"We're Off To Nether-Netherlands!"

So me and Scott had this holiday to Amsterdam booked for like about a month. Since then we'd moved into our new flat so after all the stress of moving home this holiday was like a Godsend. We moved into the flat on Friday 23rd September - and Amsterdam was from Sunday 2nd October to Tuesday 4th October, just over a week later. We couldn't have planned the timing better!! The flight was at 8am from Bournemouth International Airport. We actually got up at 5am after little sleep and got to the airport at about 6:30am. We wanted to make sure we didn't miss our flight, unlike the time we went to London and missed the Megabus by about 30 seconds and had to pay for a coach to get there!

Checking in was pretty quick - but when I went through the metal detector both me AND Scott sent the machine off and had to get searched! I reckon the metal detector is a scam. I reckon the person sitting at the X-ray machine is watching all the people go through and presses a foot-switch whenever he sees someone dodgy! But I mean, come on!! Like we're actually trying to smuggle something INTO Amsterdam!!

Another thing that pissed me off is in the canteen. We went there to grab a morning coffee and watch the sun come up over the runway and just chill out before being thrown into the sky in a massive metal tin. I went to grab the drinks and behind the bit where you pay there was this massive wooden sign with 10 of Murphy's Laws on it. Now some of them were quite witty but most of them you really don't want to see when you're about to go on a plane. Y'know, the one's like "If everything is going smoothly, you've overlooked something" and "If something is likely to go wrond it will". I wasn't nervous until I saw this!! Bastards!!

Anyway, the flight was cool... weird but cool. It's strange when you get all dizzy cos of the change in air pressure. I can see why some people puke on flights. I was both nervous and exhilerated on the flight. It was a pretty short flight - about 55 minutes, just enough time for a JD & Coke.

We get off the plane and took an age trying to find our way out but we eventually found a door leaving arrivals and going out into the main airport. From here we boarded the train to Amsterdam Centraal station. We left the station and walked across the first bridge where we were approached by somebody trying to sell me something! A sign of things to come me thinks!! Our first mission was to check in at the Hostel but thanks to some shoddy map-reading on my part we got lost. We eventually found the place after about an hour of walking around and checked in, had a look around the dorm room (shit hole!) dropped our bags off in the locker and set off for a trek around the 'Dam.

One of the first things we noticed was the amount of people on bikes!! There's fuckin' loads of them! And they were all on these cool retro 50's looking bikes - hardly anyone on mountain bikes and I didn't even see one bmx the whole time! You literally couldn't go 3 seconds without seeing someone on a bike. Another surprise was the shopping - we thought the clothes shops in Amsterdam would be shite cos on TV Europeans wear really shockingly bad 80's clothes. It's not true, the Dutch have amazing clothes shops and everyone looks cool. You heard it here first folks. Time for a couple of pics from sight-seeing, complete with obligatory canal shots!...

As it was starting to get dark we went to look for a coffee shop. We were walking arounf the Red Light District for hours and couldn't find a single one!! We were like "What??" so we went into a little corner pub for a drink of JD & Coke to work out what we're gonna do. We sat down with our drinks and after about 10 minutes we felt a bit uncomfortable. It felt like we were being watched all the time. We worked out that the pub was actually a gay pub!! We shoulda guessed. The clues were all there. Stocky bold dutch men with handlebar mostaches wearing leather waistcoats and lumberjack shirts listening to The Eagles on the jukebox!! Don't know why we didn't spot it when we came in! So we finished our drinks and left.

We walked about 4 shops down and saw a coffee shop called Route 66. We were like "How do we know it's a hash cafe??" We stood there looking in for a bit, sniffing for any clues and then we spotted a sign in the window saying "No Alcohol Sold Here". It HAD to be a hash cafe. So in we went to grab a cup of tea and a slice of space cake! It was really cool. The people seemed really chilled out and the staff were really kind and smiley. I think they could sense it was our first time to a hash cafe but that's ok. They had a pool table and juke box, a bank of PC's near the entrance so you can surf the web, they sold memento merchandice such as T-shirts, watches and badges to remind you of your visit... yeah, it was really cool.

So we ate our space cake and drank our tea and starting feeling a little woosy after about 15 minutes. I noticed myself getting really talkative and gabbering like a loon! After a while we thought we'd go for a walk. We walked to Amsterdam Square where we tried to take a sneaky photo of the bloke sat on the bench next to us but I think he clocked us.... and then I felt like he was watching us so we went for another walk. We found another area of public seating about 5 mins later so we sat there for a bit cos we were really starting to feel very odd! After about 20 seconds a homeless guy was talking to us in broken English and was trying to get us to give him money - not what you need when you're starting to lose the plot and be all giggle and paranoid at the same time so we walked off somewhere else (haven't got a clue where) Around about now everything I said was starting to do Scott's head in cos everything I was saying was making him crack up laughing!! "I think the best thing we should do right now is to not talk for a while!" said Scott. ... but not talking was starting to do MY head in so I had to say something!! And basically it went downhill from there. Most of it has been erased from my memory. There was a bit where we had to get some water off our tits - that was difficult, cos everything's in half Dutch, half English and the picture on the bottle was reminded me of The Scream which wasn't making me feel any better! .... I've even gone through trouble of making a little animation of what I was halucinating, I got the picture of the water bottle from the Dutch mineral water company's website.

