Thursday, December 10, 2009

WH responds to BZ

BZ is in the know, she knows what do to, she makes us tick and sometimes her methods confuse the hell out of me. Sometimes I blow a fuse, I think she finds it amusing. I hope you do to. If not, please go to hell. Bring me back a six pack of mid strength, low carb beer. You can't have any.

Ok. I don't get it. I read and just thought what the fuck.I have no idea how to get people to blog or mini blog about us. You'd think good music and a great live show would be enough. Obviously we suck.Or need to play shit soft rock indie electro and have banal lyrics and wear tsubi jeans and fuck boys and girls and have rich parents but still drink cask wine even though our rent is paid and we've deferred uni to start a shoegaze band but then again I'll do it next week.There.That's my mini blog.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Decemberists

Well, it been a darn long time since I got up on this and I wish that I could say I had an excuse, but I don't. Put it down to rudeness on my part. I've been a very rude man.
We've been in the studio and it drags on like a great queen in 12" heels with a boa constrictor slithering on fake breasts while we play YMCA at an outrageous volume - trust me, it very well could happen after some of the conversations I've been having with Ol' Blacktooth.
Now, don't think we're one note guys, we aint just been in the studio with Mr D K Hammer, we been gigging with the likes of The Snowdroppers (actually, I think that we may be involved in a fairly serious cocktail war with them after the Lady Luck Weekend) and The Rumjacks - hopefully this continues into the new year.
We joined the Coopers choir to help out our favourite rock band in Sydney, you'll never guess who, well, you may if you listen to the drivel that I dribble when I'm six light beers and half a bottle of gin deep.
As far as the album goes, it really just expands like the story arc of an unorganized speculative fiction novelist. I wonder why that is. Cello, percusion, grunting gorilla sex parties, we captured it all and put it in a cage for your gawping amusement.
Hope to see yall at the Gaelic Theatre this weekend to help us round out a year of fire, flood, famine, blues, bums, box cutters and boxes of otherworldy nature.
Much love

WH.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

T-Shirt Sketch by Alice Amsel

Should be ready around abouts the time we hit Melbourne in October...

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Should You Fuck A Guitar?

Drums, well, Smokin' D finished up a while back, didn't he - and of course he celebrated as only the very young can (that means until the sun comes up and his mommy gets real worried).
Bass gone down like a man off a bridge and no shingles were ever gonna stop Mr. Fraidy Cat.
Long time in and Ol' Blacktooth has wrangled and strangled his guitars.
"You know Skyship, how it was kinda modern? Now it's old and dirty..." he said to me just earlier today and that warms my phlegm coated heart. For some reason, if I say I fucked up, it means bad, but if you fuck up a guitar, it's the best thing you could ever mention. And that is just what has happened.
This weekend, we're gonna have a picnic and play with snakes.
More soon.

WH

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Medicine Show. Rock Show. Other.

I got a job working for a medicine show this week, not a word of a lie there. I'll put the kazam back in your pants if you follow my drift. Mighty rough, rough, rugged nights ahead for us all and tonight is a schedule conference regarding the running of this here record making undertaking. Unfortunately, I think that I will be detained up on a soap box, learning how to cajole and flim flam - like I need any help with that.

Saturday afternoon will bring respite, albeit briefly. We hit the Annandale Hotel alongside a bunny warren of bands - including our fine, fine friends, Hell City Glamours and Run! Hide!.
We're on just before 5pm and there will be give aways not only of Skeleton Demos but also compilation CDs featuring tracks from the bands on the bill. Also, get your grub on beforehand, as there is a silver coin donation BBQ running before the bands start.

Monday, terrible Monday - young Smokin' D hits the kit for the first day of multi-tracking. If he doesn't get it done by Tuesday, huge serpents will devour our bankrolls.
But it won't come to this, of course.

