A lot of people think I live my life by Oasis, which is fair enough. I didn’t miss a single gig of theirs in Scotland between 2002 and their sad demise. But at the same time, I’ve never bought into the whole “dress like them, act like them” lifestyle so many Oasis fans seem to embody.

I like to be myself (I can’t be no-one else), a non-descript almost student type, and abhor the drunken-druggie style a number of my fellow Oasis fans seem to prefer.

For the record, I don’t by any means think the Oasis story is over. Despite all the press and whatever, I remain convinced they’ll get back together sometime. We’ll see though.

Of course, the whole split thing meant Liam and Noel would be doing seperate things. And so it’s proved.

I actually loved the Beady Eye album, but that might have a lot to do with the fact I love Andy and Gem’s songwriting, rather than the fact it’s Liam’s band. Both Andy Bell and Gem Archer are exceptional songwriters, and during the past ten years, their songs tend to be among my preferred of the Oasis canon.

Indeed, the best song on “Different Gear, Still Speeding” in my humble opinion, of course, is Kill For A Dream. It’s an Andy composition, surprise. And here was me thinking I was bound to prefer a Gem (who I’ve met) effort.

Surprisingly, the best efforts seem to come from B-sides. Sons of the Stage (cover) is a proper rocker, while I challenge anyone not to think “In The Bubble With A Bullet” is a choon.

Best of the lot, though, is “World Outside My Room”. It sounds like The Kinks, but without being as overbearing and cheesy as “The Importance Of Being Idle”. Yeah, I like it.

And now, we hear the first of Noel’s material. Well, I say we hear it now, we’ve all heard “I Wanna Live In a Dream (In My Record Machine)” and the fabled “Stop The Clocks”.

So, what do I think of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds’ “The Death Of You And Me?” Well. There seem to be a lot of comparisons to “The Importance Of Being Idle”, but I much prefer thinking of it as a chilled out relative of “Round Are Way”.

It just seems… similarly fun. Which is a good thing. I’ll be intrigued to hear more. Yet it’s still… well, Noel. Looking forward already to the tour in October.

Now, I know the Star is to journalism what McDonalds is to nouvelle cuisine, but… really? They really printed that? They honestly printed that in a bid to sell some papers? I didn’t think even the despicable Richard Desmond would stoop so low as that.

For years the games industry has been saddled with this “killing people on a screen makes you kill people in the world” nonsense (how many people have you killed after playing an FPS?), and it just doesn’t ring true. Yes, people who’ve played games have killed people, but only because they were mad as tits beforehand, not because they blasted a few asteroids or zapped those space invaders. How many Pac-Man fans have actually eaten people (after a pair of cherries, of course)?

For the Star to now turn that round and suggest Rockstar will cash in on Moat’s atrocities is completely ridiculous. It’s a real low for tabloid journalism, not that their moral standing was all that high to begin with.

I hope the PCC really go to town on this one, and that Rockstar’s lawyers are baying for blood.

And what does genuinely excite me, is the Mini. Believe it or not, it’s actually moving now, after dispensing with the services of Mr WD40 and giving Copper Grease a try. So, it’s rolling, but does it work?

Well, if you were on the A96 heading towards Aberdeen last Sunday night, you might have seen my L plate testifying it does. Said sign flew off at 55mph, causing my dear father to have kittens as he wondered what I’d hit/what had just fallen out the engine.

I’ve got my test coming up at the end of June, so getting the motor going, and being confident enough to take it out is a big help.

It’s now been out a couple of times with no ill effects, though my dear father’s back may say otherwise. He just can’t handle the way it bumps and bashes over every uneven bit of road. Can’t wait to try it on cobbles!

I must admit to being surprised by the number of people who’ve commented on it, though. The Mini is still an attention-grabbing car, and as the owner/driver, I feel obliged to pass on the feel-good factor owning one provides.

Best one I’ve heard so far, was a small child who stood excitedly by my parked motor, pointing and shouting to his dad: “Dad! Dad! This is Mr Bean’s car!” Close enough, eh?

Annoyingly for my bank manager, I’ve started to formulate plans for a second Mini, a proper project car. We’ll see how that goes!

The smell of petrol, burning rubber, and proper door-to-door racing. Amazing crashes, spectacular saves, and singlehandedly keeping the manufacturers of gaffer tape in business, the BTCC is certainly one of the most exciting forms of racing around.

