London Update

Thought I would add the setlists for the last 2 gigs for anyone that is interested:
Bloc Party
Song For Clay (Disappear Here) / Positive Tension / Hunting For Witches / Waiting For The 7.18 / Banquet / This Modern Love / The Prayer / Two More Years / Luno / Uniform / So Here We Are / Like Eating Glass

Flux / Sunday / She's Hearing Voices / Helicopter

Chemical Brothers
Brothers gonna work it out / Galvanize / Burst generator / Do it again / Big jump / Get yourself high / Hey boy hey girl / All rights reversed / Numbers / Out of control / Don’t fight control / It doesn’t matter / Tempetation / Star guitar / Surface to air / Under the influence / Electronic Battle Weapon 8 (Saturate) / Believe / We are the night / Nude night / Golden path / Elektrobank / Chemical beats

Leave home / Block rockin beats / song to siren / A modern midnight conversation / The sunshine underground

Finalised all my xmas shopping for everyone. Went to Fabric last night - the layout was a lot different to what I was expecting; rather than 3 levels the 3 rooms are spread out over 1.5 levels. The decor is all brick and wood based with one area very similar to the lounges downstairs at the Met. The speakers under the floor of the main room definitly add another dimension to the sound of the venue, sneding vibrations up through your body. Infadels played a pretty decent electro set; Reverend and the Makers were as good as last time; The Glimmers were fairly ordinary with a very varied song selection and not that great mixing. There was a few other 'rock' acts on which was pretty interesting, though they didnt sound that great in the 2nd room. Also in the 2nd room were Fujiya & Miyagi, a live act that played similar stuff to Underworld. Wanted to check out Shy Child (as they are playing BDO) but didn't end up staying late to see them as we had to check-out early this morning and do some sightseeing.

Bloc, Brothers, London

Travelled up to Manchester last thursday afternoon, only got to see Manchester on the walk to the venue for the Bloc Party gig but it looked quite nice with all the christmas lights everywhere, although it was really busy, even on a thursday night so i guess it would get packed on the weekends.

The Bloc Party gig was held in a aircraft hanger style venue - we managed to get up near the front and had a great view for the whole night. Foals played pretty much the same set as last time I saw them, but it was good to hear it on a massive sound system. The cribs were a really average 3 piece so it was good when Bloc Party came on. The venue also had the quickest turn around between acts (about 15-20mins) so there wasnt much hanging around. Bloc Party set was pretty much split between their 2 albums, plus the 2 singles they have released. The songs off the 2nd album sound so much rockier and raw live because they don't use a lot of the synths and keys that were present on the album recordings which was good as it kept the upbeat tempo of the gig flowing. Kele was fairly chatty, running off into the crowd at one stage. The encore started off with Flux, and these massive green lasers. The next song featured 2 drum kits. It was a really great night and it was good to see a longer set than you would get at a festival. Only dissapointing thing was I didn't have any cash on me so I couldn't buy a t-shirt.

The next day we ventured down to London by bus (as it was cheaper than the train) but won't do it again in a hurry. The 2 bus drivers we had were pretty crazy, zooming in and out of lanes, using their horn every 10mins or so. The traffic was pretty ordinary, particularly when we got closer to London and we ended up being nearly an hour late.

The Chemical Brothers gig was at Brixton Academy which is the best sounding, nicest looking music venue I have been into. It looks similar to an old theatre and we had tickets for the upper circle, looking down onto the stage. We were right at the front of the balcony looking down and could see the whole stage set-up for both acts perfectly. Simian Mobile Disco played a different set to 2 weeks ago in Leeds, which might have been because of some technical difficulties they seemed to be having with a piece of equipment. It was a lot more abstract and experimental and they seemed to be playing around with the gear more, not running through track after track that they did in Leeds.

The Chemical Brothers performance was undoubtedly the single greatest music performance I have ever been to - and I still think that 5 days after. The 2 hour set featured a vast array of tracks and samples of every album they have done. They were very energetic, running around the stage, moving from one piece of equipment to another. The visuals were unbelievable and i've got some great videos and photos to show this (which i'll attach when i get back to my computer). The venue was sold out and downstairs was a sea of people and the balcony that we were on was moving up and down with the people on it. I bought tickets to see them when they play in Brisbane at the Future Music Festival, but i don't think it will come close to this massive performance.

