Use this to submit forms by use of the enter key in ASP.NET forms.
It’s something that I use all of the time to eradicate textboxes that do not submit the form when enter is pressed. Useful for login forms more than anything else, who clicks on the Login button, really?

 <script type=”text/JavaScript”>
   //client side js
   function clickButton(e, buttonid)
   {
    var bt = document.getElementById(buttonid);
    if (typeof bt == ‘object’)
    {
     if(navigator.appName.indexOf(”Netscape”)>(-1))
     {
      if (e.keyCode == 13)
      {
       bt.click();
       return false;
      }
     }
     if (navigator.appName.indexOf(”Microsoft Internet Explorer”)>(-1))
     {
      if (event.keyCode == 13)
      {
       bt.click();
       return false;
      }
     }
    }
   }
  </script>

Packing wasn’t such a difficult job. In fact, my suitcase weighs less than it did when I went to Iceland for just three days in January.

The laborious train journey is made slightly easier by technological comforts, including in-seat power sockets, so saving power for the second leg of my 14 hour journey, the airport and plane, where I don’t believe that there are any.
The friend with whom I am staying, Branille, has asked that I bring some British staples, like Marmite, a request to which I have duly complied. Apparently you cannot get Marmite in the States? How depressing.
Misia has given me books to read, since I have read all of the half-way decent books that I own. These shall come in handy later.

• Everything is illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
• Ruby and the Stone Age Diet - Martin Millar
• Girlfriend in a coma – Douglas Coupland

A new compact camera has to be bought at some point. My Fuji F10 has broken, so I only have the SLR bridge, which is too big for taking casual shots in bars etc.

I leave for New York city tomorrow morning at 10am (BST). I haven’t packed yet and still have many loose ends to tie up. Not ideal.

But the important details have already been worked out, like where I will be watching the Cardiff City vs Barnsley FA Cup semi-final on Sunday; a sports bar in Midtown Manhattan called ‘Lansdowne Road‘ (for those who don’t know this is the home stadium of Irish Rugby). The USA don’t do real pints, they do 16oz (0.83 UK pint) beers normally, but this place serve in 20oz (1 UK pint) glasses, and they have Guinness, how exciting!

Itinerary for tomorrow, April 2nd, this is as much for my reference as anybody else;

09:55 – Train leaves Cardiff central train station bound for London Paddington.
12:00 – Arrive at London Paddington
12:25 – Heathrow Express (first class, don’t you know :p) leaves Paddington, stopping at T1,2,3 then on to T4.
12:55 – Arrive at Heathrow T4.
13:10 – (approx) Take hold luggage to the drop-zone for online check-in users.
??:?? – Head to departures and sit around for a few hours.
17:30 – Flight leaves. Boeing 747-400 British Airways flight BA0115 to New York JFK
—- 7hour 25minute flight, approx —-
19:35 (EST) – Arrive at New York JFK airport Terminal 7.
20:45 (EST, approx) – Finish security and baggage collection and head out into the wilderness.

The 5hour loss of time will cause me a few headaches, especially after a day of travelling, but I intend to head straight to a bar and have a few drinks to sort my head out.

I will be arriving back into the UK on Thursday 10/04 although I don’t intend to be out of contact during the trip. Mobile phone will be with me and I am taking my MacBook, with wi-fi being so widely available these days I shouldn’t have any issue getting online either. I will also try to Twitter as much as I can over the week (sign up to receive my updates to your mobile phone by text message, for free).

I have been adding to a Google Map a list of places that I need to go to during my visit, which will be my third to the city. I will not be following the tourist trail this time. Comedy clubs, restaurants, bakeries, shops, pizza party, gigs, book signings, rallies, clubs, sports bars, basketball games and hot-dog carts. I want to be a New Yorker for 7 days.

…since dreams of the Grand Slam were turned to reality for the Welsh Rugby squad and the Welsh people.

Unfortunately the weather was miserable and instead of getting great shots of people dancing in the streets I ended up drinking to celebrate, meaning no photographs as promised. But, flickR has some good specimens.

I wasn’t in Cardiff for the last grand slam, I was elsewhere, but, I have never experienced anything like THAT trying to get into a pub before. Queues for every single establishment, even Metro’s! Mostly to be blamed on the rain which was persistant all day, and now this week, clear skys and sunshine. Could we not have swapped?

It’s a big weekend for Welsh rugby. Wales could possibly walk away with the Grand Slam from the 6 Nations championship, for the second time in four years, a feat that could not have been expected this time twelve months ago.

Tension has reached a high this week, after defeating Ireland to win the Triple Crown last Saturday, fuelled by exasperatingly high press coverage. Every other news report on the television is about how we could do it, about the signifance of the team that is being fielded, about how we have fared at home in the past, et al.