At most of the circuits, the pits are open to the public, so you can get up close to the drivers and cars as well as watching them spin, slide, crash, bash and generally do everything they can to avoid actually finishing a race.

The Championship has suffered some heavy blows in recent years, with the loss of manufacturer teams Seat and Vauxhall’s VXR entry, but fears for the future of the series have been allayed thanks to the return of Honda to the grid, and the introduction of Chevrolet.

That said, last year’s popular (despite being a dirty red) champion, and Autosport National Driver Of The Year, Colin Turkington hasn’t managed to fund another year with WSR, and he’ll be a great loss. Also missing from the grid this year is Scotsman Jonny Adam, who debuted for Motorbase last season, and helped nudge Jason Plato into that superb bit of driving in the clip above.

While the Kirkcaldy driver isn’t involved this time around, fellow Fifer Gordon Shedden returns for Honda after a frustrating time last year. Having left Team Dynamics after the first race last year to be replaced by James Thompson (himself later succeeded by Johnny Herbert), Sheds then signed up for Clyde Valley Racing, only to see the team’s sponsors fail to pay up leaving a funding shortfall that forced them out of action in double-quick time (he did manage a second place finish for them at Knockhill, though!).

At the moment there are fewer cars entered than last year, but the field still looks as strong as ever. The ever-reliable Jason Plato was a late entrant for Team Silverline last year, yet ended the season a close second to Turks, and he lines up for the team again this year, albeit with the backing of Chevy and a new car, the Cruze replacing the competitive Lacetti.

He’ll line up alongside Alex MacDowall, a graduate of the Clio Cup support series, who posted some quick times in the pre-season.

The biggest threat is likely to come from the rear-wheel drive BMWs of Airwaves and last year’s champions WSR (formerly Team RAC).

Although Turkington is no longer on the scene, WSR have brought their former driver Rob Collard back from Airwaves after an impressive 2009 campaign. He’s been paired with Andy Neate who last featured for Team Nuts in 2005, and who has come back from a broken neck suffered in a horrendous crash at Silverstone in the 2008 Britcar 24 Hours.

Replacing Collard at Airwaves is Mat Jackson, another fan favourite, who had a successful season alongside Plato at Silverline last time out. Ulsterman Stephen Kane makes a welcome return to the team and championship after a year out.

With Vauxhall having withdrawn their support of Team 888 at the end of last season, Team VXR is no more. 888 continue this year though, and have ensured feisty Italian stallion Fabrizio Giovanardi has a place on the grid this year. Never one to shirk a challenge, expect him to be near the front of the pack despite only signing up on the eve of the season.

Two-time Champion Gio will be joined by last year’s Clio Cup Champion Phil Glew in the black-liveried Vectra’s of Triple Eight.

There will be another two Vectras on the grid, with Triple Eight having sold cars to the enthusiastic Dave Pinkney, a former chairman of Luton Town Football Club, and who will run his own Pinkney Motorsport team in ever distinctive colours.

The other Vectra has gone to former works driver Andrew Jordan, driving for Pirtek Racing. Pirtek are an established name in the Australian V8 Supercar, and will support Jordan’s independent entry while father Mike, a former BTCC driver and team-mate of Andy in 2008, will provide advice from the sidelines.

Having run the Honda Integra and Civic over the past five years, Team Dynamics this year have backing from Honda UK, and welcome back a brace of drivers to the team. The aforementioned Shedden will be partnered by Matt Neal, who he partnered in years of yore. Neal is making a return to his father Steve’s team after a largely frustrating spell with Triple Eight/VXR.

Team AON return for a second season in the Ford Focus, with Tom “Sonic” Chilton leading once more, alongside former VXR man, Tom Onslow-Cole. AON were coming good towards the end of last year, and will be running the only brace of LPG cars this year, so will be hoping to be further up the order. AON will have the backing of Ford .

Tom Boardman is another man returning to the grid having made his debut as the youngest-ever BTCC driver in 2001 when, aged just 18, he drove privately entered Peugeot. Tom will be entering this year’s BTCC under the family-run Special Tuning banner.

Martin Johnson (no, not that Martin Johnson) will be running the Astra Coupé formerly run by Arkas with Tech-speed, for a second successive year, while Tech-Speed have integrated John George’s JAG Racing to their team, John pairing up with the ever-popular Paul O’Neill, the pair both racing ex-Dynamics Integras.

