Glastonbury!!!

Glastonbury Festival seems ages ago now...well it is I guess - two months.

I put the photos up on my Flickr a couple of weeks back. To sum up, it was an enormous amount of fun. It's such a huge thing, like nothing I've ever been to before, and there's such a good feeling there. We were really lucky that we mostly had good weather as well.



That's our tent, taken on the Friday (the wet day) - that's as muddy as the campsite got, ie not very, so that made life a lot easier! I decided I actually love sleeping in a tent. It's like a cocoon or a womb or something, all snugglesome. Although we cheated and took an inflatable bed with us for ultimate comfort (we are old now).

We got the bus from Bristol on the Thursday lunchtime, found a good camping spot, ate our picnic, drank some of our box of wine and set out to explore the site.

The festival proper didn't start til Friday, so there wasn't a great deal to be done. The ground was thick with mud from the previous day's rain so even though the sun was shining, walking wasn't too fun. Getting a bit fed up, we ambled into a fun looking bar tent that had brilliant bright pink decor, fun music and cocktails. Best move ever. The mojitos were expensive and we thought they might be a rip off, but they were amazing! Generous and tasty. We cheered up no end.



That evening, we made our way to the Park area of the site, met a cool Irish couple and hung out with them in this amazing mirrored pergola for the night.

Friday started well with Metronomy on the Pyramid stage, can't believe I hadn't heard them before, amazing band! Their album 'The English Riviera' has been on repeat on my iPod for the last 2 months. Unfortunately, as they left the stage, the weather took a turn for the worst and the rain started. We grabbed coffee and toast and headed over to the Leftfield to see some comedy from Andy Zaltzman (an old Edinburgh Fest favourite and the man that can be credited secondly only to Mark for making me interested in cricket).
The Leftfield had the benefit of being in an indoor marquee, and was run by Billy Bragg, it had a really great mix of stuff on over the weekend. Political debate, music, comedy. It was a good place and we spent a large amount of time in there even when the sun was out! Friday evening we went back to watch Billy Bragg's live set and despite the fact that I was cold and wet and a bit miserable he is such an uplifting person to hear, so true to what he believes in. That evening we were stood next to this family, a couple and a little boy maybe 8 or 9 years old, and several times they leaned down to explain to him what Billy was saying, about why it's important we pay our taxes and what trade unions do. It gave me hope that there are still people who believe in good things, haha. Also in the Leftfield we discovered some brilliant artists, like this guy Jonny Neesom who played guitar and sang these really funny, perceptive songs (we got his CD in the tent) and this incredible spoken word artist named Kate Tempest. Seriously I've never heard anything like her, she was so powerful. I need to track down of her stuff recorded.

On Friday night we went to sleep really early, haha! We were lying in the tent and where we were camped you could hear Primal Scream playing in the distance. It was lovely to drift off listening to 'Country Girl' drift over the fields.

Saturday was a MUCH nicer day. The sun came out, it was really warm and the mud started drying up fast. We used our Green Passes to try out the solar showers (SO GOOD...well ok it was like washing under a low-pressure, luke-warm hose in a shed, but still....SO GOOD!) and feeling rested, healthier and CLEANER we hung out at the tent into the afternoon and drank some wine and ate a lot of cereal bars (main food source) before it was time for music. Annoyingly the two acts I wanted to see most out of the whole festival were on at overlapping times. So we decided to go to most of Anna Calvi, then skip the end (we saw Anna Calvi a month or two earlier at the Thekla in Bristol) and run over to Patrick Wolf for a full set. Anna Calvi turned out to be so captivating that we stayed the whole thing, but at least we still caught most of Patrick Wolf. Both were amazing, complete highlights. Patrick Wolf is pretty much the most upbeat person ever to exist. This is the video to his last single, The City. It is impossibly upbeat:



Saturday night was so amazing as we went over to the 'after-hours' part of the festival, it was the most incredible thing. I sound like I'm gushing but seriously, it took your mind to a whole other world. Block9 and Shangri-La are like whole worlds built at the festival.



