Weather: Sunny spells, some showers, humid. 24 C.

Travel: Clear run out. 1718 to Edinburgh is off, 1722 to Shrewsbury leaves 2 late, but has a clear run to Wolverhampton and gets in at 1739. Fifteen minutes from New Street! Brilliant!

Track of the day: Ex-Factor - Lauryn Hill (The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, 1998). A slow day for music, this is the only decent part of a bad bunch.

Les Ross returns to BRMB breakfast. I'd be worried, if I were Les; Graham Mack, his replacement, seems to have the breakfast show down to a fine art, and doesn't gas as much as the veteran Les.

Concorde makes an unscheduled stop at Gander airport. As ever, the newscasters don't have a clue how to pronounce the name of the province where it landed. Vojitek Gastar of Radio Canada International makes the classic mainlanders' mistake: NEW-fund-land. Jean Marsh on Radio 2 is typically English: new-FOUND-land. As everyone knows, it's new-fund-LAND. Take a deep breath, have confidence that you can hold the emphasis to the end of the word, and go for it!

Mark reports the new Gretchen Peters album is getting a significant promo push at Vermin Brighton. Great! I'm impressed! Shame that the all-new HMV Wolverhampton can't be bothered even to stock the album, never mind promote it.

Tony Blair's having Words with the Press Complaints Commission over pictures of the christening of his son, Leo. I can appreciate why he doesn't want the press to get in the habit of following his children everywhere, but there is natural interest in the actions of the People's Prime Minister. Blair claims (or claimed, at the last election) to be a strong supporter of open government. He's evidently not practicing what he preaches.

In the mail sack, chelle writes on Napster:
[it] functions as a radio-type medium. except it's better because you get to pick what you listen to, and you aren't limited to what the RIAA is feeding the airwaves. and i am ALL FOR a level playing field.
I still have a problem with metered telecoms, though. Purely from a practical POV, it's going to take 20 minutes to download *one* track over a phone line. That's going to cost me 20p. If I'm not reasonably sure that I'm going to like the track, I can't afford to take the risk.

Now, if that 20p went to the artist concerned, I'd be far less worried, because it's going to a deserving cause. BT does not need my 20p. Bree Sharp (who? exactly!) does.

An efficient micro-payments system, one that would allow me to buy an MP3 for 20p, headline news from The Telegram for 10p, and sell my chart expertise for 5p a pop, is badly needed. Crack that one, and Napster becomes the artist's friend. And the record company's worst enemy.

Weather: Mainly sunny, 23. The forecast threatened thunder, which didn't arrive.

Travel: Slight scare as the signal doesn't rise at Codsall till 700. That's because the 640 was over 10 late. We're slightly slowed at Aldersley, but arrive on time at New Street. Just miss the 1649 from Longbridge, so get the 1725 from New Street, which connects fine to the 1800. No sign of temporary timetables for the Wolverhampton-Coventry line during the looming engineering work.

Track Of The Day: More like half-hour. Bunty plays Madonna Live To Tell (Shanghai Surprise OST, 1986), then Lionel Richie Say You Say Me (White Knights OST, 1985), then Siedah Garrett & Michael Jackson I Just Can't Stop Loving You (Bad, 1987). All US #1s, all utter classics. Lester leads off with Ace Of Base's best one ever, Always Have, Always Will (Flowers, 1998) - all the sleigh bells and happy Motown feel. Later, he throws two contemporary ones in a row - k d lang Summerfling (Summerfling, 2000) and Travis Why Does it Always Rain on Me? (The Man Who, 1999) before leaving the 8am news with Diana Ross Chain Reaction (album?, 1986).

Britain's drivers hold a dump the pump day. It's widely ignored, with service stations reporting a sales drop of no more than 10%. The issue at stake is claimed to be the amount of money that the Government takes in tax, with campaigners claiming it's over 80% of the cost of petrol. The real argument that they're avoiding is how much of the nation's money should be spent by the Government, and how much left to the individual's discretion. As the Evening Standard puts it:

If you don't like high fuel duties, then don't cheer next time Mr Brown throws more munificent billions at schools, hospitals, and subsidising his Scottish fellow-countrymen.