Things started getting very VERY scary after this. Both me and Scott thought we were either going to pass out or going to die! I couldn't work out if it was cold or not but I knew I was shivering, whether it was from 'the fear' or if it's from the temperature I'll never know! We were walking around in a paranoid daze for what seemed like hours. Going over little tiny bridges with a car coming towards you right near the water when there's a low barrier whilst off your face is NO FUN! Eventually we had to stop! We were getting further and further away from the hostel and we had no idea where we were, every corner we turned was only because it seemed less hectic down there than what it did on the road we were on. We stopped to sit on some steps like this...

...to try and calm down. We were exhausted from our accelerated pace of walking. But I couldn't sit down, it felt really uncomfortable... like I was gonna be sick or shit myself or something. After, about 30 seconds, Scott was saying things like "This is it Steve. I think this is where I'm going to die. A million miles from home, lost... and I didn't even get to say goodbye to anyone."
"No, ya not, mate. We're just tripping out. You'll be fine" I said, trying to convince myself at the same time that what I was saying was right.
"No, this is too much, Steve. I think we've been spiked!" said Scott.
"It does feel fucked up, mate, but I'm sure It's not... I HOPE it's not. I know that some skunk can have similar effects to LSD but ...."

"I think I'm dying, Steve."
"No you're not, mate. Just chill..."
Scott starts sliding down the steps and puts his head on the top step and closes his eyes. "No, mate. I've got to do this.... I've .... *mumble*" and is still! I started shaking him, thinking he's just mucking about (Scott's a bit of a joker, y'see) but he's not moving. While I'm doing this a couple who are walking past stop and ask "'ere, mate. Is your friend ok?"
"I dunno. He says he feels like he's dying. I know he's not but I can't get him to wake up" Then they start talking to him - he wakes up.

We get them to stay for a while, whilst we try and clear our heads. Scott asks them to please stay with us and talk to us. After a while we try to head back to the hostel, but we have no idea where we are. I say to Scott "We just need to find our way back to Madame Tussauds [in Amsterdam Square] and I can find our way back from there." but we had no hope of even knowing where we are.

Eventually, and don't ask me how, we stumble upon Amsterdam Square. I take over from here cos Scott's now got short-term memory worse than a goldfish. I keep having to convince him that we're walking in the right direction cos he kept turning down corners. We got back to the hostel and climbed all 3 flights of steep stairs and flump on our bunk beds and try to sleep. But the paranioa was still strong. Although we didn't know that we were thinking the same things at the time, we were both convinced that other people in the dorm were talking about us. We also though that people were braking into our lockers and knicking our stuff. We also though we heard people setting fire to people, rats scurrying around....
I ended up staying awake quite late in this silly sense of fear. And then, at some stahe in the night, I heard some singing outside the window. Me bed was next to the window so I craned my neck to have a peek outside. It was a bunch of 5 English girls staggering drunkedly back to their dorm singing songs from large stage productions in perfect harmony. I guess that they were from some sorta art college. I didn't recognise the song they were singing when they first faded into my conciousness but they stopped that and then started singing another song. I didn't regnise this at first but it seemed really cool. Then it got to the chorus. It was John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads". It was truly beautiful and was sung in perfect harmony. It was these girls that managed to sort my head out and go to sleep.

Day 2: We woke up at about 10am ish and went downstairs for some breakfast.... we were still a bit spaced out so after finishing breakky and tea we went back to our bunks for an hour or so. I couldn't really go back to sleep so I read a book and watched all the addicts, dealers, pimps and and hoes outside the window.

Then went for a little trek around The 'Dam...

We decided not to get stoned tonight so we found this nice bar by the riverside and had a couple of beers and watched people go by. After about 4 or 5 drinks we went to have a look around the Red Light District to see what all the smut is about. The place is mental! We thought the prozzies in the windows would be absolute howlers but most of them are like FHM models!! And they all give you full-on eye contact and open they're legs at you!! You really don't know where to look!!! No seriously, you don't!!!!! Obviously I couldn't take any pictures of this cos I don't think they'd take to kindly to me taking pictures of them. So here's a lovely picture of the canals at night...

......... Oh alright. Here's the pics you REALLY wanted to see...

Sorted

Everything in the flat is in place. I'm absolutely in love with the flat. We've got a year tenancy on it so I hope this year goes niiiiiice and slowwwwwly! We've already had a couple of friends drive past and honk their horns - one of them went round the corner, turned around and parked at the bus stop opposite and shouted at the window just so they can wave!! Nutters!

