CeeCee's Muse

Hitched!

2009-03-31T10:51:00.002+01:00

Well, for starters, I'm back in Oz. In case you didn't know, Lora and I moved back to Sydney in October, after a great trip through southeast Asia.

Check out the pictures here.

Now, for the big news, for those who didn't know: I'm now a married man! We got married on a beautiful day in Vaucluse, with our parents present, and enjoyed a great degustation dinner afterwards that would almost justify a blog post on its own.

In a way, this brings my blog to a nice conclusion. I haven't quite gone full circle but, when I left for London, I wasn't sure what I was looking for over there. A bit of travelling, some partying, meeting new friends, experiencing new things...But, beside all that, I suppose, at the back of my mind, the possibility of meeting the special one was always a possibility.

Now that I'm back in Sydney, and Lora is with me, and we're busy building our new lives over here, it does feel like a page's been turned. My european trip was a great chapter of my life. Now, on to the next one...

For that reason, I don't know if I'll post any more entries to this blog but never say never. Thanks for everyone who ever followed this blog, there were more of you than I thought :-)

Wow, it's been a while...

2008-09-23T10:30:00.005+01:00

Is anyone still reading this? It's hard to believe that my last post goes back almost a year. A lot has happened since then. So much that it feels like a lot of work to give you a full retrospective now :-)

I should probably mention the most important event of the last year: Lora and I are now engaged and are in the process of moving to Australia! But more on that later...

I do remember thinking about having to blog about our trip to Turkey (August 2007!) but for some reason, that never happened, and now I have a few more trips to blog about! Let's recap quickly then:

Turkey, in August 2007, was awesome. Loved it, the people, the beach, the food, the history (Greco-Roman ruins everywhere!), except for Turkish drivers, who are batshit insane.
In September 2007, we went to the Loire Valley to catch up with my parents and see a few castles. Again, a lovely trip and a nice contrast to the South Med.
Later that month, we caught up with Mike and Renaye in Southampton, and spent a lovely day in Winchester. I also got to see a Championship game betwee Cardiff and the Saints. Thanks, Mike!
In a bid to fight the winter blues, December saw us set out on a 4-day trip to the Costwolds, where I'd never been and decided to treat ourselves to a luxury B&B in Cheltenham. One of the best parts of England, with lovely medieval towns seemingly everywhere.
After a bit of a break, trip-wise, the lads (Tim, Adam) and I spent the Easter long weekend in Reyjkavik, Iceland. Some of the most dramatic landscapes I've ever seen. Truly a land cut for giants. Amazing.
Venice, in April 2008, lived up to its reputation and was magical. A city like no others, where every street corner seems to offer a photo opportunity, as evidenced by the few hundred shots I brought back...
And finally, our last European city break, for a while anyway, was in Edinburgh. I'd vowed to go to Scotland at least once while I was here and I didn't regret it: people are lovely, the city is full of charm and even the sun turned out (while it was pissing down in London!)

Now, it is September 2008, and my European adventure is coming to a close. Lora and I have now moved out of London and are staying at my future in-laws. Our travels aren't over yet: on our way to Australia, we'll be stopping by Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. That should make for a nice change from medieval towns! :-)

PAUUUUL!!!!!!!!

2007-10-29T22:12:00.000Z

People who know me are all aware of my obsession with the Beatles. Being a very musical person, I'm into all sorts of bands but no other artist can claim to have absorbed as much of my life as the Fab Four, to the point where I'm one of these people who can tell you that "Hey Jude" was not recorded in Abbey Road but in Trident Studios.

Yes, I'm a Beatlemaniac.

And furthermore, I'm a Macca fan. I love John just as much but Paul's melodic sensibilities have always struck a chord with me.

Anyway, I'd always hoped to see Paul McCartney live one day. I remember a traumatic moment in early 1993 where my dad and I had come so close to get tickets to his first australian tour in 20 years, until my dad realized that the concert (for which we'd have to fly over from New Caledonia) was on the first day of school! No amount of begging on my part managed to sway my father: school came first. Sure enough, Paul's gig sold out, it was a big success and there went my chance of seeing my hero live.

Coming to Europe, I'd harboured a faint hope that he'd be touring while I was here but even this quickly faded when he chose to tour the US rather than Europe in 2004. Then he did not announce any tour in support of his new album early this year. So I'd pretty much given up.

Until last week. I was just looking at my screen on Tuesday when an email popped in, from Macca's mailing-list, with the subject "New Tickets For Paul's Electric Proms Show". I opened it, and it said something about a final, last-minute batch of tickets released for Paul's one-off gig at the Roundhouse that Thursday. There was a link. I clicked it. It took me to a ticket-selling website, and without quite stopping to think, I kep clicking on the links, expecting the "SOLD OUT" message to pop up at any time.

And then, I got to the end, my reservation number was on the screen, and it finally dawned on me that I'd somehow got 2 tickets to go and see PAUL McCARTNEY live at the Roundhouse (and for less than 60 quids, too), the day after my birthday.

I got the shakes, I got a cold sweat and I started checking, double-checking and triple-checking my confirmation email, the website, the original email, etc, since some part of me couldn't quite believe my luck, and still thought it was all a scam. Once established that it was in fact my lucky day, I buzzed Lora on MSN to tell her to keep Thursday free, or to cancel whatever else we had on that day, because I don't think anything else could possibly have taken priority over that gig, short of someone giving birth (and even then...).

The gig was at the Roundhouse, and was a one-off concert, part of a series of similar performances for the BBC Electric Proms. When I got to the venue, I couldn't believe how small it was. You could fit about 3000 people on the floor, and without being the first ones there (some people had been queuing since early morning), we managed to get very close to the stage, as in like less than 10 meters. I still couldn't quite believe it.

So, yeah, the gig. It rocked. There's not even any point in me reviewing it, or even describing it, since I cannot possibly have an objective view of that evening. And you couldn't possibly understand, not unless you were a Beatlemaniac yourself. A little kid who'd spent most of his childhood listening to both sides of "Abbey Road" and "A Hard Day's Night" before going to bed. A kid who could sing along to the entire Beatles catalog phonetically, years before he'd even learnt how to speak english. So, yeah, I won't bother getting into details. That one was for me. Best. Birthday. Ever.

PS: Check out the photos.

Radiohead rocks.

2007-10-02T11:03:00.000+01:00

All the Radiohead fans were aware that the band was busy recording but nobody expected anything before early 2008. I mean, if you're a musicophile like me, you follow the blogs, the press, you read the NME and Stereogum website, etc, so you tend to be aware of what's going on and what's coming out, you just know what's on the radar.

Plus, even if the album was finished, you just know that it'd take months for the whole she-bang to get in motion, PR, marketing, etc. Nothing till next year, for sure.

But then, this showed up on Radiohead's blog :

Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;

We've called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.
Jonny

What? Hang on? New album? Now? Huh? How?

How? Well, by pointing a middle finger at the record industry, that's how: you can order the download frm their website now but check your basket, you'll notice that you can PAY WHATEVER YOU FEEL IS RIGHT for the record. It's up TO YOU. No, REALLY, it's up to YOU.

Nice move. Wonder how EMI feels now (Radiohead's contract with them ended with the last record and they're now without a label. Like they need one.)

Back on the Net! At last!!!

2007-09-18T22:53:00.000+01:00

Yes, I've only just got back onto the grid, after almost 3 months without the Net at home. It was tough, rough & hard, I tell ya!

I'll finally be able to put some updates on this blog, and also upload some photos from various trips, including a major update about our holiday in Turkey (check out the photo above to see where I spent most of my mornings)

However, after going cold turkey for so long, maybe I shouldn't rush back into this ;-) I'll take it slowly so, yeah, that's it for today :-P

We've moved!

2007-09-11T10:36:00.000+01:00

Finally! After 5 months of proceedings, and 2 months in temporary accommodation, Lora and I moved into her new flat this weekend. I was also able to get my stuff back from my old flat, which was nice.

Now, I need to go through all the tedious shit you need to do when you move, e.g. connect the phone, utilities, buy a washing machine and GET BROADBAND INTERNET!!!!

It'll take a while so I'm not back just yet but, when I am, I'll post a few more updates on what's been happening.

Quick note: we saw THE POLICE at Twickenham Stadium this Saturday. Absolutely Rockingfully AWESOME! They played all the hits and only the hits but they re-arranged all of them, to a sometimes surprising degree of re-invention. Songs I moderately liked before came alive before my ears (and eyes) and songs I already loved took on completely new aspects. Now, that's the way to play a greatest hits show, rather than just play everything like the record (Eagles, I'm looking at you)

PS: Stewart Copeland is an absolute legend.

Pastor of Muppets

2007-08-02T10:55:00.000+01:00

This made me laugh. Careful with that sound, though, if you're at work :-)

On another note, I haven't been able to update this blog, although lots has happened (lads week-end in Bruges, trip to Paris, etc.) in the last couple of months. Lora and I have moved down the hall, temporarily, while we wait for the deal on her new flat to complete. This means no internet at home(!). Yeah, I know, I know. Tough times. I'm coping...so far (gottastopshaking...gottastopshaking...gottastopshaking...)

Anyway, this explains the lack of updates. I'll be back, though!

Bye Titi. Thanks for the memories.

2007-06-24T09:21:00.000+01:00

The best player in the history of the Premier League is off to Barcelona. *sigh*. Definitely another step towards the end of an era, after all my favourite players have now either left or retired (Veira, Pires, Bergkamp and now Titi). Feels like I arrived in London just a year too late!

At least, I'll have the satisfaction of having seen a legend play on his turf, in Highbury. Now, I need to get cable so I can watch La Liga!

In the meantime, like scores of Arsenal fans around the world, I'm going to reminisce before moving on. Enjoy the Master at work:

Some skills...

...and then some goals. Lots of goals.

I know, I know...

2007-05-16T22:57:00.000+01:00

I know, I go on about this ZZ guy but, hey, the season's over and the weather's shit so it doesn't hurt to revisit the past a little bit. Plus, this video's got stuff in it I haven't seen before, along, of course, with all the usual "roulette" footage but even then, the montage makes it look a little bit fresher. For example, check out the quick edits from the 2:02 mark, it becomes mesmerizing...

A bit of news...

2007-05-07T22:01:00.000+01:00

Well, things have changed a bit around here in the last few weeks. You could say that my life has changed throughout two fairly important events.

Firstly, I've got a new job again. This one marks a bit of a momentous occasion: I have joined the Dark Side, I am officially "scum", I am a blood-sucker, blah blah, etc. In other words, I am now an IT contractor. That was my original goal when I'd moved to the UK but things had turned out differently. Never too late to start making some real dough, though...

Secondly, and this one's a bit of a more radical change: I've moved in with Lora. (*snigger* *snigger* Shush! at the back! I can see you!) We'd been planning that for a while but things didn't quite go according to plan. Lora was going to sell her flat and buy a bigger one, in which I was to move in with her. We'd found a nice flat in East Dulwich, and it was all going forward, leading me to give my notice to my landlord. A bit optimistically, as it turned out...

After a few months of complicated proceedings, through which I learnt more about British real estate laws than I ever wanted to know (leaseholds?!? Whoever thought of these stupid things?!?), both the sale and purchase fell through. So, we're now back at square one, with the difference that I've had to vacate my room and move into Lora's existing one-bedroom flat in Greenwich.

It's a very nice and lovely flat, mind you, and in a pretty good location so things aren't exactly bad, if only a little "cosy" at times. It's been about 6 days now and we haven't killed each other yet so we're doing good so far ;-)

Prague!

2007-05-07T21:29:00.000+01:00

Well, if anyone's still reading this blog, I should probably apologise for the lack of updates. I'm seriously considering stopping it altogether, since I can't be bothered keeping this up to date. Maybe I'll keep this blog up just to document my doings for my own purposes, instead, to give me some sort of insight into what my life was like at this point, when I look back upon these entries a few years down the line :-)

Anyway, off to an update. Lora and I went to Prague for the Easter long weekend. This was my first time in Eastern Europe, behind the old Iron Curtain, so I was quite keen to discover whatever remnants of not only communism but also of the Holy Roman Empire.

