Friday, December 30, 2005
No snow
While the rest of the UK seems to be drowning under blankets of snow, sadly it has not hit Surbiton... Once we had got back to London I was quite happy for it to snow down here but it seems to have missed us :-(. And now it is raining so that will be it until the next cold snap. Sigh - I do love it when it snows!
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Happy Christmas!
Hi all,
Well I hope you had a good christmas. As I type Kevin and I have just returned from our christmas up in Wem. Winter has hit the UK now and there is lots of snow around. Not in our area yet and luckily we didn't hit any snow on the way back down. We went up to Wem on Friday morning - very early, so we were up there by 10. Then on Christmas day it was off over to Telford to spend the day with Kevin's sister and family. Haven't spent christmas day with a four year old for a few years now - had forgotten how noisy they get! Then on Boxing day it was back to Wem as Kevin's aunt and uncle were coming over. Then on Boxing day evening Kevin got ill... No one can work out if it was food poisoning (both his mum and sister strenuously deny it was them!) or too much rich food but he was not a well boy. While Kevin's mum, dad and me sat and watched a frothy version of 'Under the Greenwood Tree' poor old Kevin was in the bathroom feeling very unwell.
So we had an extra day in Wem while he recovered but are now both very happy to be back in Surbs. Hoping for some snow, planning to hit the sales and go and watch King Kong - happy holidays indeed!
Well I hope you had a good christmas. As I type Kevin and I have just returned from our christmas up in Wem. Winter has hit the UK now and there is lots of snow around. Not in our area yet and luckily we didn't hit any snow on the way back down. We went up to Wem on Friday morning - very early, so we were up there by 10. Then on Christmas day it was off over to Telford to spend the day with Kevin's sister and family. Haven't spent christmas day with a four year old for a few years now - had forgotten how noisy they get! Then on Boxing day it was back to Wem as Kevin's aunt and uncle were coming over. Then on Boxing day evening Kevin got ill... No one can work out if it was food poisoning (both his mum and sister strenuously deny it was them!) or too much rich food but he was not a well boy. While Kevin's mum, dad and me sat and watched a frothy version of 'Under the Greenwood Tree' poor old Kevin was in the bathroom feeling very unwell.
So we had an extra day in Wem while he recovered but are now both very happy to be back in Surbs. Hoping for some snow, planning to hit the sales and go and watch King Kong - happy holidays indeed!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
And a somewhat formulaic response from the band...
Hi MeganThanks for dropping us a line. We do appreciate the effort you made to attend the gig and take note of your concerns. Take care.Cher!
Freddy
Freddy
Monday, December 19, 2005
The UK and a smoking ban
So the Labour Government over here is struggling with trying to bring in a smoking ban for pubs etc (a la NZ and Ireland). It was going to be an all out ban, but they wimped out so now we are in a stupid situation where if a pub is serving food it has to be non-smoking, but if a pub doesn't serve food it can be smoking.
So everyone is leaping up and down saying it is going to be unworkable (which it probably will be), and that all the bar staff in the pubs that don't serve food will be unfairly affected by even more smoke than usual... People on the radio were talking about rest homes - in theory they are public spaces, but they are also people's homes - there are just so many glitches that everyone but the Government seem able to see.
If NZ and Ireland can bring in these bans, it is crazy that the UK won't. It needs to be either or... Watch this space!
So everyone is leaping up and down saying it is going to be unworkable (which it probably will be), and that all the bar staff in the pubs that don't serve food will be unfairly affected by even more smoke than usual... People on the radio were talking about rest homes - in theory they are public spaces, but they are also people's homes - there are just so many glitches that everyone but the Government seem able to see.
If NZ and Ireland can bring in these bans, it is crazy that the UK won't. It needs to be either or... Watch this space!
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Fat Freddy's - what a disappointment...
Well I was so excited to be off to see Fat Freddy's again, this time with Kevin in tow, his mate and NZ girlfriend.
Except that they didn't come on stage until 10.50 - which when you live in London is pretty unheard of for a gig, unless they actually advertise it as a DJ set. So even tho it was in Hammersmith (which is the same side of the river as us), we had to leave by 11.45 to make sure we could at least get a tube to Richmond, and if we were lucky (which we were) get buses from there back to Surbs. Either that or be looking at at least 35 quid for a taxi... Wasn't impressed at all. Added to the fact they had some crap guy lip synching to country music on for half an hour from 10-10.30 and he was unbearable. Except to all the really drunk NZers there who had been in the venue since 7pm when the doors opened...
When they finally came on the performance was pretty lacklustre as well. I suspect they were hungover from winning some BBC award the previous night. But I think in future I'll take my chances and buy a ticket to see them on the day - I paid almost 17 quid for just under an hour of music. Not impressed.
Have emailed them as well via their website so it will be interesting to see what (if any) response I get. Mhairi also emailed them - she didn't even bother going - living in North London and going to West London to see a band that isn't scheduled to start until 10.30 (but they were late) is just a non-starter on a week night unless you fancy spending hours and hours on night buses getting home.
Except that they didn't come on stage until 10.50 - which when you live in London is pretty unheard of for a gig, unless they actually advertise it as a DJ set. So even tho it was in Hammersmith (which is the same side of the river as us), we had to leave by 11.45 to make sure we could at least get a tube to Richmond, and if we were lucky (which we were) get buses from there back to Surbs. Either that or be looking at at least 35 quid for a taxi... Wasn't impressed at all. Added to the fact they had some crap guy lip synching to country music on for half an hour from 10-10.30 and he was unbearable. Except to all the really drunk NZers there who had been in the venue since 7pm when the doors opened...
When they finally came on the performance was pretty lacklustre as well. I suspect they were hungover from winning some BBC award the previous night. But I think in future I'll take my chances and buy a ticket to see them on the day - I paid almost 17 quid for just under an hour of music. Not impressed.
Have emailed them as well via their website so it will be interesting to see what (if any) response I get. Mhairi also emailed them - she didn't even bother going - living in North London and going to West London to see a band that isn't scheduled to start until 10.30 (but they were late) is just a non-starter on a week night unless you fancy spending hours and hours on night buses getting home.
Rob Lowe and a sneeze...
We went to see A Few Good Men last night which was really really good. Featuring aforementioned Rob Lowe and Suranne Jones (ex Corrie actress for those who watch Corrie...). At one point in the play Rob Lowe was standing right at the front of the stage, and the whole theatre was quite. Except for me about 5 rows back from the front trying to stifle my sneezes! So I think I can safely say that Rob Lowe has heard me sneeze!! :-)
Monday, December 12, 2005
Nursery rhyme reminiscences...
I got talking to a friend at work today about nursery rhymes (don't ask how - I'm not even sure how we got on to it!) and she sent me a link to The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash - check it out here.
I used to love this rhyme when I was young (er). I can't remember what book it was in, but I think it may have been in a big yellow book I had of nursery rhymes and stories that one of my brothers (either Bruce or Jonathan - can't remember now) gave me and it had lots of cool ones like that in it. And re-reading it now, it is just great - the dragon eats the pirate! And Ink and Blink gyrate around him cos he ate the pirate! It is just brilliant - can't imagine many rhymes for children being written now where a dragon eats the baddie - that would probably be considered completely un-pc...
So I've now bookmarked the poem and will keep reading it when I need something to cheer me up - I think it is just cool :-)
I used to love this rhyme when I was young (er). I can't remember what book it was in, but I think it may have been in a big yellow book I had of nursery rhymes and stories that one of my brothers (either Bruce or Jonathan - can't remember now) gave me and it had lots of cool ones like that in it. And re-reading it now, it is just great - the dragon eats the pirate! And Ink and Blink gyrate around him cos he ate the pirate! It is just brilliant - can't imagine many rhymes for children being written now where a dragon eats the baddie - that would probably be considered completely un-pc...
So I've now bookmarked the poem and will keep reading it when I need something to cheer me up - I think it is just cool :-)
Sunday, December 11, 2005
And back to 'Kiwis come home'...
I've started to read the North & South's I bought at Kiwifruits, and have read the article about New Zealanders returning home after their OE's.
I thought it was quite interesting, but again just seemed full of very typical stereotypes of London - and also the age group they seemed to be writing about. Too many descriptions of London's 'grimy streets' (they aren't all grimy) and the UK's drinking culture (which yes we do have, but I don't see as being much worse than that in NZ - just different in that in the UK more people drink in pubs). In fact from memory one person commented that the culture in NZ seems to be around families and sports more while in the UK it is more around alcohol which I thought was a bit rich. Perhaps that reflected more accurately her age group rather than the whole of the British pysche... Then there was the woman who had spent 20 years here and didn't see anything wrong with NZers only hanging out with other NZers over here 'because where else could they do that?'. Well NZ springs to mind... mind you she was also praising the existence of The Church and recommending that people make a visit to it. Anyone who has seen or lives near The Church and has seen the volumes of paralytic Antipodeans exiting from it on a Sunday afternoon would have to query the wisdom of that statement. There's not much pride in being a NZer when you are barred from pubs around it because of the behaviour of your fellow countrypeople...
It would have been interesting (I guess cos it is more relevant to me) to have had interviews with slightly older NZers who are still in the UK or who have just gone back. Most NZers go back around the time they hit 30ish, but it is the ones who stay (like me and most of my NZ friends here) that are more interesting I would have thought...
Still it is obviously a burning topic at the mo as I read an article on Stuff about it recently as well. Still haven't seen any of those ads on the tube yet tho...
I thought it was quite interesting, but again just seemed full of very typical stereotypes of London - and also the age group they seemed to be writing about. Too many descriptions of London's 'grimy streets' (they aren't all grimy) and the UK's drinking culture (which yes we do have, but I don't see as being much worse than that in NZ - just different in that in the UK more people drink in pubs). In fact from memory one person commented that the culture in NZ seems to be around families and sports more while in the UK it is more around alcohol which I thought was a bit rich. Perhaps that reflected more accurately her age group rather than the whole of the British pysche... Then there was the woman who had spent 20 years here and didn't see anything wrong with NZers only hanging out with other NZers over here 'because where else could they do that?'. Well NZ springs to mind... mind you she was also praising the existence of The Church and recommending that people make a visit to it. Anyone who has seen or lives near The Church and has seen the volumes of paralytic Antipodeans exiting from it on a Sunday afternoon would have to query the wisdom of that statement. There's not much pride in being a NZer when you are barred from pubs around it because of the behaviour of your fellow countrypeople...