That's the London Underground part of Block9, you don't get the sense of scale from the photo but that is a life size block of flats, with a life-size tube train hanging out, and underneath it is a club. The attention to detail is so amazing. Then round from Block9 is Shangri-La. This area has run on an ongoing futuristic, dystopian storyline for the last couple of years; in 2011 the city is being ravaged by a virus, so the inhabitants are moving out to a new planet, and this is the last party before they leave, 'a rave to end all raves…'



It's built like a film set, I have never seen anything like it. It's a whole town, the centre of which is the slum, a series of covered alleyways leading to all sorts of places...weird shops, crazy bars...half of it boarded up as the residents flee.



The Shangri-Spa!



This shop sold that well-known complementary trio of items phones, crack and biros, before the virus forced its untimely closure.

We went into this mad strip club behind a cage door named Fish and Tits...



...no really.



There was a bizarre mirrored nook inside.



At midnight we went through to the Arcadia midnight fire show at the 'spider', which was also fantastic.



Arcadia take military scrap and use it to make spectacular shows. They had live singers, musicians, acrobats, it was pretty impressive.

Sunday was consequently a lazy day, spent hanging out at Leftfield (trying to avoid heat this time, made a change to the rain!), eating potato wedges, seeing the epic danlesac vs Scroobius Pip show, relaxing in the green fields and the healing fields eating ice cream, and late in the evening watching the only appropriate alternative to Beyonce in existence - Simon Munnery in the Cabaret tent!



He had converted the League Against Tedium/Attention Scum hat into a BUBBLE MACHINE!


In a pleasing Simon Munnery-related side-note, I was packing up my books in Bristol to move them up to Nottingham last week and I found a book that an old friend had given me as a present in 2001, over a decade ago. I was flicking through it and I found he had inserted into the back cover a little Simon Munnery interview/article clipped out of a newspaper! That made me smile a lot and think about the many years in which my life has been made happier by Simon Munnery and his brilliance.

The fiery portals of the east (and the west midlands)

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England

What better way to mark a return my return to England, after almost three years away, than with John of Gaunt's monologue from Shakespeare's Richard II. Settling back in to life on the top end of the world has its ups and downs, but England has undeniable gravitas.

I was fortunate enough to see a brilliant production of Richard II at the Tobacco Factory last weekend. It was the first time I had seen Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory in action and they were so good. I think when you see a good Shakespeare production, you understand it completely even if you don't fully understand all the language. This was one of those.

John of Gaunt's son was Henry IV of England. Richard II's father was Edward Plantagenet, the Black Prince. The tombs of both lie in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, and I visited them a few weeks ago. Well, primarily I was visiting my sister, but Henry and Edward were almost as exciting. Bec was doing a concert with her Chamber Choir in the cathedral crypt, but we spent the day visiting firstly the Museum of Canterbury, then the Cathedral.

Canterbury is a lovely city, very small and neat and old and historic. We learnt its history in the museum, right through from its beginnings and Roman occupation, to the building of the Cathedral, Thomas Becket, Christopher Marlowe, Bagpuss, Clangers and Rupert the Bear (as a long-term collector of Rupert annuals, my dad was EXCITED).



Clangers are knitted bodies on a meccano skeleton! The museum is really good and at little over 3 quid quite a bargain.



Through the gate to the Cathedral. The Cathedral is huge, monumental and magnificent.



Inside there is so much atmosphere and history - a small flame marks the site where the tomb of Thomas Becket stood (destroyed by order of Henry VIII). Around this lie the aforementioned tombs of Henry IV and the Black Prince. We spent a good long time inside, gallivanting around. It was cold though, but I imagine the heating bills must be pretty high.



Bec's concert was really good, and well attended. The following day, we left her behind and journeyed up to Wolverhampton so Père could attend the football at Molineux and we could visit uncle Alan and auntie Jenny. We had a nice quiet Saturday evening in with them, then on Sunday morning went to the Beacon Hotel to drink the best beer in the world (if you are my dad), Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild (brewed at the pub). I am actually also a big fan of Ruby Mild, it is TASTY.