Anyways, we have spent the last few days in London - doing some christmas shopping, walking through Hyde Park and visiting Buckingham Palace; we also went to the Science Museum which had some fun interactive stuff to do. We also went to the theatre (yes, very posh!) and saw Les Miserables which was pretty entertaining.

A Quiet Weekend

This weekend was one that we did no travelling and spent it in Nottingham (it seems like ages since we haven't been away for the weekend) so we took it easy, managed to get some cleaning and washing done and some Christmas shopping. It was rainy, windy and cold on saturday but cleared up on sunday and its nice and sunny today (though still a little chilly at around 9 degrees).

Saturday night i ventured down to Rock City to see Justice and CSS perform. Justice played for about 50mins and played pretty much what I had expected them too - all stuff off their album. So i was happy, although it was perhaps a little overmixed at times, but i guess you get that from 2 guys rather than 1.

Although i was really only there to see Justice i stayed to watch CSS who, despite coming out wrapped up as Christmas presents and with falling fake snow, were fairly average. They are a 6 piece that sounded like a 3 or 4 piece and apart from the lead singer, the other members had no stage presence and looked like they wished they were somewhere else.

Boro beat Aresnal (who have been undefeated in the league since April) in a magnificent display at home, which makes it even more frustrating that they can't play like that every week. Hopefully they can thrash the bottom placed Derby next week.

Not sure how often i'll be posting over the Xmas/New Year period - we head up to Manchester on Thursday and then down to London for 2 weeks from there before heading off to Prague to bring in 2008 and then to Amsterdam.

Videos

Bands, Bands, Bands

Had a pretty big music weekend, starting off on Friday just down the road from our place in Nottingham for the 'Eat Your Own Ears' Warehouse Party. The Foals were the second band on and they were incredible, think Battles that you can dance to. They were so tight yet played so crazy at the same time. New Young Pony Club were on after them and performed quite well but seemed flat in comparison to Foals.
After that was a 3hour back to back DJ set featuring members from Hot Chip and Four Tet. The stuff played by Hot Chip was pretty similar to their DJ kicks album, which i'm not a big fan of so that was a bit of a dissapointment but I loved the weird stuff that Four Tet are known for.


The next day was up to Leeds to wander round the town during the day before heading off to Leeds Uni to see Simian Mobile Disco and the Klaxons. The gig was held in the Leeds Uni Refec, which put UQ to shame as this place was huge (the whole uni looked pretty impressive). It seemed to be the weekend for support bands because Simian Mobile Disco blew me away with a well constructed live set that sounded amazingly clear and looked really impressive, as they work around a circular table, surrounded by bars of light. I finally remembered to bring my camera to a gig so you some videos will be up soon and the pics are on the other site.

The Klaxons came on (after a 45minute break in between acts) to a massive reception, as apparantly Leeds is their hometown show. Dressed in black, they looked a lot more like Trent Reznor than the leaders of the fluro new rave scene they supposedly are (they have even banned glow sticks from all their UK shows). Before the gig I was a bit unsure how their vocals would come across live but was suitably impressed of their ability to hit the high notes. However, SMD were really never going to be out performed in my opinion and the Klaxons ran through pretty much all their songs off their debut album, with the set only lasting about 50mins.

Went and saw Pendulum perform live the other week. I don't know whether it was because i had high expectations but i was left feeling dissapointed. Their live setup features drummer, bassist, guitarist, synth/2nd guitar, vocals and an additional MC. Rather than perform then replicate their studio work in a live arena, they have almost turn into a rock band covering their songs. Obviously some parts of the 'reworkings' work well, such as an extended guitar intro into Hold Your Colour, but overall it loses the intensity and its drum n bass identity. Maybe it would work better with an extra drummer.....

Mum was over last week so Bindy and I went up to Middlesbrough to see her and catch up with lots of relatives. It was nice to see everyone again and we had a party in a pub all of Saturday. Bindy has been busy with her job - she has been up to Stoke and is off to Leeds, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and a few other places doing recruitment.