It would have been interesting (I guess cos it is more relevant to me) to have had interviews with slightly older NZers who are still in the UK or who have just gone back. Most NZers go back around the time they hit 30ish, but it is the ones who stay (like me and most of my NZ friends here) that are more interesting I would have thought...
Still it is obviously a burning topic at the mo as I read an article on Stuff about it recently as well. Still haven't seen any of those ads on the tube yet tho...
Friday, December 09, 2005
Megan the brave
So on Friday night I went to my first gig by myself! Very proud of myself I was. I went to see Hard-Fi at The Astoria.
I had bought the tickets ages ago for me and Kevin but then he was offered tickets for another gig he wanted to (a Canadian band, Stars) and as Hard-Fi are UK and play loads he figured he could see them another time. So I wasn't going to go, but was then listening to them a bit on the ipod and really enjoying it, so after a bit of encouragement from Mhairi (who has been to a couple of gigs by herself) I decided to go. I sold the second ticket through a very cool website, Scarlet Mist, which has been set up so people can buy and sell tickets at face value, and not have to go to a tout and pay exorbitant prices.
And the gig was really good. Once I had got in and found a spot I realised that the whole venue wouldn't be talking about me standing there by myself and I relaxed a bit. Not sure I'd like to do it loads, but now I've done it once...
I had bought the tickets ages ago for me and Kevin but then he was offered tickets for another gig he wanted to (a Canadian band, Stars) and as Hard-Fi are UK and play loads he figured he could see them another time. So I wasn't going to go, but was then listening to them a bit on the ipod and really enjoying it, so after a bit of encouragement from Mhairi (who has been to a couple of gigs by herself) I decided to go. I sold the second ticket through a very cool website, Scarlet Mist, which has been set up so people can buy and sell tickets at face value, and not have to go to a tout and pay exorbitant prices.
And the gig was really good. Once I had got in and found a spot I realised that the whole venue wouldn't be talking about me standing there by myself and I relaxed a bit. Not sure I'd like to do it loads, but now I've done it once...
Friday, December 02, 2005
The heart of New Zealand...
in the heart of London. Had to go to Covent Garden at lunchtime and ended up very close to Kiwifruits, the NZ shop...
Always fatal :-). Still I kept my spend to under £20 which was not bad for me! Two issues of North & South, a big bag of Twisties (I don't think I'll ever grow out of them!), two chocolate fish, two buzz bars and a can of Watties Creamed Corn - can't get it over here and it just makes toasted sandwiches the best!
They are on to such a money spinner there but I just can't not spend when I go!
Always fatal :-). Still I kept my spend to under £20 which was not bad for me! Two issues of North & South, a big bag of Twisties (I don't think I'll ever grow out of them!), two chocolate fish, two buzz bars and a can of Watties Creamed Corn - can't get it over here and it just makes toasted sandwiches the best!
They are on to such a money spinner there but I just can't not spend when I go!
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Trailwalker 2006 - NZ style!
Finally got around to checking out the Trailwalker site for the inaugural NZ Trailwalker - set around Taupo no less! Check out the website here.
I would so love to do this one - I sat at work and went into a daydream about the Shields family putting a team in, with me doing my training over here and then coming back to do the walk. But then reality kicked in and I realised that the training as a team is so important that it wouldn't really work.
But I can't encourage you all enough to give it a go! It was one the best things I have ever done, and I am still so tempted by the NZ one... How cool to do it in the UK and the following year do NZ - and around Taupo as well! Sigh.
If you are around Taupo when it finishes make sure you clap and cheer people who are finishing - you have no idea how wonderful that was for us when we were finishing...
I'd love to hear if any of you take up the challenge - Taupo in April tho... Was a bit suprised by that - the UK one is in the middle of summer - and we got less time to do it in! We had 100km in 30 hours, NZ is 36. Have I raved enough?? Check out Nola's Strollers again if you need reminding!
I would so love to do this one - I sat at work and went into a daydream about the Shields family putting a team in, with me doing my training over here and then coming back to do the walk. But then reality kicked in and I realised that the training as a team is so important that it wouldn't really work.
But I can't encourage you all enough to give it a go! It was one the best things I have ever done, and I am still so tempted by the NZ one... How cool to do it in the UK and the following year do NZ - and around Taupo as well! Sigh.
If you are around Taupo when it finishes make sure you clap and cheer people who are finishing - you have no idea how wonderful that was for us when we were finishing...
I'd love to hear if any of you take up the challenge - Taupo in April tho... Was a bit suprised by that - the UK one is in the middle of summer - and we got less time to do it in! We had 100km in 30 hours, NZ is 36. Have I raved enough?? Check out Nola's Strollers again if you need reminding!
Saturday, November 26, 2005
And Saturday's lesson is...
don't accept glasses of champagne from an unknown man at a bar, even if he is wearing an AllBlacks top...
On Saturday night I went out to help my friend Simon celebrate his 30th birthday - at Motion bar - Kevin was at home feeling poorly. All was going well until I went to the bar to get a round of drinks in and this guy started talking to me. He started off by asking me about my accent and then told me he was from NZ and pointed to the Allblacks top he was wearing. So we had a bit of a chat about how the AB's (as he kept referring to them), had won the grand slam and then he offered to buy me a glass of champagne to celebrate the grand slam. I was a bit wary but as I kept making it very clear I was going back to my friends it seemed fine (and they were only a couple of metres away from me) - and who am I to turn down a glass of champagne!? He did know NZ. In fact his father was a friend of one of my old dentist's in Taupo. All very surreal. But despite having lived and been to school in NZ he constantly referred to it like he was a tourist who had only been there on visits, so I couldn't work out what was true and what wasn't. Although I really didn't believe the bit about him being a Harley Street doctor who did facial reconstructions on sportspeople, including several "ABs"...
All's well that ended well however - following a bit of help from my friends he realised that I did mean it when I said I was going back to them... Very entertaining - these things don't happen to me much!
On Saturday night I went out to help my friend Simon celebrate his 30th birthday - at Motion bar - Kevin was at home feeling poorly. All was going well until I went to the bar to get a round of drinks in and this guy started talking to me. He started off by asking me about my accent and then told me he was from NZ and pointed to the Allblacks top he was wearing. So we had a bit of a chat about how the AB's (as he kept referring to them), had won the grand slam and then he offered to buy me a glass of champagne to celebrate the grand slam. I was a bit wary but as I kept making it very clear I was going back to my friends it seemed fine (and they were only a couple of metres away from me) - and who am I to turn down a glass of champagne!? He did know NZ. In fact his father was a friend of one of my old dentist's in Taupo. All very surreal. But despite having lived and been to school in NZ he constantly referred to it like he was a tourist who had only been there on visits, so I couldn't work out what was true and what wasn't. Although I really didn't believe the bit about him being a Harley Street doctor who did facial reconstructions on sportspeople, including several "ABs"...
All's well that ended well however - following a bit of help from my friends he realised that I did mean it when I said I was going back to them... Very entertaining - these things don't happen to me much!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Jeff Tweedy - what a gig!
So on Tuesday night it was off to see Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg fame to name but a few...) at Shepherd's Bush Empire. Wilco is one of Kevin's must see bands so we had seen him earlier this year as Wilco, but this gig was him doing an acoustic set.
I'm not best fond of SBE as a gig venue anyhow (see earlier posting on getting soaked with beer at Salmonella Dub for starters...) and also Wilco at SBE are a particularly bad memory for me. They played a legendary gig there a few years ago - legendary for all the wrong reasons I might add. They were at the end of a long tour, and I went along expecting some nice alt-country music (which was all I'd heard of them at that point) and I got an evening of noise, an incredibly surly singer (aforementioned Jeff Tweedy), which was topped off by a roadie singing on stage during the encore. At which point I finally came to my senses and left.
So I had always sworn to Kevin that I would never go to another Wilco gig... And that resolve lasted a few good years. But I went earlier this year and they were good (great according to Kevin) so was happy to go along to this gig. But I was a tad worried - I was tired, it was freezing out, and I didn't feel like going. But...
It was amazing. He was brilliant. It is now in one of my top 3 gigs of the year (Fat Freddys Drop being one of the others - jury is still out on gig 3). It was just superb. His singing was incredible, the songs were great, and his banter with the audience (including a reference to the infamous last appearance at the Empire) was very funny. Did a great stream about how the audience was his psyche talking to him. Did a song about absent family as well which made me tear up a bit (I'm a sucker for a sad song...). So check out the review in the Independent here, and if you're really keen, his set list here. There are some very keen Wilco fans out there... It was just one of the best gigs I've been to for ages, pure and simple.
I'm not best fond of SBE as a gig venue anyhow (see earlier posting on getting soaked with beer at Salmonella Dub for starters...) and also Wilco at SBE are a particularly bad memory for me. They played a legendary gig there a few years ago - legendary for all the wrong reasons I might add. They were at the end of a long tour, and I went along expecting some nice alt-country music (which was all I'd heard of them at that point) and I got an evening of noise, an incredibly surly singer (aforementioned Jeff Tweedy), which was topped off by a roadie singing on stage during the encore. At which point I finally came to my senses and left.
So I had always sworn to Kevin that I would never go to another Wilco gig... And that resolve lasted a few good years. But I went earlier this year and they were good (great according to Kevin) so was happy to go along to this gig. But I was a tad worried - I was tired, it was freezing out, and I didn't feel like going. But...
It was amazing. He was brilliant. It is now in one of my top 3 gigs of the year (Fat Freddys Drop being one of the others - jury is still out on gig 3). It was just superb. His singing was incredible, the songs were great, and his banter with the audience (including a reference to the infamous last appearance at the Empire) was very funny. Did a great stream about how the audience was his psyche talking to him. Did a song about absent family as well which made me tear up a bit (I'm a sucker for a sad song...). So check out the review in the Independent here, and if you're really keen, his set list here. There are some very keen Wilco fans out there... It was just one of the best gigs I've been to for ages, pure and simple.