I love this picture of Père and uncle Alan as it shows what a serious business drinking Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild is. I also love the Beacon, as it is a perfectly preserved victorian pub. It's like a museum pub.

"The sun is but a tale; a children's story..."

So yeah the Lady of the Green Kirtle may as well have been talking about Sydney when she said that, because the sun does seem like a bit of a long forgotten myth here at the moment. I am completely and utterly convinced by the very real existence of RAIN though.

All week, huddled under my umbrella as I scurry through Hyde Park on my way to work, scarf bundled up, hoodie zipped up tight i have to remind myself that it is November and I must not lose hope that soon it will be a little bit warmer and (PLEASE) a little bit dryer. It is so hard to dislike the rain in Australia as we should be grateful for any that comes, but being positive about it is becoming harder and harder. I think it's just training us up for our return to the UK.....

Fortunately, while last weekend rained on Sydney, we were down in (moderately) dry Canberra for a little trip. Mark had been working all week at Australian National University and so I spent 3 and a half hours on a bus last Friday night to join him. The bus was a very comfortable Murrays bus though, and this coupled with the bargain $25 fare made it rather more agreeable than you might imagine 3.5 hours on a bus to be.
I arrived off the bus into Canberra Civic at around 9.30pm and Mark was waiting at the bus stop to whisk me off for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Delhi 6 with some ANU Philosophy types. The food was delicious - something Sydney really lacks is really good Indian food (something we are also looking forward to getting back in the UK again). And it was good to meet some new Philosophy faces as well as some old favourites! After the meal, we went to a cool pub called The Phoenix, it was like a proper English rock/indie pub. Had some beers then realised it was really late so walked back to Mark's room on campus to sleep.

Saturday morning brought a long lie in, before heading out for brunch at the cafe in the National Film Archive. We then took a wander so I could see some Canberra...what an odd place. It's so rural, feels a bit like being on a big spread out business park, dual carriageways connecting everything, not very pedestrian friendly at all! There are two centres on each side of Lake Burley Griffin - Civic on one side and the Parliamentary centre on the other. ANU is next to Civic, so we walked over the lake on the big road bridge into the Parliamentary zone.



It was a horrible, grey, hot sticky day, really uncomfortable for walking. The view of Black Mountain was nice, but odd when you look at that photo and remember that that is technically the view from the middle of a city! It's so rural!

You can find most of the sights along one edge of one of the circuit roads on the Parliamentary side. We walked past the big imposing National Library and along past Questacon science museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the High Court and finally the National Gallery of Australia. The weather was pretty unbearable now so we decided to have a look in.



Sculpture outside the National Gallery

After a refreshing ginger beer in the cafe, the gallery turned out to be quite excellent, with a very comprehensive collection of Australian art including some very famous works such as Sidney Nolan's Ned Kelly series which I love. We had a good look round - I love some of the early european style Australian paintings - the pastoral scenes of areas that are now built up towns and suburbs - it's interesting to see such a change over the course of a century. It's also very revealing to compare early depictions of Sydney and Melbourne - Melbourne was quite the grand European style city, while early Sydney seems to be mostly represented as a grubby collection of ramshackle houses!

We ventured next door to have a look at the Australian High Court, an imposing building of concrete and glass.



Some pretty exciting cases have gone on here, one of the most famous being the landmark case of Mabo v Queensland (No 2) in 1992, which finally directly rejected the legal concept of terra nullius in Australia and recognised Aboriginal land rights.

Then it started to rain. A lot. So we hurried back to campus over the bridge. Had a 2 hour nap, then went to meet some philosophers at a nice pub called the Wig and Pen for beer and fish and chips, followed by a trip to a Halloween house party! We failed in Halloween costumes due to lack of preparation, but I procured a lovely tail at some point and wore it all night. It felt so natural to have a tail! I really want to grow one - this prompted some discussion over tail-reassignment surgery.

