My hosts, United provide me with 15 megabytes of advertising free webspace. However, there is nothing like a free lunch and there are several restrictions on my account. One such barrier is on bandwidth. I am only allow to have 100mb per month. This had never bothered me before, because I rarely outstretched the 70mb mark. However, I had some bad news on Thursday 29th January, I had exceeded my limit by 4.3mb. I didn’t think this was going to be a major problem and that my site would still remain live. I received an e-mail from the people behind United, a company called Portland, informing me of the situation and that I would need to upgrade my hosting package, or pay for additional bandwidth until the end of the month. I was not interested in either option. To my dismay, my site was now offline and a message declaring to the world of my situation. I swiftly searched the FAQ archives to discuss the severity of my fate and whether or not I had a chance of redemption. I was in lucky. The server is reset on the first of every month at 3am, re-issuing me with 100mb of bandwidth and my site would return to it’s rightful place in cyberspace. I was unhappy with the situation, very unhappy. I assumed that now that my site was no longer available, I could not incur any further excessive bandwidth use. I was wrong. This afternoon, I received yet another e-mail from Portland. It was 3pm and in 12 hours time, my site would be back up. I had exceeded my bandwidth limit for the month, it was now up to 109.91mb. In an attempt to counteract this, I changed the redirection of my URL (www.t-e-g.co.uk) to my University site, in order to stop any further escalation of the problem. I remembered on the Portal Forum, that if my excessive bandwidth reached or breached 10% of my total allowance, that is 10mb, I would be forced into purchasing enhanced hosting. Refusal to do so, would result in my site being removed and a ban, to stop me creating a site again. Not good news at all. However, I feel that I have done extremely well in my crisis management. To stop such an event happening again, I am going to ban myself from visiting my site in the future. I have continual pronounced that my website has found a truly international audience. For some, this would be very hard to believe. Of course, the world we be a much duller place, if there were not the realists among you. Those willing to probe further and ask the difficult questions in order to discover the truth. For all of you, here is the evidence you have been looking for. I am not sure how or why the popularity of my site had exploded to the far corners of the globe. My own explanation is my recent listings in blog directories. Any other explanation, no matter how far fetched or unbelievable, I will let you seek in your own time. If you have any news which may enlighten me, please get in touch.

What a week! For once you realise the importance of the saying, “A Week Is A Long Time In Politics”. For the government to win, a crucial vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday 27th, and then be exonerated in the Hutton Report in such a fashion that they prove themselves whiter than white, really beggars belief. At times I do wonder, if it is life or just a play. For Alistair Campbell to achieve all his aims within the space of 18 years, shows the importance, one man can have within the corridors of power. I was deeply saddened by the departure of the BBC Director General, Greg Dyke. I have been a longtime admirer of his, and the admirable ways in which he has transformed the BBC into a public service broadcaster that is the envy of many other media corporations around the world. The resignation of Gavin Davis, was not unexpected and I was glad to see the hierarchy within taking such a step. Greg didn’t not have to go. He didn’t deserve to go. In an act of irony or perhaps sheer misfortune for the BBC. After Question Time and This Week on Thursday evening, the name of the film summed up everything for me. Game Of Vultures, I wonder if TB had the time to enjoy the entertainment? I am not alone in having such feelings for the man at the top. If the scenes on Thursday afternoon are to believed, Dyke has created more bitterness or the government than ever before. His staff make their feelings quite clear in black and white. Can it be, that we live in a world, where justice prevails from the hands of not judges and juries but a ‘director of communication’? I do realise that we live in a media age, and image is everything? But can image ever take the place of substance and the truth? Maybe not, but there are those who can cleverly manipulate the facts for their own ends. A truth can become an untruth. Innocent people become victims, and the power remains in the hands of those few, we once trusted. Not any more… This has been the first time that I have ever considered mentioning politics on my blog. I did not want to voice my views on several ongoing political sagas, including the second Gulf War. However, I just wanted to make my position clear. I am a life long Labour supporter, taking this political stance from my late Grandfather. It appears above that I have become very cynical of the government and the Labour party. I am not, at all. I am just disappointed for the way in which circumstances have panned out. Particularly for the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, for whom I have nothing but undying devotion. As the saying goes, “A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault ” We must admire someone for holding such conviction for their own principles and seeing them through to the end. That is why, I was for the war in Iraq. When you are aware of mass criminal activity by a tyrant dictator, the weaker man would do nothing. You deal with it. Yes people will die. Yes the cost will be immense. But the final outcome, won’t that be