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Comics in Brighton - and Harry Potter
So on Saturday we were off down to Brighton for the inaugurual Brighton Comic Expo. We've been to the Bristol one a few times but thought we'd see what this one was like... Good reason to go visit the seaside!
I always find the Expo's slightly odd. They are full of some very dweeby comic fans (sort of like Sci-Fi fans), but also full of lots of other bods as well. Although whenever anything like this gets on telly they only ever show the ones who are dressed all in black or are in Star Trek costumes or something silly like that. I'd like to point out that there was no one in a Star Trek costume at this one! One particular highlight for me was the guy flogging Kevin a new irish comic who then turned to me to tell me that there was 'even a story for the girls' at the end of the comic... He needs to learn his market a bit better methinks - there are lots of comic girlies in this world - me included!
I didn't buy much, but Kevin got some great new sketches for his book. Loads of the comic artists set up stalls and will do sketches etc of characters for a small fee and so Kevin has a lovely leather bound book which he gets them done in. This time he added a 'Saint of Killers' drawing by Glenn Fabry, 'Constantine' by Sean Philips and a Judge Dredd by John M. Burns. All very cool - Saint of Killers is from the Preacher series which is one I've read and it is just superb. Can't say that the Saint is my favourite character but its not my book!
Then we wandered off to find a pub to watch a very exciting game of rugby where NZ managed to beat England - I was one of the few kiwi voices in the pub, then we went to see the new Harry Potter film. What can I say? Absolutely brilliant - I thought it was superb. Best one yet!
I always find the Expo's slightly odd. They are full of some very dweeby comic fans (sort of like Sci-Fi fans), but also full of lots of other bods as well. Although whenever anything like this gets on telly they only ever show the ones who are dressed all in black or are in Star Trek costumes or something silly like that. I'd like to point out that there was no one in a Star Trek costume at this one! One particular highlight for me was the guy flogging Kevin a new irish comic who then turned to me to tell me that there was 'even a story for the girls' at the end of the comic... He needs to learn his market a bit better methinks - there are lots of comic girlies in this world - me included!
I didn't buy much, but Kevin got some great new sketches for his book. Loads of the comic artists set up stalls and will do sketches etc of characters for a small fee and so Kevin has a lovely leather bound book which he gets them done in. This time he added a 'Saint of Killers' drawing by Glenn Fabry, 'Constantine' by Sean Philips and a Judge Dredd by John M. Burns. All very cool - Saint of Killers is from the Preacher series which is one I've read and it is just superb. Can't say that the Saint is my favourite character but its not my book!
Then we wandered off to find a pub to watch a very exciting game of rugby where NZ managed to beat England - I was one of the few kiwi voices in the pub, then we went to see the new Harry Potter film. What can I say? Absolutely brilliant - I thought it was superb. Best one yet!
Friday, November 18, 2005
And did I mention the worst travel day ever...?
Got to the station on Friday morning in plenty of time for my 8.08 train - had lots of work to do so was keen to get in relatively early. But it was not to be...
My heart sank when I saw on the information board that there had been a cable fire at Clapham Junction - its not called the busiest junction in the UK for nothing... And problems at Clapham mean problems for lots and lots of trains...
Normally when it is that bad I would have just taken the day as holiday but I had to get in to get my deadlines met so when the first train came along (after 20 minutes waiting on the platform) I squeezed on. And I mean squeezed on literally. I was right up against the door with a mass of bodies all around me. At least I could turn my head and see out of the door. Of course once the train started moving I realised that it had been a bad idea to squeeze on as I don't cope with those situations so well anymore. I had a few bad moments, but I just focused on my music and thought over and over again 'This journey will end. We will get to Waterloo. This journey will end'.
And it did end. Over an hour later. So I was stood on the train for an hour. In my little heels which hurt if I stand too long (I don't normally wear them if I think I'll be doing much walking...)
I finally got to work just before 10 - not bad for someone trying to get in early-ish!
Starsailor at Brixton - a good gig...
So on Friday night we were off again to see Starsailor - one of our regular live bands this year, and also the band that gave me the idea for the name of the blog (see my very first entry). As usual they were very good, but I don't think they fall into the 'fab' category of the last two gigs we've been to. It would have been good if they had played a few more songs from their new album 'On the Outside' but minor quibbles really...
Own up (sibling)
Harumph. If you are going to leave comments on my blog telling me that I really am that old (see posting from 15th November), at least have the decency to leave your name so I know who it is!! None of this anonymous rubbish!
Double harumph.
I know it has to be a family member...
Double harumph.
I know it has to be a family member...
Wine tasting... lots of lovely NZ wine
So Kevin and I went off to the NZ Wine Tasting last night. This was organised by the NZ House of Wine and it was really good. Unfortunately it was the day of my red wine reaction so I couldn't try any of the red wines, but I got through a fair few tastings of the whites!
It was all very civilised, there were a couple of semi-famous rugby players there (Paul Tito and Glen Jackson) who I didn't recognise. Kevin picked out Paul Tito (but you would have known he was a rugby player from his ears anyhow!) and I asked someone who the other guy was. Both have played for the NZ Maori apparently, and Glen Jackson now plays for Saracens (I looked them up on Google in case you are wondering....).
We did (of course) end up ordering a mixed case of NZ whites, but we made sure it included two bottles of Lindauer Fraise which I've never seen over here - looking forward to those! Got a couple of bottles from Mt Difficult, Saint Clair and I can't remember who else. I did try a chardonnay which was £34.99 per bottle and while it was gorgeous did think that was a tad too much to pay!
Will definitely go again tho - and make sure I don't go out the night before the next time!
It was all very civilised, there were a couple of semi-famous rugby players there (Paul Tito and Glen Jackson) who I didn't recognise. Kevin picked out Paul Tito (but you would have known he was a rugby player from his ears anyhow!) and I asked someone who the other guy was. Both have played for the NZ Maori apparently, and Glen Jackson now plays for Saracens (I looked them up on Google in case you are wondering....).
We did (of course) end up ordering a mixed case of NZ whites, but we made sure it included two bottles of Lindauer Fraise which I've never seen over here - looking forward to those! Got a couple of bottles from Mt Difficult, Saint Clair and I can't remember who else. I did try a chardonnay which was £34.99 per bottle and while it was gorgeous did think that was a tad too much to pay!
Will definitely go again tho - and make sure I don't go out the night before the next time!
Thursday, November 17, 2005
A weird reaction...
I went out for drinks the other night with a few bods from work, and ended up drinking far too much red wine. I don't normally drink wine when I go out, and certainly not in the quantity I had that night...
The next day was very strange. I wasn't hungover (well, ok - I did feel a tad seedy), but my nose was just streaming and I was sneezing all day. It was like a hayfever attack. People kept assuming I had a cold but I just didn't feel coldy at all. I remember I had a flatmate a few years ago who was dairy intolerant and she couldn't drink red wine for the reason that it made her all bunged up and snotty the next day. And I think that is what happened to me! All very strange. Never happened before - it was either the red wine or the chips as I didn't eat anything else different that day...
The next day was very strange. I wasn't hungover (well, ok - I did feel a tad seedy), but my nose was just streaming and I was sneezing all day. It was like a hayfever attack. People kept assuming I had a cold but I just didn't feel coldy at all. I remember I had a flatmate a few years ago who was dairy intolerant and she couldn't drink red wine for the reason that it made her all bunged up and snotty the next day. And I think that is what happened to me! All very strange. Never happened before - it was either the red wine or the chips as I didn't eat anything else different that day...
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
The National - another fab gig
Went to see The National - a US band that Kevin put me on to (as he does with nearly all of my music!). Check out their website here.
I hadn't listened to all of their cds much, but had been listening to Alligator - and they were absolutely brilliant. Sound fairly lowkey on the cd, but the live performance was superb. Really full of energy, great voices, and generally a great gig.
We've been going to a few good gigs lately - the last two in particular have been real highlights for me this year. Still got a few to go before the end of the year as well! Including the return of Fat Freddys Drop.... Soooo excited about that!! Have got my ticket already!
I hadn't listened to all of their cds much, but had been listening to Alligator - and they were absolutely brilliant. Sound fairly lowkey on the cd, but the live performance was superb. Really full of energy, great voices, and generally a great gig.
We've been going to a few good gigs lately - the last two in particular have been real highlights for me this year. Still got a few to go before the end of the year as well! Including the return of Fat Freddys Drop.... Soooo excited about that!! Have got my ticket already!
Am I really that old?
Listening to Radio 5 this morning and they had a piece on the fact that Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run' was released 30 years ago today.... I don't explicitly remember it being released - but 30 years!!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Walking in Kent and birthday celebrations
Nola's Strollers (minus Owen and Finbarr + Sarah and Nola) got together again and went for a gorgeous autumnal walk in Kent on Saturday. Walked from Hever to Leigh (pronounced Lie), a distance of 9 miles. It was absolutely gorgeous - a nice sunny day (amazingly as it had rained all week and we didn't think we'd get to walk) and the colours of the countryside were amazing. I do like living in Surrey, but Kent really is a wonderful place to walk. Lots of Oast Houses , and generally just beautiful countryside. Not called the Garden of England for nothing I guess!
This walk was a tad on the muddy side (which made me thankful that I hadn't chosen the walk Time Out had described as muddy...) and we only got lost once. Well, not really lost, but the directions didn't make sense but then all of a sudden we were where we were meant to be anyhow. Which was just as well as it was getting late (we'd misjudged the time a bit) and poor old Nola was getting a wee bit cold. As we all were actually!
We passed some amazing houses - beautifully kept old places, swimming pools, tennis courts, and immaculately manicured gardens. How the other half live... But possibly the highlight was coming around the corner of a church through the churchyard (towards the end of the walk so all looking a bit bedraggled and all muddy) into an extremely posh looking wedding... If we'd been about half an hour later we would have seen the bride, but instead we had to satisfy ourselves with lots and lots of young men (no doubt all called Tristan and Tarquin and things like that) all in tails - not just the ushers! Very funny - although we were tempted to loiter we decided they would probably frogmarch us off the property!!
Then it was home, shower, quick scoff and off out back into town to have a birthday drink with Owen at the Prince Regent pub on Marylebone High Street. We three were all a bit unsociable as we got a seat and just stayed sat down the whole time - too tired to stand! But Owen was understanding :-). And despite the comments on thre website review I thought it was a good pub. So a very long but very good day all up.
