New Nikon DSLR

It appears that there is a new Nikon DSLR set to be announced in 16 days .. 10 hours ... 20 minutes ... Should be interesting .... 10.2mp. Sweet.

Garden Rescue

After a few months of neglect A and I decided it was time to reclaim the backyard. Since winter the garden of the house next door has been the source of a rampant creeper which had taken over most of our backyard, making it almost impossible to even open the back door. Enough was enough. We headed off to B&Q to buy some hedge shears (where we spotted an actor from the Bill ... ). Back to the house and then 6 full garbage bags later we had our garden back. At which point it was time for a PIMMS or two ... even though it was actually raining - Not that I can complain about the weather. Has been a "heatwave" over here the past week = 30+ degrees ! Nice.

It's A Shame About Ray

Went and saw the Lemonheads last night at an outdoor gig at Somerset House in London. Perfect weather for it - has been about 30 degrees in London which makes for great evenings for outdoor concerts ! Played all the usual suspects. Only disappointment was the one song encore, Rudderless. Grrr. Whats with that. Support were Sleepy Jackson which was a cool surpise. Last place I saw them was the Grosvenor in Perth. Am also off to see them tommorow night. Should be great.

Kensal Green Cemetery II

Some more photos from yesterdays trip to Kensal Green Cemetery. See the rest here.

Kensal Green Cemetery

Spent this afternoon wandering around Kensal Green Cemetery taking some photos. I know that doesn't sound like everyones idea of a fun Saturday, but I needed some Photoshop fodder and after seeing some cool photos on flickr, I decided to head up there for a look. Kensal Green Cemetery was created in 1832 but the earliest gravestone I saw was late 1840s. A few famous people are buried there, but the only names I recognised were Charles Babbage and Wilkie Collins. Anyway, here are are a couple of my favorite photos so far. See the rest as a slideshow here.


That angel is pretty damn scary ...

Greece

After a few rather hectic holidays A & I decided it was time for a relaxing one that didnt involve repacking backpacks every second day or crossing endless sights of the tourist checklist, so we headed off to the Greek island of Mykonos to sit on a beach for a week. It was amazing - beautiful clear water and nice warm weather. Very relaxing - just what I needed. Also managed to get some culture on the way home, dropping in on the Acropolis in Athens. To be honest, it was a bit of a disappointment but that was probably partially to do with it being hot weather and the last day of the holiday !! Photo Slideshow

Saving You From Limbo

Rest assured I have not "fallen into the murky depths of the Thames", as one concerned reader inquired, although it has been tempting as this weekend has been pretty damn hot. Have just got back from a week in Greece where the main activity was lying on the beach - made a nice change from the old backpacking routine of unpacking/repacking every couple of days. Anyway will post photos soon and will try and get back to some semi-regular posting

Queens Birthday Celebrations

Was in town yesterday and dropped past Buckingham Palace to check up on every Australians favorite head of state. There was a ceremony (Trooping of the Color) on to celebrate the Queens Birthday. I didnt actually realise that the Royals were going to put in an appearance so it was a bit of a surprise when they did. Excuse the first photo, someone didnt have their zoom lens so there was a bit of upsize and crop action.



(No the irony isnt lost on me of following up a post about the Morrissey gig with a bit of Royal spotting !!)

Panic On The Streets of London

After seeing a rather dissappointing Morrissey gig at Alexandra Palace at the start of the month, and reading the bad reviews of the first show at the Palladium, I was ready to palm off my Morrissey tickets for last nights gig at the Palladium. That would have been a mistake.
I had fourth row Upper Circle tickets which, in spite of my fears of getting nosebleeds from being up so high, proved to be a pretty good vantage point. Morrissey came on at nine and opened with Panic. Yep, thats right Panic. Hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ ..... Awesome stuff. The rest of the playlist virtually followed that of the Alexandra Palace gig (and, well, the rest of the gigs on the tour apparently). But even with virtually the same playlist - it was sooooo much better. The sound was great. The crowd was great. Everyone was really into it and there were no people constantly pushing passed fruitlessly trying to get to the front. Morrissey was in fine form. Our seats gave us a great view of the stage and the numerous stage invasions who Morrissey always tried to shake hands with before they got carted off by security.
The third to last song was How Soon Is Now, followed by the *second* to last song - Irish Blood, English Heart. Yep. *Second* to last song. As far as I know IBEH had been the encore nearly every night of the tour, so I was looking forward to see what he was going to come out with. "Stop me, oh, stop me ...." Yep - Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before. The crowd loved it. A brilliant encore.
This time I left with a smile on my face. Mozz you redeemed yourself ....

Ping ...