As promised here is the audio for the Bill Bailey show i saw in Nottingham

Part 1 - http://www.zshare.net/audio/50839176d82eb6/
Part 2 - http://www.zshare.net/audio/50840987bd2579/

Poland

We had a great time in Krakow. It was bloody freezing the whole time we were there, barely getting above 0 degrees but that was ok because it snowed for basically the entire time which was lots of fun. Food and drink was pretty cheap - vodka is the standard drink there and most of the Poles drink it straight. A double shot or a beer will set you back about $3-4. We found this great pub just off the main square (supposedly the largest square in Europe) where we had the best flavoured vodka we've ever tasted - the mandarin vodka tasted like real mandarines, and so did the vanilla, not like the sweet artificial flavourings that you normally find. This place also did food, and I managed to get a plate of smoked salmon with caviar paste for $4! We ate traditional polish food for dinner - lots of ham and sausages and this sweet shredded cabbage mixture. The traditional food is pierogi, which is a cross between a dumpling and ravioli and is filled with meat or cheese mixture.

Krakow is about an hour from the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz so we took a tour out there which was a really interesting experience. We had a guide who took us on a 3.5 hour tour through the site, explaining how the whole brutal operation took place. The whole place was covered in a thick layer of snow which added to the whole bleak feel of the place. I've put some photos up with the rest of them so have a look.


On Sunday night I went to see Bill Bailey perform at the Nottingham Arena who was funny, though I didn't think it was as good as his previous shows. It was a bit odd going to such a big comedy gig (the venue is slightly smaller than the Brisbane Entertainment Centre) but he made full use of the venue - using massive visual displays, a giant ufo coming down from the roof of the stage and even went through the seated crowd area on one of those stupid segway bike things (crashing it on trying to return to the stage). They also record the show so you can buy a copy of it on CD afterwards which I thought was pretty cool so I'll post a copy of the show online once i've ripped it onto my computer. Though he did make use of a lot of images so some bits of it probably won't make much sense.

Food, Work and Shopping

Yes, I know i've been a bit slack with posting here but i managed to spill beer on my laptop so it had to get taken in to get cleaned....but all seems to be working now which is very good.

2 weeks of stuff to update you all on...
We went to Cadbury World (the home of Cadbury chocolate) at Bournville which was pretty interesting as we got to go around the factory and see how all the different types of chocolate are made and the history of the company. We also got plenty of free samples and managed to pick up a bag of chocolate offcuts. The next day we caught the bus through the countryside to Melton Mowbray, which is a town south of Nottingham famous for its Pork Pies and Stilton cheese

Bindy got a job at a recruitment company, recruiting carers to look after people - the company seems pretty disorganised and her work is fairly chaotic, but it gives us more money to spend which is always good.

On Saturday we spent the day in Birmingham, which is one of the largest cities in England. We basically spent the day wondering around the shops and markets and picked up a little xmas tree to go in our apartment (yes i know its early).

We head off to Krakow in Poland on Thursday for a few nights so i'll tell you about that next..... Meanwhile you can check out a couple more photos that i've put up

Bindy and I caught the bus up to Sherwood Forest and wondered around there for the day, exploring Robin Hood's old hideout (though it was pretty cold, about 12 degrees). They have the Major Oak tree which is one of the oldest in England (and linked to the Robin hood story) and its branches have to be supported by poles to stop it collapsing.

We also caught the train down to Leicester to wonder round there for the day, the city centre was full of construction but there were some decent markets. Walking north of the city centre we came to an area that could have been called Little India - it was lined with Indian clothes and jewellery stores, food shops and plenty of curry houses. We had a fantastic curry buffet which had some of the best curry i've ever had (and sauces that i'd never heard of before).

It was windy and pissing down with rain yesterday so we spent most of it bumming around the flat, but we did venture out after dinner to see Michael Moore's new film Sicko, which was really interesting and shockingly funny at times - if you get the chance to see it make sure you do.

Happy birthday to Danny too and hopefully you've recovered from the party on the weekend.

Photos

Ok so i've finally gone through all the photos (over 800 i think) and put some of them up on a website for you all to see (see link to the right). Bindy went through and put some captions on them so that you would have some idea of what the photos are. Also the photos are in reverse chronological order, so you might want to start at the bottom of the page and work up. Our camera was also still set to Australian time, so 1 day is spread over the afternoon of one, and the morning of the other...if you know what i mean.

We explored the Nottingham area a bit more last weekend, heading north to the smaller towns of Bulwell and Hucknall to visit their markets - Bindy managed to get some Fcuk boots that must have 'fallen off the back of a truck' because she only paid 30 pounds for them but we saw them in the shops for 130.