This walk was a tad on the muddy side (which made me thankful that I hadn't chosen the walk Time Out had described as muddy...) and we only got lost once. Well, not really lost, but the directions didn't make sense but then all of a sudden we were where we were meant to be anyhow. Which was just as well as it was getting late (we'd misjudged the time a bit) and poor old Nola was getting a wee bit cold. As we all were actually!
We passed some amazing houses - beautifully kept old places, swimming pools, tennis courts, and immaculately manicured gardens. How the other half live... But possibly the highlight was coming around the corner of a church through the churchyard (towards the end of the walk so all looking a bit bedraggled and all muddy) into an extremely posh looking wedding... If we'd been about half an hour later we would have seen the bride, but instead we had to satisfy ourselves with lots and lots of young men (no doubt all called Tristan and Tarquin and things like that) all in tails - not just the ushers! Very funny - although we were tempted to loiter we decided they would probably frogmarch us off the property!!
Then it was home, shower, quick scoff and off out back into town to have a birthday drink with Owen at the Prince Regent pub on Marylebone High Street. We three were all a bit unsociable as we got a seat and just stayed sat down the whole time - too tired to stand! But Owen was understanding :-). And despite the comments on thre website review I thought it was a good pub. So a very long but very good day all up.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Come home kiwis - your country needs you...
Mhairi noticed this item on the BBC website yesterday and sent me the link. I'm always interested in things like this. Apparently the posters are on the tube, but as I hardly take the tube I haven't seen them. Will be on the tube tomorrow though so I'll keep a look out!
Next week we're off to a NZ wine tasting hosted by the NZ House of Wine (over 100 wines - can't wait!) so it will be interesting to see if there is anything about it there. Read the BBC news story here.
Next week we're off to a NZ wine tasting hosted by the NZ House of Wine (over 100 wines - can't wait!) so it will be interesting to see if there is anything about it there. Read the BBC news story here.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Fab time for TV
Was thinking the other day how much top tv there is on at the moment. Shows I am particularly enjoying are Bleak House (new BBC adaptation), Lost (great US crap!) and Rome (another BBC offering).
Not that I spend my whole life in front of the tele, but we seem to have hit a bit of a good period at the mo! Lost for silliness is my fave, but I'm really enjoying Bleak House as well - I do like my period dramas...
Just finished re-reading Pride & Prejudice as well so had to re-watch the BBC version of it last night - Kevin was off out playing poker. So I had a lovely girly evening with a glass of wine and P&P. Bliss! It was interesting having just finished the book to see how they adapted it - and it made me realise again that the recent film just didn't do it justice... Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle will always be Mr Darcy and Miss Bennett to me!!
Not that I spend my whole life in front of the tele, but we seem to have hit a bit of a good period at the mo! Lost for silliness is my fave, but I'm really enjoying Bleak House as well - I do like my period dramas...
Just finished re-reading Pride & Prejudice as well so had to re-watch the BBC version of it last night - Kevin was off out playing poker. So I had a lovely girly evening with a glass of wine and P&P. Bliss! It was interesting having just finished the book to see how they adapted it - and it made me realise again that the recent film just didn't do it justice... Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle will always be Mr Darcy and Miss Bennett to me!!
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Sufjan Stevens - fab gig
Went to see Sufjan Stevens play what was meant to be an acoustic set, but it sounded just like his albums. Check out his website here. He was absolutely superb - beautifully played music, and his voice is stunning. One of the few times I've been to a gig where I really thought that the singer was using their voice as an instrument. It was in a small venue as well so it felt very intimate - he had also played at Shepherd's Bush but Kevin hadn't managed to get tickets for that (seeing as how he buys most of the tickets!), and in retrospect that was a good thing - it was lovely to see him in such a small venue.
Can well recommend people going and hunting out some of his albums - particularly Seven Swans and Illinoise. He has a plan to do an album based on every US state - he has done Michigan and Illinoise so far...
Can well recommend people going and hunting out some of his albums - particularly Seven Swans and Illinoise. He has a plan to do an album based on every US state - he has done Michigan and Illinoise so far...
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Haircut, Bolero and shopping
Lovely day today - went in to town and got my haircut. It is much shorter than it was - I no longer have enough hair to tie back in a ponytail! I'm happy with it tho - looks much nicer I think. Of course it is still full of all the product they put in it so I guess I should wait until I've washed it before making any rash statements!
Then I wandered around Covent Garden for a while. Saw a great string quartet doing Ravel's 'Bolero' which I always like listening to. I remember seeing an animation years ago set to it - it was very sad, with a cat going hungry I think. So I always think of that as opposed to Torvill and Dean!
I've been looking for some new work clothes for a while and today managed to buy 3 new skirts. Very exciting - although I'm not sure I have any tops to go with them... But one of them I saw in the Guardian magazine on Saturday and I went out specifically to find it. First time I've ever done that but I did buy it! So having just been paid I've spent far too much money - but I did enjoy it :-).
Then I wandered around Covent Garden for a while. Saw a great string quartet doing Ravel's 'Bolero' which I always like listening to. I remember seeing an animation years ago set to it - it was very sad, with a cat going hungry I think. So I always think of that as opposed to Torvill and Dean!
I've been looking for some new work clothes for a while and today managed to buy 3 new skirts. Very exciting - although I'm not sure I have any tops to go with them... But one of them I saw in the Guardian magazine on Saturday and I went out specifically to find it. First time I've ever done that but I did buy it! So having just been paid I've spent far too much money - but I did enjoy it :-).
Saturday, October 29, 2005
Trailwalker heroes...
We went to the Oxfam Trailwalker Heroes reception last night - and once we'd got over the disappointment of the lack of alcohol until after the presentations it was good! There were a few speeches where an Oxfam man with bad powerpoint slides told us about some of the things that Oxfam spends their money on, and then a very British army guy told us how they spend the money at the Ghurka Welfare Trust - he was very funny, even if some of his humour was slightly dodgy...
Then they had the presentations to various teams. Nola's Strollers was extremely disappointed to not win the Best Team award, but we did win a prize for our fundraising category :-). We get to go to the Renault F1 Human Performance Centre for a day. We're not sure what that will entail but no doubt it will be good. Although I would have been happy with champagne and chocolates! The team who won the prize for raising the most money raised over £15k - quite incredible. We all felt very nostalgic about the walk as they showed various photos and video clips of the walk... In fact we may have even been tempted to do it again next year - had we not already found a potential challenge for next year. Check out the website for the Caledonian Challenge - 54 miles of the West Highland Way in Scotland in 24 hours. Watch this space...
Then they had the presentations to various teams. Nola's Strollers was extremely disappointed to not win the Best Team award, but we did win a prize for our fundraising category :-). We get to go to the Renault F1 Human Performance Centre for a day. We're not sure what that will entail but no doubt it will be good. Although I would have been happy with champagne and chocolates! The team who won the prize for raising the most money raised over £15k - quite incredible. We all felt very nostalgic about the walk as they showed various photos and video clips of the walk... In fact we may have even been tempted to do it again next year - had we not already found a potential challenge for next year. Check out the website for the Caledonian Challenge - 54 miles of the West Highland Way in Scotland in 24 hours. Watch this space...
Monday, October 24, 2005
Music, bling, theatre and a baby
Busy busy weekend for me and Kevin - most unusual for us, but I don't think I stopped until Sunday evening!
Friday night it was off to the Barbican to see Michael Nyman who is touring on his 'The Piano Sings' tour. We had great seats - second row from the front, right by the piano. Very cool. The show was a mix of him playing music from film scores he has written (including some from The Piano), and him playing music he had written for 3 silent films. The last one was the best - a score to an old film of Nice - that was great.
Saturday I was off to see the Diamonds exhibition at the Natural History Museum with Julia. It was absolutely amazing - very very sparkly! It had some absolutely incredible pieces, including some stunning coloured diamonds as well (which I never knew existed before). So I'm deliberating now as to whether I'd like a rare pink diamond or perhaps a stunning flame coloured orange one! Very strict security - including alarmed cabinets which both Julia and I kept touching and kept getting told off for! You also had to switch your mobile phone off (so you couldn't take any photos), and you weren't allowed to sketch or draw any of the pieces on display! Julia and I managed to very easily kill two hours meandering around the exhibition working out which pieces we would like the most!
Saturday night it was off to the theatre - a late offer of tickets from friends to see Ducktastic. Not quite sure how to describe it really - a talking duck (not real!), lots of live ducks on stage, and a sort of love story. All filled with incredibly cheesy jokes - very very funny! Very slapstick but very well done. And the ducks were very cool - very funny to watch the actors adlib as the duck patently didn't do what it was meant to do at that particular moment in the script. They managed it very well!
Then on Sunday we were off out to Sevenoaks in Kent to finally visit our friends who moved out there about 4 months ago. We also got to see their gorgeous wee girl Daisy as well - last seen when she was about 2 months old, and now a very different 7 month old! Very cute. Had a lovely day with them, went for a walk in Knole Park and saw the deer - lots of little bambi ones running around. Sevenoaks apparently now has 8 oaks - they have replanted the 6 that came down in the big storm in 1987 (? I think the storm was 1987) with 7 new ones. Well so Jannine and Stuart said - I haven't verified it as yet on the highly informative Sevenoaks life site I've just found!
And Sunday night we just went home and collapsed!
Friday night it was off to the Barbican to see Michael Nyman who is touring on his 'The Piano Sings' tour. We had great seats - second row from the front, right by the piano. Very cool. The show was a mix of him playing music from film scores he has written (including some from The Piano), and him playing music he had written for 3 silent films. The last one was the best - a score to an old film of Nice - that was great.
Saturday I was off to see the Diamonds exhibition at the Natural History Museum with Julia. It was absolutely amazing - very very sparkly! It had some absolutely incredible pieces, including some stunning coloured diamonds as well (which I never knew existed before). So I'm deliberating now as to whether I'd like a rare pink diamond or perhaps a stunning flame coloured orange one! Very strict security - including alarmed cabinets which both Julia and I kept touching and kept getting told off for! You also had to switch your mobile phone off (so you couldn't take any photos), and you weren't allowed to sketch or draw any of the pieces on display! Julia and I managed to very easily kill two hours meandering around the exhibition working out which pieces we would like the most!