What should be the biggest factor is that the French team who we are to face today is very strong right now and are also in the running to win the 6 Nations championship (to win it they would have to beat Wales by over 19 points).
Though the French team have shown that they do have weaknesses, when they lost to England three weeks ago on February 23rd, a team that Wales beat in the first week of this years competition.

It’s wet and windy in Cardiff today, a contrast to 2005 when the weather was so glorious that outside viewing was a must, and indeed was enjoyed by many at City Hall, where a big screen was erected, as it has been today, though I doubt there will be as big of a turn out there today because of the meteorological factors.

From experience of being out in the city during the last home matches played, I don’t believe that the weather will dampen any spirits and the party will go on as planned, although more enclosed than most would have hoped. If Wales can win today the celebrations will go on way into the night, especially since, with a 5pm kick-off, it is a late starting match.

My own personal plans are slightly different to usual. I take a deep breath before I say this, but;

I have decided not to drink.

Instead, I shall be out with friends at some of Cardiff’s well known pubs armed with my camera to catch the elation and commiserations of the Welsh and French fans. I will not be placing any bets on who will be elating and who will be commiserating, but you can take an educated guess at my allegiance.

Shots should be up on FlickR by tomorrow morning. Wish me and the Welsh rugby team good luck!

Whoever said booking a holiday was exciting or therapeutic? “Makes you happy … helps you to look forward to something” somebody said to me.

Perhaps if I didn’t have an excessive need to control every part of my trip it would be a more enjoyable experience.

When most people go away will go to a travel agent who gladly finds you a trip tailored to your needs and specifications. This makes things easy, they find you a hotel, book your flight, arrange transfers, most will even give you advice on what to do when you get out there.

This is where my downfall is. I like to book all the legs of my trips myself. Flights, hotels, transfers to and from airports. It makes me feel that I have some sort of mastery over my fortune/misfortune. My latest foray into travel is to go back to New York City. I’ve picked a date. Booked the flights. Now all that I need is a hotel.

I’ve already been to Manhattan twice, both times the hotels weren’t chosen by me and I wouldn’t choose them again.
The first one was ratty to say the least and at the second the walls were so thin that we were audience to everything going on in the next room, as well as being 8 blocks from the nearest subway station making movement around the city cumbersome and expensive because if you can’t be fucked to walk 8 blocks then the only other option is taxi.

I’ve been researching, thanks to TripAdvisor, and have narrowed my choices down to a few. Now I just need to choose between them.
Ideally I want to be as close to Tribeca, SoHo or Chelsea as possible, or at least lower midtown.
You will notice that most of the hotels I have put onto the map below are in midtown or near Times Square, this is because there is such a high concentration of places to stay around here, though, it’s all too touristy, not as much life or soul as somewhere around Washington Square or Bleeker Street.

In 22.96 square miles there are 340 hotels listed, ranging from upscale with 500 square feet of space per room and costing $5,000 a night right down to a bed for $30 a night at a hostel, so it’s not like there isn’t much to choose from. In fact, this is the entire problem.

View Larger Map

So, give me suggestions in the comments. You don’t want your favourite blogger sleeping out in the New York cold, do you?
Also, don’t be restricted to my choices. If you’ve stayed somewhere nice in New York city then let me know.

In case you hadn’t already read in the local rag, REM will be playing the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on August 25th 2008.

Shows at Cardiff, Manchester, Twickenham and Southampton are part of their current European tour which will also see them play the Royal Albert Hall and T in the Park in the UK.

Get your mice warmed up now because it will be a busy one on Friday morning when tickets go on sale.

Buy online from Friday 29th February, 9am sharp.
Ticketmaster.co.uk

I love London, I really do. There is a list of places that I would like to live before I die, and London is in the top 5, somewhere behind New York and Rome.

The Roundhouse is an impressive venue, re-opened in 2006 after furious campaigning and fundraising, it is now the premier venue in Camden town with it’s 2,500 capacity main auditorium, this week playing host to a week of sessions with Morrissey and his band.

I was blessed to be able to arrange a visit on the opening night, last night.

The usual queuing protocol applied, get to the venue as early as you possibly can, which we duly did. Arriving at the Roundhouse, after checking into the hotel, at around 330pm. Doors were due to open at 730pm.

The venue has modern facilities, so seeing the growing queue, getting soaked by the hammering rain, the doors were opened early, at 615pm, allowing us to queue inside, with full bar and toilet facilities, good call by the management.

After being allowed into the main hall, standing around awaiting the support band, Girl in A Coma, the 4 hours of standing in a line, heavy drinking the night before and lack of food caught up with me and I started to feel quite faint, so unwell that I risked losing my amazing place in the crowd to find food. Those who know the extent of my infatuation with Moz will understand how big of a deal this is.
After eating a whole Margarita pizza, I was still not feeling much better, a 10 minute sit on the floor sorted this out, but by this time, my space was well and truly gone. D’oh.