We also went to the Robin Hood Pagaent which was held all weekend at Nottingham castle - they basically let the medieval socieites loose on the place so there was tents with traditional foods, ales, jewellery making, archery etc. There were recreation of Robin Hood stories including jousting on horseback, fire twirling and some serious combat with guys being let loose with swords, battle axes and shields. I took some photos so you can have a look.

Nottingham has heaps of caves underneath the entire town, so we went on a tour of one of the caves - they used to use them for housing, to make leather goods and as bomb shelters during WWII (one of the caves could hold fire trucks, ambulances and thousands of people). We got to wear hard hats so that was good too.

Had a really good night seeing Underworld play live (even if I was feeling pretty crappy from a cold). The support act were pretty good, Errors, who were from Glasgow. I'm listening to their stuff again now (www.myspace.com/weareerrors).
Underworld blew the place apart. They had a pretty big L shaped set up, with 2 of the biggest Apple Mac screens i've ever seen. They did a 2hour set featuring all the big hits - opening up with Rez/Cowgirl, finishing with Jumbo and playing the likes of King of Snake, Born Slippy nuxx, Push Upstairs and a couple of new ones too. The highlight however was 2 Months Off, when the stage was filled with giant inflatable beams that began to stick out over the audience.
I didn't quite appreciate how old these guys are (i think they turn 50 this year) but they sure put on a great performance, both visually and muscially. Here's the official Underworld review of the gig too:

Nottingham - what a truly amazing vibe! Transforming a day through
your energy & enthusiasm - pumping adrenaline straight into the groove.
You raised the roof & sent us back out on the road tingling & grinning.
Thanks to Errors for another brilliant show.
You go from strength-to-strength.

Also went out to see Evil Nine during the week but they weren't starting till late so I left before they came on.

Don't Piss on my Shoes and tell me it's Raining......

Krafty Kuts on friday night was very good - enjoyed a nice 3 hour set, though it is the least 'breaksy' I have heard from him. Stealth was the club he was playing at which was a nice place. It had very minimal decoration around (similar to the dance area at moon bar) and was basically 2 of these style areas on top of each other, although bigger. It is also attached to the 'live' venue, Rescue Rooms, which they also had open and had some live acts playing in there as well. So with the 2 clubs joined together it seemed like 1 big place.

Sunday I went to see Reverend and the Makers play at Rock City which is a really good venue which has won heaps of awards. It's layout is almost identical to the main area at The Arena, but its bigger and not so dodgy looking. The sound was amazing, particularly the drums. The opening act were The Ting Tings, a guy/girl duo on drums and guitar but they seemed to be short 1 person because they had a lot of bass and keys on backing tracks.

I went along to see Reverend and the Makers having only heard 2 tracks and was suprised to see they are a 7 piece featuring guitar, bass, drums, keys, synths, electronic drums/samples and vocals. The place was pretty full and all the songs sounded so much better than listening to them afterwards on their album, which sounds kinda flat in comparison. They played for about 70mins, with Reverend saying random poems in between songs. Apparently once a band starts playing here you are meant to throw any drink you have in the air, because when they started there was just beer galore soaking the crowd, which i found a bit odd.

Happy Birthday Brock!

Hopefully you got my text message but thought i'd say happy birthday again anyways to my first and longest friend. Have a great party this weekend and have a few drinks on my behalf. Beastman better make an appearance too. I've thrown together a few tracks that i thought you might enjoy (download at the link below).

http://www.zshare.net/audio/40105448e3c028/

Big Day Out

The BDO lineup looks pretty good, but anything with Rage Against the Machine on it is gonna be pretty damn good. Billy Bragg, Battles and Bjork (hey they all start with B.....) will be really good to see as well. I'm still contemplating returning via Perth to catch the BDO, but am waiting to hear from my travel agent to see how much it will cost me to change my flights

Went and signed up for classes at uni on Tuesday, which involved me lining up for about 90 minutes to get a piece of paper signed as you can't do it online yet. Also went to the equivalent of 'Market Day' and got lots of vouchers for cheap drinks and meals which will come in handy. Pretty cold here at the moment (max of about 12 degrees) and very windy, though not much rain. Thought i'd put up a few more photos from the very start of the trip when we first arrived in London. On a side not, i'm also considering trying to make the Perth BDO if Rage are playing.