Saturday night it was off to the theatre - a late offer of tickets from friends to see Ducktastic. Not quite sure how to describe it really - a talking duck (not real!), lots of live ducks on stage, and a sort of love story. All filled with incredibly cheesy jokes - very very funny! Very slapstick but very well done. And the ducks were very cool - very funny to watch the actors adlib as the duck patently didn't do what it was meant to do at that particular moment in the script. They managed it very well!
Then on Sunday we were off out to Sevenoaks in Kent to finally visit our friends who moved out there about 4 months ago. We also got to see their gorgeous wee girl Daisy as well - last seen when she was about 2 months old, and now a very different 7 month old! Very cute. Had a lovely day with them, went for a walk in Knole Park and saw the deer - lots of little bambi ones running around. Sevenoaks apparently now has 8 oaks - they have replanted the 6 that came down in the big storm in 1987 (? I think the storm was 1987) with 7 new ones. Well so Jannine and Stuart said - I haven't verified it as yet on the highly informative Sevenoaks life site I've just found!
And Sunday night we just went home and collapsed!
Thursday, October 20, 2005
Thursday's trials
Hmm - shall I tell you about my trip in this morning and turn into a real travel bore? I think not - otherwise I might feel compelled to report on my trips in every day which could get very tedious (both for me and you!). Suffice to say that there were delays (again...) and despite being on an earlier train than I was yesterday I still didn't get in until 9.15. As opposed to going home last night when I got the 18.02 from Waterloo and was in Surbiton by 18.20...
I did get a seat though and the train wasn't crowded so it wasn't quite as bad as the woes of Wednesday... Am currently reading Attention All Shipping - A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly and can thoroughly recommend it. It is very funny - so subsequently I look like an idiot as I sit there and smile (and occasionally laugh out loud) to myself on the train... I'm not sure he's inspired me to visit many of the places that I've read about but it is a good read.
It reminds me of A Land of Two Halves by Joe Bennett which I read not long after I got back to the UK. Also very funny - and very good I thought. Best thing I've read for ages that even begins to capture who New Zealanders are - as well as capturing our foibles very well! If you aren't familiar with it, it is about an Englishman who has lived in NZ for 15 years, and to try and work out if he wants to stay he decides to hitchhike around the country. I read about it in a North & South book review I think.
I did get a seat though and the train wasn't crowded so it wasn't quite as bad as the woes of Wednesday... Am currently reading Attention All Shipping - A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast by Charlie Connelly and can thoroughly recommend it. It is very funny - so subsequently I look like an idiot as I sit there and smile (and occasionally laugh out loud) to myself on the train... I'm not sure he's inspired me to visit many of the places that I've read about but it is a good read.
It reminds me of A Land of Two Halves by Joe Bennett which I read not long after I got back to the UK. Also very funny - and very good I thought. Best thing I've read for ages that even begins to capture who New Zealanders are - as well as capturing our foibles very well! If you aren't familiar with it, it is about an Englishman who has lived in NZ for 15 years, and to try and work out if he wants to stay he decides to hitchhike around the country. I read about it in a North & South book review I think.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Winter is approaching... trains start packing up...
Oh yes. One of the joys of living in London is the daily commute in to work. Fortunately for me I do it all via overground train as opposed to the tube - and to be fair, SouthWestTrains have been very good lately.
But - the weather is starting to get colder, leaves are starting to fall - and the problems have started. I've adopted the British fixation on transport so I thought I'd share this morning's trip with you...
8.17: Get to station. Little bit late for me, but I was in time for the fast 8.19 to Waterloo so no problems. Still easily be in work by 9.
8.19: Train pulls in. Can't get on due to train being full. Little bit unusual but I'm not too bothered as the next train is another fast service at 8.25.
8.19: 8.19 pulls out. Then I realise that the 8.25 is not due until 8.31 and there are in fact, problems...
8.20: Apparently there are signal problems around Waterloo. Services are delayed and cancelled. Regret not getting on 8.19...
8.31:
But - the weather is starting to get colder, leaves are starting to fall - and the problems have started. I've adopted the British fixation on transport so I thought I'd share this morning's trip with you...
8.17: Get to station. Little bit late for me, but I was in time for the fast 8.19 to Waterloo so no problems. Still easily be in work by 9.
8.19: Train pulls in. Can't get on due to train being full. Little bit unusual but I'm not too bothered as the next train is another fast service at 8.25.
8.19: 8.19 pulls out. Then I realise that the 8.25 is not due until 8.31 and there are in fact, problems...
8.20: Apparently there are signal problems around Waterloo. Services are delayed and cancelled. Regret not getting on 8.19...
8.31:
- Late running 8.25 pulls in. Get on easily enough (I know where to stand to be by the doors - a true commuter I am!), but don't get a seat. Train fills up, not everyone gets in. Train is also stinking hot as the heating seems to be on full bore.
- Feeling very hot. Train runs fairly fast for about 5-10 minutes. Read my book, wishing I had a seat.
- Train guard apologises for the delay. Tells us that the original problem was caused by signal failure at Vauxhall, but this has now been compounded by faults on the line. Doesn't elaborate on said faults.
- Also apologises for the heat in the train, but apparently the driver cannot turn the heating off until we get to Waterloo. (!)
- Train stops. We go nowhere for a while. I desperately try to avoid thinking about the fact that I am very hot, the carriage is very crowded and I couldn't get off even if I wanted to. Since my MRI back in Wellington I've had problems with claustrophobia and it doesn't take me long to get panicky on a full train.
- Train starts to move. Stops again, this time under a bridge so I can't see daylight. Focus on the glimpse of daylight I can see and tell myself not to be stupid. There are no tunnels on my line. Resolutely quell rising panic and concentrate on my book.
- Guard announces that we will be stopping at Clapham Junction as a 'young lady' has been taken ill in the last carriage.
- Train gets to Clapham. Guard opens doors so he can get to the 'young lady'. He can't walk through the train as it is too full....
- Halleulujah! Man in seat next to me decides to get off train to find another route to London - always a mistake as it invariably takes longer. But I get a seat.
- Collapse on seat and give up on pretence of reading. Panic recedes slightly.
9.17: Train pulls into Waterloo (a normal fast service from Surbiton to Waterloo is around 20 mins during rush-hour...).
9.18: Make my way to Waterloo East where trains are also delayed, but one pulls in as I get to the platform.
9.45: Get to work.
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Film news, children's books and memories
Was browsing on the Empire magazine's website the other day and saw a piece that said they are going to film 'The Dark is Rising' by Susan Cooper - that title should ring bells with Tracey and Eryn! Tracey had the hardcover (I remember that very clearly!) of the first one in the Dark is Rising series - Over Sea Under Stone and I just loved it. I think it was the fave for me out of that series - quite scary to look at Amazon now and see it was written in 1968! Anyhow - needless to say I'm quite excited by the thought of the film!!
Got me thinking about other books I'd loved as a kid, and The Silver Crown by Robert O'Brien sprang immediately to mind. I can't remember a lot of it - a crown, the heroine meeting a stonemason (as in headstones) who had had to do headstones for his family, and generally the book being very dark. Again on Amazon there were a few reviews of people who had loved it as a child and had re-read it and still really enjoyed it. So I thought I might revisit my past and buy it!
I was in Waterstone's recently (who have linked up with Amazon so my plan of linking to their website seems a bit redundant now...) and I noticed that there is a new range of classic children's books out, but reprinted in the old style covers that I read (things like Swallows & Amazons, Goodnight Mr Tom etc) and they looked great. Obviously designed to appeal to people like me - except I don't have children to spend my disposable income on! But I was tempted to buy them for myself...
Got me thinking about other books I'd loved as a kid, and The Silver Crown by Robert O'Brien sprang immediately to mind. I can't remember a lot of it - a crown, the heroine meeting a stonemason (as in headstones) who had had to do headstones for his family, and generally the book being very dark. Again on Amazon there were a few reviews of people who had loved it as a child and had re-read it and still really enjoyed it. So I thought I might revisit my past and buy it!
I was in Waterstone's recently (who have linked up with Amazon so my plan of linking to their website seems a bit redundant now...) and I noticed that there is a new range of classic children's books out, but reprinted in the old style covers that I read (things like Swallows & Amazons, Goodnight Mr Tom etc) and they looked great. Obviously designed to appeal to people like me - except I don't have children to spend my disposable income on! But I was tempted to buy them for myself...
Monday, October 17, 2005
My links
I finally got around to updating the links to the right - so now when I talk about Flickr you can just click there to go through to the site.
I've also included a link to Mhairi's blog - she who got me interested in all of this! And also NZ Edge - I get the newsletter from this site, and periodically dip into it. Reminds me (not that I need it often) about how cool it is to be a NZer, how great NZ is, and how many incredibly talented NZers there are around the world! Might not be of great interest to those living in Aotearoa but I'm quite partial to it :-).
I've also included a link to Mhairi's blog - she who got me interested in all of this! And also NZ Edge - I get the newsletter from this site, and periodically dip into it. Reminds me (not that I need it often) about how cool it is to be a NZer, how great NZ is, and how many incredibly talented NZers there are around the world! Might not be of great interest to those living in Aotearoa but I'm quite partial to it :-).
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Lenny - looking lovely as usual!
Lenny - looking lovely as usual!
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
Adrian sent me this photo of the lovely Lenny and I just had to share it with everyone. He was a true Slobcat and I was, as Maya always said "Lenny's bitch". He meowed and I jumped. Still miss him!
Friday, October 14, 2005
Final odds and sods from my hols
Here are some of the things that I noticed while in Italia...
- An amazing range of oddly worded t-shirts. Including several with a NZ theme. I particularly liked the rugby top emblazoned with 'North Island' and mockups of sponsor's logos. Turned it over and on the back it said New Zealand, North Island, Rugby League. I would have bought it but I knew I would never wear it.... It certainly wasn't any sort of 'official merchandise' that I've ever seen! I never knew the North Island had a rugby league team - had I known I would of course be a rabid supporter of them!
