Bored and loud.

I’ve been looking forward to this show for months, since I heard it announced in fact. Three bands that I cannot stop listening to, and that keep releasing good albums - it was bound to be at least a little impressive.

I found Festival Hall just fine, despite only checking directions just before I left. Found my door and waved my ID and went in (leaving a chick who was in the queue in front of me waiting because they didn’t trust her ID. I didn’t see her come in.) My seat was pretty far away, but with the room not being so deep, it wasn’t an issue - I could see just fine. I was most grateful for the seat, especially after I started to feel a bit sick during Atreyu (totally unrelated, I’m sure!)

The build-up to Atreyu was electric. I was a little apprehensive, as having a singing drummer is often difficult to induce stage presence; these boys had no trouble whatsoever. The audience kicked up and went crazy - including me - and they played a great mix of their songs - not all new stuff. An amazing start to the night.

Avenged Sevenfold were on next, and as they set up the lights I was hypnotised - it was stunning. I suddenly wished I’d been photographing the show, they would have been amazing! Thankfully I wasn’t, as it let me enjoy the whole show from my seat. I haven’t seen these boys since their ‘Waking the Fallen’ tour - years ago now! However, their presence and skill of holding the attention of hundreds hasn’t changed a bit. Their show involved mostly songs from the last 2 albums as I remember, but it was so enjoyable. During the second song, I noticed that side of stage, was a pantless girl. I’m unsure why, but yes, no pants. Little black french cut undies and a red top that kept riding up. She was rocking out hard though, enjoying every minute, so go for it I guess! Finishing with ‘A Little Piece of Heaven’, they held everyone’s attention until the last second. And deserved every little bit of it.

Last up was a band I wasn’t into as much as the other two, but was still looking forward to, to complete the set if you like. Their set-up required much more effort, involving a huge white sheet hung at the front of the stage - immediately obvious that it was to show the silhouettes. How cheesy. It reminded me so much of their new album - anthemic, generic and cheese-rock. However, as it started, it was obviously going to go down well - all the seated people stood, all the standing people went crazy, and even partook in a wall of death (albeit a small and quite pathetic one - obviously they didn’t want to mess up their fringes.)

The entire show was done by 10.30pm - being an all ages show. I was grateful, being tired and sick, but it was so reminiscent of London shows with their silly curfew so you can catch the last train. At least I could still catch a tram home, a relatively empty one at that, and get an early night.

So it’s been an odd few weeks since I last updated this. Not last Thursday, but the Thursday before, my friends, my housemates and I were all devastated with the news that one of our friends had finally been defeated by cancer, after several years of fighting. We’d been told in December that he had 24-48 hours left, and as we spoke to him when he returned home we slowly regained confidence that once again he was defying the doctors’ predictions and fighting strong. He was looking forward to coming back out with us all, completing his education and getting a job. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, and he was told he had cancer again and his liver, kidneys and lungs were failing; there was no hope left. So after a quiet and hard weekend, it was back to work and a routine before his funeral last Wednesday. There were so many people, that with the chapel full, many more had to remain in the waiting area, watching it via a video link. The service was very appropriate, but no less devastating. The wake followed at his house, although us ‘Living End people’ didn’t stay so long – it was a long drive, and we wanted to leave it to the family.

On Wednesday evening, Trav and I went to Kim and Toni’s place, where Luke and Kristen were, and Jerri and Kylie who had come from Queensland. Hugo hadn’t been able to make the funeral, but he came to help us celebrate his life. Several drinks were had, memories shared and just trying to get through it with each other at our sides.

Love ya Jawny, always will.

Despite this hard time, Kat, Amber and me went to see Adam Rosenbach, and I saw Antti Hakala – the good and the bad. They went to a few more shows, but I was seeing the ugly, Flogging Molly and the Currency (ok, perhaps not so ugly!) The show was fantastic, The Currency were well received by the crowd, and it was an enjoyable night.

This weekend just past, I got a few things done. Friday evening I went out to take some photos with the borrowed tripod again, not so successfully. I then spent a relaxing night watching ‘The Fountain’, which wasn’t so impressive. Saturday dawned bright and early and I went to the city to take photos of the State Library of Victoria, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and headed to QV where there was an afternoon of skateboarding, BMXing, trailbiking, breakdancing, parkour..a whole assortment of urban-based sports. A very small set up, it reminded me of the Sprite Urban Games, the annual event in London. On a very small scale though! And for only several hours rather than over 2-3 days. So I got my share of photos before heading home for another relaxing afternoon and evening. Sunday brought something to enjoy – Brunetti’s! Amber’s birthday being this week, we decided to do something different and headed to Brunetti’s for lunch, gelati and cake. Pricey, but delicious and rich, and was much enjoyed. Another relaxing afternoon and evening brought an end to what had been a lovely, slow-paced, healing weekend.