Most of this week has been pretty uneventful cos we've been mostly sorting out everything in the flat. It really does feel homely (but modern) now. I've been introducing Scott to Spaced (something that I HAVE to do to all my mates cos I absolutely love Spaced) and I think he's starting to love it too. I caught him when I came home at lunchtime watching the first couple of episodes again. Next you'll be quoting it like an obsessed Trekky, Scott!

We've also been playing Silent Hill 3. Yes, I know it's quite an old game but we were discussing Resident Evil whilst watching Episode 3 of the first series of Spaced. I don't own a copy of Resident Evil any more (another series of games I want to re-buy) so that's why we stuck on Silent Hill 3. It's not as scary though - just a bit fucked up and sick. But there's some good moments.... it's just not as good as zombies!

On wednesday I was planning on having a chilled night in as Scott was off to band practice with Lounge. I watched a couple of episodes of Brass Eye, played a bit of Chronicles Of Riddick on the Xbox and then got a text from Helen saying come to The Bell for a few pints. (I live opposite The Bell in case you didn't know!) I wasn't too sure at first but then thought 'fuck it', it's only accross the road and I'm running out of beer! Had a pretty cool time, just played some pool and mucked about on the Top Of The Pops quiz machine. The Chelsea match was on the tele in there too (which I didn't even know about) so that was a bonus - even though the score was 0-0!!

Last night I bought some Jack Daniels cos we've been drinking a shit load of Scott's nice Spanish expensive liqour and we wanna save it. I didn't buy any coke so I was drinking it neat!! Hardcore!!! hehe! I found out last night that The Hat are NOT dead but mearly re-inventing itself. No longer will the band be fronted by 'The Seargent'. Scott said "...he will be standing down from centre stage and will be more in the background with keyboards etc." With that Scott played me 2 demo MP3's from his iPod and then went to band practice with The Hat. After a couple of drinks I re-played the tracks and visualised some ideas for the design of the EP's front cover and started re-thinking the website design as I'd already started designing a Jello Of The Sea website. (for those that don't know, that was what they were gonna call The Hat after they re-invented themselves. It's now the name of one of their songs!) Then I got all nostalgic for my old music that I used to write so I dug some out and played that. After a couple of hours of that Scott came back and I played some to him, he thought some of it was wicked and others were dire (which I totally agree with, but I was explaining I was just experimenting with ideas and sounds to see if I can find some stuff I can use.... which I did!) Ended up getting quite lashed and we stuck on Silent Hill 3 for an hour then went to bed.

listening to: LCD Soundsystem - Daft Punk Are Playing At My House

Move in

Hurrah!! We got the keys for the new flat this morning .... well, maybe that should be 'key' as there's only one of them! So looks liek we'll be moving in tonight!! And about blooming time too!!!!

I had a quick look around at lunch time to see what needs to be done! Not an awful lot. Just the usual stuff when you move in... wash kitchen cupboards, check light bulbs etc. We've got laminate flooring so we need to get a dustpan and brush cos the floor needs a good sweep!

On the way out I looked in the downstairs toilet - looks like the last tennants had a pee and then left it there cos it fookin stank really REAAAAALLYYY bad - I flushed it straight away, closed the door and headed back to work.

Although I hate moving (it's stressy work innit!) I can't wait to get myself in there and sorted!

Landlords...

...who'd have 'em? I wouldn't thats for sure. And I used to be a landlord!!

As some of you may or may no know, I'm moving out of Chale House and into a nice modern flat with my chum Scott and things are in the process of being sorted. So I gets this phonecall from Baker & Baker asking why they haven't received the reference from my current landlord, Roger! I'm like "I don't know! You have faxed him, right?" to which they say "Oh yeah, of course we have. He's been sitting on it for the last 6 days!" Now I know that Roger can be known for being rather slack in matters urgent but this is important. He knows that I've gotta move out pronto. He knows that I've got someone moving in seamlessly. He know's he's not gonna lose out on money (the typical landlord's only concern) So what's he hanging around for? I decide to ring him!

Me: "Roger, have you sent that reference to Baker & Baker yet?" (already knowing what his reply is gonna be!)
Roger: "What reference is that, Steve? I didn't get one from them" (told ya!)
M: "Well, they told me that they'd sent you a fax of a reference form for you to fill in and they're waiting for you to fax it back to them."
R: "Oooh no, I didn't get any faxes"

Typical!

Now, I can't be sure who's at fault here! Either Bake & Baker were lying about sending him a fax or Roger forgot to fill it in and return it. Not good, cos it's that reference we're waiting on. So, I decide to get the fax number from Roger and give it to Baker & Baker myself and told them to fax him straight away. I also told Roger to fill it in and send it back as soon as he gets it. Both promised they will. Now, hopefully we should be able to get the keys by Wednesday at the latest and we can finally move in.