Yes I am still alive. It has been a while since my last post. Havent taken any photos for a couple of weeks but I plan on changing that today. Went to see Morrissey last night which was, thank god (after Ally Pally), awesome ! Will post more on that later. My work is moving offices this weekend so Friday arvo was spent packing PCs to ship to the new location. It is just down the river, closer to London Bridge tube - almost walking distance from Waterloo Station which will be handy for me. Should cut about 5-10 minutes of the commute. I managed to score one of the old desks from the office which means I now have a decent computer desk. Nice. Have holidays towards the end of June so am trying to decide what to do - we are thinking that a bit of a walking/hiking holiday might be in order - a bit of a London antidote!

A New Pen ...

I finally lashed out and bought a Wacom Graphire Classic graphics tablet. Don't worry - it is only for photo retouching - I wont subject you to my drawing skills which never really evolved beyond grade five ! So far I am pretty happy with it but it is going to take a bit of getting used to.

TAR

Aaaaaargh ... the people I most didnt want to win won ..... bring on the next season ... It wasnt the greatest series - but it was pretty cool to see them in Western Australia.

The Sultan's Elephant

Over the weekend a pair of giant marionettes hit town, "A Little Girl" and "The Sultan's Elephant". Headed in to town this afternoon to check it out - photos below. More info here.

Friday Night

On Friday night I went on the work social club event - a cruise down the River Thames. Pretty cool. Great weather. Went all the way up to Battersea Bridge and then downriver to the Thames Barrier. Not to mention free beer ! After the cruise a few of us headed to Fabric nightclub where James Lavelle (1/2 of UNKLE) was DJing. A great night. Headed home about 3:30, taking a few photos along the way

Billy

Well, after posting my not so glowing Morrissey review, I am happy to say I have just got back from a Billy Bragg gig - and he was great. As in brilliant. As in - that is what a gig should be like. As usual he was in fine form chatting to the audience and the setlist was almost perfect. I have probably seen Billy at least six times now - and this show would definitely be up there as one of, if not *the*, best.

Some of the songs I can remember from the set list (apart from the encore which was *something else*) : Levi Stubbs Tears, Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, Tank Park Salute, A13 Trunk Road To The Sea (which included guitar Wiggy on guitar), The Price I Pay, Valentines Day Is Over, There Is Power In A Union, Greetings To The New Brunette aka Shirley), All You Fascists Bound To Lose, Walk Away Renee, 1649, Honey Im A Big Boy Now (which he did actions to), A Lover Sings and a few others.

The first encore included Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, which had a few original lyrics, a few lyric changes I had heard before and a few I hadn't.

And now for the (second) encore :
The Milkman of Human Kindness
To Have and To Have Not
Richard
The Man In The Iron Mask
The Busy Girl buys Beauty
A New England

Yep - he played all of "Life's a Riot With Spy vs Spy" as an encore. How awesome is that.

Thanks Bill. He mentioned during the gig he was a big Smiths fan. Maybe he could have a whisper in Mozzas ear about keeping an audience entertained .....

Morrissey

Last Monday eve I trekked up to Alexandra Palace (aka Ally Pally) to see Morrissey. The venue was pretty big but we managed to get reasonably close to the front for a decent view. Unfortunately, I hate to say it, the gig was a bit crap. He played mainly songs off the new album (exceptions being First of the Gang To Die, Girlfriend In A Coma, How Soon Is Now and Irish Blood - English Heart). While the new album isnt bad, it doesnt make for a great concert - especially when it made up nearly 2/3 of the rather short setlist. To be honest the gig in parts was just plain boring. And it was short. About 1 hour 10 mins.

TAR goes to Freo

Last nights episode of The Amazing Race (aka TAR) sent them to Perth, Australia ! It was pretty cool to see the teams racing around Perth, including Rotto and Freo Prison. What was even better was that the Philimination mat was only about a 5 minute walk (okay maybe 10) from where I used to work.
I dont know whether they picked Australians with particularly strong accents to participate in the show, but i swear the accents (what accent?) never sounded that strong when I was there !!

Richmond Park

Was a beautiful spring day today. Headed down to Richmond Park to check out the Isabella Plantation - a fenced off area within the park containing numerous species of trees which all bloom spectacularly this time of year. Magnolias, rhododendrons, camellias etc After that headed into Richmond for lunch by the Thames and then headed back home. It is so nice now the weather is warming up - people are out in tshirts and shorts - and smiles on their faces !!

Am Still Alive

Yes, I am still alive. Have had a cold and been busy at work so there hasnt been a lot of photo taking going on. Spending Easter in London, which is probably for the best as I still feel a bit rubbish.
Anyway, enough chat, here are some more photos.

Spring Has Sprung

My friend A from Adelaide arrived today and we headed in to town to soak up some of the London sights. She has lived here before so it was more of a refresher than actually seeing the sights for the first time. All the daffodils were up in St James and Green Park (near Buckingham Palace) - which makes it finally feel like spring. That and the weather is now a balmy 10 degrees C !