Holiday Planning

Theoretically we are meant to have all our holiday leave planned out by the end of February for the rest of the year. I have 26.5 days of leave to take, which sounds like a lot until you start playing with spreading it out over the rest of the year. 2 weeks for heading to Australia later in the year, leaving me 16.5 days. Currently Dubrovnik and Barcelona are on the cards, leaving me about 7.5 days. 3 days off over Christmas (yes Christmas!), 4.5 days left. A long weekend here, a long weekend there - and you are left with 0 days.

Aaaaaargh ! Why is traveling soooo much fun ....

Googled At Work ...

Rather amusing today. I was sitting at my computer doing my work when I turned around to speak to someone and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a very familiar web page. Not this one, but a story I did on meeting REM in Sydney way back in 2001. I had busted someone in the act of googling me. He he - pretty damn funny if you ask me.
Haven't been up to a real lot this week. Went to a self defence class last night, courtesy of work. It was quite full on and I am feeling a little worse for wear after escaping from a faux attack into a brick wall.
My Billy Bragg tickets arrived in the mail yesterday. Not the best seats but I had been sitting on the decision on whether or not to go for a while. I have gone a little ticket crazy the passed couple of weeks. Drum roll for my upcoming gigs:

• Arab Strap (28th February)
  
• Sigur Ros (29th March)
  
• The Cure (1st April - Royal Albert Hall)
  
• Morrissey (1st May - Alexandra Palace)
• Billy Bragg (3rd May)
• Stereolab (11th May)
• Morrissey (14th May - London Palladium)
• Mogwai (22nd September - Royal Albert Hall)

One of the reasons I have always wanted to move to London was for the music and, to be honest, I haven't seen that much yet - but the next few months will see me seeing some of my all time faves. Can't wait!

Tower Bridge Exhibition

Visited the Tower Bridge Exhibition yesterday. Well worth it. You get to walk through the enclosed elevated walkways between the two towers giving great views over the city. Had my 300mm lens on me, equivalent to 450mm on my D70 - my own personal telescope! Managed to get a couple of interesting shots.

The Cure

Somehow I managed to get tickets for the Cure gig at Albert Hall today. It was wierd. I was wondering whether mogwai tickets had sold out yet so I checked out seetickets. I was browsing through upcoming gigs and saw the Cure listed. I knew it was sold out. It had practically sold out before they went on sale due to presales from the official cure homepage, but I clicked on the link anyway. How many do you want? What? Ummm ... two would be good. You have five minutes to complete this order. So I did, and now I have 2 tickets to see the Cure. A couple of minutes later I thought I would try and get a couple more as I figured I wouldnt have any trouble getting them. Sold out. Prices on ebay suggest they are quite hard to come by. Sweeet.

Random Photo

Random old photo retrieved from the archives to add some colour ! I can't remember the name of this thing, but it was like a big blow up plastic maze. Very cool.

Is This It ?

It has been a busy week at work and haven't really had the chance nor inclination (probably more the latter) to take any photos, hence no updates. My efforts at getting Strokes tickets on Ebay hasn't been succesful - other people are far keener (ie willing to pay a lot more) than I. I'm sure it will be a great gig though. On the upside, I did get tickets for Mogwai at the Royal Albert Hall in September. The Cure are doing a charity gig at the RAH in April. How great would that be ! Unfortunately it had sold out before I even knew about it.
Now I really should stop procrastinating and drag myself to work ....

Belle and Sebastian

Just got back from seeing Belle and Sebastian at the Hammersmith Apollo. Awesome gig. Played a reasonable amount of stuff off the new album which is fine by me as I quite like it. They were actually better live than I thought they would be. Brilliant.

This is the first standing gig I have been to at the Apollo, and I must admit, I am a bit of a convert. I didnt really like the Apollo before as I have always been back in the circle (balcony) seats, but standing is pretty good. Sloping floor always helps. So much of a convert that I am tempted to buy some Strokes tickets for the Apollo off ebay next week. Maybe. Unless some kindly reader wants to sell me one ...

Some Sodium Is Good For You ...

Off to see Belle and Sebastian tomorrow night. Very excited.

The Daily Commute

I Am Alive

Just a quick post to let you know I am alive and well. I am finally starting to recover from the shock of *not* winning 125million quid in the lottery on Friday. i could've sworn it was gonna be mine.
Had a pretty good weekend. After a few beers after work on Friday with work folk, I headed back home for a quiet night - which got derailed at about 11:30pm when I got a text from some mates I knew from Perth saying they were out on the town. Somehow I managed to drag myself out of a warm bed, and head in to town. Had a great night out, getting back to my warm bed at about half five in the morning.
One of the guys I caught up with Friday night was the PJ from this post here. Scarily enough one of the first things he said to me was, "You know Anna", the girl I had bumped into at the pub. Spooky. Very spooky indeed.
Saturday night I caught up with some ex-nixonians. Always cool to catch up with those guys and gals.
Sunday arvo went to a travel show at Earls Court which a guy from work had been handing out free tickets for. Basically it was a lot of tour companies all trying to flog their wares. it was quite interesting though - lots of interesting places to visit. South America is still very high on the list.
Anyway, 'tis all. Just thought I had better say hi.