Much Love

WH

Monday, August 24, 2009

Ol' Grizzler

I've been thinking about my beard; not just my beard, but beards & what they mean to the world.
There was a time when we had beards because we had nothing better to shave with than stone. It was cold and the wind whipped the chins of children, we grew beards and were warmer, in fact, it became a sign of adulthood and wisdom.
Ancient philosophers grew beards and it was part of their professional appearance. The knights Templar were charged to crop their hair short and never cut their beards as a sign of humility and lack of untowards physical vanity. Now, I shave my head for the sake of vanity and have a proud beard.
Vagrants and drifters have beards for a combination of reasons - lack of vanity, lack of a shaving kit, warmth, insanity - maybe they are time travelling philosophers of a classic age (or from some derilict paradise of a future).
How are we seen, men with beards? To shave or not to shave now, that is my question.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

THE BLUES MATTERS!

Hey yall!

Well, after heading out to the Baroque Bar in Katoomba and doin' it with The Snowdroppers, we now have a new favourite venue and favourite band.
Usually, I would never admit that a band is as great live as us. The Snowdroppers are better.
Also, those mountain folk can really boogie. Hell, I felt bad being on stage instead of with the people.
As far as most arousing frontmen go, Snowdroppers really have it down. He is the kinda man you wanna meet in a dark alley with a soft matress at the end. Just sayin' is all.

Now, we hit the studio to multi-track the album on the 31st, the night after Blood,Sweat & Beers at the Annandale in Sydney - get on down if you wanna check out us and our buddies Hell City Glamour and Run! Hide! as well as a cavalcade of other quality acts from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Now, i'm off to do some very unpleasant things.
Wish me well.
Your pal,

WH

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Shakin' Out Your Granddaughter's Bones


Allo, gentlefolk...

Tomorrow the beginning ends, we head over to E Street(?) studios and lay out the whole album live. One day to do it all - sure, we'll be back at BJB and Dave Hammer's joint starting on the 31st, but tomorrow is the end of the demoing and pre-production. We have re-written the songs so many times that I'm having more trouble than usual keeping my story straight - those of you who picked up Skeleton Demos will have some rare stuff on your hands, as those tracks are remarkably different as of now... of you would still like a copy, all you gotta do is ask, or come to a show (and ask, talk to the red headed hussy at our merch table, she is fast).
We got shows on the 15th in Katoomba and the 29th in Annandale. Come get down.
Oh, check this out, more from dear little Alice AKA Mooju AKA Ms. Poppyfield

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I Told Him Not To Smoke So He Chewed Off My Arms

Hammertime

Rightio.

Had my last vocal pre-produciton with Mr Hammer yessaday. Went well, the best so far most likely. Of course, we've changed and re-written everything to the point of nausea. August 13, we hit the studio for a live run through and recording before multi-tracking starts later in the month. We have a couple of good shows coming up so check the Myspace if you're out in the mountains or headed to the city.
Much love

WH

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Friday, July 17, 2009

From The New Mayor Of Summer Hill

Dear friends,

After a month of searching (and a couple of months abusing Ol' Liquorice Lover's hospitality), Jazz Hat and I have found a new residence.
Grand times ahead, as we create bluesiest, prowler friendly, lover love love residence in Sydney.
Stop by if you're in the neighbourhood - bring wine.

In other news, tonight is the final night of recording for Dean's Surprise Wasp EP - they are bringing in cheerleaders, a known mormon and possible liars to round things out. I cannot begin to tell you how good this little bastard will be - with one David Hammer riding high on things, you really can't go wrong.

Next week, we do the local bang bang boogie at The Sandringham Hotel in Newtown, so come get down and welcome me back to the neighbourhood - I now have an official capacity.

Much Love

WH

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Late Night Boogaloo

12:27am, Tuesday.
Monday : Black Books, Entourage, JT Leroy, long walk in the night air, aggressive old cat and a whole lot of James Booker and New Wave.
Sunday: Forgot to book the studio. Bad man. Writing session in 'my room'. Fox Queen is saved, Granpappy got the porch blues. Young Podmore off to Newcastle with the Surprise Wasp fellows. Took a bottle of Black Tooth Spritz out for a walk in the night air and worked over some changes with Mr. Marks until we were happy. Studied flesh eating, urine drinking religious sects. Possibly lost my sparrow (which I think may have died years ago anyways).
Saturday: House hunting with Jazz Hat. Meeting with Ms. Alice Amsel re: album art and a thorough explanation as to what I am actually raving about all the time - as it turns out it is this: abortion, eating wolves/cellists, string theory, corporal punishment in a mean and medieval sense, weird love triangles, liars, liars and more liars. Headed home with The Black Tooth Spritz ready to ride and watched films with Mr. Marks and Ms. Bell (unless the spritz destroyed my brain, it was Blindess, Footloose, Monster Squad and Dick Tracy). Possibly should be banned from the internet after four or more drinks.
Friday: Dinner and drinks (or just drinks) with Eliot Prob, KL Conroy, Mr. Marks, Jazz Hat and an assorted cast of ne'er do wells. Bailed early due to ghost related issues. Apparently, things got a little out of hand after I left and many of my bossom chums felt worse for wear the next day. Good times.
Thursday: Rehearsal - went over time, but we really got Pom Pom Laroux in a good position: She is beautiful.
Wednesday: Vocal pre-production with Hammer. Things are developing nicely and each song is stronger than the preceding track. Two more to go and then I'll do it all again.