It was at first a bit of a disappointment when we got there, as one of my first sights in the airport was a KFC! Westernization is well and truly under way in the Czech Republic, and the huge number of tourists in the city is certainly driving this phenomenon forward.

However, there are still plenty of things to enjoy in the old city, and I was fascinated to be walking through arches, bridges and buildings going back to the 14th century, following the same path which emperors and kings trodded upon back in the glorious days of the Holy Roman Empire.

Compared to other European cities which have moved on with the times, like Paris and London, the old center of Prague still retains many attributes of centuries past, making it easy for one to step back in time. That's not necessarily true, however, for areas outside of the centre, where buildings and roads look much more like one would imagine when thinking of communist states.

Our culinary experiences were surprinsingly diverse, with many influences now making their way into Czech restaurants. At the end of the day, though, Czech cuisine is still based around the likes of Goulash and dumplings, which makes it very tasty but hard to recommend to people looking after their cholesterol ;-) Interestingly, french culture seems quite preponderant, with many cafes and restaurants looking like they were set in the Paris of the 1930's. Not quite sure why.

Overall, a great experience, and more magic memories to add to our collection. Go and see the photos here.

Thought for the day.

2007-03-06T15:24:00.000Z

"In the end, all Holy Wars are about finding out who's got the best imaginary friend..."

Allegria!

2007-02-20T22:50:00.000Z

One of the things I had to look forward to, coming back from holidays, was the Cirque Du Soleil show we had booked. Not only was it going to be my first time at the Royal Albert Hall but we definitely needed a bit of a morale boost, after spending a month in the tropics and coming back to the cold winter of England.

This particular show was the Allegria production, which was on its last world tour. I'm usually not much for clowns and trapezes but I'd heard so many good things about the Cirque du Soleil I was willing to give it a go.

I was particularly interested in the high art slant that the company is famous for bringing to its productions, and I wasn't disappointed.

While, at its core, the different acts weren't doing anything that out of the ordinary, the spectacle succeeds in presenting an unified thematical approach, helped not in the least by an anthemic soundtrack. Actually, I reckon that the prominent role played by the music helps lift the production to another level altogether, especially with such a tight live band.

Definitely worth seeing, and I would be more than keen to see their other productions currently touring the world. Now, if only they brought the Love spectacle to London...

Miam!

2007-02-08T22:18:00.000Z

We've had a couple of things to celebrate lately, which gave us the opportunity to try out a couple of nice eateries and satiate our palates with some gloriously rich, refined cuisine.

First, Lora and I celebrated our anniversary of sort (1st date or something like that :-P) by going to L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Now, Joel Robuchon himself is usually considered one of the Top 3 Chefs in the world so that's not too ordinary in itself, and the Atelier is supposed to be one of the trendiest new places to eat in Soho.

I'd heard of the famous degustation menu, through hearsay and online reviews and I was originally set to go for that. However, looking at the list of tapas-style dishes, we agreed that there were some things we didn't care for in there. In the end, we decided to go for a custom selection of dishes, rather than the degustation menu, which allowed to sample an array of flavours more suited to our personal taste.

Let's just say that you don't eat food like that very often, not only in regards to the expense (good thing it's only once a year :-P) but also in regards to the glorious sensations and flavours encountered that night. Miam!

The next culinary stop was only 2 weeks later, this time for Lora's birthday. I let the lucky girl pick the venue, which was the North Pole, in Greenwich. While not quite as posh as l'Atelier, it was still fairly classy, with a proper sommelier-waiter ready to give you helpful advice about which wine would go with our choice of meals, and ready to answer your every question. The evening was made even better by the fact that the restaurant was really quiet, which allowed for some intimacy and above-average service.

Now, I'm going back to my diet (again).

(belated) Happy New Year!

2007-01-07T22:00:00.000Z

Yo! I'm back! It's been a while since the last update, and for good reason: I was away for a month! Some of you will be aware of that, since we caught up in Sydney or in Nouméa. As for the others, sorry, guys, it was a bit hectic and I did try to catch up with as many people as possible but you can't do everything.

Even though it was a long stay, our schedule was quite busy, since it was Lora's first time in Oz and New Caledonia so I did my best to show her as much as we could. Here's a quick summary of our trip.

We landed in Sydney on the 3rd of December, after a looooong flight, thankfully including a stopover in Seoul to stretch our legs and went straight to bed. The idea was to get up for lunch, and enjoy the day. Failed. We got up at 4pm. Oh well.

Over the next 9 days, I proceeded to show Lora around my old haunts, and meet a few of my friends (who even managed to behave, somewhat). We ate out a lot, we walked a lot, we drove a lot (well, I did). We did the BridgeClimb, which was very expensive but also very cool. I definitely recommend it.

Obviously, we did some of the more touristy stuff (which felt weird for me, as I don't like being a tourist in my own town!). We caught the ferry to Manly, walked along the beach in Bondi, and also drove down to the Blue Mountains.

However, rather than just see stuff, I thought it'd be better to actually experience some of the aspects of the Sydney lifestyle, a lot of them being related to food, funnily enough. Hence, we went to eat Thai in Newtown, Italian in Leichardt, French in Surry Hills, and also Yum Cha in Chinatown! We also managed to fit in a couple of nice brunches on the café terraces down on Bronte Beach, some swimming up in Narrabeen, and a few coastal walks along the cliffs.

We also had time to attend Mike and Renaye's wedding, which took place in Vaucluse. Not a bad spot, and it was nice to catch up with some of the old guard. Looking forward to see you two in London, Mickey!

After nine very busy days, we got on the plane again and headed off to Nouméa. There, my dad had organised us a 2-day getaway trip to the Isle Of Pines, known as one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. Funnily enough, even though I lived most of my life less than 30 minutes away from it, I'd never been! Glad to have addressed this issue, then.

These two days in heaven was definitely a highlight, especially the snorkeling, which was some of the best I'd ever done. Lora was definitely impressed (once she'd mastered the art of the mask and snorkel...): "Oh, look! Fish!"

Coming back well tanned from that, we spent the rest of the holidays driving around Noumea and its surroundings. Again, I wanted to show that New Caledonia was not all about the white sand beaches so we did a daytrip to the Riviere Bleue Park, a natural reserve in the southern region, where we had a lovely picnic by the river.

On another day, along with my parents (who took us to lunch/dinner more than once, yum), we went for a quick walk in the rainforest, up Mt Koghi. It's a pity we didn't have the time to follow some of the longer tracks, though. Next time! I love that stuff!

Mind you, we couldn't get enough of the water (well, I couldn't) so we spent a bit of time in the pool and caught the taxiboat to the Ilot Canard, where we swam among some of the biggest fish you could see in less than 4 feet of water.

Eventually, Lora left a week before me to go spend Christmas with her parents. I stayed behind and enjoyed some more R&R with friends, or more typically, alone at home, lounging by the pool, with a cool drink, a good book and plenty of sunshine!

And then, just like that, it was over, and it was time to leave home, spend another 20 hours in the plane (intersected this time around by a night in Seoul at the Hyatt. Nice!) and go back to the UK. Where winter (and work) awaited. Bollocks...

But we'll be back :-)

PS: Click here to see the photos!

STOMP!

2006-11-17T20:29:00.000Z

I forgot to mention last month that my birthday came around. No, I swear, I wasn't trying to hide it or sweep it under the carpet or anything! ...

Anyway, to celebrate my 31st birthday, my lovely girlfriend took me out to dinner at Almeida, a nice, slightly upmarket French restaurant in Islington. The food was delightful, the wine was just right, and the company was lovely!

However, this wasn't to be my only present. Lora also got us some tickets to see STOMP in the West End. Now, I'd been wanting to see this for a while (it opened in Australia ages ago) so it was really a great idea for a present.

So, last night, after another lovely dinner at Le Garrick (what do you mean, all we do is eat? false, we drink, too.), we headed down to the Vaudeville Theatre for an evening filled with rhythm! Check out this video:

It was awesome. If you ask my parents, they'll tell you that I always had this manic urge to tap on everything in sight when I was a kid. Combine that with my musical interests, and you'll understand why a musical which is entirely based on making percussion & rhythm out of anything (no singing, no dialog) appealed to me!

These guys use everything, anything, even the kitchen sink (litteraly!) to create the simplest beat, or the most complicated polyrhythms. Add a healthy dose of humor, some enthusiastic audience participation (to their best of their abilities - some people just can't keep a beat), amazing performers and you have a great night out.

Is it me or it's getting warm around here?

2006-11-07T12:14:00.000Z

Actually, I'm only talking about the office. Outside, it's a different story, scarves and gloves are back in fashion...

But, seriously, this page is a good resource to have handy when debating global warming with some skeptical clowns.

Everybody's a little bit racist!

2006-10-30T23:55:00.000Z

I organised a group outing the other night to go and see Avenue Q in the West End. I'd heard of it on the Net and I was intrigued by the concept: a mix of live actors and puppets singing comedy songs with more than a certain edge to them. Think Sesame Street or The Muppets, as written by the guys from South Park.

At first, it was a bit weird because the puppeteers were actually on stage, with the other actors, so it was a bit distracting to see not only the puppet but the person behind it. However, you soon get used to it and only focus on the puppet. Either that, or you're just too busy laughing to notice.

Indeed, Avenue Q is hysterical. The story revolves around a mixed cast of characters who live in the same block in a fairly rundown street of New York. The cast are all very good performers but the real stars are the gags and the songs, such as "The Internet is great...for PORN!", "Sucks to be me", or my personal favourite, "Everybody's a little bit racist". As you can see, nothing's sacred, and the show does a great job of making you laugh at politically incorrect lines and heavy topics, such as homosexuality, racism, etc.

Oh, and did I mention the puppet sex scene? Oh yeah, baby.

In the end, it was a brillant night and everybody was asking for more. My friends were already asking me about the next night out at the musicals. Highly recommended.

Suffolk

2006-10-06T17:44:00.000+01:00

I've just been to Southwold, in the county of Suffolk, where Lora and I spent just a weekend to get away from London (no more trips planned till Sydney in December! Boo! :-<)

All in all, a nice little town, very quiet. It was nice to be able to smell the ocean, although I didn't go for a dip (In September? In the North Sea? Are you nuts?), and also to enjoy fresh seafood. However, I'm not sure you'd want to stay there for longer than a weekend. I'm pretty sure I would get bored pretty quickly :-)

On the Sunday, the weather wasn't that great so we had to ditch the original plan of hiring bikes (which Lora was very upset about. Not. :-P) and, instead, we checked out a historical exhibition called Sutton Hoo, where they had uncovered the tomb of a Saxon king from the 7th century.

Apparently, there are dozens of these all over the east of England but this one was unusual in that, contrary to all the others, it had never been robbed. I love that old stuff! We don't have stuff like this back home :-)

I know it's old news now...

2006-10-03T13:57:00.000+01:00

...but you gotta give some props to the Free Hugs guy, you know, let's give him some love back!

If you don't smile while watching this video, I'm sorry to say that you are an old, cynical person and you should probably move on to your next life experience...

Incidentally, this is filmed in the Pitt St mall, in Sydney. I'll make sure to drop by for my free hug when I go home for Xmas!

For some details on the whole story, watch on:

Santé! Salud! Cheers!

2006-09-26T17:18:00.000+01:00

Back in February, Lora received some vouchers for her birthday for two free tickets to Vinopolis. After all this time, we finally arranged to meet with her friend Julia and put these tickets to good use. Imagine that, all this free booze, and it'd been waiting so long for us to drink it!

Anyway, Vinopolis consists of a tour of sorts, through different sections which represents all of the major wine-making regions of the world (including France, Spain, Australia, Italy, South America, etc), with videos and presentations on each region and type of wine, etc. In between, you have these wine-tasting tables where you can get to choose a few wines of different variety, in exchange for a voucher (you get 5 vouchers per person with the base deal).

Prior to embark on the tour itself, you can choose to attend a 10-minute presentation on how to taste wine, and I must say that, while very basic and a bit rushed, it was quite nice to finally be able to "get" some of the wine jargon. Not that I'd be able to tell you all about the "legs" or get lyrical about the sublime "finish" but it is definitely useful to know what to look for when you taste wine.

