Maiden, ‘Necks and Daughters..

Had a busy few weeks! I’ve seen a certain ‘secret’ Melbourne band, known as the Longnecks, 4 times (3 shows plus St Kilda festival), Iron Maiden at Rod Laver Arena due to a spare ticket and Daughters of the Rich.

It all started with Iron Maiden. A friend had a spare ticket, so I accepted it and Thursday evening started with him leaving his car at my place as we walked over to Rod Laver Arena (my house is in a prime location!) The show was phenomenal; easily one of the best live shows I’ve seen. There was pyrotechnics and fireworks, but not overdone; costume changes by Bruce, but quick and simple (usually a jacket change); a changing backdrop and a moving light-frame. Oh, and the 3m tall Eddie. It’s no wonder they needed their own plane with the sheer scale of the show. It was no ordinary metal concert, and to top it off, they played Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ as we exited.

So Friday dawned far too brightly for my tired eyes, but after a hard day of work, it was back out again! Over to Kim’s place where I’d meet Kristen and Beth for Kristen to drive us all to her home town of Ballarat. The first time I’ve been there, and I saw very little of it bar the venue! A tiny little place, the Karova lounge really went off when the Longnecks came out. Smaller than the venue I saw them at in London, it was steaming hot but just so happy. I really enjoyed it, and managed to catch up on sleep on the way home.

Saturday was a regular morning, I tried to sleep in and failed! However, I rested up and just relaxed as I knew I was going out again that evening. Now, all of my house was meant to be coming out to see the Longnecks at Geelong, but Trav claimed he was sick, and Kat finally resigned to the fact she was too sick to go, so it was just me and Amber on the way out there. Thankfully I managed to make use of one spare ticket by getting Luke to come out – he was slamming the front door shut on the phone to me! By this point I’d been standing for too long and my joints just weren’t accepting it, so I tried to lean or sit for most of the evening. As far as I could tell, it was a really good show though.

Sunday..a day of rest, surely. Well, a little. In fact, I was headed out to St Kilda (for the first time in daylight!) to attend St Kilda Festival and see both the Longnecks and The Currency. So I caught the tram down with Toni, as the day warmed up much more than I’d planned – regretting the jacket now! After some food, a quick walk around and our first and last warm beer of the day, we found a spot to watch the Longnecks. Another great show, even if it was a bit shorter than the others. This time, being all ages (well, not in theory), the crowd was even more excitable and many more hung around afterward to try and spot the band. We headed off and found some ice cream and cold drinks before settling to watch The Currency. We caught the end of a gyspy-folk-odd band..it was very good. The Currency put on a very tight show, despite recently losing the accordion and tin whistle. Great fun for all, and stayed around for a chat.

Finally, I could go home and sleep, and sleep I did. Ready for work on Monday!

At the end of that week (Friday just past), I caught Daughter’s of the Rich at Pony, which was really good. Having had trouble sleeping, it was a bit hard to keep my eyes open after, but I managed to get home and into bed safely. Saturday brought a friend’s birthday meal and my last Longnecks show. Saturday afternoon and I had to go into the city to meet a friend on a flying visit from Cairns. Met fine and headed out to North Fitzroy on the tram (her first tram trip!) The meal was at a delightful restaurant called Red Olive – fantastic food and beautiful interior. After that, a group of us headed back into the city for the rest of the festivities. It was ridiculously hot (only one fan that I saw) and very much sold out, but it really went off! Had a quick chat to them afterward, before heading outside to meet another friend. After dithering around for a short time about what to do, said friend drove us all home (thanks again) and I tried to get some sleep.

Sunday morning, 8.45am. Alarm goes off. Having had carpet cleaning booked for a couple weeks, at $60 it was a bargain I wasn’t going to miss and this was the only appointment available. Together we moved the furniture out the lounge and woke up a little bit more for the cleaners. 9.45am, no sign of them so I call up. I’m told they’re on their way, probably just held up somewhere. 10.30am, still no sign, everyone else has gone back to bed. I call again and find out that there was emergency flood damage and a double-booking problem, so they won’t come until 1.30pm. After all that, I try to have a nap and can’t, so I drag a dining chair into the lounge – which is looking very forlorn – and watch some TV. The others start emerge (minus Trav of course), and finally the carpet cleaner turns up. He did a very good job, and it looks much better, but after having so little sleep, I was just a little cranky!

And so dawned another week. No big plans – that was a big fortnight for me! I’m planning to go to Adelaide in the week of the 10th of March, to visit an old friend and my grandma, that should be good. I’ve just ordered myself a new laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1720 with a top spec. I’m still waiting for a hard drive and casing to come from another site. I’m also looking at a new digital camera (just a compact) to replace my recently deceased Canon Powershot A550 – at the moment considering the A720 IS, or a G7 or G9. However with all that money spent, I’m not sure when that will be purchased – or paid off!!