Future: We have a full day of pre-production on August 13.
We hit BJB to track drums on August 31 - the real thing.
Film clip production is underway.
We have began writing album number two - expect even more obtuse references to French folklore, Japanese mythology and the nature of a certain time travelling wolf.

Much Love

WH

Monday, July 6, 2009

Monday shouldn't hold this kind of terror -I can work at home (or at least at Lachlan's house) with a greyish tom cat on my lap, listening to The Atomic Fireballs, making decent dollars per word.
I'm nearly sticky and ill with fear. What the hell was that? A weekend? Certainly not in any human sense of the word. Sure, there was some good ol' fashioned fun and productivity (we had a meeting with Nicole BZ and Dave Hammer re: album schedule... things are moving very quickly now), but there was a definite undertone of over the top savagery and teenage lust moving through everything.
Starting Thursday, it was a long haul through the deepest of holes, Dean's other band, Surprise Wasp gave us all something to dance to and think about and the only reason I actually went home at all was due to Lachlan's sage advice - "You aren't going to get sex here, come home."
Thankfully, even in the throws of rampant deviant behaviour, I listend to that advice and probably saved quite a bit of money, if not dignity.
Friday was to be quiet, but my old, dear friend Moon Head invited me out for a few quiet drinks with her and Mr. Springtime. I think that I possibly consumed two buckets of wine and several cocktails.
Saturday saw me and Black Omar aka Jazz Hat out and about, both nursing serious hangovers but intent on finding a new place of residence. After a whole lot of love and junk, we stopped in at a nice little place for an eye opener and killed time in a guitar store, where Black Omar got some serious grooves going - look out for The Walking Pace, coming to a dive near you.
When the house hunt was over for the afternoon, we connected with Mr. Green and began the slow crawl back into depravity, watching over 3 hours of Michael Jackson footage but listening to rough and ready music, discussing the nature of women musicians; not in any mean or sexist way, but merely as a way to ignore whatever other unclean thoughts we may have garnered.
Out on the streets and all over the town we spent our money and reason, encountering such fine fellows as Eliot Prob, Mr. Tooth, KL Conroy and an assorted cast of drunks, jerks, swell cats and bonafide crazies.
Sunday morning saw me stumbling in after sun up and out of bed two hours later. Business as ususal.
No real gaps, just the feeling that maybe the latent creep in my brain has rose from it's reptile crouch and taken over the furry parts of my thought process.

This week in Gay Paris: Film Clip production meeting part 105, Vocal Pre-Production w/Dave Hammer part 2, Thursday night rehearsal, Sunday morning rehearsal, house hunting part 3, writing about Fox Queens and Granpappy's Blues.

Much Love

WH

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Gay Parisian Update Super Special

Well, I guess that it has been quite some time since I turned my hand to filling yall in on what's been going on out in the woods, so now is just about as fine as any other moment to get down on the earth and rub your ears on the leaves til you hear the hooves and such, they get closer, you know?

We've had a fairly good run of shows lately, sharing the stage with bands that turned out not only good players, but sweet people to boot (Hell City Glamours, we're looking really hard at you at this point. So good, so nice, so damn attractive).

After the show on the weekend (The Vaudevillains and Captain Reckless & The Lost Souls), I dare say that we were all feeling a little under the weather (for me it was thunderheads and St. Elmo's Fire wrapped around my winter cap) - it doesn't matter how late you stay out, nor even how many days, you'll never make a connection in those kind of conditions. Possibly I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I've met a wolf from the future, after all.