When you consider that, on top of the wine tasting, the voucher also entitles you to a Bombay Sapphire cocktail, and that the tour also includes a whiskey section and an absinthe stand (these are extra, though), you start to realize that the potential for being slighly tipsy upon walking out is quite substantial! Since there was three of us, we also got to taste each other's glasses, which allowed us to taste a lot more than the 5 vouchers we each had!

All in all, a good experience, providing an interesting insight into the world of winemaking, right in the middle of London!

Happy Birthday to My Sista'

2006-09-20T16:05:00.001+01:00

Well, okay, this blog entry comes a bit late, as the B@b's birthday was actually on the 16th but don't get mistaken, this belated shout-out does not mean that I forgot the actual day when this primordial event, upon which much of the late 20th century history was eventually shaped, took place, 27 years ago in Noumea, New Caledonia. Oops, was I supposed not to divulge the actual date? :-P

In fact, I was able to wish her a happy birthday face to face, since I'd gone over to Paris for the weekend. The intent was to obviously celebrate the event in proper fashion, i.e. mucho food, mucho drinks, and even more food! As it has now become tradition, we went along with a few hand-picked friends to the Imperial Choisy, in the 13th district of Paris, for a smorgasbord meal. I'm a bit cynical when it comes to the quality of asian restaurants in Europe but I must say, you can't really argue with deep fried soft-shelled crabs, these would taste good on the Moon.

And then, just like that, after a quick shopping trip down the Champs-Elysees (where else are shops open on a Sunday in Paris?), it was already time to get on the Eurostar and head back to London...

One can only say...

2006-09-06T18:05:00.000+01:00

...three words when watching this: WTF?

Pure Class.

2006-09-03T21:48:00.001+01:00

As mentioned previously, today I saw Brazil play Argentina in a friendly game of football at the new Arsenal stadium. Now, how often do you get to see these two powerhouses play each other, especially in Europe, and even better, a few blocks down the road!

You could have been worried about whether the stars would show up but, because of the well-known rivalvy between these two teams, we had more than a decent turnout: Kaka, Robinho, Messi, Tevez, Riquelme, Cicinho were all there, either on the pitch or on the bench. Even Ronaldhino himself graced us with his presence, albeit from the stands (injury).

As could be expected from a friendly, the game lacked in intensity ("only" 6 yellow cards) but the class on display could not be ignored. These guys made the most insane control look easy, so easy in fact that you could easily miss out on the finer subtleties of the action unless you had actually tried it yourself in the backyard for hours.

Lionel Messi in particular was very lively and got himself out of some tricky situations on more than one occasion. However, his team was being outmuscled in midfield and Brazil had their own wonderboy, Robinho, who was busy carving huge gaps in Argentina's defence. After an early goal from Brazil, the game never really got going though. The best moment came in the second half, with Kaka's absolutely awesome goal, which he created for himself by robbing Messi and running from inside his own half all the way down to the goal. Pure Class.

Oh, and the new Arsenal stadium rocks.

Bring'em on!!!

2006-08-30T12:04:00.000+01:00

Now, guess who's gone and scored some tickets to a friendly game of football played in the new Home of Football? Yup, that's right:

BRAZIL vs ARGENTINA
Arsenal Emirates Stadium
Sunday September 3rd 2006

Oh yeah :-)

Hola, Barcelona!

2006-08-30T12:03:00.000+01:00

Funnily enough, I'm finding myself writing this while watching Barcelona destroy some unknown eastern european team in the Champions League. I was standing in this very arena, the Nou Camp, just a couple of weeks ago. This was my first trip to Spain, or more precisely Catalunya, where Lora and I spent 4 days in the company of Errol & Julia.

As we were leaving the tarmac of Heathrow on the Saturday morning, we had no qualms about leaving London behind for a few days, as the weather had been absolutely atrocious. The forecasts for Barcelona were a bit ambiguous and we got a bit apprehensive when we noticed that all we'd seen of France were mountains poking through clouds. Still, in the end, we had no complaints about the hot and humid weather, although I did notice a singular pattern of cloudy mornings usually transforming into bright sunny days by lunch time.

Barcelona welcomed the Olympics in 1992 (who can forget the Dream Team!?) and it is quite obvious in some of the city's architecture and layout that major work was done to present a great face to the world. The seafront is quite lovely, with a long promenade down to the Olympic village, and a grand marina lined up with swanky seafood restaurants, an area which reminded me a lot of the Rocks in Sydney.

We did a lot of walking in four days but, at the same time, we were keen not to overdo it and enjoy some R&R. Still, there were a few things we just had to see, like La Sagrada Familia (absolutely amazing) and the aforementioned Nou Camp. We also had time to catch the cable car up to Montjuic Castel and the Olympic park, check out La Ciutadella, go for a hike through Parc Güell and do some shopping along La Rambla.

We picked different areas to visit every day, which would usually end with a trip back to the hotel for some rest near the rooftop pool before dressing up and heading out into the warm summer evening to find a nice place to eat, possibly preceded or followed by some coktails (Sex On The Beach! Mmh!)

Contrary to what some might believe, we didn't have tapas every day (mostly lunch) nor did we gorge ourselves on sangria (only on the last day) but I did get to have a seafood paella. Niiiiice. (My sole meuniere on the last day was heavenly, too. Fresh fish. Makes all the difference.)

I was wondering what to expect from the locals. Since the Catalan pride has been well documented, I wasn't sure whether people would expect us to speak catalan or spanish. The latter was my preference, as I was somehow hoping to magically remember my piss-poor spanish learnt in high-school. In the end, I did remember a few things, enough to get by, and most people spoke english anyway...

FruitStock 2006, Hemscott Summer Party, Tex 'n Tim, etc.

2006-08-15T12:01:00.000+01:00

Ok, this one's gonna be a bit of a quick catchup post. I've been getting very lazy about updating this blog so I'll try to clear some of the backlog.

Hemscott Summer Party
This year, my company organized a cruise on the Thames for our Summer party. Luckily, the weather was on our side as we slowly made our way eastwards towards Greenwich while the last rays of sunset were lighting the sky. It was quite nice but it got even better when we turned around and started going up towards the West End, under the stars. A bit of a shame that a lot of people got off at the first stop, in order to get an early night in (it was a schoolnight, after all). They missed on the best sights.

FruitStock 2006
I'm still not sure why they call it the "Innocent Festival" but it'd been good fun last year so I thought it't be good to check out again, especially as Lora had never been. It was actually a bit weird to realize that I've been in London long enough now that a new "cycle" has started and I'm able to go back to this kind of events. To be honest, we didn't catch too many of the musical acts (although I heard some cool african percussion) but the different "organic" food outlets got more of my attention, as well as some dancers demonstrating the brazilian martial art called "Capoeira", which is a weird mix of dance moves and kicks and flips.

Tex 'n' Tim
As people who know me will be aware, I'm a huge fan of You Am I, who I consider the best Australian live rock act of the last 20 years. So, when I heard Tim Rogers, their frontman/leader was going on tour with Tex Perkins and coming to the UK, I just had to go! it gave me the opportunity to expose Lora to some good old Aussie rock. Tex & Tim are two very charismatic performers and they were on good form that night, filling the Carling Academy with very happy aussies. They also threw in some unlikely covers which had the crowd going bonkers. Let just say I'll never, ever be able to listen to Rod Stewart the same way.

The Island Nearest To Paradise.

2006-08-11T13:48:00.000+01:00

I just found this site on my sister's blog, with photos from New Caledonia, organized in albums and categories. Unfortunately, some of the best shots don't display right now but it's still a nice sight (sight. site. night sight, nice site, geddit? oh well, never mind...)

Something that'd been bugging me for a while...

2006-08-08T17:27:00.000+01:00

I remember, when I was a lad, asking my dad one day why his old Marantz amplifier sounded so much better and louder than his brand-new Dolby Surround Yamaha amplifier. I remember being a bit surprised at the time because the manuals (yeah, I read these back then. Sad, huh?) said that the Yamaha was putting out almost double the amount of wattage of the Marantz. My dad was a bit underwhelmed by his new acquisition back then but I guess it had sounded good in the soundroom...

Well, while browsing a Marantz anthology site today, I came across a FAQ entry which finally explained to me the discrepancy between the old and the new, and finally gave me a solid argument with which I can win the countless debates I like to start by stating that "the old shit sounds better":

Q: Why does a 35 watt Marantz sound better and louder than many 100 watt receivers?

"Because 35 watts/channel as specified by Marantz in the 1970's meant...

" The unit can deliver 35 watts into 8 ohms for one hour, from all channels at the same time, with no significant change in distortion, or other specifications, at any time during, or after, the test hour."

...while 100 watts/channel today (for instance, in my JVC surround system) means...

" The unit can deliver 100 watts for a fraction of a second, in one channel only, if the other channels aren't running and nothing else high energy has happened to drain the power supply of stored energy in the last few seconds."

In fact, my JVC 5-channel Dolby surround receiver claims 500 watts RMS, but the power consumption label on the back panel tells the story:

320 Watts

If my JVC receiver was 100% efficient, meaning that every bit of power it took from the wall was delivered to the speakers as audio power (which it isn't), that'd give you only 64 watts a channel, about 2/3rds of the claimed power rating (which is 100 watts per channel, remember, 500 delivered as 100 per each of the five channels.)

But since the receiver can only (at best) convert about 50% of the available energy to the speakers, and the available energy is what is left over after the heat is generated (did I mention that this model JVC runs almost too hot to touch on top, even when making no sound at all?) and the watts that go to lighting the panel and powering all of the other circuitry are accounted for, the system can perhaps, when brand new, on a good day, generate 32 watts a channel continuously with all the channels going, which is pretty sorry compared to the claimed 100 watt per channel rating. That is less power per channel than an old 2235 receiver. Shocking, eh?

Turning it around, because of the way that the units were rated in the 1970's, that classic 2235 Marantz receiver, rated at 35 watts a channel, can dependably produce much more than 35 watts in both channels at the same time for a minute or two (far longer than the peaks in a modern receiver.) An honest rating for use with music for the power amplifiers of an older Marantz is generally in the range of 120% of rated power or even higher.

These ratings were instituted because of many false claims for power output that were being made using many different types of power measurement and general baloney at that time. IHF, RMS, Peak, Peak Music Power, Average, etc. RMS is what was settled on, and it's still widely used today, but the one hour rating was dropped some time back.

Interestingly, the situation that caused the RMS for one hour ratings to be made standard is now recurring - as I mentioned above, my JVC's ratings are pretty obviously designed to deceive the consumer to an extreme degree. Certainly there is no way that they can claim that those ratings paint an accurate picture of the amount of power the receiver can actually deliver in real world conditions - loud music and cinema surround takes a lot of power, in a lot of channels. Try listening to Jurassic Park... wait till the Tyrannosaur walks up behind you, or there is something exciting going on. Those 32 watts are pretty puny..."

This explains a few things...

2006-08-01T09:42:00.000+01:00

A friend of mine sent me this link (thanks Col), which goes on to explain the following:

"The French blog at twice the rate of US Internet users and one-third more than the Brits.

This comes as no real surprise, considering their reputation for lengthy discourse. No Frenchman would be denied his right to put forth his opinion, in great detail… and the Internet provides a world-wide stage upon which to enlighten the ignorant about whatever subject might tempt the blogger."

Mmh, given the rate at which I update this blog (shut up, Col, yes, I'm really french), I'd say that the conclusion of the article, as all studies and surveys, gives only light to a broad generalization. In my case, you could say I've chosen to leave the ignorant to err in the unwise darkness that pervades their pointlessly ignorant lives :-)

However, I must say I'm not really surprised either. After all, I've seen my sister update her blog twice, sometimes thrice a day, during working hours! I guess, after living in Paris for so long, she really is one of them ;-) (No, sis, don't hit me! No hittin'! Nooo!!!)

The Peppers at Earl's Court

2006-07-18T12:01:00.000+01:00

I saw the Red Hot Chilli Peppers at Earl's Court this weekend. I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of these guys but they've been around for so long, they are now one of these bands that you can't really pass on if you have a chance to see them live.

Overall, it was a good gig, although I noticed that the crowd was decidely mainstream, with lots of middle-aged punters, which I'm pretty sure didn't even know who the Peppers were back in 1989! Still, "Give it away" packed a good punch.