- Public toilets in Naples don't seem to have toilet seats. Ever.
- Italian men can carry off some extremely dodgy hairstyles and still look rather lovely while carrying by bag! Well actually it was just one in particular, on Stromboli...
- Pizzas really are better in Italy.
- You can lose the will to live queuing in an Italian post office. And then get back and find out that most of the postcards you queued to deliver still haven't arrived 3 weeks later!
- The Italians are obviously used to it, and queued patiently with no tutting, or frustrated 'haruumphs'
Fun volcano site...
Am I starting to sound obsessive?? Probably but this is about the last volcano thing - honestly! While researching facts (actually the correct spelling of Strombolicchio) I found this site and thought it was pretty cool. You can do the virtual ascent of Stromboli, but they don't use that route any more so it isn't actually the one that we did. But I was most impressed that they had a virtual 'Tongariro Crossing' - check it out!! Swiss Education - Volcanoes of the World
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Naples & Pompeii
So... back to the holiday. We left Stromboli at 5pm and got the evening ferry to Naples - 4 hours. We were pretty lucky as they stop the ferries to Naples at the end of September so it worked out well. Otherwise we would have had to go back to Messina and get a train up to Naples which would have taken the whole day so the 4 hour ferry was a much better option.
We stayed at Il Convento in Naples - it was alright. Very dark room which looked out onto a building being renovated. First hotel I've ever stayed at which supplied earplugs!! But it had been recently renovated and they had done a lot to block out the noise so we didn't actually need them. I've stayed in far noisier hotels!
After Palermo Naples was much nicer. Although everything we had read about it went on and on about the bag snatching being rife so we were completely paranoid everytime we left the hotel. But I felt much more unsafe in Palermo than I did in Naples. Consequently there are no photos from Naples as we were too worried about taking our cameras out! We only really had one day in the City - we wandered around, went up one of their cable cars, went up to a gallery next to the castle overlooking the city. That was pretty cool - had loads of nativity sets. I will come back and update this entry as I can't remember what it was called at the moment, and my google searches don't look right...
The next day we went to Pompeii. I have loads of photos from there to add to Flickr so will let you know when they are done. It was really quite incredible. Somewhat stupidly I hadn't really thought about how big it would be - the site is over 100 acres...
Us being us we duly got our Audio Guides and set off. Little bit of Megan stress at the start as I couldn't find the Baths which we had a timed ticket for (never did get to see them) but once I'd got over that it got better :-). Spent quite a while wandering around, listening to the guides until that got a bit boring so then we just wandered around and listened when we found interesting buildings. Probably the wrong way to do it - probably missed loads of interesting things but never mind! Halfway through it started to thunder and rain which was actually a blessing as the place emptied out. It went from a lovely sunny hot day to being dark and very wet - and not many people were prepared. Of course we were as I'm a weather obsessive so we just pulled out our walking jackets and we were sorted! As were most of the English people there (also weather obsessives - I must have got the gene from my Nana I think!).
I was somewhat morbidly fixated on seeing 'the dead people' as that is what I remember Pompeii being most famous for, but the only ones we saw were in a storage barn. Still very chilling. I read that a lot of the body casts are in the archaeological museum in Naples and we didn't get a chance to go there.
It was an incredible place however - and some of the frescoes that were still around were incredible. The fact that they have lasted so long is quite mindblowing - I've included a picture below, but there are plenty more on my Flickr site as well. Coming from Stromboli I really appreciated a bit more the power of the volcano... Interesting too that some people had the chance to leave but didn't. In fact at Herculaenum (nearby) they found a whole heap of bodies about 20 years ago - they had originally thought that only about 20 people died there, but they found around 150 I think down by the sea. Very sad really - they fled to the sea as they thought that would be safer... We didn't get a chance to get to Herculaneum but it is also meant to be really interesting.
The key thing for me at Pompeii was just the realisation that the site was so big, that so much of the town was affected, and that even now you can still wander around those streets. And Vesuvius still just sits there biding its time...
We stayed at Il Convento in Naples - it was alright. Very dark room which looked out onto a building being renovated. First hotel I've ever stayed at which supplied earplugs!! But it had been recently renovated and they had done a lot to block out the noise so we didn't actually need them. I've stayed in far noisier hotels!
After Palermo Naples was much nicer. Although everything we had read about it went on and on about the bag snatching being rife so we were completely paranoid everytime we left the hotel. But I felt much more unsafe in Palermo than I did in Naples. Consequently there are no photos from Naples as we were too worried about taking our cameras out! We only really had one day in the City - we wandered around, went up one of their cable cars, went up to a gallery next to the castle overlooking the city. That was pretty cool - had loads of nativity sets. I will come back and update this entry as I can't remember what it was called at the moment, and my google searches don't look right...
The next day we went to Pompeii. I have loads of photos from there to add to Flickr so will let you know when they are done. It was really quite incredible. Somewhat stupidly I hadn't really thought about how big it would be - the site is over 100 acres...
Us being us we duly got our Audio Guides and set off. Little bit of Megan stress at the start as I couldn't find the Baths which we had a timed ticket for (never did get to see them) but once I'd got over that it got better :-). Spent quite a while wandering around, listening to the guides until that got a bit boring so then we just wandered around and listened when we found interesting buildings. Probably the wrong way to do it - probably missed loads of interesting things but never mind! Halfway through it started to thunder and rain which was actually a blessing as the place emptied out. It went from a lovely sunny hot day to being dark and very wet - and not many people were prepared. Of course we were as I'm a weather obsessive so we just pulled out our walking jackets and we were sorted! As were most of the English people there (also weather obsessives - I must have got the gene from my Nana I think!).
I was somewhat morbidly fixated on seeing 'the dead people' as that is what I remember Pompeii being most famous for, but the only ones we saw were in a storage barn. Still very chilling. I read that a lot of the body casts are in the archaeological museum in Naples and we didn't get a chance to go there.
It was an incredible place however - and some of the frescoes that were still around were incredible. The fact that they have lasted so long is quite mindblowing - I've included a picture below, but there are plenty more on my Flickr site as well. Coming from Stromboli I really appreciated a bit more the power of the volcano... Interesting too that some people had the chance to leave but didn't. In fact at Herculaenum (nearby) they found a whole heap of bodies about 20 years ago - they had originally thought that only about 20 people died there, but they found around 150 I think down by the sea. Very sad really - they fled to the sea as they thought that would be safer... We didn't get a chance to get to Herculaneum but it is also meant to be really interesting.
The key thing for me at Pompeii was just the realisation that the site was so big, that so much of the town was affected, and that even now you can still wander around those streets. And Vesuvius still just sits there biding its time...
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
More photos uploaded
I've added a few more photos on Flickr from the holiday so make sure to check them out. Still more to come tho! Also some more of Chihuly at Kew as well. All organised into sets tho so it makes it easier for you!
Monday, October 10, 2005
Apologies....
Cos I know I said that I would update the blog and I haven't done it until now. But work was pretty heinous last week - got back from hols and found that there had been a load of redundancies made, including some of my best mates at work, so last week was pretty horrid and emotional and when I got home in the evening I just didn't feel like doing anything. But onwards and upwards - I know at least Lucy has been checking to see if I've written anything new so here are some updates - both holiday and otherwise - especially for you Lucy!!
Still more holiday blogging to come - but I've been at it for an hour and a half now and I'm tired...
Still more holiday blogging to come - but I've been at it for an hour and a half now and I'm tired...
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Climbing Stromboli - aka visiting dragons...
Well this post is out of order in terms of what we did on the holiday, but it was pretty much the highlight so I figured it was ok to talk about it first! I hope you've checked out the photos on Flickr - I've had some of mine back but they aren't as good as Kev's. I haven't uploaded them yet but will do so...
We had done a bit of research before going to Stromboli, so knew it was possible to climb the volcano. According to the guide book there was two options - a climb that left around late afternoon, or a climb that left around midnight, when you went up the mountain, sat there for about 3 hours watching the lava and waiting for the sun to come up before descending again. Before we got there we thought we would do that option but (thank god!) when we got there they said they no longer offered that tour as it was too dangerous to spend all night on the volcano. I don't know if I would have been able to stay up there that long anyhow, so I don't know what I would have done if we had done it! Stromboli last erupted in Dec 2002/2003 - luckily at Xmas time so there was hardly anyone on the island and so no one was killed. Caused a tsunami though that made it to Italy... Climbs to the summit have only been running again since March 2005 - so not very long...
We climbed with Magmatrek - check out their website here. Although it didn't really occur to me until afterwards, they had a very relaxed attitude to the whole deal. In terms of equipment we had to bring a torch (my head torch from Trailwalker came in very useful again!), a jacket, water, and a bandana or something to breathe through if it was dusty on the summit. No one checked our kit though... When we went to confirm our booking and pay the money we were also told that our guide didn't speak any English. They weren't telling us that from any safety angle - just to let us know! Luckily in our group (you climb in groups of about 10-15) we had a French guy who spoke some Italian and some English so he translated for all the English speakers in the group!! So when it came time to set off he just rounded us up and off we headed. No talk about the dangers of the volcano or what to do if anything went wrong - looking back afterwards it is hard to imagine any similar sort of expedition being run like that now in NZ!!
And so we headed off. It took about 2.5 hours to climb it - around 900metres high. There were a couple of school groups ahead of us (also being guided by Magmatrek) and another Magmatrek group behind us. I'd been a bit worried about the climb, but the guide took it really slowly and it was a very zig-zaggy path so wasn't too difficult. Incredibly hot tho - to say I was a sweatball would be pretty accurate! We set off about 4.30 and got to the summit at 7. Just before we got to the edge of the crater that we took the photos from there was an enormous boom (a bit like a sonic boom that radiated through your whole body), the ground shook, and in the distance you could see a red glow. And that was it for me - all of a sudden I realised where I was, and the penny dropped that the volcano might erupt with me on it! That wasn't helped by the fact that once we were all sat down on the crater edge one of the English speaking guides (Mario on the website) said we would be there for an hour. Then a couple of minutes later he was back saying "Actually its pretty active tonight (we'd just had another display of lava erupting) so we might not stay for the full hour...". I'm sure they say that to all of the groups but I was scared!!