Preparations for a filmclip are under way, taking direction from our long time buddy and documentor, Lehi Curtis ( a man who has been to Glitter Canyon, if you must know) and artist Alice Amsel ( to be quite honest, the three of us have started a 'side project', which will take some time to get going, but expect a blues/soul hybrid).

Young Fraiddy Cat Podmore has been doing vocals for his other band, Suprise Wasp's EP with Dave Hammer at the helm - think punk rock being raped by a red tornado. You can catch Podmore and his merry gents at Spectrum on Thursday July 2nd along with our old stampin' grounds stampin' buddies Hospital The Musical and This City Sunrise.

We head into the studio ourselves in August, once again, Dave Hammer will be producing. The final two tracks (My First Wife, She Was A Fox Queen and Granpappy's Porch Sittin' Blues) should be finished in the next week or so - Hell, we've even began writing for album number two (remember, I've met the Future Wolf).

Prior to the recording process we have a lil' shindig at The Sandringham in Newtown (let me tell you, I've never felt so lucky to be in the Innerwest, after nearly a year away in the North, any chance to hang out in Newtown is a blessing to me). Rockin' it with us will be Grand Fatal, Black Level Embassy and Nunchukka Superfly.

Around the time of our recording, we have a support show for The Snowdroppers, out at Katoomba - and once again, that's somewhere I wanna hang. The mountain air will do my soul a world of good. After that, it's a mini-festival at The Annandale with bands such as Hell City Glamours, La Mancha Negra and Run! Hide! This should be a real special event, people, so bring your loved ones (I will likely try make love to them, a beautiful sight, if you've never witnessed me in the throws of passion).

In September, there will be a run of shows with Hell City Glamours, likely around Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle - though don't quote me on this and hopefully we will be expanding the list of citites that this rock n' roll adventure encompasses.

October most assuredly see's us head back to Melbourne for the first time since our death defying escape in February - we have a couple of cool shows booked as well as Fermez La Bouche Festival. More details as soon as I get the OK to say OK.

That's about all I know for now and I'll try keep yall up to date.
Stay special and loved, yall.

WH

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Magic Of Lies

You know how Christianity was just taken from Sumerian king making rituals and stuff? Philtered through the Egyptians, the concept of Ma'at - being good because it's good. It is the natural way (slightly different from karma, but same end result, one would think). Why aren't we making myths anymore? Oh, i know that we have stuff like the Yeti and the Jersey Devil and Scientology; i want people going out into the desert and talking to the bones of a mammoth and then they drag it bag naked and carry it around on a silver pole.
I want magic and wonder. I love that i don't have polio and the ease that i can read lies about celebrities and private citizens alike on the internet - just wish that there was more mystery in the world.
So take a page from my book: tell someone a lie. A big,outrageous lie.
I'm not telling you to cheat on your loved one, nor steal nor cheat at cards (you sly bastards).
Tell someone you saw a dog on it's hindlegs dancing the hooch with a snake. Keep a box of coins under your bed and insist that every night they multiply. Who knows, something may catch on and in 2000 more years, you could have been the beginning of something very special. Don't do it for money or influence. Do it to add mystery to a world where you can use googlemaps and wikipedia to find out anything with the dance of your fingers.
Don't lie about wolves though.
I'm sure you don't need that warning.
Much Love
WH, a liar and your friend.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Free Download of Deadrie's Blues

lastfm http://www.last.fm/music/Gay+Paris/Gay+Paris+Demo+08
myspace www.myspace.com/gayparismusic
triplejunearthed www.triplejunearthed.com/gayparis


Deadrie Fell's Dog Park Blues is now out for free download.
We're getting back to demoing in early May and will get the tracks up as soon as we can.
Much Love