Ah, la Corse...

2006-07-15T11:57:00.000+01:00

For our summer holiday, Lora & I spent a week in Calvi, a small town in northern Corsica, in a region also called La Balagne. We rented a small apartment (well, it was bigger than my flat in London!) in the old Citadel, which allowed us to have amazing views of the ocean and of the harbour.

I actually have some ancestral connection with Corsica, being a descendant of the Marinacce on my mother's side, so I was quite keen to experience some of the corsican culture. They are known to be very proud of their cultural identity, as evidenced by the Moor's Head emblem present all over the island.

Even though we stayed there a week, we only really had time to explore the northern part of the island. At first, I thought that we could easily get around with a car but I had underestimated the actual distance required to travel between point A and point B. Indeed, the Corsicans don't seem to have any knowledge of straight lines, when laying roads. Still, renting a car for two days, we managed to visit several small villages, both inland and along the coast, including St-Florent, l'Ile Rousse and Galeria.

Calvi was a nice little town, although a lot more touristy than I expected. However, we must have somehow avoided the summer rush, because most of the restaurants and bars lining up the marina were half-empty most of the time. Not that we complained about that ;-)

It was sooooo nice to finally get into the water again, I hadn't gone for a swim in the sea since I'd left Sydney more than a year ago. This was my first time in the Med and I must say it compared favourably with New Caledonia, in that the very small surf allowed you to be rocked by the waves while lying in the sun :-)

One thing I'm gonna regret is the food. These guys have turned "charcuterie" into an art form. I didn't even know there was so many ways you could cure ham. I feasted on salami, pork sausage, coppa, lonzu, figatellu, and many more. Did I mention the cheese? Very strong, as you'd expect, but absolutely delicious! Obviously, in between all these meals, usually eaten while sitting by the marina, in full view of the bay, we'd have a nice cup of ice cream... *sigh*...

Anyway, check out the photos here. Lots of them.

Visions from Corsica

2006-07-13T12:22:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm slowly coming out of my funk, although it's not easy to turn the page, with Zidane's face all over the papers and television. The sweet justice is that the winners seem to have become a footnote to the whole incident :-)

Anyway, I was off to Corsica for a week of sunshine, ice cream, beach, and general procrastination. I'll write a longer account later but, for now, people can have a look at my latest photos

Pelé, Maradona...and Zidane.

2006-07-11T12:17:00.000+01:00

Update: as a tribute, I'll post a link to a video that will remind everyone of Zidane's gifts. If you're gonna remember him, remember him by this:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-8669127848070159803&q=Zidane

and this:

Il nous faut du recul mais on verra que Zizou entrera dans la légende du foot quand meme, son génie restera incontesté, son caractere sera vu comme humain.

Maradona a fini sa dernière Coupe du Monde banni pour dopage mais il restera pour toujours "El Pibe De Oro". Si on peut pardonner Maradona, on fera pareil pour Zizou, qui le rejoindra avec Pelé pour former une nouvelle Trinité du football. Rendez-vous dans 10 ans, place des Grands Footballeurs.

We need to take a step back from the current controversy but you'll see that Zizou will enter the realm of legend nonetheless, his genius will remain undisputed, and his character will be seen as, well,...human.

Maradona exited his last World Cup banned for doping but he will forever be "El Pibe De Oro". If we can forgive Maradona, we can do the same for Zizou, who will join him and Pelé to form a new Trinity of football. See you in 10 years, place des Grands Footballeurs.

Merci Les Bleus. On t'aime quand meme, Zizou.

2006-07-10T23:26:00.000+01:00

I've been away on holiday in Corsica so that explains the lack of updates over the last turbulent week. I'll talk about the trip in a later post but, right now, I can't be bothered, I'm still in shock.

Italians deserved that win about as much as I need a new butthole. But that's football. We were the better team but we lost at the lottery that is penalties. I'll get over that.

But to see the greatest player of the last 20 years walking out of the game and out of the sport this way, it's gonna take me a lot longer to deal with. Not in my worst nightmares could I have foreseen that scenario. Zizou is still a legend. And Italians are still fucking cunts.

Hyde Park 2006!

2006-06-19T23:29:00.000+01:00

On the 17th of June, we went to see the Foo Fighters in Hyde Park. It was a massive event, with about 85,000 people in the audience. We were lucky in that we had beautiful hot weather. Given the state of the grass we were sitting on, it could have got quite muddy if it'd been raining...

We got there just before Queens of the Stone Age took the stage. It was still a bit early in the day so the atmosphere wasn't really there but they rocked nonetheless. Still, it was nothing compared to the legends that are Motorhead. Lemmy walked on stage like he owned it. A lot of the crowd didn't seem to "get" them, apart from the obvious hardcore motorheads that were having a hell of a good time. Still, when they got to "Ace of Spades", everybody seemed to at last recognize the song :-)

The Foos rocked into the night, of course, and the crowd lapped it up. Dave Grohl is a living Rock God at this stage so he could fart on stage and they'd love it. Thank God, he's a bit more professionnal than that so he and his Foos gave us another great performance. The good thing about this gig was that it was more like a one-off, they didn't have a brand new album to push so we got treated to a Greatest Hits set. Jodie, who'd come along without really knowing much about the band, was surprised when she realized she actually knew every song. It says something about the amount of radio play these guys get :-)

For me, the highlight was the encore. I expected something special (we'd already had Lemmy come out to sing his Probot song with the Foos) so I wasn't too surprised when Taylor, the drummer, came out doing vocalising exercises a la Freddie Mercury. Still, I was a bit in shock when I heard the drums and realized that Dave Grohl wasn't playing them. Sure enough, Roger Taylor came on the screen, and Brian May's guitar resounded through Hyde Park, and a rockin' Tie Your Mother Down followed. Awesome concert.

Check out the photos.

Allez Les Bleus '98 (or '97?)

2006-06-16T11:24:00.000+01:00

Google Maps rocks. Check this out: http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=48844755&x=2327240&z=19&l=2&m=a

Now I wonder if the guy who wrote the graffiti on the school's rooftop is finally gonna get that phone call from his old principal one of these days...

A quick update

2006-06-05T00:37:00.000+01:00

Well, I've slacked off again and I haven't updated this blog for a while. After getting a few complaints on the subject, I thought I'd try at least to give a bit of a summary of the last two months.

After spending the Easter weekend in Brighton and Canterbury, another long weekend reared its head the following week. I hadn't really been aware of that but, because I feel bad wasting the opportunity (Brits are greedy when it comes to public holidays!), Lora and I quickly hatched a plan for a quick getaway weekend in Bath. I didn't know much about the place, except obviously that they had some Roman baths there (hence the name!), but it turned out to be a charming little town, with a really specific architectural style (georgian, I'm told). The Baths themselves were quite cool, and the complex much bigger than I thought. I find it fascinating to think of what else could be buried underneath the town. For photos of that trip, go here.

Then, in mid-May, I went down to Cornwall for Huw and Charlie's wedding. They'd hired an old Napoleonic Fort (Polhawn Fort) along the Coast for them and friends to spend a week. I went down with Robb on the wednesday night, catching the train to Plymouth. That happened to coincide with what was arguably the most important football game of the year, the Champions League final between Arsenal and Barcelona. I had my ear glued to an old-school AM radio for most of the trip, only to be bitterly disappointed in the end. We were so close...

The place in Cornwall was massive, the fort could hold functions and weddings and had room to accomodate more than twice our party, which meant we had a lot of spare rooms. We spent our time playing croquet, with a glass of champagne in hand at all times. Actually, I seemed to have some alcoholic drink in my hand for pretty much the duration of the stay. I don't think I could have lasted 5 days, like some of the others did! In the end, a good time was had by all, commemorated by photos you can see here.

Finally, last weekend, Lora and I went for a quick trip in France, spending a couple of nights in Normandy then 1 night in Paris. The idea behind the trip was to surprise Tiffany by showing up unannounced for her 30th birthday. It was Aurelien's idea and the trip had been planned for a few months so I did have to say a little white lie when Tiffany herself asked me if I could come on that weekend, just a couple of weeks beforehand :-P

The 30th birthday celebrations involved a few friends, a barbecue (which I volunteered to take charge of, as a proud Australian citizen), lots of food, some drinking, lots of guitar playing till the wee hours, and many, many laughs. Unfortunately, I don't have much in terms of photos of the event, as I was too busy playing the aforementioned guitar.

After 2 very nice days in Vernon, we went down to Paris to catch up with my sister Annelise and her boyfriend Enrick. We were only there for a day and a half but I still managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping in the Marais, browsing bookshops in St-Michel (and getting a few more BD albums for my collection), a catch-up lunch with Carole, dinner (twice) with Annelise and Enrick, and obviously lots of expressos and patisseries in between. I decided on this trip that living in France wouldn't be good for me: I don't think my liver could take it, and I don't have the willpower to resist the call of French cuisine.

A un de ces jours, Robert...

2006-05-25T13:31:00.000+01:00

It's official: Robert Pirès has moved from Arsenal to Villareal.

"Le Bob" is a big reason why I chose to support Arsenal, when I started to follow the Premier League from Australia, as his gallic flair epitomized everything that I liked about Arsenal's play. Being of French background myself , I obviously loved everything about him that was French (mostly because it annoyed everyone else), but beyond all, it was the swashbuckling runs, the precise passes, the flair and vision, the beautiful (one of the all-time Premiership goals lobbing Peter Schmeichel, against Aston Vila in 2001) and not-so-beautiful (FA Cup Final 2004) goals, the telepathic understanding with Titi (anyone remember the amazing curling pass from the right wing for Henry's record-breaking goal against Sparta Prague in 2005? Talk about a goal served on a plate).

Henry-Pirès-Cole will remain one of the fastest, most lethal combinations ever seen on a football pitch anywhere. For the last 6 years, how many Arsenal goals have come from this side? Too many to count. However, Arsenal's left offensive triangle is no more: you need 3 corners to make a triangle.

With the retirement of Dennis Bergkamp, and Viera and Pirès (and probably Cole) gone, and the departure from Highbury, it is definitely the end of an era, and the consignment of one of the greatest football teams ever to the history books.

There's already a new one on the way, though...

Veni Vidi Photografi

2006-04-18T23:37:00.000+01:00

Okay, pretty poor play on words but hey, gimme a break, it's late here :-P

Just a quick update to wish everyone a late Happy Easter. I was down in Brighton then Canterbury for the long weekend. Photos can be seen here.

The weekend before that, though, was another kinda trip altogether. Me and Lora spent three awesome days in sunny Rome, "la Ville Eternelle". Great weather, great sights, great food (Saltimbocca Alla Romana rocks), amazing coffee (best Capuccino ever, at the Castel Sant'Angelo. No kidding!). I absolutely loved the place. Over 3 days, we couldn't see it all but we still managed to cram in a few historical sites, including the Sistine Chapel, St-Peter's Basilica, the Pantheon, the Coliseum and many more. Have a look here, here and here!

My favourite bit was Ancient Rome, for sure. I could easily have spent a few more days on Palatine Hill alone, sitting in the middle of these amazing ruins and reflect ing on the palaces that once stood there, and of all the decadence, blood and history they've been witnesses to. Imagine being a teenager living in Rome, you could have the best, most awesome hide-and-seek games in all these holes and tunnels!

"War is declared and battle come down"

2006-04-05T17:33:00.000+01:00

FYI, the topic of this post is a line from the song "London Calling", by the Clash. A phone salesman got arrested and questioned because he liked this song. Yeah, fuckin' great.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4879918.stm

As he says himself, "where does it stop? What if I was wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt?". Hey, maybe even quoting the lyric on my blog could get me in trouble, thanks to the Terrorism Act. Fuck 'em.

Where's V when you need him?

Sunday at the Museum

2006-04-02T19:09:00.000+01:00

The other day, I was wondering what to do on Sunday and, after seeing some of the promotional posters in the Tube about the current expositions at the British Museum, I thought it was time to put to use the cultural avenues that living in a city like London affords you. Here, most museums are free and open on Sunday so that seemed like a good idea. I asked my girlfriend if she was keen and, indeed, she hadn’t been to the museum herself in a very long time so we set out to spend a few hours cultivating our minds.