OK....so it seems like as soon as i leave the country some of my favourite bands decide to tour, frist daft punk and now rage against the machine.....not happy jan, not happy at all

The France Finale

We took it nice and easy in Toulouse, particularly as I was coming down with a bit of a head cold and wasn't feeling the best. We spent a lot of time going from bar to bar watching the Rugby World Cup, half the time with commentary in French.

It seems like we spent most of the remaining time in France either eating or drinking as we made our way up through Bordeaux, Tours and then on to Paris. Highlights included snails (still in their shells which i slurped out, much to Bindys disgust), a duck and beef fondue, Bindy ordered mussels and received a bowl with about 50-60 of them, a rabbit and apple stew, foie gras (a special duck pate), duck (which i think Bindy had nearly every day), creme brulee, and surprisingly the best kebab in the world from this french lebanese restaurant (though even calling it a kebab seems to serve it injustice).

On the drinking front, Kronenbourg, Heinekken and Amstel are the standard beers here, along with the Desperados i think i mentioned previously (the beer and tequila mixes). Beer cocktails are very popular here, involving beer, a spirit and cordial. Wine is everywhere (particularly when we were in Bordeaux) and i'm sure it is fantastic, but as neither Bindy or I are that keen on wine we tended to leave it alone.

A large section of Bordeaux is World Heritage listed so we took a mini train tour around the town (along with plenty of Irish fans as Ireland had played in town the night before) and also visited the mirror lake, which was a large flat area with tiny holes that shot up a mist of water to create a mirror effect.
We then made our way up to Tours, in the heart of the Loire Valley, which has large wide boulevards lined with trees. Here we took a half-day bus tour to visit the surrounding areas and some famous chateauxs, Chambord and Cheverny. We had planned on buying a bottle of Chambord in Chambord, but at $60 a bottle, we decided not to. Chambord features a massive double helix staircase (apparently designed by Da Vinci), while Cheverny features in the comic Tintin and had a large kennel area full of the same breed of dog, branded with a V and had the most repulsive smell.

We found this really funky bar in Tours where Bindy made friends with the bartenders dog who was sleeping underneath her chair. The place was packed as France were playing Scotland in the Euro 2008 Football (Soccer) qualifiers. Scotland upset the home team 1-0 and the place went deathly silent when they scored, except for 1 guy outside who was going for Scotland.

Then on to Paris where we climbed the Eiffel Tower, visited the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, went and saw Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde's graves, strolled down the Champs-Elysees from the Arc de Triomphe (where Bindy bought Chanel earrings and a Louis Vuitton handbag for all the girls interested), visited the Catacombes (a 1.2km tunnel that is 20m underground in Paris and is full of bones and skulls) and spent a day in Versailles.



However the biggest surprise was stumbling into the middle of the 2007 Paris Techno Parade, which is the 3rd largest street parade in Europe (behind Berlin's Love Parade and the Zurich street parade), and featured 22 converted trucks each with various dj's playing from them, as they travel on a route through town. Nearly every genre of dance music was featured, electro, minimal, hardcore, hardstyle, breaks and even a jungle/drum n bass truck that was decked out as a jungle. Any cars parked on the side of the road were destroyed as people jumped up and down on them, people were walking around with half empty bottles of vodka, the place was crazy but so much fun.
The only annoying thing was that hardly any of the floats/trucks had the names of the people playing so i couldn't work out who we were listening to as we walked along (the only person i could work out was Oliver Huntemann). For some reason I can't add anymore photos so visit this other site which has heaps: http://jouissezsansentraves.blogspot.com/2007/09/081-techno-parade-2007.html

As you can probably tell by the use of pictures I am back at my laptop at my uncles place in London. So now its off to pack before heading up to Nottingham tomorrow, where I have to finally get stuck back into uni.

Andorra

From Madrid we headed to the tiny country of Andorra (situated up in the mountains on the border between france and spain), involving a 2.5hour train trip and a 2.5hour bus trip (the only way in and out is by road). Andorra is famous for its skiing and trekking and shopping, and it did not disappoint. The scenery is picturesque, the clothes oh so cheap, ciggarettes cost about $30 a carton. And the alcohol, well Andorra makes Dan Murphys seem really expensive and short on selection. Vodka ranged from about $4.50 a bottle (yep thats right, though it looked dodgy) to about $15 for a 1L bottle of absolut, or $22 for a 2L bottle. Prices were pretty similar for all spirits.