Weather: A mix of sunshine, warm sunshine, and heavy showers. Like the floodgates just opened. 21 degrees in a cooling north-westerly, though it threatened to be hot until the first shower.

Travel: No problems going out, but back is a mess. Again, miss the 1649 by inches, then find the 1722 to Shrewsbury is cancelled. That puts all the Telfordites onto the 1737 stopper, so it's standing room only. Not helped by selfish idiots who won't move down the train, causing other people to cram into the doorwells. Plonkers.

Track Of The Day: You Belong To The City (Glenn Frey, Miami Vice OST, 1985.) Conjuring up images of cool autumn nights, looking out on some massive US conurbation from a hillside just outside the city limits. I'll do it, someday.

Ivan Massow quits the Conservative Party and joins The Party. Massow is a wealthy businessman, who was the most prominent gay member of the opposition. His defection comes with an attack on how illiberal Billy Hague has become lately. Ivan has some good points, defending Section 29 and venomous attacks on immigrants got my goat as well. But is this more important than the tax-and-spend mismanagement of The Party? There's a slim chance that the Tories will reduce national government; The Party wants to build it up.

General Pinochet loses his Senatorial immunity, and can stand trial for his torturous regime in 1970s and 80s Chile. This is where he deserves to stand trial. This is where the offences took place. Not Spain.

On a lighter note, it's Regatta Day in St John's. And I'm stuck here in the middle of England. Not fair. There's a piccy of the other big event, a replica Viking longship coming to visit Corner Brook. This is the centrepiece of the Viking 1000 celebrations, marking a full millennium since Erik and his crew landed at L'Anse aux Meadows, and started Newfoundland off on its rocky road to ruling the world. (It's a work in progress.)

Weather: A bit of sunshine, a few light showers, a fresh north-west breeze. 20 is the top temperature. This pleases me no end.

Travel: No problems going out, but back is total and utter chaos. Workmen at the Bull Ring redevelopment in Birmingham slice through a water man, causing the tunnel at the south end of the station to flood. Electric trains are knocked out, so there's little happening on the Cross City. Bus into the centre, then, and I'm thrown by the re-routing non-stop from the Dome to Snow Hill - a five minute trip.
Then hop on the 1718 to Edinburgh. It's 11 late arriving, and the signalmen are so festeringly incompetent that they can't organise a party in a brewery. We're finally allowed out at 1739, arriving Wolverhampton 1805. There must have been a stopper ahead.
With the 1800 scheduled just 12 late - seven minutes from now - I elect to wait for that rather than take the bus. Only I've reckoned without some busybody lady, who makes completely spurious allegations that some lads have been rooting around in other people's luggage. The police get involved, and drag two lads away for questionning. This blocks off one of the two northbound platforms for a good ten minutes, and further delays everyone involved. I really hope she was right, otherwise I'll be giving her a piece of my mind.
Hordes and hordes of people pile out of the stopper at Wolverhampton. Do they have no respect for the stoppers at all? Anyway, finally away 1821.

Track Of The Day: Summerfling (k d lang, Summerfling, 2000.) No, I don't know what "the smell of Sunday" is. Nor how one walks "with a Kennedy flair." But this is a wonderful slice of summer listening, and it deserves to have been a massive sales hit.

Gypsies spring two from court in Slough. The scene reads like something from Detroit, not a London dormitory suburb. Gunmen disguised as security guards fired several shots into the ceiling, coshed a police officer then scarper with two prisoners who were facing burglary offences. Shooting into the air, the four then hot-footed it to a getaway car and down the M4. Witnesses said...

Two guys came rushing into the court holding pump-action shotguns. It was absolute madness. It was like a scene from a film.

