My milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard.

Over the last three months, my hands have begun to shake quite badly.

The most popular opinion is that either I drink too much coffee or not enough. This is a shame because about four years ago I weaned myself off both coffee and tea and moved to water. It wasn't easy but it lasted for a good couple of years until I began subconciously drifting into random Starbucks and so the habit began once more.

Alternatively, I suppose my nerves may be shot away or I have something wrong with me that I don't want to know about. I'm going to commit to the coffee explanation and come Monday, start weaning myself off it again. It will be tough but not as tough as the cigarettes that I really need to walk away from.

It's funny how a good scare - like the chest pains earlier in the year - can be forgotten so quickly. When the scare was over, I rather easily drifted into all the same habits that I was doing before. Am I alone in this behaviour? No, of course I'm not but the fact that I know I am performing the behaviour means I should address it. Death tends to come on swift wings these days and I have far too many things still to achieve to be reduced to ash just yet.

All of which reminds me - whatever happened to the Bullworker? (There is a train of thought here but it's more fun to leave it out). For those of you who are devoid of culture, the Bullworker was a tube of metal about three feet long that had eleasticised wire cables down either side and Hulk type green handles at either end. You could push it, pull it, stretch it - and it even had - if memory serves correctly - a plastic scale on it in order to measure your progress. It was basically the seventies version of a home gym. With Christmas fast approaching, I thought I might try and find one in good condition for Mr Downes. My mum still has my old mans in a cupboard but it appears to have gone rusty from being left on a shelf in the garage for the best part of 30 years.

Anyway, time to start pulliing my top ten album list together of 2009. That will be hard. Much easier will be the ten best albums of the decade... at least I think it will be. I might have to change the rules a bit and make it 20. All will be posted here to argue the crap out of it...