Gladly, the crowd on the left hand side of the stage was sparse and I was able to get to about 3 people from the front, and about 5 metres from centre stage, albeit with 300 people between myself and centre, still, a great view.

After the support band, the pre-Morrissey entertainment kicked in, featuring out-takes from East of Eden, featuring James Dean, the music video for “Ou Ca Ou Ca” by Sacha Distel and the New York Dolls. Only Morrissey could possibly care about warming up the crowd with some of his favourite music and film.

Soon enough, the curtain dropped and the man himself strolled onto the stage with a bow, launching straight into the Smiths classic, How Soon is Now.

Ending the song sat upside down with his back against the drum platform and his head on the floor, YATQ single First of the Gang was up next, performed with oomph. The third time that I’ve seen this song live, and I know that this is the best time. The rest of the set was not to dissapoint.

After complaining about having a ‘Frog in my throat’ (and clarification that he did not mean a small frenchman), I Just Want To See The Boy Happy and the new single That’s How People Grow Up were precursers to Smiths staple Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before, all the while in my head thinking how this is how it should be performed, fuck Mark Ronson.

Sister, I’m a Poet, one of my favourite solo-era tracks was truly magical, the band really do well with these upbeat rockabilly tunes, a fact we were to see again later in the encore.

New track, Something is Squeezing my Skull was quickly followed by another, All You Need is Me, as yet unreleased material, it was pleasent to hear the crowd hushed for a while, as they didn’t know the words and thus could not sing along.

Of course, this was all completely trashed in the wake of the opening bars to The National Front Disco, which it seemed brought out the white supremacist in a few people around me, singing at the top of their lungs the ‘England for the English’ part of the chorus. But, I’m sure this is just a few ignorami that still do not understand the meaning of this song.

The Loop once again brought out the twangy double bass that I love so much. None of these tracks have been performed at gigs I have been to before, so it’s a real feast for me as they’re some of my all time favourites.

Another early solo track, Billy Budd is followed up by another of the tracks that hold a special place inside of me, The World is Full of Crashing Bores, after this, more new material, I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris, which is quite a sweet song. One for the new album, I hope.

Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself and Stretch Out and Wait, two songs which I find incredibly weak, but suited to be one after another are next, the latter being an odd choice, I believe.

Another staple from the Quarry days, Irish Blood, English Heart, plays them off the stage to rapturous applause, the standard football chants of Morr-iss-ey, Morr-iss-ey, Morr-iss-ey, bring him back in front of the crowd. My face lights up and a huge “teeth an’ all smile” wipes across it when they burst into a full double bass and all rendition of Last of the Famous International Playboys, what a way to finish.

I have only one criticism of an otherwise legendary show and it is that a new song, One Day Goodbye will be Farewell, was not part of the setlist. I’ve seen this on Youtube a few times and really would loved to have seen it with my own eyes and ears.

Wolverhampton is a pleasant city, this is one thing that I will take with me. Without a hitch the gig went off, Avenged Sevenfold exceeded my expectations, even if I didn’t know any of their songs. The crowd was vicious, but in a good way. Their albums will most definitely be a mainstay on my iPod now.

Wolverhampton has a small selection of high quality bars, including the obvious chains, Weatherspoons, Varsity et. al, but the smaller pubs had the best atmosphere, as is to be expected anywhere, I guess.

With a slight hangover to nurse, our next destination is the Big Smoke, the capital city, London. Again, Virgin trains will our chauffeurs, getting into London Euston at around 230pm. I haven’t arrived their from the Midlands before, so that end of London will be unfamiliar to me, gladly, my good sense of direction and map reading skills to rival that of Galileo will be to our advantage.

Staying out until 4am last night was probably not the wisest of ideas, since at 12:30 this afternoon I was boarding a train to Wolverhampton, luckily I had a small amount of sense and didn’t drink heavily, thus, I feel great, albeit a little rushed, since I also didn’t pack for the trip until this morning.

I write from coach C of the Virgin CrossCountry service from Bristol Parkway to Manchester Piccadilly, we’ll be going two stops to Wolverhampton before we check into a hotel, more than enough time to see the sights, (if it actually has any?) before heading off to the Avenged Sevenfold gig, held at the Civic Centre.

Now, I’ve never heard this band, but am assured that they’re at least half decent. I was actually given two albums (cheers Dave!) of theirs to listen to, but have neglected to do so as yet.

The main event however is Monday’s excursion from Wolverhampton to London, we’ll be arriving at around 3pm, Euston station, jumping a tube to Camden, checking in and then heading to the Roundhouse, star of the evening, Morrissey.

The first day of his week long run at the Roundhouse in Camden, it promises to be a spectacular night, his first shows in the UK since December 2006.

With a greatest hits album due in February and a brand new album scheduled for later this year, new material is definitely on the cards, and I for one can’t wait.