Internal radio

A colleague wandered into the room singing 'Hotel California' to himself. No big deal, I quite like the song, and don't much object to the fact that it's now stuck in my head. What weirded me out about half an hour later was to realise that the version playing in my head wasn't the Eagles at all, but the Gipsy Kings' cover version from the soundtrack of The Big Lebowski.

A few months back, inspired by a BBC story (which I've just failed to track down for linkage) about a journalist trying to record every thought that crossed his mind over the course of a day (his conclusion: it's a bit of a waste of time really), and by several_bees' attempt to do something similar (her conclusion: it's a bit of a waste of time really), I decided to record all the songs my internal radio played at me, and try to work out where they came from.

I got distracted, and never actually did it, but I do have, sitting in various email folders, messages to and from myself listing songs, some followed by things like 'heard playing in shop' or 'subject line of a post on so-and-so's LJ', and some followed by things like 'wtf?' or 'strange, haven't heard this for years'. I continue to be frequently perplexed by the songs it presents me with.

Does anyone else have a song stuck in their head right now? What is it, and can you track down where it came from?

[Edit: having chosen the icon to use for this post, the new user interface shows me the icon, and from the tiny bit of lyric visible, I remember the song, and that's now replaced 'Hotel California' in my head. It's 'Happy Phantom' by Tori Amos]

Boots

Talking of things I did back in August... as well as trying to document the music my head plays at me, I bought a lovely pair of red boots. Without really thinking about the practicalities of footwear in a city where you can't avoid doing lots of walking, I took them to Venice, because they were new, and I'd hardly worn them. I was lucky. They were tremendously comfortable, and although my feet were sometimes sore, I avoided blisters entirely.

Yesterday, I noticed that my lovely boots both have seriously split soles. I checked my wallet, and I still have the receipt - I bought them for fifty quid on 31 August. My immediate thought is, Venice or not, I expect fifty quid boots to last longer than two months.

The Citizens Advice Bureau says that goods should:

• be of satisfactory quality. This means that the goods should be of the quality that a reasonable person would expect given the description, price and any other relevant circumstances.
• be fit for the purpose. This means that you must be able to use them for the purposes that you would normally expect from this type of product

But that the trader isn't responsible if:

• you have damaged the goods yourself
• the problem is the result of normal wear and tear
• the goods have lasted for as long as could reasonably be expected.

Is split soles after two months of wear 'normal wear and tear'? Am I going to be laughed out of the shop when I go in later for a refund or replacement? Does the fact that I wore them for two weeks walking around Venice (which I'm not going to tell the guy in the shop) count as 'damaging them myself'? Would you go back and complain, or would you just shrug, try and fix them with glue, and/or just shell out for a new pair of boots?