We also went to one of Europes largest spa complexes here, relaxing away an afternoon in amongst saunas, indoor and outdoor pools and spas, indo-roman baths and one cold pool that had a crushed ice waterfall.

The day we were leaving was a public holiday and the town was covered in Andorran flags and statues, as it was a holiday for the patron saint of Andorra. The bus trip to Tolouse was 3.5 hours, and involved a majour detour off the highway into the French countryside as a truck had exploded, leaving only the burnt out shell.

The rest of Spain

Also in Barcelona we came across a man just walking around town stark naked. From barcelona we took the train down the east coast of spain for 1 day and night in Valencia where we just took it easy, walking around the town in the afternoon.
The following day was spent mostly on the train to Seville as it took about 7.5 hours, enabling me to catch up on a dose of music from my ipod. Speaking of music, it was interesting to note that Old man river was very big in italy (not sure if i mentioned that), xavier rudd was playing some shows in barcelona, and skipping ahead to toulouse (where we are at the moment), there are posters everywhere for architecture in helsinki who play here on the 21st.

We arrived in Seville to our nicest accommodation of the trip - somehow we had managed to get a 4 star hotel for the same price as all the other hostels and 1 - 2 star hotels we had been staying in. People in spain dont eat till very late (lunch is between 1.30-3.00 and dinner is normally after 10pm) so they have tapas, which is basically small servings of traditional spanish foods in bars and cafes. There was a great bar near us that we went to both nights for some drinks and tapas, having mini paella and patatas bravas which is basically potato wedges with the bravas sauce, a combination of peppers and mayonnaise.

We did a tour of one of the main bullfighting rings in spain.
We also went to see a free flamenco show which was amazing. The place looked more suited to a beach in australia then in the middle of spain and it was packed (im sure the cheap drinks helped that as well). There was a tiny stage set up and the performance was done by 3 people - a guy with an accoustic guitar, another guy that did vocals and percussion (by percussion i mean hand claps and foot stomping) and a chick dressed in the traditional flamenco who did dancing and foot stomping.

They got huge sound out of simple hand claps and did, what seemed like just a jam, except they would have these huge buildups and all finish perfectly, the timing was amazing. I also now have huge admiration for flamenco guitarists, using no pick and alternating so smoothly between strumming and picking the strings. i dont know how the guy didnt get a sore hand, as they did 2 25 minute performances, and he was hitting the strings pretty hard.

From Seville we made our way up to Madrid, where we did some much needed clothes washing (dont worry though this wasnt the first time we had washed our clothes). We found a fantastic restuarant here where we ate for 2 of the 3 nights. It was an old cathedral that had been converted into a restaurant and served up suckling pig, vennison, rabbit etc. The second time bindy and i got the meat platter to share, and it was piled with so many different types of meat we struggled to work out what they all were.

We did some shopping here (i picked up a few good tshirts) and we also went to another flamenco show, although this one was more professional as we bought tickets for it and it was performed in a proper theatre and featured 12 dancers as well as a vocalist, guitarist and a guy playing what seemed to be a wooden box.

Drink cards are given out everywhere in madrid so it was easy to find cheap drinks, especialy when one place has a 6 hour happy hour featuring $6.50 cocktails and a free shot with every pint ordered. Finding clubs has been more difficult than i had thought, as brisbane seems to be quite unique in having all its clubs in one area. We did go to one in Madrid, and it was quite impressive as it was an old palace that had been converted. Once entering we had to walk up this dramatic stairway, and once upstairs we kept expecting James Bond type characters to walk around the corners. However, it was a tuesday night and tuesday night was 'gold music revival night' as far as the music was concerned (just another name for shit latin pop i think) so we didnt stay too long after our free drinks.

Hola!

From Sicily we caught a plane to Barcelona which was fine, though we found it a bit odd when everyone started cheering once we landed safely.
Barcelona was definitly up there as our favourite place. We found Spain to be really clean in comparison to Italy (though not clinical) and is a lot more relaxing, partly because the traffic isn´t going crazy around you.

The main strip in Barcelona is Las Rambla, which we happened to be staying on. All along the strip are market stalls selling everything from flowers and souvenirs to animals such as squirrels, turtles, birds and fish. There are also heaps of artists and street performers which give it a great atmosphere.