With the Melbourne International Comedy festival well under way, I still have nearly all the shows I’ve booked for to come!

I attended my first show solo on Tuesday night, ‘Edinburgh Festa Besta’, featuring three comedians who have performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The MC for the evening, a Teddy someone, was not to my taste and I also noticed many of the audience looking clueless when he was pausing for laughter. In an all male show, the first one out was Dave Grant, and a Melbourne bloke who based many of his jokes around a recent trip to Darwin – with much success, a very amusing guy! As Teddy announced a short break and warned everybody to be back in time for the next act, I was shocked to hear it was Nik Coppin. Being friends with Toni, I’ve heard endless comments about him and have been eagerly awaiting his arrival at Comfest. Having booked a ticket for this, I also booked one to his solo show next week, not knowing he’d be at the Festa Besta! When he emerged I was relieved to find he is fantastic, very entertaining with a fresh look on the world – including his home country of England, and thankfully not in a pompous, arrogant way that so many do. So that was fantastic, and I was left to eagerly look forward to the ‘headliner’. Unfortunately, an American with a poor sense of humour (and dress sense) emerged and I was left to half-heartedly laugh my way through it, with just a few good giggles to be had.

Comedians make most of their work from making amusing observations of life and the world around them, often exaggerating them or delivering them in a comical way. Unfortunately he’d missed Comedy Class 101 and simply made the observations and relayed them to us in a rather unfunny and overly American way – very in-your-face, me Tarzan, you Jane way. But as the great singer Meat Loaf tells us, two out of three ain’t bad!

Next up I have Josh Thomas over the weekend, which is the ‘biggest’ name I’ve gone for. Following that, Nik Coppin’s full solo show and a Finnish comedian called Antti Hakala who has some good reviews. I may end up going to a couple others, but it’ll be spur of the moment and probably due to my housemates or friends telling me who we need to see - they’re all much more clued up on comedy. Hopefully this’ll keep me giggling away for a little while at least!

A few months ago, I wanted to work in a hotel. It seemed like a great job, for a couple of weeks. I soon got over it, realising how much of the job would revolve around phones and appearances. And rich people with no manners. (I was looking at the big chain hotels in the city).

So fast forward to March and my new aspiration is to complete a sports science degree/diploma or similar. Unsure of what my ultimate goal would be, but perhaps working in a sports/leisure centre, or as a sports therapist. I’ve even started looking at courses. Ideally, I would do this as a correspondence course, or part-time, but obviously I have no idea where to look for this. I found one place in Richmond that does a ‘flexible learning’ program, although the information provided is vague and I’ve had to email for more information.

Ultimately I won’t be starting until next year probably, so it’s all quite distant, but there’s no harm in looking. Photographer aspirations are dwindling, although not entirely gone. I met with a photographer before I went to Adelaide and he agreed to take me on as an assistant-type-person. I’ve just made contact again with suggested dates for my first outing and I’ll see how I go with that. I feel it’s important for me to gel with whoever I am learning from, so I’ll give it a shot and see what happens.

After finding out that I’d actually edited all the recent (and not so recent) photos on my hard-drive, I’ve decided I need to get shooting again. This long weekend, hopefully rain-free but overcast, should provide opportunities for this. I plan on spending time both in and out of the CBD taking photos of various subjects. Keep those fingers crossed.

As Adelaide’s heatwave finally breaks and they spend a day below 35 degrees, I’ve just braved the hottest March night Melbourne’s had since the 1980s. My first Australian summer in over 8 years and I find it to be full of records. And I seem to catch them all. New Year’s Eve not dropping below 33 degrees, Adelaide’s 15 days of over 35 degrees (well, I was there for 4 days) and then Melbourne’s hottest March night. And to be quiet honest, I’m enjoying the heat. Today’s a balmy 33 degrees and I savoured my mid-afternoon post-office trip in the dipping sunlight.

The Sunday I left Melbourne was a beautiful sunny day, so it was only fitting that we spent it at the movies. We went to see ‘Run Fatboy Run’ before having lunch down by the Yarra followed by gelato or cookies and cream cheesecake if you’re me. Heading off to Southern Cross to catch the skybus, I realised it’s been 4 and a half years since I’ve been to Adelaide. At least this time the weather would be better (by my standards anyway!). I purchase my skybus ticket and hop on, sitting down with my mp3 player which I finally found at the bottom of my bag. The familiar text message sound rouses me from by daydream and I check it to find that my flight to Adelaide has been cancelled – panic! I call Qantas and confirm that it has actually been cancelled. They ask for my surname and transfer me to the next flight – just over an hour later, thank you and have a nice flight. Surely it cannot be that easy! I check at the customer service desk and they confirm that it’s all done, so I check in my bag and sit down for a good read and people-plane watch – my favourite things to do at airports.

