in Derby tonight, so I drive to my parents place, leave the car there and run the 5 miles into work. I take it steady and look at the view. L would have been proud of me. That is if she wasn’t too busy trying to outdo me by running to work as well.

As I run back in the opposite direction later, I get caught up by a colleague from work. Blimey I must have been going slowly. Although I suppose he was puffing a bit by the time he caught me. We run together for a while before he turns off to complete the loop back to work whilst I continue down the river.

I hate to say it but Nigel Clough seems to have lost the plot at Derby already. In fact I think he’s beginning to sound a bit like Billy Davies... and I really don’t understand his team selections. That said there’s not a lot he can do about the defence he inherited. We could have been three down inside seven minutes as Reading had the ball in the back of our net that many times but all three efforts were ruled out for offside. In the end we just lost by the mere two goals. I really can’t see us getting any more points this season which means we could go down but that relies on other teams winning all their remaining games which fortunately for Derby looks unlikely to happen.