Chig's big anniversary. It's not just Radio 1's birthday today, but today is the TWENTIETH anniversary of me coming to live in Birmingham. I can hardly believe it's been that long - I only came here for three (or four) years at Aston University, but as I still haven't yet decided what I want to do when I grow up(!), I'm still here.

Wednesday 30th September 1984 was such a life-changing day for me that the date has been etched on my memory ever since. The day I left the family home. The day I moved to Birmingham. The day I started Uni. It was even the day I opened my bank account with Midland Bank (and I'm still with their successor, HSBC). More importantly though, for me at the time, it was the day that, at long last, I could start to BE GAY. That was the foremost thought on my mind that day, never mind the course. I had seen a poster on the noticeboard in the Guild of Students for the Lesbian & Gay Soc when I'd been to Aston's open day, and I wondered if I would be able to pluck up the courage to join. My optimism for a new life immediately was about to be shattered though, and Freshers' Week got off to the worst start possible, but that's a story for another day...
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It's been a busy Summer. So many men, so little time.... And then Chig woke up, and it was Autumn.
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Yeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!! It's working! It's bloody working! It's 21.40 and I appear to have successfully installed my new Wanadoo modem in the last ten minutes, so I am now officially back in cyberspace, on the new, super-duper home PC, and on broadband for the first time. Hurrah! It's in a different room as well, so this really does feel like a fresh start. It may be the last day of Summer today (how depressing), but the new season on World Of Chig is about to start. Not quite sure what it 'll be starting with exactly, but give me a few days to do a bit of Spring cleaning around here and all the usual rubbish will resume. With photos. Lots of photos. It's been a very photographic Summer.

I must put on record my eternal gratitude to my mate Gregster, who has helped me at every stage of the way with the investigating, purchasing, building, installing and trouble-shooting of this new PC. For the meagre payment of pizzas, biscuits and the occasional DVD, he has guided this technical ignoramus through it all. I can't overstate how grateful I am. (He now wishes his own PC was as good as mine!) Thanks Gregster.

Music fans, it's time to get your thinking caps on once again. Very shortly, I shall be launching a new project which will need your input. See the 50 Number Ones Project on the left sidebar for a reminder of what we did two years ago. The new project isn't a repeat of that, but it will give us something to do as the nights draw in and we await the imminent arrival of the UK's 1,000th number one single. (Nine chart-toppers to go!) See you soon. (Okay, I know that in reality no one is reading this, but if you have spotted this, do feel free to leave a comment, and then I'll know that I'm not talking into the void...)

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