WH

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Black Tooth Supper Club

I was away from the two noodle meals per day diet for quite some time. Honestly, I never thought that I would return to it; and I never wanted to. It's terrible for a person, each 'meal' has enough saturated fat in it to fulfil half your daily need for fat intake, that probaly isn't healthy. For some reason, this acts as a laxative also and I spend a ghastly amount of time in the WC, much like after an extended bout with cheap wine, yet without the vague sense of guilt and adventure.
Let me tell you, friends, find something else, if you're considering skimping on your food budget for whatever reason - our own Fraidy Cat Podmore is known to devour two or three huge bowls of flavourless pasta in one sitting - now that's the stuff that sticks to your ribs, though you'd never tell from his waifish figure.
Smokin' D would likely disapprove of all this; he is known throughout his social circle as a culinary wizard of sorts, just try his blue berry, haloumi and red wine salad (if you are ever lucky enough to gain an invitation to his table).
Outside of scrimping and saving, malaise and rampant gastronomic snobbery, you'd find Ol' Black Tooth Marks, that's a fellow who knows where to draw the line; a touch of class, a touch of convenience. Take it from me, he eats his fill with his mind on the metabolism; clever as usual.
Now, as I take my leave of yall, I'm off to consume inordinate amounts of caffeine and wonder why sleep is still treating me like a harlot with no bust.

Yours in pointless rambling

WH

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Oneiric? Future? Wolf?

Good morning,
It feels as late afternoon; to stay my course, I have been up for far too long (though to play fair, I did manage to wrangle a heady thirteen hour snooze last I slept thanks to my ol' buddy dolased, so what else other than a thirty-forty hour jaunt through a 'day'?) and am ready to divulge information that many of you will find to be usless, unhelpful or possibly distasteful. I say possibly as I have no idea where this is going.

To start with, I have recently discovered that I have the ability to discern the future through dreams. On my recent visits to a hosptial, I realized that I had dreamt of this place several months ago, when I was both unaware of the existence of this complex and the fact that I would be visiting it. Now, some may say that you've seen one hospital and you've seen them all, but to that I declaim "silence, knave!", for not only did I evision oneiric depictions of the interior, but also the bus stops (strangely, there were no buses running), the cafe' across the road and the various gardens about the exterior.
Now, to make no fine point on this, with these abilities to dwell on, it makes me wonder just how long it is until the Future Wolf actually does show up at a car window and drag me off into a bed of rose bushes while chamber music plays in the distance? When will my brothers ride their bicycles so fast at barb wire fencing so fast that they shoot through without flesh and ride on as skeletons? When will I enter the cornfield after running all night from a house with eyes, only to meet a leper and flee the sunrise lest I become him? Old Bonesy lived in a pumpkin patch and had yellow eyes, he had a fiddle that I never heard but still think about twenty years on, especially when I'm far from home. I remember the dog with the man head that was running up and down a hall while Jesus watched and there was a cupboard full of dead skin masks with a serving boy ready to help you try them on. Glowing men at the window rode another dog, about eight feet tall on his hind legs, he left red lines taller than those of my hound (this one got me falling out of a top bunk and I cut my back up on a tall glass of water). Not to mention all the strange sex and violence and chronological difficulties. Oh; and the underground gardens that glow and have bubbling pits and the walls are all novels.

But until that all come to pass, we have just one more show coming up before we take a month off to finish up our writing for the album and getting together a demo for yall; then I think we head to Brisbane for a couple of shows and then back to Wollongong and Sydney and then likely Melbourne and so on...

Well, I'm not exhausted but I'm sure your patience must be
hope to catch yall around and about at night

much love
W.H.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Weekend Wrap Up & Vague Rant

Well it's Monday and sleep is treating me like a rabid knife salesman gone door to door in electric carver land (as usual).

To pass the time and alleviate the 6am no slumber ever blues, let me say a little about the weekend.

It was largely fantastic. Run! Hide! are swell, Ripping Dylans are swell - they positively sweat swellness! And big love to the two handsome fellows who went in for a little man on man on man lip action - ladies, fear not, I've got your love needs covered at the next show (don't be bashful).

Thankyou to everyone who came out to see us at The Annandale - there was something special about that show and I think that the other guys felt it too - we have hit our stride and anyone who missed out, well, plenty more where that came from!
Now,if only I hadn't been so excited by these developments and left the consumption of B/W/S to a moderate and sanity preserving level - I possibly commited a wide array of internet crimes while drunk when i arrived home many hours later; unfortunately there was a bottle of rose' waiting for me, so the situation went fairly pear shaped.