After looking at a few websites, it was decided that we would head down to the Natural History Museum. I could make up all sorts of excuses about my scientific ambitions and what not, but let’s face it; all I really had in mind was to see dinosaurs, man! They had iguanodons, a diplodocus (in the lobby), a shitload of ichthyosaurs, and plenty of others, and even more recent things, like a cool section where they had the skulls of all the different ancestors and cousins of the elephant on show, set up in a way to illustrate the differences in height and size.

On the other hand, I was quite miffed at some misleading advertising along the way. There was a huge poster putting forward the T-Rex section of the Museum, portraying it as the climax of the Dinosaur section. After 10 minutes making our way through armies of annoying kids and befuddled parents, on a hopelessly overcrowded suspended walkway, we finally made our way to the T-Rex show, which turned out to be some lame ¾ size animatronic. I was expecting a T-Rex skeleton, man! Not a shitty robot. If they were gonna put up an animatronic, they should have got the life-sized robot that Stan Winston built for Jurassic Park. Now that would have been cool.

Next time, we’ll head down to the British History Museum, near Russell Square. I hear they’ve got some cool collections about ancient civilizations, like China, the Aztecs (I love that stuff), and of course, there’s the Reading Room. Anyway, have a look at some of the photos here.

Xmas & NYE updates

2006-03-17T21:51:00.000Z

A lot of people have asked me about the lack of updates on this blog for a while. Well, to be honest, I've just been too busy and I fell so far behind that I couldn't really be bothered to fill in the gaps :-)

Anyway, I'll just give you a quick summary. In late December, I caught the Eurostar to head down to Paris for Christmas. An old childhood friend of mine, Richard, arrived from Nancy and caught up with me, my sister, his sister, and their respective boyfriends for Xmas Eve. We cooked up a nice meal, with the piece de resistance being a nice pork curry, with potatoes, carrots and RICE, just like back home in New Caledonia. Pictures of the evening can be found here.

That was only the warmup for the following week, when we all headed off to Nancy, in the Northeast of France. By the time we arrived, it had started snowing and it wouldn't let up for the following three days. At one point, we got a cold snap that took us down to -8 degrees.

The only way to deal with this? Stay indoors, eat, drink, eat and drink some more. Along with a bunch of friends coming from all over France (a lot of them in the military - Richard is in the Air Force), we went to clubs, bars, pubs, cooked up a storm, sang songs and barely made it alive to the new year. You can catch glimpses of the debauchery here, here and here (or, rather, the aftermath).

Following a verrrrry long and verrrrry tiring NYE, which finished around 9am, we also had time left to fit in a wine-tasting experience in Alsace and a visit of Richard's wing, the 102th Squadron, based near Nancy.

On the 4th of January, I finally travelled back to London, proceeding to crash into a deep 3-day coma upon arrival.

The Ice Bar

2006-03-17T21:26:00.000Z

Last week, Fred organized for a bunch of us to go to the Absolut Ice Bar, down in Soho. Now, I'm not usually that keen on trendy bars, especially ones that charge 15 quids for entry but this one comes with a twist: it's made of ice!

Born from the same crazy braintrust that came up with the Ice Hotel, this place is made up of blocks of ice, imported from Sweden, and a very cool temperature of -5 degrees is maintained inside, so that your glasses (made of ice themselves) don't met too quickly.

Bookings are for 45mn sessions but, after 30mns, you're usually ready to move on to the "normal" bar next door. Your entrance fee includes the capes that make us look like albino jawas on the pictures, plus a vodka-based cocktail in an ice glass, which you get to re-use for subsequent drinks. Check out some photos here.

You will never get the next hour of your life back...

2006-02-25T14:01:00.000Z

...if you click on the following link.

http://chir.ag/stuff/sand/

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Virgin Radio - The Guide - Rock Pilgrimages - Rock Pilgrimages

2006-02-24T09:57:00.000Z

Virgin Radio - The Guide - Rock Pilgrimages - Rock Pilgrimages

Geez, how come I never came across this website before?!?! Hours and hours of rock history to look forward to!!!

Some things don't change...

2006-01-23T22:34:00.000Z

Remember that scene in Fight Club where Ed Norton looks around his flat and mentally associates each piece of furniture with its swedish-sounding name and price tag?

This sequence came back to me this weekend, as I was standing in a carpark near Wembley, just outside a really huge warehouse. It occurred to me that, if it wasn't for the variety of accents within earshot, I could have been in Australia, or France, or even the US, and the following would have been true everywhere:

Going to IKEA on the weekend is pure madness.

Captures From The Road (part 3)

2005-12-09T00:14:00.000Z

Stop this man! He's stealing Cornish Pasties!!!

Captures From The Road (part 2)

2005-12-09T00:03:00.000Z

"Monday 10am - 5pm". Too bad we got there at 9:00am. Doh.

Captures From The Road (part 1)

2005-12-09T00:02:00.000Z

It's probably 73 days now.

The Day The Music Died.

2005-12-08T21:24:00.000Z

John Lennon
09/10/1940 - 08/12/1980

They came. They saw. They froze.

2005-12-01T22:14:00.000Z

Well, there you go. My parents left London a week ago, on their way to Singapore, Sydney and Noumea, after a week spent in London. After catching up with them and my sister in Paris, I caught the Eurostar back on the same day that they were landing in the UK, and met them at their hotel (gotta love close borders and short distances).

This was their first time in the UK so I must say I was a bit apprehensive about their reaction to the City, the people, the weather, the noise, the pollution, etc. It's funny, I know that London isn't my hometown or anything but I still wanted to make sure they enjoyed their stay and, on some deeper level, I guess I wanted them to know that life in Europe isn't as bad as they might imagine so they'd stop worrying about me :-) On a more pragmatic level, I should also admit that it was in my best interests for them to be comfortable and al, in order to make my life easier :-P (Hi, Mum)

Another great aspect of having my folks around is that I usually get to eat in nice restaurants for free every day. Okay, I was a nice son, I did invite them to the movies at one point (we saw Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, cool movie, btw) so don't go and say I'm cheap :-P

While they were here, we did the usual tourist thingies, like the London Eye, the Tower of London. It was kinda funny that I'd been there for 8 months and yet, I'd never had the chance (or maybe the motivation) to go and check out these places. It's the classic situation of the Parisian who's never been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, I guess. I obviously had to go to work sometimes, so they did their own thing during the day, going on bus tours, going for walks in the parc (My mum *loves* gardens).

Towards the end of their stay, I took a couple of days off to spend a long weekend with them. I ended up renting a car for a few days and we drove down to Kent, a few hours away from London, to check out the Leeds castle, which, funnily enough, is nowhere near Leeds. Go figure. I didn't get lost, which was a plus, but it was bloody freezing down there, which explains our slighly stiff expressions on the photos (hence the title).

The next day, I took them to Portobello Road market, where I'd never been myself but I'd heard about. I hadn't actually realized it was mostly antiques so I was a bit disappointed on that count. The worst bit was finding a freakin' parking ticket on the car, even though I still had 30 minutes to go on the meter. Note to any potential tourists: traffic wardens are fucking CUNTS and the Borough of Chelsea and Kensington can go and get FUCKED .

We tried not to let that ruin the day and drove on to Regent's Park for a nice walk in the gardens (Did I mention, my mum *loves* gardens). Then, the bloody rental car decided to break down. Right in the middle of the road, somewhere in Camden. It turned itself off, went completely dead, couldn't start again. I thought it was the battery, it later turned out to be something to do with the on-board computer (bloody computers!). That, in itself, shouldn't have been such a drama. Just a hassle, really. EXCEPT that the freakin' rental car company left us hanging there for HOURS.

It took quite a few phone calls to sort out the situation, as calls were logged, then lost, then logged again, then delayed, and so on. Once it was established the car couldn't get fixed on the spot, I was told that I'd have to go with the tow truck all the way to HEATHROW to go pick up another car. I told them to forget about the whole thing and was tempted to do it in rather more explicit terms. I'm too damn well educated!

I'd sent my parents ahead back to the nearest Tube station, down the hill, while I was waiting for the tow truck (I'd been told "they should be there within the hour". Yeah, THANKS!). The truck showed up earlier than I expected, though, so I was able to catch up with them before they'd got on the Tube.

Something I hadn't really considered was where we were. Let's just say it was kinda funny to find my parents asking directions to passers-by who included punks, goths, and whatever freaks were haunting Camden High Street that night :-)
Still, despite this little adventure, which will give us something to reminisce about, they appeared to enjoy their stay, although I think they'll be happy to make their way back to our little piece of paradise in the Pacific.

There are 75 music references in this photo.

2005-11-30T10:52:00.000Z

Can you find them? :-) (If you manage more than 10, I reckon you're doing all right)

THe answers can be found at Double Viking.

YEAH BABE!!!!

2005-11-17T00:52:00.000Z

THE SOCCEROOS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD CUP!!! WOO-HOO!!!!

WE'VE KICKED URUGUAY'S ASS! AUSTRALIA IS GOING TO GERMANY!!! THE LONG WAIT IS OVER!!!!

Catching up with the folks

2005-11-13T22:47:00.000Z

My parents were in Paris this week so I took Eurostar on Friday for a quick family reunion. With me in London, my sister in Paris and my parents in Noumea, the four of us don't find ourselves in the same room at the same time very often these days so I thought it'd be a pity to miss the opportunity.

We visited the Musee d'Orsay, which I had always missed out on during my previous visits. I'm not a huge fan of museums but it is good to expose yourself to some culture every now and then, I believe :-)

On the Saturday night, after another nice family dinner outing (paid for by the parents! Thanks, dad, thanks, mum!), my parents went home early, as they were catching a plane to London the next day.

I went back to my sister's place to catch some of the France-Germany action (a bit of a dull, and rough, match), before finally catching up with a charming friend of mine, Carole, for some late-night drinks at Le Sud, somewhere in the 11th district. We talked fairly late into the night and many margaritas were had, which resulted in a fairly hazy wake-up the next day.

In the end, I cut it a bit too tight, miscalculating the trip to the station (note: the RER doesn't run as often on sundays), therefore missing my train by, like, 5 minutes! I just caught the next Eurostar, an hour later. No dramas. It was all Carole's fault, anyway :-P (noooon! pas taper!!)

The White Stripes

2005-11-09T22:37:00.000Z

I saw the White Stripes at the Alexandra Palace last night. This was my second time seeing these guys and it was a pretty good gig, although I must say I enjoyed them better the first time around, which I can probably put down to a couple of reasons.

First, I think the novelty of the drums/guitar thing is wearing off for me. I kinda always knew that Meg is a very one-dimensional drummer, I mean, her bare-bones drumming is part of what makes the Stripes what they are, really, but I thought it was really obvious this time around, and I found myself longing for some drum fills every now and then :-)

Secondly, while I found the venue quite cool, the atmosphere was a bit lacking. The Alexandra Palace itself is a pretty cool building, and I loved the fact that it's set on a hill in the middle of nowhere (actually, somewhere in North London). I think it was like the first real elevated place I'd been to in London! However, the crowd seemed to be a bit passive, and I got the impression that most of them were only there to hear the MTV hits, which I guess is always the price to pay for a band which reaches a certain popularity level.

The first time I'd seen the Stripes was in early 2002, at the Metro in Sydney. For starters, the Metro is probably my favourite venue, some of my all-time gigs took place there. The Stripes were only kinda starting to generate some buzz with their 3rd album but, really, not many people in the audience knew about them so, when they came out, it really hit us in the face, it sounded fresh, it sounded huge, it was awesome. At the end of the day, 4000 people who are there just to sing along to the hits will never generate quite the same buzz as 500 punters who are really enjoying themselves and really feeling the music's vibe.

Now, bring on December, and the Foos! At Earl's fuckin Court!!!!

Guy Fawkes Night!

2005-11-07T22:24:00.000Z

This Saturday night was Guy Fawkes Night. To celebrate the occasion and join in the fun, Macca and Nige threw a party at their place in Clapton.