Sometimes it's better to sort these things out yourself!

listening to: Kings Of Leon - Kings of the Rodeo

Absolute Practice

The Absolute Darlings had a get together and rehearsal at my place last night in the lounge. They'd broken up about a year ago but are doing a special one-off gig for Peter's (stage name Pierre La Blag) 40th Birthday (I'm sure he'll love me bringing that up!) I stuck around for a bit but got bored so went into my room for a bit. Had a chat with Chantal about The Da Vinci Code - facinating. I think I wanna read that eventually. Whilst reading it she was refering to an art book so she could see what art parts of the book was referring to. As she was explaining stuff to me and showing me the pieces of art I started to feel inspired so spent the rest of the night making pictures.

Also, Reign Of Fire was on the tele last night. I forgot how good that film is! Here's a few pics!

Art

You might've noticed the new side bar over there on the right --->
Y'know the bit with 5 pretty pictures? Well, these are the latest pics from my deviantart gallery and will automatically update itself whenever I submit new art. Go ahead and take a look - you may like what you see.

The Others

I watched The Others with Nicole Kidman and Chistopher Eccleston last night round Scotts .... well, I don't mean I was sat in the same room as Nicole and Christopher watching the film with them!! I meant that they were in the film! Anyway, I was bloomin' good. Gave me the heeby-jeebies.

Listening to: Franz Ferdinand - Tell Her Tonight

July Summary!!

OK ok, I've been extremely busy over the last couple of weeks, which is why I've not done much to my blog. In this post I'm going to attempt to cover what I've been up to over the last three weeks in a kind of summary - I may post some pics too but I haven't decided yet. So, lets start off with ....

• Saturday 16th July.

This was the first night in this lengthy run of partying. Now I look back it was kind of an indication of what the next 3 weeks were gonna be like as I had arranged 2 events in one night: Emo Octopus's last ever gig at The Portman and Lottie's Birthday at The Central. I was informed that ex-girlfriend, Collette, was going to be there not long before I set off to see Emo. Was not best pleased about that. When I got there I went straight to the bar with Emma Moloney (my mate from work) then went to go find Kris D'Arny (who's the guitarist in the band). It turns out that they're already on stage. On the way there I spotted Collette's twat of a boyfriend, Dan (I think he clocked me too) and then I noticed the back of Collette's head. I was like "right, so that's where they're sat - that's the area of the room I'm going to ignore" - and so I did, I didn't look back in that direction for the rest of the night.

Emo played a good set. I remembered a lot of the tunes from the last time I saw their "last ever gig" in Bartonka about a year and a half ago. I bought their CD back then (and I think I've played it once or twice since - that doesn't mean their shite, it just means I've not played it that's all!)

Emo Octopus's last gig

Then it was time to go to Lottie's Birthday bash at Bar 2 of the Central. It was a joint birthday bash with Griff and Rizlo - but I didn't find this out til a couple of days after!! Gave the Birthday girl a present (some smellies from Boots), had a dance, several drinks and then played pool before going to an after-party which went on til about 5am. I don't remember much except doing poppers and showing my arse to everyone in the kitchen!

• Sunday 17th July

Went to the beach to try and sort out my hangover with Mooro, Lottie and Scott. Met Kirsty on the way to the guys which was a nice surprise. She was with Sara. Finally met them near the Branksome part of the beach. I felt like SHIT!!! It was really hot and when the breeze stopped blowing it was unbearable - felt like I was gonna puke! Stayed there for a couple of hours and then went back to mine to get changed before going to Scotts to watch a DVD and drink JD. I forget which film it was!

• Monday 18th July

Got home from work, still feeling a little shakey from the weekend, Chantal had bought Rez for the PS2. We set up the lounge for a bit of a game sesh - pulled the sofa away from the wall and towards the TV. Found a bottle of Jack Daniels behind the sofa!! Bargain. Chantal skinned up, I had a couple of shots and we both proceeded to play Rez. Later on in the evening Laura (Absolute Darlings) turned up en route to a gig and told us all about her getting a First in her degree (congrats to Laura). Rob bought a crate of beers and we continued to drink until we were sick of swallowing!

• Tuesday 19th July

Lounge played a gig in a big tent in the gardens of Shelly Park (for those of you who didn't know, Shelly Park is where Mary Shelly lived... she wrote Frankenstein!) This had an amazing summer vibe about it with people just chilling out insided listening to acoustic sets and people sitting around the gardens getting stoned or whatever as the sun was setting. It was a Solid Air event. Mark from Lounge said he was really nervous playing and it felt a little intimidating being up on the stage but it all sounded good from where I was sat. Other people who played were Piere Le Blag, Farther and ... um.... other people!! (sorry guys!)

Click for bigger picture

• Wednesday 20th July

We had a house meeting to discuss the bills. I thought it was gonna be a boring day one but it actually got quite heated between Rob and Chantal. I had nothing to say on the matter as I'd only just moved in and the discussion was about bills that were in arrears before I'd even moved in! Got a phonecall from Scott and so I went round there to, once again, get blotto on Lager and JD & Coke whilst watching a DVD.