We went to the beach here which was really busy (and lots of topless chicks) but there is absolutely zero swell, its very flat. We also went into a backpackers bar for some cheap drinks and watched this young australian guy try to make some sort of chilli con carne behind the bar, with very little ingredients - he didnt have any tomatoes and we were puzzled to watch him add milk to the massive pot that looked disgusting. As he said though, he didn´t have to eat it, and neither did we.

Barcelona is the home of the Picasso museum which we visited, and was also holding a photographic exhibition of Lee Miller, who took over 1000 photos of Picasso and was also a war photojournalist, she was one of the first people inside Hitler´s house after his death (there iseven a photo of her taking a bath in Hitlers bath). Thanks to Lonely Planet we found a restaurant that used 99.9% of their ingredients from the local region, which was fantastic and quite different, especially the desserts.

Barcelona was the home of Antonio Gaudi, a genius who died in 1926. This guy was an artist, interior designer and amazing architect. The Sagrada Famillia is this amazing cathedral designed by him that has been undergoing construction for over 100 years and hopefully it will be finished in our lifetime because the bits that have been done are fantastic.

To Sicily.....

From Naples we caught the ferry overnight to Sicily (the trip takes about 10.5 hours) and our cabin was surprisingly large, though i did manage to flood the bathroom as our shower was broken.
We had 2 nights in Palermo (the major town in Sicily) staying at Giorgios House, a great bed and breakfast run by Giorgio, who was really friendly, though a bit crazy. On the frist night we were there he took everyone who was staying (us, a french couple and an american girl) out around the town and to a couple of local bars, the first where we got the most amazing fruit platters covered in granita (think fruit slushie) and the second place was packed with locals watching the first football game of the season (though things didnt go too well as Palermo lost to Roma).

The next day Giorgio was meeting his sister and her boyfriend to go to an island (levanzo) off the coast and asked us if we wanted to come. (See previous post for link to photos). It was a fantastic day, the water was crystal clear and despite the near 40 degree temperatures was quite cold. Also, they dont take speed limits too seriously, we spent most of the 1 hour drive doing 140kph.

Catching Up.....

Ok so i can try to catch up a bit now.
Rome
The sights in Rome were amazing, but apart from that, the city was actually a bit dissapointing, especially in comparison to Florence and Venice. The city itself is quite big and is hindered by the poor public transport - the metro only goes around the outskirts of the large centre and the buses are very confusing and always very very full. Once you move away from the main sites, the place was very dirty and probably the graffitti capital of the world.

Naples was similar in its dirtiness however it had somewhat of a seaside charm to it. We only had 1 night here and managed to enjoy some of the best food and drinks here. The best pizza we had in Italy was in Naples, and it was also the cheapest, costing about $3 each for a massive pizza, cooked for 30secs in a 415 degree celsius stone oven.
In Italy (and in Spain) they don´t use measures for pouring spirits, they just pour straight into the glass, so, while you may pay around $6.50-$8 for a drink, you end up getting around 3-4 shots of alcohol (drinks are also served in large glasses so you get more mixer as well).
A bar round the corner from our hotel in Naples was really cheap and we managed to get a 660ml Heineken and a strawberry daiquiri (with about 5 shots of bacardi) for $10.

Whilst in Naples we did a day trip to Pompeii, the ancient ruins nearby of an entire village destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mt Vesuvius, which was really interesting, and is filled with plenty of friendly dogs.

Sicily

Skipping forward a bit here (don´t worry ill get back on track) but the guy who ran our bed and breakfast in sicily (giorgio) was an awesome guy and we went to this little island off the coast. Anyways he has put some photos and video of our trip on a website, so you guys can check it out.
the link is http://www.sicilyphotos.com/trekking_in_sici_000007.htm

I've been a bit slack so i'll try to make up for lost time. We are currently in Palermo (on Sicily) but i'll start back up from when we left Florence.

We caught the train to Pisa in the morning but unfortunately our luck of weather ran out as it was raining (though not to heavily). We saw the leaning tower (and got some good photos with it) but there was a 3 hour wait to climb it and unfortunatley we had to get a train to Rome so we couldnt.

We stayed at a nice bed and breakfast in Rome and on Bindy's birthday we went and saw the Colosseum and the ancient Roman forum before having lunch in front of the Pantheon. The waiter gave us free Lemoncello (an Italian lemon liquer) for Bindys birthday which was cool.
That afternoon we walked up the Spanish steps (with a great view of the city) and had a really nice dinner.

