gigs, gigs, gigs, gigs, gigs

After 2 years of complete silence, I have finally kicked my lazy butt into action and am breathing a little bit of life back into this blog. What has prompted the resurrection? There have been several times where a passing thought or incident has almost prompted me to start blogging again, but if it isn't already obvious (the title might give it away??) it is the growing realisation that I appear to be addicted to seeing live acts...

This stocktake probably speaks for itself, and note that in 2009 I repeatedly told myself (but gave up by mid-year) I was not going to say yes to everything like I did in 2008 - I didn't *have* to see Madonna... and I probably didn't *need* to see John Mayer... and Powderfinger weren't even headlining the wireless festival... the intention was to decrease the gig count but I ended up doing the opposite...

2008
#01 30/01 plain white ts @ shepherds bush o2 academy
#02 21/05 feist @ royal albert hall
#03 27/06 john mayer @ brixton o2 academy
#04 02/07 jack johnson @ hyde park
#05 05/07 rufus wainwright @ kenwood house
#06 06/07 powderfinger @ o2 wireless festival, hyde park
#07 11/09 madonna @ wembley stadium
#08 09/10 amy macdonald @ roundhouse
#09 19/10 camille @ roundhouse
#10 13/11 james morrison @ the chapel
#11 09/12 coldplay @ secc (glasgow)

2009
#01 18/02 the killers and coldplay warchild concert @ shepherds bush o2 academy
#02 22/02 snow patrol @ bournemouth bic
#03 30/03 james morrison @ hammersmith apollo
#04 08/06 mika @ sadlers wells
#05 16/06 tt @ cardiff millenium stadium
#06 29/06 regina spektor @ serpentine hyde park
#07 01/07 tt @ wembley stadium
#08 03/07 cat empire @ shepherds bush o2 academy
#09 04/07 tt @ wembley stadium
#10 18/08 pearl jam @ o2 arena
#11 22/08 u2 @ cardiff millenium stadium
#12 18/09 coldplay @ wembley stadium
#13 20/10 newton faulkner @ hammersmith apollo
#14 21/10 wolfmother @ coronet
#15 29/10 jack penate @ fridge
#16 10/11 backstreet boys @ o2 arena
#17 12/11 muse @ o2 arena

2010
#01 01/03 mika @ hammersmith apollo
#02 11/03 stereophonics @ wembley arena
#03 18/03 mgmt @ heaven
#04 06/05 ash @ koko
#05 13/05 the big pink @ the forum
#06 21/05 faithless @ brixton o2 academy
#07 04/06 powderfinger @ brixton o2 academy
#08 05/06 powderfinger @ brixton o2 academy
#09 08/06 crowded house @ hammersmith apollo

and coming up...

#10 23/06 scissor sisters @ brixton o2 academy
#11 13/07 the middle east @ bush hall
#12 15/07 florence @ somerset house
#13 27/08 reading festival
#14 11/09 muse @ wembley stadium
#15 22/09 2 door cinema club @ shepherds bush o2 academy
#16 04/10 lifehouse @ shepherds bush o2 academy
#17 27/11 primal scream @ olympia

strange goings on...

Back at the end of January, I noticed these sprouty things popping up wherever there was a patch of green:


This was taken in St James' Square just near work

Now everywhere I go, wherever there's a patch of green, I see something like this:



A very strange, but lovely, phenomenon to behold for the Australian.

currently loving...

this article... Don't get me wrong, I am all for doing my bit for the environment, but sometimes there are extremes, and banning plastic bags is one of them. It's not just a phenomenon that seems to be sweeping Australia, not a week goes by without some mention in the paper of the evil plastic bag here in London (yes, my exposure to printed media is limited to the Metro and the London Paper, but they still report news, even if it is mostly tabloid). It's nice to see someone offering a different perspective.

tremors

Apparently there was an earthquake a fair way north of London last Tuesday night, but the tremors were felt in London. The first I heard of it though was the next morning at work when a colleague mentioned it. I remember being extremely tired on Tuesday night, so it doesn't surprise me that I slept through it. Actually I'm generally a very heavy sleeper - I think the roof would have to collapse before I'd wake up.

reflections

These are good:

• Moving to London
• 0 cockroach sightings (dodging those giant cockroaches on the way up my driveway back home in Sydney is something that will never be missed)
• No flies
• No mosquitoes
• No morton bay figs

These are wrong:

• Bathrooms with carpet
  
• BT (not only do they connect our phone line to the wrong house and make us cancel our existing contract and open a new one to get the right connection, they have tried to charge us £250 for cancelling our original contract)
• One tap for hot water, one tap for cold water - how does one get warm water???
  
• The sun (or severe lack of)
  

plain white ts

For some reason I thought that only liking one song by a particular band is a good enough reason to buy tickets to their gig. Unfortunately by the time the gig came around I was not really into that one song anymore, and I was thankful that my ticket cost me less than a movie ticket in Leicester Square. Luckily Clara's taste is a little less discerning than mine and her excitement at getting out and going to a gig made me a little less apprehensive about the night out. In the end, it wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. Being there made me feel quite old - the floor was full of teenagers and the support band were only babies! However there is always a counterweight - we were standing next to a woman who must have been in her 40s at least, and she knew all the words to nearly all their songs...

bridge over the river cam

The 4 of us went to Cambridge last weekend - our first trip outside of London. There isn't a lot to do in Cambridge, but I would recommend a punt on the river. It's a quick and easy way to see all the main buildings of the university, and if you're lucky (which we were) you'll be there on a bitterly cold day, get mistaken for uni students and end up with nearly 50% off the normal price. I had my reservations about this whole punting thing, as I found out from our previous experience in Bruges that if it's winter and you're exposed on a boat for an hour you'll end up numb and unable to feel any part of your body. However these punts were very comfortable with cushions and blankets (although that still didn't stop me from losing all feeling in my feet by the end) and we were also lucky enough to get a very good guide who was an able punter and fed us interesting snippets of Cambridge information.