The ramblings of Keane Ingram

Another month goes by without an update. I guess after spending all day using a PC I don't want to sit down with one in the evenings, especially now I can just mess about with a smartphone or tablet.

The good news from the start of the month is that we got Glastonbury tickets! It was as stressful as ever with multiple screens not even able to connect to the server, let alone getting to the holding page. We got through at 9.24 only for the page to crash halfway through the process, but luckily we had another device at the ticket page so we were successful. Nine minutes later they were all gone. I look forward to seeing the rumours for the line-up!

I took Nicky to see Southend United play against AFC Wimbledon. It was our first visit to Roots Hall for a while and I can't see us going back for a while - it was simply dreadful. They were 2-0 down in 10 minutes and barely any of the Southend players (Elvis Bwomono being a notable exception) seeming that interested. It was 4-1 at full time. I don't see how Sol Campbell will make any difference - he might fancy playing himself given how bad the defence was!

The long and nervous wait for the 11+ results ended successfully! I didn't get any sleep the night before, I kept refreshing the page in case the results were put online early. In the end they were available at 8.30am, thankfully just before Nicky went to school. He scored 325 with an in-catchment pass mark of 303, he did brilliantly in the maths. Now we just need to wait until March to hope he has a place at his preferred school - we had a look around last week and I think he'll love it there.

I went to see Melt-Banana in Camden with a friend, we caught up with an old friend from university which was great as we hadn't seen him for a while. The support act were Deaf Kids who were... interesting. The singer didn't sing so much as groan into a microphone and then play with effects. It was very loud! The drummer was brilliant, I have no idea how he could play so energetically for so long.

I had listened to a few Melt-Banana albums but was a little unsure about what to expect. In the end though I really liked it, I recognised a few songs and the overall sound was great. I loved the way the singer politely said "thank you" after every song.

The venue (Dingwalls) has various tiers heading away from the stage, so unless you're at the front of the tier your view is a little impeded. It's probably the first time where I've had someone taller than me in front of me - usually I'm fine but this time I had to keep looking around the man in front.

I went with Nicky to see the Six Day Cycling at the Lee Valley velodrome. We've been for four years now and have enjoyed it each time, although there were some complaints this time which I'll talk about on my cycling website.