Hi. I've got my last exam in a few hours, which is great - the last 2 weeks have been pretty unexciting for me (apart from the Boro game) as i've just been studying. I've had 3 exams in the last 4 days, the exams here are a bit tougher, and they are the only pieces of assessment I have so i had to put the effort in (although i only get graded a pass or fail so i'm not too bothered).

We have started packing and getting all our stuff organised - we are shipping some boxes back. On Monday we are heading up to Inverness in Scotland for a few days in search of the Loch Ness Monster!, though I doubt we will see anything.

Have fun at BDO for all those going, i'm extremely jealous.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

We were joined by Laura for the last few weeks, meeting up with her in London just before Xmas after her Contiki tour. We spent a few days at my godmother's house in Richmond, before heading out to my Uncle Barry's again for Xmas. The village looked very festive, decked in Xmas lights though unfortunately we didn't get any snow. On Xmas day we were invited to the pub across the road for some free drinks and nibbles, before walking back and settling in for 2 days of non-stop eating and drinking inside by the roaring fire. The 3 of us headed back up to Nottingham where i then left the girls to hit the sales and went back up to Middlesbrough for 2 days to visit my Uncle and cousins who were over from China.

New Years Eve we flew out to Prague, which is a really beautiful city, although we were a bit nervous when we first saw where we were staying. The building was run-down, a typical concrete Eastern European apartment block and the lift didn’t work. We walked up to the 4^th floor to be met with what looked like a solid door to a prison cell. However once inside the room was one of the nicest we had stayed in with plenty of space, a small kitchenette and satellite TV. The city centre involves 2 main squares, about 300m apart and they had markets and a stage featuring music acts to bring in the New Year. The whole city was very busy, and there were fireworks going off everywhere - as there were people standing on the street corners selling them. At first it was a little bit scary with fireworks going off right near you, but after a while you got used to the loud bangs and it provided a really interesting atmosphere. Laura and Bindy were both sick with colds, so we took it fairly easy, just wondering around the town. New Years morning we woke up to see the snow falling outside our bedroom window but sadly it didn't last. We then wondered over the Charles Bridge up to the towering Prague Castle which overlooks the city.

On the 2nd we flew into Amsterdam for 3 nights, which was about the same temperature as Prague (around 3-5 degrees) but felt a lot colder due to the wind that was blowing. Amsterdam was one of my favourite cities that we've been to, but it was also the most expensive. We were staying in the centre of town, about 1 block off the Red Light District which we spent time wondering around marvelling at the various sights. Laura had already been to Amsterdam on her tour so she was able to show us around a little bit. We also met up with Tonn, who Bindy and Laura used to work with, who lives just outside of Amsterdam, who was also meeting up with some other travellers from Ipswich (For those reading who worked at the Redbank Cinemas, we met up with Dave Pearl). We ate very unhealthily in Amsterdam, as the traditional and popular foods are waffles, pancakes, dutch variations of waffles and pancakes, and fries (which were the best i've ever tasted). The Dutch are also big on sauces - at the chip store there was over 20 to choose from; and even the hot dog vendors had up to 10. Bindy and I got a boat pass and travelled around the city's canals, which make it similar to a modern Venice. We went to Anne Frank's house (the girl that hid in a cupboard during WWII) and also went to the floating Tulip markets. The 3 of us ventured into a non-stop sex show on our last night which involved different acts every 5 mins. Some were quite eye-opening while others proved quite funny.

Despite the great time we had away it was nice to settle back down in Nottingham after living out of a backpack for 3 weeks. Laura has left for London before flying home and i've spent the last week studying for my exams which are this week.

Yesterday I finally got see a Premier League game, as Bindy and I met up with my cousin Sean in Middlesbrough to see them play Liverpool. We were the better team for most of the game and were leading 1-0 up until the 72nd minute, when Liverpool equalised. It finished 1-1 which is still a really good result so I was happy. At this stage it is just over 3 weeks till we head back to Australia, so not long left to go. I've added a heap of new photos too, so have a look.

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.