I heard the gun go off, there was shouting and then two prisoners ran out, followed by the others. I saw them sprinting out of the courtroom. I really didn't want to look at them because they had gund. I was hiding in the corner. It was extremely frightening."

Weather: Mainly cloudy and 19.

Travel: No problems coming back. Going is a different story. The 640 got cancelled, so the 703 makes a pointless stop at Bilbrook. Then we get diverted via Bescot, for no adequately eplored reason. Not a huge problem, we just get in at 735. Then the 741 to Longbridge turns into the 752 to Redditch, grows an extra three cars at the front, waits for an arrival from Lichfield, and finally leaves at 806. It appears to be a prima facie case of Central flunking their common-law duty of care to their customer (ie me.) Nasty letters loom over the weekend. Anyway, the surprise isn't over, as Central has posted ticket inspectors at Longbridge. I inform them that they are at grave risk of receiving serious violence, as their company has already delayed their customers quite enough. It's like talking to a brick wall.

Track Of The Day: What The World Needs Now Is Love Sweet Love / Abraham, Martin and John (Tom Clay, 1971.) This medley of two late 60s classics (from "Hair" and Marvin Gaye, respectively) is interspersed with soundtracks to some seminal 60s moments - Vietnam marches, the Kennedy assassinations. The result is a time capsule of the era, captured by a San Fransisco DJ. Never a hit in the UK, but it gets the occasional spin.

Piracy on the high seas? Not quite, but it's a great drama. Canadian naval chaps board a freighter carrying army equipment back from Kosov@. The owners of GMV Katie were in a fees dispute with the company the Canadian Army had subcontracted the job. The Army got kinda annoyed when the Katie stayed off the coast of Newfoundland for over a week, and got permission from Guatamala to board the ship. She's now bound up the St Lawrence to her scheduled destination in Quebec.

And finally. From the mail file...
From: Axiom Kettles, Russia
To: Iain T. Weaver

We've learnt your company to be a producer of electric kettles by means of Internet.

We'll appreciate your informing us whether you can deliver the following components for electric plastic kettles:

* controller
* cordless contact
* heating element
* food polypropylene

If you don't produce these components would you inform us about your suppliers for we could contact them.

Thank you in advance,
Best regards.

Alexander M.
Director

Weather: Hot, sunny, 24. Looks like it might be set in for some days.

Track Of The Day: If it's Saturday, it's America's Greatest Hits. R&B #1 on this date in 1998: Friend Of Mine (Kelly Price). It's a yowling, growling track, but still way tuneful.
Disappointment of the day: Music (Madonna, Music, 2000). It just potters about aimlessly, without any hook at all. For the first time ever, I'm seriously wondering if Madge has lost the plot totally. Hopefully this - and the misplaced cover of American Pie - will turn out to be pre-millennium tension, and everything will be smelling of roses by the new year.

Weather: Cloudy early, sunny later, 23. We may get a little drizzle tomorrow, and it looks to become decently unsettled from Wednesday. That'll suit me.

Track of the day: Sunday is Chart Day in the UK, but I'm not impressed with this week's crop of new entries. Best of a bad bunch: I Can Only Disappoint You (Mansun.)

Train companies want to withdraw through ticketing from many rural stations. They'll only let large stations sell the complex tickets from anywhere to anywhere, claiming it's too expensive to make the facility available everywhere. What bullocks! (sp?) From a software point of view, it's trivial to make through ticketing available anywhere. A decent client-server operation is simple and cheap to operate, the cables are already there, and the train operators are really taking the public for fools. Humbug of the first degree.

The BBC may rebrand its digital output, and split it into themes. The over-DOGged and under-resourced BBC NO CHOICE will become a youth channel, BBC 3. Changes from the moment: Less CBBC, and no repeats of Murder One, and (er) that's it. The very promising BBC KNOWLEDGE would get to commission some programmes of its own, add contemporary arts to its remit, and become BBC 4. The bottom line: are the programmes better as a result? For K, they can't be much worse; for NO CHOICE, a change of channel head could easily cure many of the existing problems.