To be honest, I had no idea what it was all about, as it's not something we celebrate, in either France or Australia. However, it was a lot of fun to see most of London alight with fireworks, most of them coming from backyards. The guys had bought a massive quantity of firework rockets and sparklers, which we proceeded to light up for an hour or so, in their backyard. That no one actually got injured (except Nige, who burnt his pinkie) is more testament to the luck of the drunk rather than our prowess with the matches :-P

It was a pretty cool party, and their place is quite awesome, with a large backyard, a very nice lounge area and a decent stereo. The fact that there were a few nice-looking ladies didn't hurt either :-) (Nah, don't ask, never mind, nothing happened, they were all taken, story of my life).

There was obviously a lot of alcohol consumed, obviously, and over the course of the evening, I remember drinking beer, punch, rhum & coke, cocktails and red wine. Amazingly enough, while I didn't feel great the next day (I only made it home on sunday arvo), I felt a lot better than I thought I would! That's a bit worrying in itself...

We finished the evening with me playing guitar in the garden, while we were sitting in a circle, finishing the last drinks and passing the last spliff, under the stars, till around 5am. Now, that's my kinda party!

My first Champions League game

2005-11-02T22:18:00.000Z

Martin and I went to see Arsenal play Sparta Prague tonight, at Highbury. Living next door to the stadium is quite cool, as we were able to watch the buildup on TV before walking down the road to catch the action live :-)

This was my first time in Highbury, funnily enough, and the reputation of the place is justified: it's quite small for a Premier League stadium but that doesn't stop the fans from creating a really good atmosphere. However, I must say that the Arsenal songs are a bit lacking in imagination lyrically ("Arsenaaal Arsenaal Arseeeenaaaal ArsEEEEEENNAAAL", to the air of whatever tune comes through your head)

Arsenal won 3-0 comfortably, with 1 goal from Henry and 2 from Van Persie, who's turning out to be our most improved player this season. For once, we're making an easy meal of qualifying for the second round of the Champions League. Could it be the year?

Happy Halloween!

2005-11-01T22:07:00.000Z

It was Halloween this weekend. It's not something I've ever really celebrated, as it's not really part of french culture...yet. With the on-going commercialization of Halloween, it seems that "trick or treat" has become a global phenomenon in the last few years.

Anyway, I wasn't planning on doing anything about it, until Fred told me he was going to a party in South London and asked me to tag along. It didn't even dawn on me that it might be a Halloween party until I walked out, saw that there were quite a few parties happening in the neighbourhood and came across a couple of zombies on my way to the Tube. Eventually, the wires connected, sparked, and I was like "hang on..."

Sure enough, the dude who was hosting the party opened the door, dressed in a long black cape, wearing red horns on this head. He was the friend of a friend of Fred, who'd never met him but then, that's London parties for you. Thankfully, we weren't the only ones not dressed up, it was 50-50 so it's not like I stood out too much (I think).

It was a very cool mix of people but, unfortunately, I bailed out just as the party was kicking into high gear, a bit after midnight, as I didn't want to miss the last Tube and well, I didn't feel like forking out for a cab later. Call me cheap. Good night anyway. I might even dress up next year.

My 30th Birthday

2005-10-30T18:30:00.000Z

My birthday was on Monday (the 24th) but I didn't really feel like putting on a big bash or anything. I usually can't be bothered organising birthday parties but I figured , with this one being my 30th, that I'd get off my backside and do something about it.

In the end, I settled for a cozy pub lunch at the Mucky Pup, a pub near Angel, which was noteable for 1) being slightly out of the way from the main street, while still easily accessible and 2) being the "Most friendly dog-friendly pub in the UK". Surely enough, the owner's dog, a huge bull-mastiff made several lazy appearances throughout the day.

You cannot have a pub lunch without at least considering a nice Sunday Roast, and that definitely played a part in me choosing this pub, as they serve some pretty decent food. Of interest on the menu were these Hot-Rocks dishes, where they set down a really hot piece of rock in front of you and you watch your meat cook as you're eating! Pretty cool. They also had barramundi on the menu, which we had a good laugh about, considering the distance the poor fish has had to cover to finish on our plates :-)

I had invited quite a few people and I had a good turnout, despite a few last-minute cancellations. I hadn't invited everyone I knew (which, in 6 months in London, turns out to be a surprising amount) because I wasn't sure that the venue would be packed or not. In the end, I could have extended the invite to everyone but it was still great, as we were more than enough of us to keep the laughs going and keep the pints coming.

People came and went all afternoon really, with me being the only constant, from 2pm till 10:30pm. All in all, a bit more than 8 hours of solid drinking, then, which me and the last few stragglers ended with a solid burger at Giraffe's up the road.

As you can guess, Monday morning was a bit tedious...

My Birthday Present To Myself.

2005-10-23T01:44:00.000+01:00

I'm turning 30. I thought this called for a present out of the ordinary. Call it an early midlife crisis, except I don't believe in buying Porsche convertibles. Now, look at her. Ain't she beautiful?

The specs: Gibson Les Paul Standard, Carved Maple Top, '50's Rounded neck, Light Burst finish.

Now, I just need to find a drummer and a singer. I know I already have a bass player :-)

An Evening With Dream Theater

2005-10-17T23:31:00.000+01:00

It's been a week already since I've come back from a few days in France but I couldn't be bothered sitting down and writing down about it :-)

I left on the Thursday around mid-morning (no point in rushing) and arrived in Paris around 3pm. I just had the time to dump the bag at the hotel, stop at my sister's to pick up my brother-in-law and catch the metro towards the Porte du Pantin, where we were going to see Dream Theater at the Zenith!!!

I'd already seen these guys play a few months back at the Parc des Princes but that had been a double-bill with Iron Maiden, which meant they'd only played a hour-long set. For these guys, that's barely enough time to play a couple of songs and finish their warmup!

Anyway, this particular tour is billed as "An Evening With Dream Theater" and the basic idea is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the band. Hence the "evening..." format, meaning no opening band, a slightly unusual, fan-oriented setlist and more than three hours of Dream Theater! Woo-hoo!

They gave us a retrospective going all the way back to the "Majesty" era (their first name) and played songs from all their albums through the years, in chronological order, kinda. Of course, the concert ROCKED! By now, I've seen quite a few bands, including some pretty big names, but in terms of musicianship, no one comes close to these guys. I'm not saying they're the best band ever (of course not, everyone knows the Fab Four are) but, technically, Dream Theater can play absolutely anything and anyone off the planet, and remain completely musical while doing so.

The next few days were spent relaxing and catching up with some old friends, including Anne, Geraud and Carole (coucou!). Needless to say, a lot of food was consumed (a bit of wine, too) but then, that tends to be a constant, whenever I go back to France :-)

On the weekend, I caught the train up to Vernon, in Normandy, to stay at Tiffany and Aurelien's. Once I got there, Tiff tossed me the car keys (God, it felt good to be driving!) and we went to check out Claude Monet's house in Giverny.

The most obvious thing I learned from this visit was that Monet didn't like going too far to find his muse, as a lot of his famous paintings were obviously inspired by his (very nice) garden :-)

After a quick visit to some medieval ruins (Chateau-Gaillard, built by Richard Lionheart!) and some driving down the French countryside (I'd missed driving!), we headed back down to Vernon. This was on the saturday night, which happened to coincide with France taking on Switzerland in a crucial World Cup qualifier. Aurelien had invited a few friends over, for a "raclette" (french meal involving strips of meat laid on a hot plate, and lots of melted cheese) and we enjoyed a very rowdy football evening, the likes of which I hadn't experienced in a long time :-)

France drawing the game (the bloody Swiss equalized in the 80th minute) kinda put a damper on the celebrations but there was some wine still to be drunk, so we ended up playing a game of Trivial Pursuit around 2am. this was another flashback from my childhood :-) To my relief and surprise, I wasn't too out of touch, as I almost won the bloody game! With a bit more practice, they'd be all toast.

"WoW Is a Feeling"

2005-10-12T22:50:00.000+01:00

This is quite funny and yet, also very disturbing and creepy:

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=PurePwnage-WoWisafeeling

For more, go and check this out: http://www.purepwnage.com/

Note that non-GaM3rZ among you might have some trouble understanding what is going on in there.

ON EST QUALIFIE!!!!!! ON EST QUALIFIE!!!!!!

2005-10-12T22:07:00.000+01:00

OUAIS!!!! OUAIS!!! OUAIS!!!!

LES BLEUS VONT EN ALLEMAGNE!!!

LA FRANCE VA AU MONDIAL!!!

WOO-HOO!!!!!!

MUHAAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!!

US diplomacy (or how to add insult to injury)

2005-10-04T12:37:00.000+01:00

I think that quote pretty much says it all:

"Put the shoe on the other foot. Let's say some Muslim leader wanted to improve Americans' image of Islam. It's doubtful that he would send as his emissary a woman in a black chador who had spent no time in the United States, possessed no knowledge of our history or movies or pop music, and spoke no English beyond a heavily accented 'Good morning.'"

http://slate.msn.com/id/2127102/

But then again, not all americans have their heads up their ass:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=26174

Blog-surfing...

2005-10-03T13:58:00.000+01:00

Mondays are always very sloooow days:

For all gamerz out there, this should talk to you:
http://blaggblogg.blogspot.com/2005/09/you-can-never-escape-ss-and-zsanother.html

Woohoo! Doing sequels for the hell of it can be annoying but damn if I'm not gonna check this one out:
http://www.clerks2.com/

What if someone reviewed the Bible. Not consistently funny but I like the idea:
http://blaggblogg.blogspot.com/2005/02/book-review-bible.html

Great concept. I'd love to have enough time on my hands to come up with shit like that and then actually implement it:
http://www.capstrat.com/cs/insight/articles/post-itnotes.cfm

I hate this guy.

2005-10-03T13:56:00.000+01:00

He's gonna make 1 million dollar, just because of a very simple idea. Bastard.
http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com/

(If it sounds implausible, think about the fact that he's already 1/4 of the way there)

Fame! (I wanna live foreveeeeer...)

2005-09-30T21:05:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday, I went to see my first musical in the West End. I'd meant to do it earlier than that (I've already been here almost 6 months!) but the opportunity never came up. For those who don't know, the West End is the European equivalent of Broadway and, like Broadway, it features various productions that have been running for years now, like Les Miserables, Mary Poppins and, of course, Fame, which is based on the TV series we children of the 80's all grew up on (Come on, admit it, you can sing the theme song too).

We were actually supposed to go and see Chicago (the show on which the movie's based) but that was sold out so we ended up going to see Fame instead. No regrets there, because I must say it was great fun. We were actually on the front row (that's what happens when you buy the tickets on the day...) so I wasn't in the best position to appreciate the overall choreography but, on the other hand, I had a great view of the cute dancers on stage :-)

Rent is the only other musical I've seen, and I do think that was a better show overall (but I saw it years ago so maybe my memory of it is somewhat distorted). Still, Fame was a lot of fun and the musical numbers, while uneven, were well performed. There was notably a cute girl there that had the most amazing voice...*sigh*

In the end, it was a good show, cool music (well, most of it), some T&A (well, not quite) on display, followed by a Turkish restaurant and some fine wine (3 bottles for 5 people) and a great time was had by all. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday night.

Zac out, Dave in.

2005-09-18T22:51:00.000+01:00

It's been another hectic week but I'm liking it. It feels like people are trying to fit in as many social activities as they can, before the onset of winter causes us all to retreat into our walls. I've been out every single night this week, and I'm expecting all this eating and drinking to catch up with me at some point...

Among the events this week were Zac and Jill's farewell drinks. The lovebirds are going back to Australia to get married and move on with the rest of their lives. All the best to them! To send them off in proper fashion, we all congregated at the Prince Regent, a very nice pub in Marylebone. I really like these British pubs that serve nice food, nice beer, and have very comfortable couches, and this was definitely one of them (I'm starting to know quite a few pubs like this now)!

It was a very nice evening, and Zac was in quite a jovial mood by the end, which was really the plan all along (think of it as a warm-up for his upcoming stag night). Remember to spare a thought for us when you step on the Bondi sand again, mate!

While these guys were off to Oz, another one of my old mates from Sydney arrived from Quebec to spend a couple of weeks in London. The rallying call was made and people from the 'gong (i.e. Wollongong) started to converge on the capital from all corners of the British Isles. Okay, not quite, it was only really Mick Goucher who came down from Huddersfield (up North, where it's like, cold and rainy) and everyone else lived around London anyway, but the effort deserved to be praised!