• Thursday 21st July

This was the day of the EC awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Street. The day began like any other: getting up and got ready for work - put my suit in a bag and went to work. We did a half day and then it was time to get ready for the Emap Communications Awards Ceremony - an annual event held in London as an opportunity to slap the backs of hard working individuals within the Emap umbrella.... or for the rest of us, an excuse to get absolutely bollocksed on free booze and get off with that bird from sales! As I was getting ready at Emma's with Beverly and Stephanie I got a phone call from Suzy, who was getting her hair done in a salon somewhere, telling me to put on the news as there was another bomb scare. This freaked us out no end cos none of us wanted to go to London to get blown up - even if there were free booze! But after a few phone calls we decided to go anyway cos if something major did happen whilst en route, the coach driver would just turn around and come back.
We arrived at our destination surprisingly early, so we all went to a nearby wine bar to...er...drink wine in one of the back streets near the hotel.

We stayed there for about half an hour before heading back to the hotel for the main event. The weird thing was, we couldn't go back the way we came because the roads that we'd walked along just minutes before were sectioned off by the police cos of another bomb scare!! Geez!
We eventually found our way and went inside for a champagne reception and a general chit-chat in the foyer before being ushered to our designated tables for the food.
The food was good, as was the booze!! Next up was the stand-up comedian and the awards presentation (presented by Clare Sweeny - that bird off Brookside!) As usual we won nothing, got a few nominations though. Oh well. Then it was time for some music and a bit of dancing - this is usually the part were scandles start hatching when, for example, the old married woman from customer support throws herself around the new fresh-faced (but still wet behind the ears) researcher. ....actually saying that, I was dancing on the dancefloor and all of a sudden I felt some hands stroke my chest from somebody behind me. Thinking my luck was in I turned round only to discover it was, in fact, the old married woman from customer support!!!! I smiled politely and ran for the hills!!!! I ended up disappearing outside of the main hall and into the pirvate bar with a girl from sales that I wasn't in the slightest bit interested in. She kept trying it on but I didn't want to know cos I knew she had a boyfriend. Had a good time though!!

....

OK, I'm just gonna summarise now cos it's taking far to long to type all this!!!!

• Friday 22nd July

Went for a drink with Lottie at the Bermuda Triangle!

• Saturday 23rd July

Went to a beach party with Scott, Fran and Pri. Stayed there til about 2am. We left cos it started raining although we were so drunk we didn't notice. Besides somebody had a mini marquay (spelling?) there and we spent most of the time under that. The guys that live downstairs from Scott & Fran took their camper van down and set up a cocktail bar in the back of it!! Free cocktails!! Woo!!!! There was also a really tastey girl juggling fire there!

• Sunday 24th July

Went to the Joiners Arms in Southampton to see Editors again! Fucking superb!! The support band were shite but then what can you expect. I found out the next morning that Edith Bowman was there but I didn't see her. Apparently she was by the T-Shirt stall!?

• Monday 25th July

Heard that Scott and Fran have split up (!) so went round there to see if Scott was OK. I got him drunk then suggested going out to see SK8 at The Portman to take his mind off things! Met loads of people we knew and it was pretty cool. Scott was unusually quiet though!!

Camping

This is long overdue but it has to be done. During the weekend from Thursday 30th June to Sunday 3rd July I went camping with Kim, Paul, Gary, Simone, Lottie, Mooro, Scott and Fran in Stratford Upon Avon.

You'll notice I'm not in the pic cos I took it!!!

I got my up there from Lottie and Mooro. We made it up there in good time and pretty much went straight there without getting lost thanks to the routeplanner from Multipmap.com (I think ... it could've been from the AA website but I'm not too sure!!) In fact the only wrong turn we made was when we got into the camp site - instead of going straight on towards the tent pitching area Lottie saw a sign that told people to go right. She didn't notice that it also said "Residents only" so we had a very surreal tour of the trailer park. It looked like a cross between something from Twin Peaks and Toytown!!

Kim and Paul got there first and were just putting the finishing touches to their tent when we eventually pulled up. We built our tents and then the final car arrived with Gary, Simone, Scott and Fran and we helped them build there's then settled down for a beer.

Mooro, Lottie and me wanted to have a curry so we suggested we all go to the local curry house (Cafe Chuney's) for our first nights meal. Everyone was keen to go but they said we should go ahead and then ring us when we're there to let them know what it was like but when we did nobody was up for it. I had a Lamb Pathia and, I have to admit, it was one of the best currys I've EVER had!! By the time we got back to the ranch a lot of alcahol was consumed ... especially by Kim who woke up, about 10 mins after going to bed, to puke!

Kim and Paul a little drunk!