Where you end up sitting is on a ridge that looks down to the vents which are where all the action is now happening. It is quite possible that if it spat out enough lava/rocks it could blow back on to the tourists, but you just have to trust that they are monitoring it enough so they know it isn't likely to happen. In the hour we were up there (which felt like a lifetime to me), we probably saw about 5 of the bigger eruptions, where the lava was shooting up into the air, accompanied by that booming sound that made me convinced I was about to die... And in between those there would be lots of other smaller eruptions - so I think it is safe to say that we really got our money's worth!!
It really was an incredible experience - even staying on the volcano was quite amazing as every now and then during the day you would hear a boom from the summit - its a pretty fiery one. I don't think I've really captured what it was like but it is hard to put it into words. I thought I was pretty au fait with the volcanic side of Mother Nature - growing up in Taupo with boiling mud pools and geysers and things you get some feel for it. But they have absolutely nothing on what I saw - we really do live on a ball of molten lava - and it was absolutely incredible, awesome and terrifying (to me) to see it at such close quarters.
Coming down was quite fun - I think we basically skiied down the side of the mountain, wading through the volcanic ash/sand that coats it. Fell over a couple of times but it was just like falling on a sand dune - also weird though cos you just couldn't see where you were - you just followed the torch in front! And I just felt better the closer I got to the bottom...
But I'd really recommend the trip! Even though it freaked me out, I would have been gutted to miss it due to bad weather or anything. And now that I'm back in nice non-volcanic England its getting easier to recommend it to other people!!
We had done a bit of research before going to Stromboli, so knew it was possible to climb the volcano. According to the guide book there was two options - a climb that left around late afternoon, or a climb that left around midnight, when you went up the mountain, sat there for about 3 hours watching the lava and waiting for the sun to come up before descending again. Before we got there we thought we would do that option but (thank god!) when we got there they said they no longer offered that tour as it was too dangerous to spend all night on the volcano. I don't know if I would have been able to stay up there that long anyhow, so I don't know what I would have done if we had done it! Stromboli last erupted in Dec 2002/2003 - luckily at Xmas time so there was hardly anyone on the island and so no one was killed. Caused a tsunami though that made it to Italy... Climbs to the summit have only been running again since March 2005 - so not very long...
We climbed with Magmatrek - check out their website here. Although it didn't really occur to me until afterwards, they had a very relaxed attitude to the whole deal. In terms of equipment we had to bring a torch (my head torch from Trailwalker came in very useful again!), a jacket, water, and a bandana or something to breathe through if it was dusty on the summit. No one checked our kit though... When we went to confirm our booking and pay the money we were also told that our guide didn't speak any English. They weren't telling us that from any safety angle - just to let us know! Luckily in our group (you climb in groups of about 10-15) we had a French guy who spoke some Italian and some English so he translated for all the English speakers in the group!! So when it came time to set off he just rounded us up and off we headed. No talk about the dangers of the volcano or what to do if anything went wrong - looking back afterwards it is hard to imagine any similar sort of expedition being run like that now in NZ!!
And so we headed off. It took about 2.5 hours to climb it - around 900metres high. There were a couple of school groups ahead of us (also being guided by Magmatrek) and another Magmatrek group behind us. I'd been a bit worried about the climb, but the guide took it really slowly and it was a very zig-zaggy path so wasn't too difficult. Incredibly hot tho - to say I was a sweatball would be pretty accurate! We set off about 4.30 and got to the summit at 7. Just before we got to the edge of the crater that we took the photos from there was an enormous boom (a bit like a sonic boom that radiated through your whole body), the ground shook, and in the distance you could see a red glow. And that was it for me - all of a sudden I realised where I was, and the penny dropped that the volcano might erupt with me on it! That wasn't helped by the fact that once we were all sat down on the crater edge one of the English speaking guides (Mario on the website) said we would be there for an hour. Then a couple of minutes later he was back saying "Actually its pretty active tonight (we'd just had another display of lava erupting) so we might not stay for the full hour...". I'm sure they say that to all of the groups but I was scared!!
Where you end up sitting is on a ridge that looks down to the vents which are where all the action is now happening. It is quite possible that if it spat out enough lava/rocks it could blow back on to the tourists, but you just have to trust that they are monitoring it enough so they know it isn't likely to happen. In the hour we were up there (which felt like a lifetime to me), we probably saw about 5 of the bigger eruptions, where the lava was shooting up into the air, accompanied by that booming sound that made me convinced I was about to die... And in between those there would be lots of other smaller eruptions - so I think it is safe to say that we really got our money's worth!!
It really was an incredible experience - even staying on the volcano was quite amazing as every now and then during the day you would hear a boom from the summit - its a pretty fiery one. I don't think I've really captured what it was like but it is hard to put it into words. I thought I was pretty au fait with the volcanic side of Mother Nature - growing up in Taupo with boiling mud pools and geysers and things you get some feel for it. But they have absolutely nothing on what I saw - we really do live on a ball of molten lava - and it was absolutely incredible, awesome and terrifying (to me) to see it at such close quarters.
Coming down was quite fun - I think we basically skiied down the side of the mountain, wading through the volcanic ash/sand that coats it. Fell over a couple of times but it was just like falling on a sand dune - also weird though cos you just couldn't see where you were - you just followed the torch in front! And I just felt better the closer I got to the bottom...
But I'd really recommend the trip! Even though it freaked me out, I would have been gutted to miss it due to bad weather or anything. And now that I'm back in nice non-volcanic England its getting easier to recommend it to other people!!
Friday, October 07, 2005
Palermo, Agrigento and Cefalu
Prior to conquering the beast that was Stromboli we visited some other pretty cool places...
We flew in to Palermo and spent a few days there. Which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Didn't like Palermo at all. It was just crowded and noisy and unpleasant. Narrow pavements so you were continually stepping off them to avoid people but then had to avoid being hit by the zillions of people on mopeds and the insane drivers they have there. I've had some hairy taxi rides in Europe before but the taxi trip from Palermo airport takes the cake. The way to overtake seems to be drive right up to the bumper of the car in front and flash your lights at it until it pulls over out of the way. Continually. All the way in. I was laughing by the time we got to the hotel but it may have been the relief at having survived the trip in!
Palermo is pretty much home to the Sicilian mafia which was quite interesting. Kevin is now reading Cosa Nostra, and we're rewatching the Godfather movies as well. We weren't that far from the town of Corleone (which is where Mario Puzo got the name from) but it didn't sound like there was much to see there - and I had a feeling we'd stand out like very obvious tourists looking for mafia people if we went there - didn't really appeal!
From Palermo we did a day trip to Agrigento though which was pretty cool. About two hours on the train, so we got to see a bit of Sicily - really sun burnt looking landscape. Very harsh. Apparently it is/was known as the bread basket of Italy and during the war Mussolini had it growing all the grain etc Italy needed. However they neglected the other crops and the soil lost all its nutrients. It doesn't seem to have recovered much from the bits that we saw.
Agrigento is a collection of Greek ruins which were pretty cool. Except the best ones were not only covered in scaffolding (occupational hazard of being a tourist at historical sites), but some of them were even wrapped in plastic - that was a new one on me... Also scattered throughout the Agrigento site were loads of olive trees which were pretty cool - not many olives on them though as I think the tourists had been helping themselves! There are some photos of the ruins on Flickr. I've got more to load on to Flickr as well - but it takes ages to do it at home over the dial up so it might take some time for them to appear.
We also did a day trip to Cefalu (also photos on Flickr, but more to come) which I really liked. Had a nice looking beach, loads of eating and drinking places overlooking the sea, and nice little lanes to wander around. Would be a good place to go back to for a Sept break I think. Of course by then we were desperate to get out of Palermo so maybe that made it look even better!
We flew in to Palermo and spent a few days there. Which I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Didn't like Palermo at all. It was just crowded and noisy and unpleasant. Narrow pavements so you were continually stepping off them to avoid people but then had to avoid being hit by the zillions of people on mopeds and the insane drivers they have there. I've had some hairy taxi rides in Europe before but the taxi trip from Palermo airport takes the cake. The way to overtake seems to be drive right up to the bumper of the car in front and flash your lights at it until it pulls over out of the way. Continually. All the way in. I was laughing by the time we got to the hotel but it may have been the relief at having survived the trip in!
Palermo is pretty much home to the Sicilian mafia which was quite interesting. Kevin is now reading Cosa Nostra, and we're rewatching the Godfather movies as well. We weren't that far from the town of Corleone (which is where Mario Puzo got the name from) but it didn't sound like there was much to see there - and I had a feeling we'd stand out like very obvious tourists looking for mafia people if we went there - didn't really appeal!
From Palermo we did a day trip to Agrigento though which was pretty cool. About two hours on the train, so we got to see a bit of Sicily - really sun burnt looking landscape. Very harsh. Apparently it is/was known as the bread basket of Italy and during the war Mussolini had it growing all the grain etc Italy needed. However they neglected the other crops and the soil lost all its nutrients. It doesn't seem to have recovered much from the bits that we saw.
Agrigento is a collection of Greek ruins which were pretty cool. Except the best ones were not only covered in scaffolding (occupational hazard of being a tourist at historical sites), but some of them were even wrapped in plastic - that was a new one on me... Also scattered throughout the Agrigento site were loads of olive trees which were pretty cool - not many olives on them though as I think the tourists had been helping themselves! There are some photos of the ruins on Flickr. I've got more to load on to Flickr as well - but it takes ages to do it at home over the dial up so it might take some time for them to appear.
We also did a day trip to Cefalu (also photos on Flickr, but more to come) which I really liked. Had a nice looking beach, loads of eating and drinking places overlooking the sea, and nice little lanes to wander around. Would be a good place to go back to for a Sept break I think. Of course by then we were desperate to get out of Palermo so maybe that made it look even better!
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Here be dragons...
In the Rough Guide to Sicily it says about Stromboli that it is a volcano that deserves to have a sign stuck in the top saying 'Here be dragons' and they were not wrong...