We first met in Clapham North, with a quick meal (actually, it took ages to get served) at a local Thai, while waiting for the aforementioned Mr. Goucher to arrive from King's Cross, and proceeded to down a few bottles of wine.

It was quite the international table, with French, Australian, Canadian, English and even South-African nationalities being represented, if you include Goucher's ancestry (although you could argue that he's really cheating, with him having four freakin' passports and all).

Since some members of the gang couldn't make it that night, we reconvened the following evening in Brixton, for a very nice meal at Fujiyama's. The place was really like a cheaper version of Wagamama's, although the food was in no way compromised by the lower prices.

Again, many laughs were had and a decent amount of alcohol was consumed (with sake replacing wine). No, mum, I swear, I do not have a drinking problem. It really isn't my fault that there always seem to be alcohol involved. In any case, I'm hitting the gym on Monday. I need to get rid of all these toxins.

The most exciting blog entry ever. No shit.

2005-09-04T21:09:00.000+01:00

Friday:

Now, that was a fairly unproductive day at work. Spent all day wresting with software. I usuallly win the battle but that wasn't one of these. I'll take up the fight again on Monday morning.

After work, I headed to Robb, Louise and Jodie's housewarming. They didn't have enough room to have a party in their place so their housewarming took place in their local pub! How British! (except they're all aussies)

I was the first one to get there, and one of the last to go home. How's that for commitment! Especially considering I was already knackered by 4pm and considered bailing out altogether. Once we got kicked out of the pub (that bloody 11pm closing time again), some of the girls decided they wanted to go dancing and we went along (well, what were we to do, hey?).

We went to the Loop, some nightclub near Oxford Circus, and proceeded to join the queue that had formed in front, since all the pubs had just closed and people were all heading to the clubs and bars where they could get another drink. Once we got in and paid the cover charge, we headed downstairs to the second bar area, only to find that there was another queue to get into the dancefloor area (which was down the next floor below). WTF? We queued 20 minutes and paid 8 quids so we could join another queue? Now, that's London for ya...

Anyway, at that point, I was already starting to plot my escape so I could go home and sleep. Yet, somehow, after another drink, I joined the line with the others and made it downstairs after only 15 mns! That's like, nuthin' in London! As usually happens, I don't really join into the dancing right away, because, you know, being a rock snob and all, I have to, like, stand around for 5 mns or so, whingeing how pop/dance music sucks and blah blah, and then, I start to dance...So, yeah, I'll confess: I danced to the sounds of Robbie Williams, Kylie and even Destiny's Child, and I actually enjoyed myself. Shoot me.

A few hours later, with my joints aching, my throat hoarse and dry, and my brains turned off (remember, I'd been wanting to go to bed since 7pm), I finally managed to escape. A couple of the girls were on their way home as well, and as we're walking down Oxford Street, they tell me that they're getting home on the 73 bus. Sure enough, I spot a bus with that very number stopping ahead of us so I tell them that they can still catch it if they run for it.

I watch them go off and catch the bus as I continue walking to the bus stop at my leisurely pace. Once I get there, I survey the map, bus number and realize that the bus I just urged Charlie and Yolanda to catch was the only bus going in my direction. DOH! Well, I'd told you that my brains were turned off, DIDN'T I?

Saturday:

Woke up at 1pm, after going to bed around 4am. Not a bad effort. Took it easy for the rest of the day, spending the afternoon doing the laundry, getting some food from around the corner, watching dodgy tv and reading rock mags. Exciting, ain't it? Why are you reading this? Really?

Headed out to meet Jim for a couple of drinks at the Alwyn, just for a quick catch-up. From there, I made my way to Streatham Hills, for Nicolas' housewarming. Unlike the previous one, this one actually did take place in the house being "warmed". This didn't turn out to be such a good idea, since they quickly ran out of room as more and more guests turned up, and I ended spending half of the evening standing in the stairway :-) Still, an enjoyable evening, and the punch didn't lack any, if you get my drift...

Due to the remote location (face it, Nic, your place is, like, out in the sticks :-P), I left fairly early so that I wouldn't miss the last train from Brixton, some time around half past midnight. It is in these instances that I regret having a set of wheels. I could stay as long as I wanted and then drive home (and it also gave me a good excuse not to drink, then). Maybe I'll buy myself some cheap bomb one of these days. We'll see...

Sunday:

Woke up early for a Sunday (like, 11 am). I realize belatedly that I haven't seen either of my flatmates for 2 days and I've got the place to myself. Cool. I just have time to have a shower and make myself lunch before I settle on the couch for the start of the Grand Prix. As the GP finishes, it's time to head out the door and catch the train to Hampstead Heath, to meet Jimmy and Pavel.

When I get there, Jimmy tells me to meet them near "The Chair". Somehow, I was imagining something akin to Macquarie's Chair, in Sydney, like some sculpture or old landmark or something. As I make my way through the park (this place is massive), I ask directions to "The Chair", and people keep telling me "you can't miss it". Sure enough, I eventually turn the corner, and behold, The Chair! As in, like, an actual freakin' wooden chair. Except it stands something like, 30 feet tall, along with assorted table. It's so big people are having picnics underneath it.

We played some football, wowed the crowds with our prowess at throwing a frisbee around (yeah, right) and then headed to the swimming pool. Man, it was GOOD to go for a swim! It'd been like 6 months since I'd been in the water!

We finished the day off with a pint at the pub, followed by a kebab and some Playstation time at Pavel's place. Caught the bus home, got there around 9pm, found the place still empty (maybe I should check on whether these guys are alive or something), settled down for a quiet end of the evening, in front of the telly. Sometimes, it's the little things that make you happy.

Now, if you've managed to read this all the way, you can only belong to three groups of people. You're either my mum (Hi, Mum!) or my sister (Hi, b@b) or you're one of my friends or relatives who are, like, really bored and who should really find something better to do with their time. Like, DO SOME WORK! And if you're not in either of these groups, 1) who the hell are you? 2) get a life :-)

I'm an endangered species!

2005-09-01T00:20:00.000+01:00

I know a fair bit of stuff about music. I didn't set out to become a walking encyclopedia on pop music but, as anyone who knows me will tell you, my obsessive-compulsive tendencies push me to usually thoroughly investigate anything that I find a substantial interest in. As a result, after spending years reading rock biographies, Beatles trivia books, fansites, Q and Mojo and Uncut, and even Rolling Stone (when I'm desperate), I've managed to cram into my brains a bordering-on-stupid amount of information.

One side-aspect of that knowledge-gathering is the search for the new, the uncharted, the obscure and sometimes not-so-new. The stuff that it's cool to listen to when nobody else knows about it. That insane live version of "Them Changes" by Buddy Miles and Santana, from their joint LP from 1974. That obscure power-pop band from Detroit (Blue) that are unlikely to get signed anytime soon but whose music rocks anyway. These forgotten gems in the Beach Boys' underrated 70's catalogue (Sunflower, Surf's Up). That completely overlooked McCartney epic ("Backseat of my car") which is actually one of his greatest post-Beatles songs. That superior Neil Young album ("On the beach") that's only just been reissued on CD, when everyone else only listens to Harvest. etc.

Part of it is the thrill of hearing something new and fresh from an artist about whom you thought you knew everything someone needed to know (e.g. these Beach Boys albums), another part is the pleasure derived from spreading the knowledge and, to be quite frank, from showing off my credentials in rocklogogy. So, yeah, I admit it: I am a Rock Snob. And I love it.

Well, as this article kindly explains, the modern age of music-sharing is bringing this unashamed elitism to an end. Well, not quite, but the guy does have a point. It's a lot harder to explain how your appreciation of Deathcab For Cutie makes you kinda "cool" when everybody and their brother seem to have some of their songs in their iTunes collection somewhere.

The next step towards Google World Domination

2005-08-24T10:55:00.000+01:00

They've done it. GoogleTalk has gone live. What's next?

My new toy.

2005-08-23T23:13:00.000+01:00

Denon DF-101S: It doesn't really stack up against the Hifi system I left behind in Sydney but it still rocks. Especially compared to a laptop. Oh yeah.

The Ultimate Lego Geek.

2005-08-19T17:46:00.000+01:00

I used to be a Lego freak. I had dozens of kits, including half the "Space" range, boxes full of the stuff, which I used to make giant spaceships that ended up being too heavy to carry their own weight, oil derricks, swords, cars, etc. If I had just read a comic or watched a movie which featured some cool futuristic vehicle, I would usually try to recreate it in Lego, with mixed results.

I remember being pissed off a decade later, when they brought out the Star Wars Lego range, mainly because it had taken them so long to bring the damn things out. I mean, I'd been trying to build the Millenium Falcon with standard bricks and plates since I was 6! It'd have been so much easier to buy the kit, if it had existed back then!

Anyway, I digress...The point was, when it comes to creative use of Lego in relation to Star Wars imagery, I don't think anyone will beat this guy:

http://www.nathanbrickartist.com/han_solo_in_carbonite.html

He should try modeling Jabba The Hut as his next project. That'd be a lot of bricks.

The most productive use of eBay this week.

2005-08-18T17:23:00.000+01:00

Ah the Internet. What a glorious invention! I mean, what else would these people do with their time?

I gotta applaud the tribute to The Office, though. Great show.

Quote of the Day

2005-08-15T11:42:00.000+01:00

I came across a quote, which at times rings so true it's actually painful:

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots.

So far, the Universe is winning."

I wanted a Mini Cooper. Now I really want one.

2005-08-15T10:38:00.000+01:00

When you order your Austin Mini, you can now choose among the options to have it bluetooth-enabled or iPod-ready! You control the player from the steering wheel, which behaves like the iPod wheel! OMG! This is so cool!

It's a crazy world.

2005-08-10T15:24:00.000+01:00

Nobody likes their passport photos but it may now be a requirement to look miserable on your mugshot if you don't want to be considered a terrorist.

The Community Shield

2005-08-09T23:59:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday, Martin and I drove down to Cardiff for the Community Shield, which was being played at the Millenium Stadium, between Arsenal and Chelsea. This game serves as the traditional opener for the season and is also played for charity purposes. It also gave me a nice excuse to get out of London and go down to Wales, where I'd never been before. The drive down took about 3 hours, which wasn't too bad. Obviously, there were plenty of Chelsea and Arsenal fans in evidence on the roads, with flags flapping to the wind on top of every second car.

We had taken our time to leave the house (getting up at 9am on a Sunday morning was a major achievement, I thought) so we only got down to Cardiff around 1pm, with a kickoff time of 3pm. Martin had never been to Cardiff either before, so we weren't quite sure if we'd know where to go once we got there. However, that soon became a moot issue when all the signs started to show up on the side of the road, telling us to go (and incidentlly, directing Arsenal and Chelsea fans down in different directions).

'Turned out that a few major carparks around the city centre had been requisitioned for the game, from where all the fans were being shuttled by bus into the city. Mmh, methinks these people probably have done this before...

The trip on the bus was eventless, but it allowed me to get a quick tour of the outskirts of Cardiff, and I must say, it looks like it is a very quiet place on Sundays. Once we got off the bus, we found ourselves a few blocks away from the stadium, with all the roads being blocked off to traffic. As you can see from some of the photos, it was a little busier there, with thousands of fans milling around the pubs, fast-food joints and cafes.

After walking a few blocks, it dawned on me that I was surrounded by an overwhelming majority of Arsenal fans. Actually, for all I know, they were all Gooners, as only about 1 person in 10 didn't exhibit any outward signs of "Gooner-ness" (did I just make up that word?), which in no way precludes them from being from the good side of the Force (The Dark side is Chelsea, aka the Russian side of the Force, for you younglings and padawans). I eventually worked out that all the traffic had been directed in such a way that Arsenal and Chelsea fans found themselves on complete opposite sides of the stadium, thus minimizing mingling and the associated risks of "un-pleasantness". Like I mentioned above, I think these guys know a few things about how to organise football games...