The next day we went into town to see what it was all about. One of the first sights we saw was an old clock tower just in Rother Market built in a victorian style.It was given to the town by an American gentleman, George W. Childs of Philadelphia and this is why, half way up, on two corners there are American eagles and on the other two corners there are English lions. And if you look at the point above each of the clock faces there is a fairy from Midsummer Night's Dream. This clock tower is always known as the American Fountain and it used to have a drinking fountain on: the horse troughs were at one time full of water but now full of flowers. How's that for history!

Getting ready for the day ahead

Clock tower

Paul's grown again!!

to be continued....

Lazy Bones!!!

My word! How lazy have I been? When I first started this I had all good intentions to keep it up to date with all my little adventures and discoveries in life. Yet here I am totally neglecting it. It's not for a lack of interest, though I might add! It's mainly because I no longer have the internet at home and so access to this site is restricted to work times only. I don't want to even risk being caught typing these entries while I'm at work (although that's exactly what I'm doing right now!) but I should be getting broadband at Chale soon and then I can update every evening (providing there's no party going on!!)

Camping

I've got a half day off work today as I'm being picked up after lunch to go camping. It should be a good'un. It'll be myself (of course) with Kim, Paul, Simone, Gary, Lottie, Mooro, Fran and Scott (yes, that makes me the only singleton there. *sobs!*)

We'll be going to Dodwell Park and hopefully it'll be blinding weather. I'm feeling slightly unprepared though cos I woke up at 7:50 this morning and realised I hadn't yet packed my bags for camping, so I rushed around grabbing stuff to put in a big bag and got ready for work with no breakfast!! I was gonna be late for work so I called a taxi.... which gave me time to have a small bowl of cereal. Had to leave the stereo behind though!.... maybe I can purchase a small digital radio from Argos for pennies?!? hmmmm......

From Hell

I saw From Hell starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham last night (Channel 4, 10pm). It was good! .... and creepy!

Laura (from Absolute Darlings) and her daughter managed to lock themselves out of their house after the Solid Air gig at Le Bateaux and so they came round ours for a ladder during the film. She had her key but it wouldn't work in the lock. That, in itself, is a scenario from hell!!

Mosquitoes!!!

I had a bit of a nightmare when I set off to sleep last night. As you know it was a blinder of a hot day yesterday (Sunday 26th June) and so I had both the window and the patio door open all day and most of the night... this gave lots of mosquitoes and moths, and all other sorts of flying nasties, an opportunity to buzz into my room. So when I was all wrapped up snug in my duvet and saw the mosquitoes, Big Al's words of warning about the Asian Tiger Mosquito started echoing in my head and paranoia kicked in.

Last weekend during the recording process Big Al said that Asian Tiger Mosquitoes have managed to find their way over to good ol' Blighty either by migration or by getting trapped in trucks carrying bananas or whatever. And what happens is if they bite a bird with bird flu and then bite a human you can be dead within 3 days!!! He said they are big with black and yellow stripes and when you spot one you've got to ring the police immediately to report where and when you saw it. Fuck Me!!

Anyway, I managed to kill one of them but I think I only stunned the other. Sure enough they were big fuckers with black and yellow striping. To put my mind at rest I looked up the tiger mossie on t'internet to see if those little blighters were the ones to look out for.... it turns out they're not. Here's what Tiger Mosquitoes REALLY look like!!.....

Perico's New EP

Perico are in the process of making a new EP. On Saturday they had they're producer, big Al, over to record the drum tracks in the lounge. We had all the tables cleared and the sofa's pushed to the sides and Al set up all his equipment to record the drums. The drums were miked up with 13 mikes and Rich recorded 80 tracks of drums in 8 hours of drumming - WITH A BAD KNEE!!! Hats off to the bloke.

We all had a time out at around the evening time and as it was such a nice evening we decided to have a BBQ with everybody from all the other flats invited down to cook their meat on our BBQ Beer was drunk, meat was eaten, songs were sung and conversations flowed in the sunset. It was a good day. Al was so impressed with both the sound from the lounges acoustics and the hospitality that he asked if it would be possible to rent our lounge for future drum track recordings.

Happy 30th Birthday Scott

Friday was the day of Scott's 30th Birthday. I woke up at Scott & Fran's on the sofa and had to get myself ready for work - which duly sucked because of a minging hangover. But that was ok cos I had hair-of-the-dog in The Bell when I met up with Kim and Paul. The lads had several games of pool while Kim and I caught up on what we've been up to. I won the pool (cos I rock) and then Kim and I reunited the undefeatable pool team of Schafer & Bloodworth to play against Paul.... and we lost! Boo!

After the working day was done I wasted no time in getting home to get ready for Scotty's birthday party. I had to head home on the bus, shower, shave, sort my hair out, get changed, leave the house, walk to the bus stop, get on the bus and arrive at Scott & Fran's befoer 7:30!! It was a mad dash but I think it was the first time in ages where I was actually early... I thought I was the only one there until I got to the lounge and saw Paul & Kimmy sitting on the sofa. There was much giving of gifts and cards to the Birthday Boy who was acting as DJ sat on the beanbag next to the hi-fi.