Keeping the Honda theme going, Matt Hamilton returns with his independently entered Civic Type R. Matt debuted at Rockingham last year, and the Derby University student will be looking to build on his performances since. Matt will be racing with TH Motorsport, who looked after John George in recent years.

In another Honda will be Lea Wood, running an ex-Gareth Howell Integra. Wood has previous experience in the Clio Cup, but steps up in another family-run team.

Finally we come to two new entries this season. First, lets tackle the new BMW pairing from Forster Motorsport. More used to the Mini Challenge, Arthur Forster and Martin Depper will have to get used to the RWD 320si but with the success of Airwaves and WSR in recent years, they may just make their way towards the front of the grid.

The final entry, thus far, is AmDMilltek. Running a Mk5 Golf, Team owner/driver Shaun Hollamby hopes to add a second car during the season, with Simon Shaw expected to pick up the second seat. It was 1989 when the BTCC last encountered a Golf, so it will be interesting to see where the Golf places come the end of the season.

There’s a BTCC fantasy league running at http://www.fantasydrivers.com/ Get yer team sorted!

Aberdeen came back from 4-2 down to draw with Celtic and their incredibly rubbish defence yesterday, and THIS was the outcome for one of the Greatest Fans In The World™

What a fool.

Unless you’ve been on a different planet, you’ll know there’s been some snow around these parts. Apparently it’s global warming’s fault, as per. Nobody’s seen anything like it in their lifetime. It’s a national disaster! Bollocks it is, I vividly remember snow like this in the past, which means it happened within the last twenty years (the first five years of my life having been a tad more hazy). It’s certainly not as bad as this on a regular basis, but it’s hardly unheard of.

To be honest, here in Aberdeen the snow hasn’t been the real issue. Much worse was the council’s lack of foresight of, and reaction to, said weather event. Even before Christmas, my street was akin to an ice-rink, not aided by the distinct lack of gritters out and about. Sure, the main roads were fine, and the busier pedestrian routes had also received a light sprinkling of grit, but it was nowhere near adequate.

The first sign I saw of grit in the street was on the 5th of January. Now, I can’t remember exactly when the snow first appeared it was that far back (I’d guess sometime around December 20th), but that’s certainly not acceptable to this council tax payer.

It’s not like stupidity is uncommon for good old ACC. Just about to go out to public consultation are the plans for Sir Ian Wood’s BIG SHOW OF WEALTH aka the destruction of a popular city centre green space.

Before Sir Ian stuck his oar – and the promise of a meagre fifty million quid, on the proviso ACC match it pound-for-pound – into none of his business, planning permission had been granted for a new arts centre to utilise part of Union Terrace Gardens. The majority of funding for the arts centre was in place even before this, with a chunk coming from the clearly schizophrenic ACC.

Sir Ian couldn’t have that, of course, and decided to offer his £50M towards a plan (his own) to create a Civic Square above the gardens, with no plans to include the arts centre. Said gardens cover 2.5 acres – that’s a lot of concrete to build up to street level, not mention the untold environmental damage of destroying the plant-life and wildlife currently calling the gardens home and the fact that the cost of such folly is now estimated at a minimum of £140M.

That the cash-strapped council didn’t throw the plan out immediately is bad enough, but guess who’s funding the planning process, the public consultation (which again, doesn’t involve the arts centre)etc? Not Ian Wood, that’s for damn sure! Am I the only one spotting the conflict of interest here?

Regardless of whether you think an arts centre in the gardens is a good idea, surely it can’t be right that a green space that is one of the last distinguishing features of Aberdeen City Centre, one that’s been in use since 1879, be replaced with a soulless concrete block? Surely it can’t be right that Sir Ian’s “legacy” to the city that made him should be such a financial burden on the taxpayers of the city? Surely, my friends, this monstrosity must be stopped?

Imagine the furore if an Edinburgh businessman proposed the same thing for Princess St Gardens, or Sir Tom Hunter decided Glasgow Green would be nicer as a shopping centre. It’s time for the people of Aberdeen to kick up a fuss.

Fraser Denholm has summed the situation up much better than I ever could in this blog and an update here.

If you want to get involved, there’s a petition here against Wood’s Folly and a Facebook group here.

One of the most infuriating things about this city, and indeed the surrounding areas, is that the public transport infrastructure pretty much doesn’t exist.