worth it? There is only so long you can wait and do nothing. For time waits for no man, whether righteous premier or murderous mogul. I just hope now that several obstacles have been removed, we will see a much more positive approach. The thought of Howard as Prime Minister, does little for my imagination. Nor will it for many others. The weather recently has been the talk on most people’s lips. Luckily, this year I was able to avoid some of the hazardous driving conditions which affected many motorists up and down the country. It is now I realize the truth, when the weather person says, “Please do not venture out, unless it is absolutely necessary.” Read my entry, from February 2003. You will note that I was on the M1 motorway for over 10 hours. I was grateful that I was not in those circumstances again this year. A person shows their true colours in the face of great adversary. That is when we are judged. So if a country is judged at the time of great need, your realize how pathetically we are prepared for a well advised snow shower in January. It took the lesson of last years chaos for the roads to be gritted with greater urgency and in great numbers, to make sure events did not repeat themselves. Perhaps we could learn from our European cousins, whom have great experience fighting such battles with the weather. So what could bring me greatest comfort, as the snow showered down in Leicester on Wednesday afternoon? It was the discovery of a new blog, dedicated to my team, the Gooners. It had been reported the record signing of Spaniard Reyes from Seville, to the tune of a staggering £17.4 million. This 20 year old must be something special. To find out more, and to keep up to date with ‘views’ from within and around Highbury, go to Arse Blog. What have I been listening to recently? Well I have had some time on my hands to finally get my mp3 album collection archived onto CD-Rw and organised. I am hoping to have time to update my Audio page tomorrow. In terms of music I have been listening to, well let me take you on a journey. You must have seen the film Bend It Like Beckham, during it’s cinema release in April 2002. I did see the film at the cinema, but towards the end of it’s screening schedule. A highly recommended movie, purely for it’s feel good factor and the main character overcoming several barriers to her dream. Something we indeed can all relate to. During the film, there is a scene with Pinky and her financé Teetu (played magnificently by Kulvinder Ghir) are in her Nissan Micra. The action (or lack of visible action) is not what I wish to draw your attention to. It was the song being played. The melody I instantly recognised, as “The Power Of Love” by Jennifer Rush, from 1985. One of my favourite love songs, if only for the soft voice of the artist and gentle soothing way the song is able to pull the very strings of your heart. The voice and lyrics were foreign to me. It was being sung in Hindi. Nothing new of course, I have already discussed the western influences musically on Bollywood cinema in July 2003. I purchased the DVD for my family as a Christmas gift in 2002. My sister, then subsequently went out to purchase the soundtrack. To my utter disappointment, although it contained several of the films songs, many were missing, including the Hindi, Power Of Love. I then began a brief but concise search in an attempt to discover, the artist behind the remake and if I would be able to obtain the song by some means. My success was short lived. Many other purchasers of the soundtrack had highlighted their bitterness at the missing song. Eventually, after several hours of searching, I discovered, the name of the artist of was Amar. Information on her was nonexistent. I therefore, gave up my pursuit of this song, seeing it very much as a lost cause. In was not until this week just past, that I re-lit the search light, this time in search of the definitive knowledge that would lead me to a year, an album, a successful artist and my song. I contacted a DJ at an Asian Digital Radio station. She was able to pour some much needed light on affairs and aid me in my search. Around 5pm, on Tuesday 27th, I received an e-mail I had been awaiting for almost two years. This was not to be my only good news that evening. The name of the song in Hindi was “Mohabbat Ka Rang”. Translated directly, would mean “Love’s Colour” or more succinctly, “The Colour Of Love”. A more fitting title, as I would discover later, is “The Glory Of Love”. On her drive time show, Kim Boss informed me that the song was from the album, “Mein Aur Tu”. Again, the translation into English, is “Me And You”. The DJ played the song, but I missed it, as I had turned off the live internet feed of Yaar Radio. Undeterred, I continued my search for more information. I recalled there was someone who could help me even further on this quest. My dear friend, Nehal who administers the site, My Sangeet. I explained to him what I need to know and his lightning response was to point me in the direction of several site. Oriental Tunes, which gives a brief synopsis of Amar and her music. He was also able to point me in the direction of several individuals who appeared to have the album in question from 1994, in their collection. The search continues. But do not fret, for the song was played for me on Thursday drive time and again on Friday drive time at 6.30pm. During the latter transmission, I encoded the live feed into MP3 format. Not ideal I know, as the quality does waver and is far from perfect. But if it lets me experience Amar and her Glory Of Love, there is little I can do but, sigh, fall into a daydream as I begin to learn to learn about “The Power Of Love”. This blog entry was written during the late final hours of January 2004 and early fresh hours of February 2004. For completeness it has been added as the first entry of February 2004.