The next day was off to the Vatican, which despite your religious inclinations is still a fantastic place to visit. The main church, St Peters Basilica is huge (i think its the biggest in the world) and we climbed the 550 odd steps to the top for an amazing view of the city. We got some photos of me at the vatican post office and then went into the Sistine Chapel to see the amazing artwork. Never short on trying to make a buck or too, the church had merchandise stalls everywhere, even inside the galleries of the museum.
We saw a guy fall off his scooter/moped/motorbike thingy which are everywhere here, weaving in and out of traffic.

Happy Birthday

Haven't had much time to talk lately, but thought i should say a late happy birthday to both Kurt and Jack. Birthday cards are in the mail and should arrive soon (depending on the reliability of the Italian postal service). Hope you guys had great days.

Florence

Our hotel in Florence has free internet so i thought i would make the most of it. Just went to see Michaelangelos David, which is basically a large marble statue of a naked man (who actually has quite a small penis). That gallery also had a really cool exhibit of 16th and 17th century instruments (apparently all the guitars back then had 10 strings).
In florence, pedestrians seem to have control of most of the streets and cars have to slow down to wait for people to move so they can get through. There are heaps of dodgy people selling fake designer brands on the streets (though no english suprisingly).

Venice

Been in Venice for a couple of days now and it is my favourite place thus far. Apart from being the pigeon capital of Europe, it has an amazing atmosphere. Venice is like a small island, connected to the rest of Italy by a long bridge (like 2km long] and is a town floating on water. There are so many little side streets and canals and bridges that cars are not allowed on it. We basically put the map away and walked around all day exploring the city, finding an awesome jazz bar with 2 for 1 drinks and a ceiling decorated in bras from the various female clients that have frequented the place. We also got dinner there and they forgot to charge us for our drinks at the bar, so subsequently we got 2 pina coladas, 2 beers and 2 bellini's (an italian drink of champagne and peach juice) as well as a 2 course meal each for $60.

We found this shop that sells t-shirts designed by young graphic artists, so i picked up one with pigeons in the shape of a skull.

We are staying at a camping village about a 15minute bus trip from venice and it is really cool. It has 2 bars, a restaurant, a supermarket, pool, gym and an internet cafe (where i am now). We head off to florence tomorrow.

Dave

Milan

Milan..not the most exciting of cities, a big castle, a big cathedral and lots of expensive shops. However we did stumble across a trendy bar where you get cushions to sit in the gutter on the street to have your drinks (photo to be attached sometime). Waiting for the train to take us to Venice where we are camping for 3 nights, so lets hope it doesnt rain (not that we have had any of that yet, the weather has been perfect).

A big gap between posts but we have been quite busy.
Arrived in London, staying at my Uncles place who lives within about 20 paces of 3 pubs. Did lots of the touristy things in London and went to check out our flat in Nottingham, which is nice and clean and new equipment but very small, but thats ok.
Caught the train across the channel to Paris where i was stalked and attacked by pigeons, before heading down to Lyon where most things were shut (it was a Sunday) and have just arrived in Italy in Milan.
Glad to hear splendour was not too wet and hope that fun was had by all.

A more detailed reply when i have more time

Brunei

Hi all

Just arrived in Brunei airport, for 2 hours of waiting around and can put this laptop to good use after carrying it around everywhere with me. Trip was fine, except for a rather heated argument amongst an asian tour group on the plane for about 10mins which was rather interesting to be thousands of feet up in the air with a bunch of people yelling in a foreign language.

Off to Dubai and then to London

Bon Voyage!

I've been really busy the last few weeks organising everything and trying to catch up with everyone before I leave (which is tomorrow). Hope everyone has a great time without me, i'll use this to keep you all up to date with whats going on with me.

The Architecture in Helsinki gig was really good, depsite their sound problems, while Mochesmo sounded their best ever at the Zoo on the following night.

Anyways, off to dinner and then for 23 hours of sitting and drinking on the plane.

Dave

Chemical Brothers Remix

The Chemical brothers are running a remix competition, providing you with an online remixing software to tackle 'Electronic Battle Weapon 9'.
Have a go here
or check out my attempt here

The Start......

Hi
This is a place for me to post random crap that is of interest to me, so it will probably be of interest to you too.
Enjoy
Dave