We had a fab holiday - more of which later. But this post is just to let you know that I've uploaded a few photos on to Flickr from the hols, including some of our night climb of Stromboli. I will write more about it later, but I can honestly say that I have never been so scared by Mother Nature in my life. It was an incredibly humbling and awesome experience to watch and hear the lava eruptions from a very active volcano... We were up there for an hour, and all I could think was "I don't want to die. Please can we go now!". I will describe it in more detail - it deserves a lot more, but check out the photos below, and the others on Flickr. I'll be adding to these as well - Kevin took loads so until my films get developed I'll plunder his!
Quick timetable: Spent a few days in Palermo which we didn't like. Noisy, crowded and just generally not so fab. Did a lovely day trip to Cefalu however - looked like a great spot for an off season summer holiday, and Agrigento - very cool Greek ruins. Then we took the ferry to Salina, one of the Aeolian islands. Spent 4 days there chilling out, doing day trips to Stromboli and Vulcano (which named all the other volcanoes!), then went to Stromboli for 2 nights - including the infamous climb, then to Naples for 3 nights - including a day trip to Pompeii - of which more in a later post.
It was a great two weeks tho - sadly back to reality in London now :-(
We had a fab holiday - more of which later. But this post is just to let you know that I've uploaded a few photos on to Flickr from the hols, including some of our night climb of Stromboli. I will write more about it later, but I can honestly say that I have never been so scared by Mother Nature in my life. It was an incredibly humbling and awesome experience to watch and hear the lava eruptions from a very active volcano... We were up there for an hour, and all I could think was "I don't want to die. Please can we go now!". I will describe it in more detail - it deserves a lot more, but check out the photos below, and the others on Flickr. I'll be adding to these as well - Kevin took loads so until my films get developed I'll plunder his!
Quick timetable: Spent a few days in Palermo which we didn't like. Noisy, crowded and just generally not so fab. Did a lovely day trip to Cefalu however - looked like a great spot for an off season summer holiday, and Agrigento - very cool Greek ruins. Then we took the ferry to Salina, one of the Aeolian islands. Spent 4 days there chilling out, doing day trips to Stromboli and Vulcano (which named all the other volcanoes!), then went to Stromboli for 2 nights - including the infamous climb, then to Naples for 3 nights - including a day trip to Pompeii - of which more in a later post.
It was a great two weeks tho - sadly back to reality in London now :-(
Salmonella Dub at Shepherd's Bush Empire
Hot on the heels of getting back from the holiday I was off to Shepherd's Bush Empire on the Sunday night to see Salmonella Dub. Despite evidence to the contrary I don't spend my whole time over here going to see NZ bands - its just that Fat Freddy's and SD have toured very close to each other - honest!!
So it was my first time seeing them, although I've heard Eryn wax lyrical about them often enough. They were really good - and quite a different crowd from that at Fat Freddy's. But standing by the bar wasn't such a fab idea as I just got soaked with beer - or maybe it was just the crowd... So I went home smelling like I'd drunk about 10 pints, just missed a train and had to wait in the cold for about half an hour, so all in all I think I had a better time at Fat Freddy's...
So it was my first time seeing them, although I've heard Eryn wax lyrical about them often enough. They were really good - and quite a different crowd from that at Fat Freddy's. But standing by the bar wasn't such a fab idea as I just got soaked with beer - or maybe it was just the crowd... So I went home smelling like I'd drunk about 10 pints, just missed a train and had to wait in the cold for about half an hour, so all in all I think I had a better time at Fat Freddy's...
Friday, September 16, 2005
Off to Sicily now... Back in two weeks
So we're off to Sicily and Naples for two weeks now so it is highly unlikely there will be any posts from me until Oct 1st at the earliest. But look out for great photos and stories (hopefully!) when we get back!
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
'the drop'
Went to see Fat Freddy's Drop last night at Koko - twice in one week and I'm becoming very partial to that venue!
Band was supreme - really enjoyed them. I'd been worried that I would miss most of the gig if they came on too late. I turn into a pumpkin around 11.30 - especially whenKoko is in Camden (North London) and I live in Southwest London! So I left at 11.30 when they were saying they were playing their last song but they went on until midnight apparently. I saw about 1 hour 45 mins so I felt like I'd got good value for money.
Ended up on the 2nd level where I had a great view and was surrounded by people who were really into the music, as opposed to most of the people on the ground floor who were more interested in talking to each other and all I could hear was people talking and I was there to listen to the music... People talking all through a gig is becoming a bit of a bug bear of mine - think its a sure sign I'm getting old!
Band was supreme - really enjoyed them. I'd been worried that I would miss most of the gig if they came on too late. I turn into a pumpkin around 11.30 - especially whenKoko is in Camden (North London) and I live in Southwest London! So I left at 11.30 when they were saying they were playing their last song but they went on until midnight apparently. I saw about 1 hour 45 mins so I felt like I'd got good value for money.
Ended up on the 2nd level where I had a great view and was surrounded by people who were really into the music, as opposed to most of the people on the ground floor who were more interested in talking to each other and all I could hear was people talking and I was there to listen to the music... People talking all through a gig is becoming a bit of a bug bear of mine - think its a sure sign I'm getting old!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
And they won!
After yet another nailbiting game, England did manage to win the Ashes back! Watched the end of the game in the pub yesterday, and then stayed for the presentations as well. Really nice to be in a pub where everyone was interested in the after match interviews, and were also clapping the Australians as well - very magnaminous (sp?) in victory we all were!
Check out the BBC website for photos from the parade - I love the drunken ones of Flintoff. He was apparently still sat in the bar at 5.45am with a G&T. And it didn't sound like Pietersen had stopped drinking from after the game till they got on the bus!
An absolutely great series.
Check out the BBC website for photos from the parade - I love the drunken ones of Flintoff. He was apparently still sat in the bar at 5.45am with a G&T. And it didn't sound like Pietersen had stopped drinking from after the game till they got on the bus!
An absolutely great series.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
The Ashes - Day 1 at the Oval, Thursday Sept 8 2005
What a great day! Absolutely superb - we saw Andrew Strauss get his century (my first 'live' century), Flintoff get his 50 (so disappointing when he went out for 71 tho - the crowd would have erupted if he had got to 100...), and Shane Warne take 5 wickets. While it was brilliant to see "Warney" get 5 wickets, it was a shame it was at the expense of the English cricket team... Highlights of the day for me included:
- Brilliant sun all day - from 10.30 till 6 the sun blazed down. Incredibly lucky as every day since then has been affected by either rain or poor light.
- All of the blokes around us getting clucky and broody around Nola (Craig & Sarah's 4 month old who came along with her mum and dad). Offering the ice packs from their cool bags to help cool her down, wet flannels being lent, requests to hold her... Everyone just loved the fact that she was starting so young - one guy congratulated C & S, saying "Well done". Obviously the pinnacle of good parenting is to take them to sporting events at a young age!
- Glen McGrath giving as good as he got when he was down on the boundary. In response to chants of "You thought you'd win 5 nil", he pretended to kick a football and held up one finger, referring to England's 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland the night before...
- Crowd chanting 'Hi ho, hi ho, its off to work we go' to Justin Langer when he was on the boundary...
- The incredibly irritating Australian woman somewhere behind us who spent the whole day yelling 'Bowl him Shane', 'Well bowled Shane' or 'Go Shane' in a very high pitched voice. By the end of the day every Englishman in the vicinity was mimicking the voice...
- The brass band playing outside when we were queuing to get in, playing 'Rule Britannia' and 'The Great Escape'.
As I type this it is Sunday afternoon and England have gone off again for bad light. And incredibly they got Australia out for six less than their innings. This has been a brilliant series!! I'll post photos when I get my film developed...
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Elbow at Koko, 6th September
Went to see Elbow last night at Koko. They were really good - not as 'pipe and slippers' live as they sound on their CDs!! Played a few songs off their upcoming album which sounded pretty good. Koko was pretty amazing too - great old theatre reinvented as a gig venue and night club. Off there next week to see Fat Freddy's Drop, and I think it will be a great venue to see them at.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Chihuly at Kew Gardens
Kevin and I went to see 'Gardens of Glass' at Kew Gardens last weekend. We almost didn't go as for some reason we got our bus numbers mixed up and hopped on the wrong bus. Almost an hour later and around the same time we both realised that we weren't going the right way... But we persevered and it was well worth it. It was brilliant. Loads of different blown glass pieces scattered around the gardens, both inside and out. I think my favourite was the Thames Skiff - it was so colourful, and as we went on a sunny day it just looked stunning. Some of the pieces in the glass houses were also quite hard to spot - they were done so well that it took a couple of seconds until you realised that it wasn't a plant you were looking at!
Check out the photos - and I've loaded more on to my Flikr account so take a look at that too.
Following that we headed back to Richmond and went to The Cricketers to watch the incredibly nailbiting end of the 4th Ashes test. The pub was full of (mainly) men who were just groaning and hardly daring to look at the screen - great atmosphere. Roll on Thursday when we are off to the Oval for the first day of the last test - can't wait!!
P1010063
Originally uploaded by Megan Shields.
Friday, August 26, 2005
Welcome to my blog!
OK – I’ve got the blogging bug since doing most of the stuff for our Nola’s Strollers blog. Got me thinking ‘Why not do my own…’, especially after checking out Mhairi’s blog – friend at work also from NZ and the resident blogmaster :-). Couldn’t have done the Trailwalker one without her expert assistance!
The name was inspired by a Starsailor gig I went to at the beginning of August at Somerset House. They did a cover of ‘London’s Calling’ by The Clash, and after the recent attacks over here it was such an uplifting cover and the crowd just loved it. Made me think that pretty much the whole time I’ve been over here I’ve lived by the river… and the blog name was born. I love living by/close to the Thames, and I work right next to it now as well at More London so it just seemed to fit.
Keep checking back – I’ll be updating on a regular basis - well as long as I have something interesting to talk about! Comments/feedback etc all most welcome!
The name was inspired by a Starsailor gig I went to at the beginning of August at Somerset House. They did a cover of ‘London’s Calling’ by The Clash, and after the recent attacks over here it was such an uplifting cover and the crowd just loved it. Made me think that pretty much the whole time I’ve been over here I’ve lived by the river… and the blog name was born. I love living by/close to the Thames, and I work right next to it now as well at More London so it just seemed to fit.
Keep checking back – I’ll be updating on a regular basis - well as long as I have something interesting to talk about! Comments/feedback etc all most welcome!
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