I didn't think when I saw Belle & Sebastian's collection of B-sides -- Push Barman To Open Old Wounds -- at HMV. Pushed the necessary buttons, plucked the headphones off the peg, and waited. As the strains of Dog On Wheels flowed, I remembered how familiar the band once was. Once, when I was still with you.

The album cover stared me in the face, and the title was ironic. My thoughts turned inward. Yes, the scars are still there. I notice them often, but they've ceased to itch for a long time.

I listened to the Tang Quartet's first album The Art of War right after, thinking they should have recorded in a proper studio for the acoustics and -- Would you agree, if I asked you out for a drink?