Arriving in Adelaide was quite surreal, I haven’t been since the airport upgrade and I hadn’t seen the family friends picking me up for a good few months. Their son, I hadn’t seen in 4 and a half years. He was now taller than his parents and me, and driving. A very scary thought when I can remember him running around in his new pull-up nappies after his christening. Checked in with Grandma, let her know I’d be a bit late because we were going for a drink, then I got back to the house I’d last stayed in Adelaide, this time with the owner present. Quick dinner, catch up and then off to bed after a long day.

Monday, a public holiday. This meant that Adelaide was going to be effectively shut, so we’d planned for just a day of relaxation. An old school friend came over late in the afternoon and we caught up and then made a team effort of cooking for my Grandma. She was reluctant to just sit back, but eventually went to watch TV while we did our thing. After dinner there was some more TV we all watched before May headed home to do some study and I went to bed to finish a good book (‘Water For Elephants’)

Tuesday dawned just as hot as the previous day, but today we were going to the city. After breakfast we called for a taxi, which eventually turned up and we got to Rundle Mall. It was both frightening and reassuring to see it hadn’t changed very much! The previous night I’d heard there was a 20% off sale, and after May checked where it was, I could go and browse – and ended up picking out 2 patterns and some fabric for a skirt. Met for lunch with my only aunt in Adelaide at the Belgian Beer Cafe, which was delicious, and then we wondered back down Rundle Mall to browse and to catch the tram down to Central Markets. Grandma had been waiting for me to come so she could purchase heavier fruit and veg – so I became a pack-horse laden down with 3kg of oranges, a couple of weeks worth of potatoes and much more! A quick doctor’s appointment then finally, home. Air-conditioning on, and sit back. Another night in.

Wednesday was much the same, just reading most of the day. Grandma had a housing meeting in the morning but said I could sleep in – unfortunately the phone went twice and Grandma came back in 3 times so I wasn’t going to get any sleep!! I just took it easy until she came back, and then she had a hospital appointment – and told she wouldn’t need another so came home in good spirits. Later on, I went out for dinner with the Smarties (who had picked me up) and then went back to their place to watch a movie, so Grandma had some peace for the evening.

Thursday I had a free morning, but was seeing another family friend later after lunch, they used to live around the corner from us. Driving back to my old street, I didn’t recognise very much, but it was nice to see my old house again – looking much smaller than I remember! As did their place, where we stopped for a drink before going to Tea Tree Plaza for a look around and a coffee. I remembered bits and pieces of it, but they’ve extended one end so I had a little bit of trouble! They took me ‘home’ and came in for a coffee and a chat with my Grandma before leaving us to dinner before I had to finish packing and the Smarties came to pick me up again to go home. Arriving at the airport, the ominous label ‘delayed’ next to my flight was shown, but thankfully only by 20 minutes and it was a smooth journey back.

A hot but enjoyable trip, and I reckon I’m still better off in Melbourne. There’s simply more going on, and to be quite honest, it’s where my bed is. And how good it felt on that first night back.

The Friday after I got home, I saw Tiger Army play at the Hi-Fi Bar in the city. The Vaudevillians were the first support, and were mediocre; they didn’t really appeal to me. Zombie Ghost Train played next, and although I’d heard mp3s of them before and hadn’t enjoyed them, they put on a very enjoyable live performance. I may have to listen to their mp3s again. Tiger Army however, blew them both out of the water. They had a huge energy, they played a good mix of stuff, and the crowd were loving it. I’m just very glad I took my fan with me – it was stinking hot in there, and I had quite a few people tell me what a great idea it was, turning green with envy! A great night was had by all.

After having seen the Longnecks so much in the past few weeks, I thought I’d bring up how strangely organised the shows were.

In the past, this name has been used as a secret name for very small shows to be played, only to fans who know or can work out who they were, in order to try out new songs for a new record. It’s worked well in the past, with shows staying mostly secret and the band managing to get feedback on the shows. However, this time around, it was all change. They had a myspace account, and the logo for them was a picture of the band (used in their promotional material), very badly disguised. The shows were posted on both the secret and proper myspace accounts, as well as the band’s forum. So already, we have a huge number of people knowing about them. But if you’re not on the Internet? Well, some stress press and newspapers were listing both names, and venues themselves were warning how quickly the shows would sell out. All up, a handful of shows sold out, but the others were all pretty full anyway. On top of this, they played 2 all-ages festivals, where the MCs kept almost slipping up.

