After The Flight and the those few hours of tiredness

Me, Dave, Caz and Adam all arrived in Oz within an hour of each other, having all taken different flights from London. It was some horrible hour like 7 in the morning when I landed. Having circled for an hour in North Sydney waiting for the bad weather to pass. What can I say, welcome to Sydney. We brought the weather with us. ;-)

We weren't able to book into the apartment we had until 2pm. So with a few hours to kill, and feeling and possibly smelling like the undead, we descended on the soon-to-be-weds. I can safely say there is nothing better after a 24+ flight than having a full english breakfast, a glass of bucks fizz, and seeing your friend dressed up as a hula girl.

A present from Dave, he picked it up on his way back from his visit to Sydney at New Year, on a stopover in Haiwaii. We don't think this should have made it into Sydney, what with it being made of real grass, and Australia having the whole no "food, plant material and animal products " thing.

We got to the apartment to check in at 2.

As you can see the sun came out for our arrival.

Our apartment was at the Meriton Rialto serviced apartments on Pitt Street. So we were within walking distances of most places, Darling Harbour, the Opera House, Circular Quay, Royal Botanical Gardens, and of course the bridge, which we could actually see from the balcony. We got an apartment right up on the 49th Floor, (they only went up to 51 and they were for permanent residents.) We did have some great views, with floor to ceiling windows all the way round the apartment, as well as the balcony. It was spacious, with one bedroom and en suite, and 2 more bedrooms and a bathroom, kitchen and living room with a large dining table.

After a little catnap, which I think we all deserved, we headed out to meet up with Rach and Kev. Our first call The Australian. A pub listed in the guide book as being usually full of English people. There's no real surprise there. It's a good pub, serving great gourmet pizzas. I had my first taste of Kangaroo, Emu, Salt Water Crocodile, proper aussie seafood, and duck (ok not so aussie but nice all the same) all on pizzas. They were fantastic.

After we had our fill we headed for the Lord Nelson, the pub and brewery supplying the beer for the wedding, so that we could try out the chosen beers for ourselves.

As you can see, for people who've spent a large majority of the past 36 hours in some sort of zombie like state crossing time zones, we're looking surprisingly perky.

You maybe able to just pick out on the table there the Terry Jumper. Yes it's still alive and being worn by Kev, though it is starting to fray. I think we should all club together and get him a new one made, and maybe a matching on for his bride-to-be.

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Terry - A live but ill

On my way to Australia - 5th April

I'm half way round. The plane took off an hour late, so I had an extra hour on the plane. Not something you need when you're already on there for 22 hours. How does this happen? We got as far as being 5 minutes to take off before the crew notice 2 passengers aren't on board, but their bags are. Cue calling the baggage handlers back to sift through all the bags and suitcases to pull off their luggage.

It does beg the question, would it not have been quicker to get the passengers on the plane? They'd checked in and were at the airport, hence their luggage being on the plane!

So this is Singapore Airport. We had less than an hour here. By the time I'd freshened up it was time to go back through security and on to the plane. So no souvenir shopping. Hey-ho.

Arcade Fire with Patrick Wolf in support, Brixton Academy, 14th March 2007

Me and Tim went to see Arcade Fire on Wednesday. A band I have wanted to see since I first heard of them way back in early 2005. A gig I have been looking forward to for months.

Support was from Patrick Wolf. Here is a lad, I say lad because he came on wearing what looked like his school uniform, short shorts and everything; who has spent far too much time locked in a room with some Soft Cell records.

He sort of walked the thin line between interesting and crap. Mostly it was interesting. And I say interesting as opposed to good, as I can see that he has potential, but he's not there yet. He'll probably need a couple of albums to settle down.

Arcade Fire on the other hand, sure there were a couple of off notes but mainly all the songs were carried off brilliantly. We weren't sure about the new album, having not had time to really let it sink into our psyches yet. Just as Funeral took several months to take hold of me, until one day I realised I was playing it constantly, I fully expect to find myself listening to Neon Bible on rotation some time soon.
I lost count of what they played or didn't play. There was a lot of Neon Bible, if not all of it, played. Songs of Funeral got the best reception. I think he thought we weren't enjoying ourselves during some of the songs off the new album, we were so quiet taking it all in. When they did Cold Wind you could have heard the tumbleweed go through the crowd.


I built this gig up so much in my mind, that I was a little worried that it might end up all going wrong and them being a disaster. I'd heard rumours of off gigs in the past. But I am pleased to report that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Even the tall/irritating people who came to stand in front of us just as the Arcade Fire came on couldn't hide the fact they were great.

I can't wait till I get chance to see them again.

I'm off now to listen to them on my ipod. On repeat.