We had a quick lunch and made our way to the seats. The Millenium stadium is reputed to be one of the best and most modern stadiums in the UK and I must say it was quite a nice ground. I can't compare it to other football grounds, as I'm not an expert (yet), but it looked impressive, although I reckon it doesn't quite match the Sydney Olympic Stadium or the Stade de France :-)

I was pleasantly surprised to find that our seats were on the lower section, quite close to the lawn (left corner flag on the north side), meaning we'd see some close action by the corner flag. As we got there, the players were just finising warming up. "OMG! Thierry Henry! Robert Pires! Look there! It's Bergkamp! Woo-hoo!"

The fans were already in full voice, and that's the one thing that's amazing about football games, that you don't quite get in any other sports (whether it's rugby, cricket or basketball): the constant chanting, the sheer amount of noise, and the intensity. This game is tantamount to a friendly but these guys don't care, it's all about winning (and making fun of the other team in the process).

The game itself was decent but, as you'd expect from the season-opener, the teams aren't quite at 100% yet so there were quite a few wayward passes and misjudged touches here and there. Still, when the Gooners click, they are amazing to watch. Chelsea won the game 2-1 (bastards) but the game was quite even, I thought. I got to see some neat touches by the likes of Henry, Gilberto, Pires and Berkgamp (including a sweet reverse-turn on the ball which sent an onrushing Gudjhonsen sprawling to the ground, muhahaHAHA!). The new boy for the Gooners, Hleb, played on our side for the second half and I thought he was pretty good. Another find for Wenger, then.

Afterwards, once we got back to the car, it was still only 5pm or thereabouts, so we thought we'd go for a drive around Cardiff and explore a bit, letting most of the traffic get ahead of us. We did go around in circles for a while, until we finally found the ocean and we stopped for dinner. At first, we were near the industrial port so I thought the place to be quite desolated. It must be my antipodean upbringing, but whenever I think "seafront", I picture a row of cafes and restaurants along a nice beach promenade :-) Anyway, we turned the corner and there it was! Cafes, restaurants and families (with annoying brats) galore! We got ourselves some japanese and hung out a bit before getting back in the car for the long drive back to London...

...and a long drive it bloody was. Whereas it had taken us less than 3 hours to drive down, it took us close to double that to get home. The problem was the 58,070 fans (official attendance figures) had streamed into town over the first half of the day, whereas now, they were all going home at the same time! Add to that the additional traffic from people just driving back to England after spending the weekend in Wales, and you find yourself stuck on the Severn bridge for 1 hour. Thank God for iPods.

On the road to Cardiff

2005-08-09T23:55:00.000+01:00

Zidane is BACK! ALLEZ LES BLEUS!

2005-08-05T10:38:00.000+01:00

ZIZOU IS BACK!

This is the most important news of the last couple of days. If you happen to live under a rock: Zinedine Zidane has announced that he'll play again for France, after retiring from the national team a year ago. God, it'll be great to see him wear that blue shirt again.

However, I wouldn't say that we're out of the woods yet, just because he's playing again. If anything, it could prove to be a setback for a young team that was just starting to find itself and now has to review its entire gameplan to fit Zizou back in, with only one friendly between now and the next World Cup qualifying matches. Not much time to learn how to gel, especially considering how some of the youngsters have never even played with the Meister.

Still, with Zizou and Makelele back, and Thuram expected to follow them soon, the French team might recapture some of that aura. Granted, that doesn't win you games but it can act as a psychological boost for the rest of the team. Now, if only the coach would swallow his pride and bring Robert Pires back to the team, we'd have a fuckin' decent team.

Dig!

2005-08-05T10:12:00.000+01:00

Being the music freak that I am, I love rockumentaries. I believe This is Spinal Tap should be required viewing, I've seen the Beatles Anthology several times , I own more music DVDs than movies and the Classic . So, yeah, I love this shit.

The Metallica documentary from last year was a high-point, it was the most fascinating insight into the inner workings of a band that's been through it all. Now, Dig! kinda mines the same emotions but, instead of looking at life in a highly-successful band, it focuses on the destiny of two bands, one that hit it big (The Dandy Warhols), and one that, well, didn't (The Brian Jonestown Massacre). I was a fan of both bands so I was naturally enclined to like this movie anyway.

The movie spans 7 years and you get to see both bands starting out from the same baseline, and they get to be friends, as they share musical ideas and illicit substances. But, then, from there, it just starts to go awry. The movie is really about the downward spiral of Anton Newcombe, the mad genius behind the Brian Jonestown Massacre. I'm not gonna go into details but just cue up lots of drugs, countless punch-ups (during industry showcases, no less), police bust-ups, zany behaviour, and lots of insults.

It's funny, sad, tragic and a bit pathetic but it makes for fascinating viewing.

NB: for the sake of fairness, I should mention that Anton Newcombe has disowned the movie and claims that the depiction of his personnality is completely biased and grossely distorted by the movie-makers' propensity to select footage which made him come across as, well, slightly mad. He'd say that, though, wouldn't he?

The Descent

2005-08-05T09:55:00.000+01:00

Now, I've grown up watching 80's horror movies (me and my sister used to rent a pile of Freddy's to watch on rainy sundays) and I must admit I can be a bit blase when it comes to horror. I like to act as if I've seen it all and I don't get scared easily. So I kinda went into that movie, thinking "yeah, whatever, bring it on."

Well, the thing is, I'm slightly claustrophobic (pretty mild case, but still) and this movie happens to be about caving. The premise is about 6 attractive women who are into Xtreme-style activities, like water rafting, or crawling in small tunnels a few miles underground. Man, some of the sequences in this flick had me terrified, and that was even before the "bad thingies" appeared! This is a British movie so it doesn't necessarily play by the American rules of horror movies, and I found myself sometimes jumping at things that normally wouldn't make me flinch. The friend I was with jumped back in his seat so violently at one point that he actually managed to give himself a nice punch in the face in the process. Quite hilarious :-)

Don't expect an happy ending, though. Actually, I'm not even quite sure how to interpret the ending but if you're depressed, do not see this movie, that last scene is just...bleak.

Wedding Crashers

2005-08-05T09:54:00.000+01:00

I loved that movie. It's stupid, raunchy, mean, and sometimes even creepy (funerals?) but damn, it's funny. Vince Vaughn is on fire in this movie, you get the feeling he's improvising half his lines, sometimes completely flying off the handle, and Owen Wilson just kinda stands back and enjoys the fireworks. I've also found myself a new poster girl: Rachel McAdams is the most gorgeous thing on the big screen this year. Her smile could light up New York in a blackout. Meooooow... On another funny note, it was a bit weird to see an aussie girl from Neighbours (or Home & Away? can't remember) in a big american comedy but Isla Fisher is really good in this, and she's completely insane! She's yummy, too.

Batman Begins

2005-08-05T09:53:00.001+01:00

At last! Believe the hype, this is the best Batman movie in ages! Probably the best "origin" comic-book movie as well: Batman doesn't actually show up in costume until way past the first hour of the movie, and yet, you don't care because the story of Bruce Wayne is so engrossing. Once Batman shows up, though, he gets to kick some ass, and he does it the way he's supposed to, as well, by staying mostly in the dark and scaring the shit ouf of the baddies. A Dark Knight that actually stays in the dark, acts scary and is really borderline psychotic? Now, THAT's Batman!

Kung Fu Hustle

2005-08-05T09:53:00.000+01:00

For those who saw Shaolin Soccer, this is from the same guy, Stephen Chow. This guy is a weird mix: he looks like Bruce Lee, acts like Jackie Chan and tries to be Jim Carrey. This movie is completely insane, and visually incredible, with some very creative action sequences, using a combination of wire-fu and CGI. If they have to make a live-action Dragonball Z movie one day, this guy is the only possible choice for directing.

Mr & Mrs Smith

2005-08-05T09:50:00.000+01:00

I went in with low expectations but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I really like the director's previous work (Go, The Bourne Identity) and with that one, he kinda proves his knack for physical action-oriented movies. Except this one's got a twist: it doesn't take itself seriously at all. Forget logic, motives or whatever, this is just for fun and Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are having the time of their lives as they to blow shit up, beat the crap out of each other, etc. Really good fun.

Movie reviews

2005-08-05T09:20:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been seeing a lot of movies lately (at least one a week) and I'd been meaning to post up some of my impressions but I just haven't got round to it, life's been pretty hectic (need sleeeeeeeeeeep...) . As a result, some of these reviews are ancient but I'll post them anyway.

Tron Lightcycles? KEWL!!!!!

2005-07-12T11:40:00.000+01:00

Now, I know someone who'll be pissed off that he didn't think of this first (yes, Chris Schulz, I'm talking to you).

http://mnt.is-a-geek.org/tron/

Life goes on.

2005-07-11T22:56:00.000+01:00

I was gonna write something about the events of last week, but now that a few days have passed and that everyone and their brother have been on TV talking about it, it seems almost redundant. Oh well, I'll still say a few words about it...

So, yeah, I was fairly close to the "action", to use a poor term. My office is only a few blocks away from Liverpool St, although I don't actually go through that station to go to work. It was a bit unnerving to see the helicopters from our windows and hear the ambulances down the street. The worst bit was probably when the HR person came in and asked us to close the blinds, in case a bomb blew up in Moorgate Station, a couple of blocks away. It was a bit hard to go back to whatever I was doing after that.

On the day, we didn't really have any idea what was going on, as the official line was that they had power failures on some of the lines. It's only when we heard about the bus explosion that we figured something more sinister was happening. Everyone started to get in touch with their loved ones and friends, but, predictably, the mobile networks couldn't cope. In any case, all my mates reported quickly to my rollcall so that was a relief.

What was interesting was how quickly life got back on track in London. By the end of the day, despite the surreal sight of hundreds of people walking home in the streets, you could already feel that the city was emerging from its daze (litterally: it rained most of the day but, by 5pm, the sun was breaking out).

Now, a few days following these tragic events, things are pretty much back to normal. I was out in the West End on Saturday, only 2 days later, and it was packed, as always. If you didn't read the newspapers and watch the news, it'd be easy to think that nothing had happened, and you do lose track of it to some extent.

Then, as you sit on the Tube and King's Cross Station comes along, an empty platform flashes by (the train doesn't stop), a grim reminder of the events that shook these very walls, and you find yourself thinking about it all again.

2005-07-05T22:47:00.000+01:00

Live 8, Hyde Park: that's about as close as most people got.

2005-07-05T22:45:00.000+01:00

Live 8: Busted! Truth be told, he was nice enough to let her take a few pictures.

2005-07-05T22:44:00.000+01:00

Live 8, Hyde Park: I'm not going to say anything...

May the farce be with you.

2005-07-02T12:08:00.000+01:00

Some early candidates for this year's Darwin Awards:

EL HEMPSTEAD, England (UPI) -- Two people were hospitalized in Chelmsford, England, Tuesday with burns from homemade, gasoline-filled "Star Wars" light sabers, which set them ablaze.

Authorities said they found Mark Webb and Shelley Mandiville on the ground when they were called to a wooded area near Hemel Hempstead.

Both were hospitalized in critical condition.

Police said it was believed the pair filled florescent tubes with gasoline to imitate the weapon used in "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith."

The sixth "Star Wars" movie has set new box office records.

Police said the pair may have been taping themselves during the mock fight.

2005-06-28T20:01:00.000+01:00

The REAL reason behind my trip to Paris. Open borders rock.

2005-06-27T23:34:00.000+01:00

I go away for 3 days and when I come back, a circus has grown in my backyard! Well, okay, maybe not in my actual backyard but this parc is next door to my place so it might as well be! (Oh, and for you perverts, the point of the picture is the circus sign. I swear.)

2005-06-27T23:27:00.000+01:00

EDDIE!!!! Iron Maiden's mascot makes his appearance, at last.

2005-06-27T23:25:00.000+01:00

"BONSOIR PAAAARRRRRIIIIS!!!!!" - Bruce Dickinson, Parc des Princes, 25--06-2005.

2005-06-27T23:24:00.000+01:00

THE TROOOOPEEEER!!!!!!! (Yes, that guy in the uniform and with the flag is the Human Siren himself, Bruce Dickinson)

2005-06-27T23:22:00.000+01:00

Dream Theater: the best musicians on the planet. These guys are so good it's scary, I'm not even sure they're human at this point.