On a down note, public transport continues to be utilized by a far worse class of drunk than myself - what is it about people that lends them the notion that they have the right to invade the personal space of others? I understand that not everyone goes in for my flash and dazzle sense of style, but to be fair, I've never tried to rough someone up for wearing brown leather shoes with blue jeans! Play nice, fellows, for tis the children that shall suffer!

Now, back to scrabble and single player RPGs and seriously avoiding any work on the novel that should be consuming my life but for now is merely a distraction from cleaning animal waste.

Yours in Joy, Genius and Hilarity

W.H


On a down

Friday, March 6, 2009

Early Friday morning for no reason

Terrible long nights as usual, made worse by the rabbit that has taken over my living room. Never pull a hare from the jaws of a wolf, as once you wash him down, wily brown hare is just a fat white jack rabbit, well a dwarf lop with the idea that he is some kind of king rather than a stage prop.
Today shall bring little reprieve, just more mindless chatter, lucky for the phone or i'd even have to give 'em a taste of the ol' black tooth spritz grin; needless to say, I'm well off the spritz, no matter what you may hear.
Thankfully, Saturday is looking up and up and up and if you're in dirty little Sydney town, look us up at The Annandale Hotel around 9:30pm...
Much love
W.H

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Too much man, too much too much...

Hello, chums...

Now, I've been out for the better part of the last week perusing the 'best' that the 'alternative underground' has to offer, rock wise.
The best isn't good enough.
Why is it that every fat, lazy front person (even if they're not fat, I'll remember them as being spiritually obese, wheezing through the ether) has to shout out 'Sydney!' between or even during songs? Why are encores the status quo? When you can't get the first forty five minutes right, does it not seem likely that the next fifteen minutes are going to dig you deeper into a hole that will soon be filled with praise from jerks who love you for your spiffy haircut and will forget your music the next time a sparkling ball of yarn rolls past?
Hell, I'm not just peeved with the performance angle, but as a mouthpiece for your best buddies (or business partners, I am not presuming that all bands operate under the blanket of love that we do - it's cuddles and red wine every evening), shouldn't these people be more careful about the neo-racist, homophobic tripe that they spout? Unless of course it turns out that each and every member of the band in question is an unrepentant bigot in which case, please confine your activites to internet chat rooms and Roman spas with your idiot friends.
Now, I understand that their is a market for bland and predictable music and that often this kind of thing is a stepping stone to something more soul pleasing; but there are also those audience members who will never look to the left and realize that there is more out there than mind numbing hooks and a pre-prescribed set of 'dance' moves.
Thank Joy, Genius and Hilarity that we got out of that pile of dung with our minds and bodies intact.

Yours in Brotherly Love,
W.H Monks

P.S.

Dillinger Escape Plan ruined my soul in the most pleasant way and Jaguar Love can play a house party in my forest shack any night of the week.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Some more Dean

Dean and Lehi didn't sleep last night.. and at about 4pm on the drive home it took it's toll.

Mainly on Dean:

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Melbourne

We made it to Melbourne. It's the hottest place on the planet at the moment. We've enjoyed numerous beers, food and swims in pools. We almost ran out of petrol on the way here. It was a close one.

The Army Ant dudes are awesome. So are Nicole and Kimba.

We're about to go to the Pony and load in for tonights show, which will be radical.

And there are a bunch of hilarious dean moments to be uploaded when we get the chance.
Just thought i'd come into the internet cafe to try and escape the heat!

Hope no one else is in such a hot place right now.
Much love,
Smokin D and the gays

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Well, cursed above and below the fairground mongrels have let it run to this and again, we get more of ol' Fraidy Cat Podmore, always more wild and shirtless than the last you saw him.
Enjoy.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen - and what a foul day it is! Surely the mercury climbs towards thirty degrees C even as I ponder an eye opener just to get things moving before the lizards on the back porch make any serious decisions about subjugating their current oppressors (if you've seen the rat palace, then you'd know what I mean; remember that old nursery rhyme, the one that started with the line 'Old rat king, sharper than a diamond ring'?).
Now, you've allowed me to become distracted, or possibly I should be blaming this ghastly heat.
On to the heart of the matter - we figured that you should see this, just to get your internal temperature to match what's going on outside.