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