Then Gary turned up bearing gifts and card - he too thought he was the first to arrive (we must've been keeping quiet in the lounge!) and then Mooro arrived. We all had a take-away curry (during which Fran's family and Simone turned up) and then went into town to O'Neills - not before Scot stitched me up with some Brut around the chops!! Great! I already stink of curry and now I stink of Brut - didn't fancy my chances of pulling!

It was a lovely night and we all went into the beer garden. Met up with another bunch of people - including Dan Gale who had shaved his head off and now the resemblance between Dan and Evil Dan (from the SK5's short movie) bear an even closer, and spooky, resemblance!! One sensitive moment was when Lee Ditcher turned up with Glen to wish Scott a happy birthday. But everything was cool. Then one of us started singing Happy Birthday to Scott and, as per usual in a pub's beer garden, everybody else in the pub joined in too. Huzzah!

Before long the bouncers started ushering everyone back inside cos they're outside licence must run out at 11pm or something. So we all piled inside and, somehow, got split into two groups: one group found the usual table just around the corner from the bar near the door, and the other group stayed right in front of the dancefloor.

There was a cover band on and yep they played all the usual coverband classics (or should that be "no-no's") such as Mustang Sally, that Doobie Brothers tune, Summer of '69 and Black Velvet. All of which should never EVER be played...EVER!!!!!! *ptooey*

Things start to get a bit cloudy round about now as we all got extrememly drunk. Things to mention would be the resurgence of 'Guess The Breast'! A tequila slammer sesh with a really hot Brazilian girl that Dan introduced me to (where does he get 'em?........... actually, he probably gets them from Brazil!), Paul crying at some stage about Dan, Paul getting on like a house on fire with Dan, dancing link a mental person to Franz Ferdinand, being jumped on by a girl I've not seen for years, spotting somebody who I also hadn't seen for years and they, in turn, took me to see somebody else I hadn't seen in years (geez, O'Neills has turned into the Hot House Retirement Home!!).... basically it was a bally good night.

I didn't have my camera with me on that night so I don't have any photos. Kim took loads but she lost her camera and, more than likely, subsequently had it stolen! But Fran took loads - I might have to get scans of those pics and I'll post the good ones up here as and when I get them.

Ambulance Ltd

On Thursday I went to see Ambulance Ltd at the Joiner's Arms with Scott. They're a band from New York that take their styles from many influences spanning several decades of various genres ranging from Motown to Rock, Psycadelia to Blues. I'd heard them round Scotts a couple of times, he has the CD and been meaning to get myself a copy (all above board and from a regular retail outlet of course! Wouldn't dream of burning a copy. *ahem*)

The beginning part of Thursday was a usual uneventful day at work. Boring, monotonous and made me nearly fall asleep. The only thing that was keeping me awake was the fact I was off to The Joiner's that night - this would be my first visit to the venue and was actually quite excited about it! As soon as it came to about 4:45 I decided not to start anything new at work, got changed into my casual clothes and surfed the net for a couple of minutes til it got to 5. Then I walked straight to Scotts to settle down to a beer and some hot-dogs and catch up on the weeks events (which wasn't that much) but we also shared some of our photography. My camera's memory card was ram packed with pics spanning several weeks - they still had the pics from our last London visit! We set off for the train station at about 6:50 to get the train at around 7:10 from Pokesdown Station. I love Pokesdown Station, it's got so much character (hense the arty-ness of the following pictures!)...

Pokesdown Station ... marvelous!



The Journey

When we finally got to Southampton we made our way to the pub just around the corner from the Joiners - I forget the name but it's on the corner of Palmerston Road and South Front (I think it's called) En route we got talking about how the first Bottom Live video was made at Southampton Guildhall. Scott said "Yeah, I was at that show. That was the day before my 18th Birthday!!" Pretty spooky as this was the day before his 30th birthday!! When we got to that pub we had about 3 or 4 games of pool and a couple of JD & Cokes - the second round was actually a double, but I think it was just over a double - if not a tripple - cos the bottle was emptied as one and a half shots per glass and then the barman had to get a new bottle of JD and poured out another full shot into each glass!! Man, it tasted well strong, and yes it got us both completely fucked!

Our pool game rivalled
that of the pros!!

Time was starting to press and our drunkedness levels were starting to increase so we decided to hit the road to crawl our way to The Joiners. The place was pretty empty when we got there - we thought that there might not be that many people there as Ambulance Ltd were still a relatively unknown band. We weren't too sure about whether we should get in another drink, in fact Scott said he wasn't going to but then I told him that if we had a pint of something gassy (like lager) then it would take us longer to drink it and we should have sorted our heads out by then. So Carlsberg it was. I found a table to stick my jacket under (cos I didn't want to carry it around) and we took a wonder around the place. Man, it's small, but it's cool. After being given a guided tour of the venue we made our way back to the bar area where we were pretty stunned to see that the place had actually packed out!

