I don’t remember noticing it before so perhaps it’s a new thing; but on the way into the gym this evening I noticed a sign posted giving details of the last race of the day. This was handy as before I arrived I hadn’t, once again, realised that it was a race-day; so the opportunity to ensure I got out before the race going hordes was a welcome one.

You’d think the machinery would be a sufficient form of torture at the gym, but tonight the place found a new way; Meat. I was plodding away on the cross-trek gazing out of the window across the racecourse when I saw people gathering below. What I hadn’t noticed was that there was a barbecue and the gathering of people we carrying platters of steaks, sausages and burgers. The most chef-like member of the group then proceeded to place all the meat onto the grill and within seconds the minute window vents had sucked up the cooking odour and the smell of cooking meat filled my nostrils. So before very long I’m quite sure I was producing even more saliva than I was sweat and the urge to knock the whole exercising thing on the head and go off in search of a large lump of cow was barely containable. However I’m pleased to say I did complete my set and resisted the urge to seek animal protein.

Tonight I was in Reading to see Mark Thomas in his “It’s the stupid economy!” show. I have to say from the outset I was a little surprised as the preamble about the show I’d seen suggested, as did the title, that the show would be about the economy. I suspect however that his original plans had been somewhat overtaken by events as the MP’s expenses story broke and relegated bankers to second-class villains.

The first half of the show was a combination of various recent anecdotes and a discussion of some of the manifesto ideas produced so far in the run of the show. Unfortunately several of the pieces had been published in the Guardian so I’d already heard them, although it was still interesting to hear them delivered by him.

The second half was a discussion of the ideas put forward by the audience. Mark did a fairly good job of adding some comedy value to the more serious suggestions and extracting humour from the more obviously amusing ones. However I must question, and with full awareness of the irony, the legitimacy of the voting process. Firstly Mark was fully in control of making the shortlist, and then when the ideas were whittled down it was done on the basis of the volume of the audiences vocal responses. I question whether his interpretation of which response was louder was accurate.

But then it’s said it is better to have a benevolent dictator than a corrupt democracy anyway, perhaps we were witnessing a proof of concept!?

As an aside, I must say I was a little disappointed as the show didn’t have the thematic narrative that his earlier works have had, it felt a lot more disjointed. He didn’t seem to have the same passion as he had when a single issue is involved.

It’s more than a little ironic that the day the government announce a further watering down of the ID card scheme, I too am left pondering the meaning of identity.

The strictures of modern society make us all somewhat identikit humans; we consume media, we consume food, we work, we socialise, we are all part of one big somewhat dull venn diagram in which we exist in the intersection with 100’s if not 100,000’s of others. Our mixture of hobbies and interests, views and opinions don’t even come close to making us unique among 6,700,000,000 others.

We aren’t anywhere as unique as we think we are, and frankly that’s quite depressing. Obviously there are stand-out individuals, defined either by their actions or their achievements but the chance that we may be one of those is slim.

Given that our very existence is mostly the result of the swirling randomness logic would dictate that uniqueness be a likely outcome and so it might be without modern society and culture. However within those confines while our fingerprints might make us unique, they have nothing whatsoever to do with who we are. Who we are is an at times unappealing homogenous goop, a blend of those around us; a mixture of nature and nurture. We are light years away from being a society free from its biological destiny to be simple conveyors of DNA and creators of soil.

It seems like everyone has been to Glastonbury this year. As next year is the 40th anniversary, I wonder if I should try to attend? Having never done the whole festival experience in my younger days I don’t know if throwing myself into the whole canvas and mud extravaganza would be beneficial. On the other hand would some form of premium accommodation be entirely missing the point?

Given I’m still in two minds about most live music, perhaps a more gentle introduction to the genre would be in order. There’s sure to be plenty available to audition this summer, maybe I’ll make the effort this year.

So we get a few days of heat and the nanny state, sorry government swing into full on alert mode. We now have Heatwave alert levels a sort of DefCon for the sun. Can anyone really not know how to cope with the heat?

Well I know how to cope with the sun, so I sat in the garden in the shade and caught up on a backlog of podcasts, accompanied by a large volume of orange juice and ice.

With wall-to-wall Michael Jackson coverage I can’t really avoid mentioning it. I first heard the news via Twitter, and was I must admit sceptical initially but within a couple of hours the major news organisations were reporting it.

I’d love to know what rules are in place to decide on the level of importance of various news events. Some events such as the terrorist attacks on the world trade centre interrupted normal programmes, whereas the death of Farrah Fawcett earlier in the day only warranted a mention on the scheduled news programme. Michael Jackson on the other hand merited a newsflash inserted between QuestionTime and This Week. I’d love to have been at the BBC meeting that drew up that flow chart!

It’s just a pity that all the publicity around his death won’t benefit him; top 16 best selling CD’s on Amazon, top 4 DVD’s, top 10 best sellers at HMV and all out of stock. Someone is certainly going to make a pile of money from his undoubted talent.

After last Fridays evening of drunken debauchery this one was rather sober by comparison both literally and figuratively. Actually I think for dramatic effect I might be somewhat talking up last Friday. Anyhow, I spent the evening regressing into childhood via the medium of Lego and watching the BBC’s excellent Glastonbury coverage with the amp cranked up and the air conditioning set to icy; bliss.