Sure, there’s buses, but neither First in the city nor Stagecoach in the Shire, seem capable of rubbing two brain cells together. Have you ever tried getting to the airport, for example, on public transport? Oh, you can do it alright, but not without a LOT of planning.

And then there’s the more mundane stuff, like getting from my home, in the middle of nowhere, to work in the Largest Suburb in Europe.

An hour and a half, it takes, to make what is a half-hour journey by car. And the Goverment wonder why people don’t use public transport…

Fortunately the illness also came after the London trip… which was now so long agao I can barely remember the highlights. Hmm, let’s see…

On arrival at the super-shiny and super-huge T5, we cleverly bought four tickets for the Heathrow Express. Only to be presented with this when after the third had printed:

Technology fail. After seeking human intervention we were swiftly sorted out and able to continue on our merry way to our cheap hotel 5 minutes from Paddington Station. Handy, and also very cheap. Did the job though!

Nothing much exciting happened on the Friday night, so I’ll skip on to Saturday. When not much happened.

Dave joined our merry crew before we split into two groups – Edd, Dave and myself doing the cool stuff while Gary and his sister Gemma proceeded to get lost lots having no clue how London works. The cool stuff wasn’t particularly cool at all, to be fair. A quick trip down Carnaby Street, a wee wander round some of the touristy stuff, the highlight being walking into Hamleys. I was wearing my ultra-cool Dangermouse t-shirt, and was welcomed by the dude on the door with a cheery “‘ello Dangermouse, good to have you with us!”. Mega.

Ooh, ooh! We also managed to stumble upon the Dons pub, the Rob Roy, purely by chance thanks to my navigational skills. Win. I was, though, disappointed to find it dead both times we were in. Even at 10pm on a Saturday night. Boo.

What else happened? Not a whole lot. Sunday saw us head back towards central Lahndahn Town to partake in some food/shopping antics, and for me to Geek out over the musical heritage. Yes, I do have a photo of Wardour Street made famous by The Jam’s “A-Bomb on Wardour Street”. A photo of the street from the What’s The Story album cover was also taken. Oh yes.

Then there was the gig. That Wembley’s a bit impressive is it not?! We timed it perfectly to see Kasabian who were excellent. Oasis were… Oasis. I’ve seen them 13 times now so there were no surprises. It was certainly better than the Murrayfield shambles though. Getting back to Paddington was easier than anticipated as well. Bonus.

So, that was London. Then followed a few days of work before three weeks of bed. Not particularly nice, though I’d recommend it to anyone who needs to lose some weight.

Thankfully, I recovered in time to go on a three-day course, which I passed, and then have another busy weekend. One of the few football matches I’ve made it to away to Alloa, followed by comedy in Glasgow and thrills ‘n’ spills at Knockhill. Yay!

The football was poor, but the meal and comedy at Jongleurs were of acceptable standard. Dave also enjoyed, but his girlfriend, Gemma (not Gary’s sister!), didn’t seem too impressed. Too many wanking jokes I think. Stayed at their place on the Saturday night, then Dave and myself headed through to Knockhill where we were impressed to see local boy Gordon Shedden come second in the first BTCC race. Mon the Scots.

Keeping the theme going, Aberdeen’s very own Glynn Geddie manged to win his class and finish second overall in the Porsche Carrera Cup race that followed. Sadly the later races weren’t so successful with Sheds and another local boy, Jonny Adam, having various issues. Jonny’s fire extinguisher randomly deciding to cover him in foam was quite amusing though, even if it did put him out of race three.

More recently, on Saturday night no less, I went to the theatre. Yes! A theatre! I’m officially cultured! Edd and I made a late decision to see Quadrophenia, and despite being sat way up in “Ye Gads!” it was found to be thoroughly enjoyable. The band were rather good too, although the bass solo in My Generation completely failed to impress me. I’m just picky, though.

Hmm, this was a bit longer than intended, but I think that’s all the excitement for the moment. Apart from the motor, but we’ve already covered that. I’m currently trying to come up with a name for it. Ritchie is the best (read: only) suggestion so far, but I’m not keen.

Another busy weekend looms. No football for me, as I’m off to New Deer for the Wizard Festival, where I’ll see my good friends Proud Mary. Nice one.

Ooh, and now I can update from t’iPhone app!