Hi Apple,

I sent my iPad to you to fix the microphone. You said it was absolutely fine and sent it back to me. It’s not OK, have a listen to this!

Please actually have a go at fixing it this time, rather than taking one look and popping it back in the post. Thanks.

Hello!

My good lady wife, Jo is preggers! Up the duff! Avec le bun dans le four! In the family way!

Yes, we’re having a baby. It’s rather exciting, you know.

And no, we won’t be changing our facebook profile pictures to be pics of the scan/child. Because we will still have faces, you know?

Thanks for the lovely messages from everyone who’s said nice things about it all so far

Sean & Jo x

Hello. Happy new year. Do we still say that? Sure, why not. It’s the first blog post of the year after all.

Now, we’re not far into this year, and I’m already £2.85 worse off. Why is this? Interest rates? VAT? Inflation?

No. Stupid Tax. In short “Stupid Tax” is the tax you pay when you do something a bit stupid. In this case, I left my train pass at home last friday, so that was £2.85 Stupid Tax to buy a day return. Not the biggest Stupid Tax I’ve paid, but a totally avoidable payment.

Ever drunkenly broken one of your wineglasses? That’s a Stupid Tax of a couple of quid. Forgotten to change out of your decent pair of jeans when decorating? Ouch, that can be a fair bit of Stupid Tax on a new pair. Bought something that needs batteries, bought the batteries, then realised it came with batteries anyway? Yep, that’s a couple of quid more.

Let a gym mebership go on for 6 months, unused? Put some food in the fridge and let it go past the use-by date? You just paid some stupid tax, retrospectively.

We’ve all paid it at some point in our lives. On the plus side, it means we spend more.

Maybe what we really need to save the economy is more people being really *REALLY* stupid.

This month we’re joined by the lovely gents from Broken Buttons and the Wool City Folk Club Band!

They’re both playing Milo on Sep 15th, so if you like what you hear, get down there from 8 for our first birthday bash!

Don’t forget to Subscribe in iTunes if you want to get them automagically delivered.

Happy Friday!

The other day I posted the video for the excellent “Behind the Door” from Leeds-based folkster Gary Stewart’s new album, “Boy Cries Wolf”.

He’s a busy lad, our Gary, and quite disgustingly talented at all sorts of musical endeavours… not least drumming, which he does for Leeds band Hope and Social.

I stumbled onto Emily French’s blog the other day, and spotted something I knew had taken place, but had no idea was released – and SO GOOD.

So, here’s a video for Hope & Social, which should fill you with a warm Friday fuzzy feeling.