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OK, so the v-moda vibe duo headphones for the iPhone (at £65ish) look the business, sound great and die after about a month with serious use (I know, I’ve killed 3 pairs already). The mic also sucks a bit, but most inline mics do. Anyway, they can’t turn round the warranty requests fast enough for me to have a working pair at all times and I’ll be buggered if I’m giving them any more of my money.

Lets try Apples in ear offerings. Cheapish (£25), fit the iPhone but lack the mic and button to skip tracks, don’t fit my ears properly (although ironically enough when I replaced the sleeves with ones from the v-moda headphones they fitted a treat, and every time the naff white cable hits or rubs your clothes you hear it in the headphones.

So, next step, Shure do these lovely little adapters that convert bog standard headphones into headphones with a mic that fit the iPhone nicely.  Given I had a set of in ear headphones that could be removed from their lead and plugged into this one and given the adapter costs about £20odd I though I would give it a go. Works a treat, although the mic is a tad on the large side.  Problem was my headphones were £9.99 ones and they lacked the bass response of the v-moda headphones.

Sod it, throw another £70 at Shure and order the SE110’s. The sound is pretty much as good as the v-moda ones although they’re not quite as bassy.  Ordered through the Apple store they should be with me in a few days once they’ve done their grand tour.

Meanwhile I go for a wonder over to a shop that does ipody things near work to go look at an iPod shuffle (wanted to compare it side by side to the iPhone, it’s a bit thinner and wider, but otherwise pretty much the same) and discovered that they had Shure SE310’s priced as Shure SE210’s (they also had SE310’s priced as SE310’s).  Thats £99 instead of £165. I decided to chance it, took the mispriced ones to the till and, when I was told it was £165, turned the box over to show the £99 price tag. I also explained there was more than one set priced at this price. I think the guy must have thought they were 210’s as he said something about them needing the price changed while he changed the amount required to £99. I paid, grabbed my purchase and legged it just as the manager was explaining to the sales assistant that the 210’s weren’t on display so how could they be priced up as 310’s.

When my 110’s arrive I’ll send them straight back. I now have a storming set of headphones that sound better than anything I’ve ever heard before (with the exception of a £20,000 Linn stereo in an acoustically perfect room). Problem is I can now hear when a song has been ripped at lower (or even medium) bit rates. I wonder what the SE530’s sound like. They’ve got 3 speakers per ear and cost £350. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be finding out any time soon.

There is a version of Facebook for the shiny so I’ve decided to come back, although as Dom Davis this time. Please note that I will be ignoring all invites to start using the plethora of applications that seem to be out there. This is purely so I can keep in contact with people who, for whatever reason, can’t do regular email that easily. I’m easy to find, I’m the only Dom Davis on the site by the looks of things (woo - go me ).

Buying more milk to make hot chocolate when you actually needed chocolate is not useful. You end up with so much milk you can only hope to use it all by making hot chocolate and no means with which to make said beverage.

I really, really, really, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hate limescale.

It’s the end of March. We’re a third of the way through the year and I thought I’d do the first of what will become my regular 3 monthly spring cleans. The cleaners do an admirable job but every now and then the shower could possibly do with a good steam clean, the windows need doing, all the furniture needs pulling out so the whole floor can get dysoned, that kind of thing.

I’ve had this weekend marked in my diary for months. The cleaners come on the Friday, I can then spend the weekend doing the spring clean and all will be good.

Except that people keep having birthdays, so I’m going out tonight and tomorrow. And there is a beer festival on and people want me to come out during the day. And the cleaners never came (short staffed) so they’ll be here next week. And my steam cleaner is missing some bits which the ex has no doubt thrown away by now (and even if she hasn’t I don’t think she’d even respond to emails asking if she had them). Thankfully Polti have a comprehensive (if expensive) range of accessories you can buy so I’ve ordered the new bits for the cleaner and will do my spring clean… er… middle of next month… ish… might be nearer the end.

In the mean time the shower really does need something doing to it so I guess I’ll just have to do it by hand. Deep joy.

…the rain. I look like a drowned rat and I’m freezing.

I’ve never used my bath in my new place. Baths are just something I don’t do, I prefer showers, but I’m so stiff from bouncing around on Sunday night that I might soak in some hot water later today and see if that helps my back and knees. I’m not as young as I used to be

Easter Sunday isn’t exactly your typical clubbing night, in fact, if it hadn’t been for the flyer being thrust into my hands a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have even thought anything was happening. As a result the turnout for Sunday was quite small with the club only really being a quarter to a third as full as it gets on a typical Friday night. Bad for the organisers, but it did mean the dance floor wasn’t ram packed which was good[ish] for me.

Musically the night wasn’t bad. The DJ’s quickly cycled through the various genres to make sure the dance floor was full [note to the Electric Ballroom: one crappy NiN track does not an industrial set make. That’s the second time you’ve done that ] and I spent a large proportion of the night on the floor bouncing round like a loon.  It didn’t help that there was an exceptionally cute French [I think] girl that I spent most of the night dancing with as he was bouncing around more than I was which resulted in me trying to show off and leaping about more than I usually would. Result is my knees now hurt and I’m still all over. Still, I got a hug from her and from another girl who got some glowsticks off me (I actually got kisses [on the cheeks] as a thank you as I furnished her friends with glowsticks too )

The night ended an hour early (mainly as there were only 50 or so people left in the club by 3am) but I had a laugh and I spent another hour or so talking to the people I’d given to glowsticks too outside Camden station before I buggered off to the hostel for a few hours lying in a short bed

Two week break from clubbing now until I head to Rios in Leeds to go to The Darkside with my brother (poor sod doesn’t know what he’s letting himself in for ).

OK, so I’ve now done a night in a hostel. As a place to crash for very little cash there is nothing wrong with it, it was clean, dry, nearly comfortable and warmish (someone left the window open so it was a little cooler than I would have liked). As somewhere to actually get anything vaguely like a good nights sleep it’s crap. For starters you’ve got people like me coming and going at all hours of the night (in my defense I took my shoes off outside the room, didn’t turn the light on and just got straight into bed so hopefully I didn’t wake the two others in the room up), the beds creak every time you move and every time someone went to the toilet I was woken up. It also didn’t help that I somehow turned on my early morning alarm for leaving the house (06:38 and not a subtle alarm sound) so that woke me up as well. Oh, and I missed breakfast Still, it was WAY nicer than the crappy hotel I had last time I went out.

I picked the bottom bunk as it would be easter to get into at 4:30am without waking people up, although it was a little short for me

God knows how people cope with staying there for a holiday, but I’d be willing to stay there again if there was a club night I wanted to go to.

Why come to a club that’s renowned for its goth, metal, industrial and alternative nights if you’re just going to stand by the bar, get drunk and take the piss?