The first band came up on stage. They were called The Cinematics, a four-piece band from Glasgow. They weren't bad actually, they weren't that special but they had some really good tunes but the bass player looked like a total prick and was embarrasing to watch - he had his t-shirt tucked in for Christ's sake!! We stuck around for about half of their set then went to the bar to get a refill and pretty much stayed there until they finished. There was a merchandise table giving away free badges so we both took one each - well, you never know do ya!

The Cinematics

Eventually the main reason for being here came on stage. We managed to get a good spot just at the front and over to the left of the stage, right by the stage stairs and all the cases for their equipment!! They played most of the best tracks from their debut album, including the singles, and 2 new tracks. It was absolutely roasting in there and the band basically broke out in a sweat after the first song!

Ambulance Ltd

They, totally rocked and were definitely worth seeing. The only bad point about the night was that we kept running into these really annoying bunch of groupies who were surrounding themselves around each and every band member one at a time gushing all over them and saying things like "You were much better than the other band" or "That guitar bit you did was sooo cool" or whatever. And when they saw that they weren't getting anywhere with the band member they had snared they'd move on to the next one and try again with THE SAME CHEESY LINES!!! They were putting my off my pint. One of them managed to sneak into one of my photos. Here is that photo with the girl in question....

minger!

Shortly after the gig the clock rang 12 and so it was Scott's Birthday. So I wished him a happy 30th (that makes me the first to do so!) and got the train home. It was really late by the time we got back so I crashed on his sofa.

The Big Move

So, I've finally moved!! That's why I've not updated this for a while. The move went pretty well, everything was shifted in 2 runs, the day was hot and sunny and everything was done before mid afternoon. The only problem is I don't have enough places to store stuff. I need to buy me a wardrobe and another chest of drawers. The guys say I could probably salvage something from one of the garages but to be honest I don't want something that's been thrown into a garage to rot for a reason!! I'll grab something from Argos or sommat!

On the evening of the big move I got a text from Mooro to come out for a couple of swift ones at the Durley with himself and Lottie. I said I'd gladly oblige as soon as I've made my room a bit tidier as everything was basically just plonked into the room. I managed to get my bed re-constructed and made so I could sleep in it that night and put away as much stuff as I could then went out to meet the guys at the Durley. Lottie and Mooro were enjoying a slap-up meal when I arrived. I wasn't mnuch company at first cos I was sooooo drained from having the cold and moving all my stuff but I eventually sorted it out after a couple of beers. After bumping into Richard Chasemore and his mate (John I think it was.... or maybe Rob!?!?) we moved onwards to the Goat and Tricycle to meet up with Griff and co. Lots more drinks and merriment ensued with lots of light-hearted banter. I must've sorted my head out by this time cos, according to Mooro, I was on fire on the comedy front. I can't remember any of it .... except the chicken curry story! (you know what I'm talking about, Mooro!!)

I also bumped into somebody I've not seen for years! Sam Adair!!! Used to be one of my best mates back when I was at college and for several years after too! ..... that was 11 years ago!!! (fuck me!) I parted with Mooro and co to join Sam's little circle of friends for a while to catch up on life. It was really bizarre, it was almost as if we'd never parted!

A random sight in the Goat was a really hammered bloke entertaining the oap crown with slurred sing-a-long songs ... including Show Me The Way To Amarillo, which also included a conga.....which reminds me of an old joke:

Q. What's a hundred foot long and smells of piss?
A. Pensioners doing the conga!

Another random sight was a league of 6 Catholic Vicars settling down to get pissed!! Absolutely surreal!... and yes they WERE actual vicars not people on a stag-do or whatever!

After the Goat we went to the Casino. Kim rang me up en route as she was down jet-setting from Leeds to see a BBLOC theatrical production and wanted to meet up. She wasn't up for the idea of coming to the Casino though, besides we'll be seeing her the following weekend anyway! The Casino was great, I must've had beginners luck cos I won £46 on the roulette wheel!! Woohoo!!

Man Cold

I'm totally bunged up with the ol' common cold at the moment. I think it was cos I went out loads over the end of May bank holiday and staggered home at 3am in nothing but jeans and T-shirt! It's really messing me up at the moment and I can't think straight. I keep half doing stuff and then getting side-tracked. I also can't be arsed to do stuff cos I'm feeling sooo lethargic. And I'm slightly deaf from blowing my nose loads. But I'm trying to battle it - there's no way I'm gonna let this one get the better of me. Every morning over the last 5 days I've been taking my multi-vitamin pills with extra Vit C + Zinc pills and having either Lemsip, Beechams, Soluble Asperin or something along the same lines - whatever's available really. Was on the phone to Kimmy for about an hour over the weekend - she always makes me feel better.

.... I think I'd better go unload my nostrils, I'm finding it hard to breathe!

*sniff sniff*
*sigh*

Big Brother...

...can be summed up with 2 words this year....

Gays and Tits!!

...that is all. .... Still watching it though.
(mainly cos of the tits!)