Now, if the plan was to play a secret show, they did very poorly. I’ve spoken to people who only know the real name in passing but had heard they were playing other shows. The picture as logo was a dead giveaway and to be quite honest, I doubt they’ll be able to play many more secret shows in future now that everybody knows they’ve been doing it. The idea of playing secret shows in the first place is a brilliant one, and a good chance to see the band up close and personal, with their new stuff. However when you have a mass of fans pushing you forwards, all shouting for their old songs, it kind of defeats the point. They brought it on themselves though and have no right to give the crowds dirty looks. Having been advertised almost as a show of the real name, pictures and all, the crowd will expect that band to be playing – rather than just the new stuff.

Not that I’m complaining, at $15 for a ticket and free for the festival…

It isn’t too hard to work out who the band is, but I will not post it here out of principal.

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!!

So Friday evening saw me popping my MCG cherry. At around 7.30pm , myself and Toni headed down the 3 blocks from my house to attend the Twenty20 cricket between India and Australia . Now I’m not going to turn this into a big rant about how Twenty20 cricket isn’t a test match and shouldn’t be considered real cricket or anything, but all I have to say is that it’s good for what it is – a quick, relaxed version of the game.

So by the time we got into the ground, 2 of India ’s wickets had dropped, and soon after, the rest came tumbling after! At only 74 runs, it wasn’t going to be a long night or a challenging game. Being in General Admission, I honestly believed there was a potential for trouble in response to the recent Harbhajan ruling, but the crowd was relatively well behaved. There was one point where a group of around 10 young white Australian yobbos were making rude comments toward a couple of guys of Indian-Asian appearance. However, these 2 guys were wearing Australia shirts and were actually from Sri Lanka . Just goes to show how stupid and unobservant some people are. There was predictable booing and taunts when Harbhajan was announced, but thanks to extra police, nothing kicked off and it was a quick, but rather enjoyable night. Watching some highlights, I realised that it wasn’t actually an exciting game – which just goes to show how much the atmosphere can make it!

Hopefully I’ll be able to go to many more football, rugby and cricket matches in the future. In my diary, I’ve already penciled in a game for the rugby league world cup in November – Australia vs England , in Melbourne . I can’t wait!

Now before I had even got home on Friday night, I had received an SMS from a friend I used to know in England , Kayleigh. She is on a gap year and had been in Sydney for a couple of weeks with the intention of coming to Melbourne . The message I got said that she was coming down tomorrow (Saturday) and was I free. Being the lovely person I am, I had already offered her a place to stay, and not having any other plans set in stone, I was looking forward to see her again! I met her at Spencer Street and brought her back to the Crapshack so she could drop her bags, then we went out to St Kilda, where a couple of the people she had flown out with were having drinks and whatnot. A few hit-and-miss bars and being far too tired to properly enjoy ourselves, we all headed home – me and Kayleigh going via McDonalds!

Sunday turned into a fantastically lazy day, spent watching DVDs, eating junk food and just relaxing. Kayleigh needed it because she’s been on the go since she got here, and I needed it because, well, I just wanted a lazy day. We went out for dinner at Mexicali Rose in Richmond , which is turning into a regular eaterie for us all – the food and drinks are fantastic – and then Amber was kind enough to drive her to the airport. After a little trouble finding the hidden and quite shabby terminal 4, she was in time for checking in and on an adventure to Darwin .

So, to go off on a tangent at this point, I’d like to sing the praises of our first online home-shop from Safeway. After an initial problem of not being delivered when requested (was done a day later instead), it arrived on time and the first one of the time slot. While we checked the items, we found that, despite my asking for ‘no substitutes’ of items not in stock, we were provided with alternatives – but better ones. For example, we ordered 2L homebrand tomato sauce. Instead, we were given 4x 600ml Heinz tomato sauce. Now I’m not sure if this was just as an apology for the delivery screw up or because it was our first order (we also get free delivery for our first order), but at least we got the food – and it was the same rather than a completely alternative product as it was once at Coles when we forgot to tick that magic box. So I’ll be doing another online shop tonight, and we’ll soon find out if the quality can keep on going!

So, since I’ve uploaded all of my ‘365′ photos, I’ve had a lot more to be uploading. I had 4 films developed - some from London, some here - and had them scanned, so some of them were ready for upload. I photographed a friend’s band, and had quite a few photos from that.

Last Monday, my new lens was delivered. A Canon USM 28-200mm 3.5-6.3, a beautiful little piece. I’ve tried it out at another of my friend’s shows, and also caught a fair bit of the Australia Day Parade yesterday and had it on me, so that was a good morning spent!!

Firstly, here’s Boot Boy Scally at their December 4th show at the Arthouse in the city.

Here’s a film photograph of 2 of my housemates on Christmas Day, we’d just got on the train to go to Kat’s parents’ place for a bbq.

And another film photograph, from London if I remember rightly. Sound alseep!

And lastly, from yesterday, 2 photos of the parade (well, these 2 in particular are from the speeches), just outside Town Hall.