Sunday was a far more pleasant day - a bit more breeze and sun. We headed back to the Parliamentary centre and visited Old Parliament House and its lovely rose gardens.





Seat of Parliament from 1927 to 1988, it is now the Museum of Democracy (with an agreeable $2 entry fee), which has some interesting displays about parliamentary history in Australia. Most interesting though is the fact that many of the original offices and rooms have been preserved as they would have been at various times, so you can see, for example, meeting rooms circa 1930 and office space circa 1970. You can also enter the original Senate and House of Representatives chambers.



In front of the Old Parliament House, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy has stood since 1972, despite continual controversy and several arson attacks against it. The Aboriginal activists that occupy the site promote the political movement of Aboriginal Sovereignty, which demands among other things land rights and compensation. Apparently there have been numerous attempts to remove it but I am glad it is still there as a reminder of some of Australia's more difficult political issues.

We climbed up Capital Hill to (new) Parliament House, as our last port of call before we had to head for the bus back to Sydney.



We were both pretty indifferent to the building, but there was a nice expansive view from outside over the Old Parliament and the War Memorial in the distance.



Let me remind you again, you are technically looking at a city centre in that picture! Ruuuural. We wanted to go inside, and you can, but you have to be scanned and metal detected and it was a bit involved and we only had 10 minutes before we had to leave for the long bus home, so that was the end. We arrived back to a sodden Sydney, 4 hours later.

And this weekend is sodden once more. Friday was our 7 year anniversary, and we spent it having a wonderful dinner at Yulli's on Crown Street followed by a cocktail at the Lounge. Today we managed to get a wonderful breakfast in at Four Ate Five before the drizzle began, Mark had the vegan mexican breakfast and I had poached eggs and avocado on rye toast. MMMM. I spent the afternoon reading Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. And so it goes.

I am popular

Last weekend, it seemed unlikely that it would be a good weekend. Mark was going away canoeing and camping, and I couldn't go because my ears prevent water-based activities. However, upon making an unnecessary fuss one day in work, I suddenly found myself inundated with people wishing to entertain me!

It actually began on Thursday, when Mark commiserated my being left behind by taking me to see Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I was so excited! It's had some bad reviews but I did still enjoy it a lot. I liked the darkness of it and I liked the bandersnatch. Afterwards we went for dinner at Atom Thai on King Street, sooo delicious. Best thai on King Street without a doubt.

On Friday we had a super early night and Mark left before 6am on Saturday. I got up when he left and at 7am met Dean (my boss) and Zane (his boyfriend) at Erko station and we caught the train to the city, then walked over the Darling Harbour bridge into Pyrmont for Pyrmont Markets.

Pyrmont Markets are a monthly organic produce market, where loads of farms and other food producers bring their wares to sell. There was so much stuff! Bread, honey, lamb, cheese, vegetables, all sorts of things. We had a good wander round and I bought an olive sourdough loaf from the Sonoma stall, Zane and I bought boxes of honeycomb and Dean bought me marshmellows from the Sweetness stall and then got some lamb.

After exhausting the markets, we walked back to Town Hall and caught a bus to Balmain to visit Adriano Zumbo's patisserie. Dean and Zane are obsessed with Zumbo, who is the new big name on the pastry/macaroon scene. He has a tiny little patisserie on Darling Street and we crowded in and stocked up on pain au chocolat, almond croissants (literally the best thing I have ever eaten, ever, and I don't even like croissants!), macaroons and cakes. All the little cakes have entertaining name and everything looks so finely crafted, yet it's not really that expensive. Mark and I are going back this weekend for more!



My macaroons, whilst waiting for the bus back to the city. Can you see I crushed the bottom one already? I fail. The flavours are, top to bottom, grapefruit and jasmine, strawberry and balsamic, pineapple.

We pootled off home via David Jones' food hall, where I bought pumpkin and lentil sausages for my breakfast (it was 10am now) and then I went back home to cook them.



I had them on my olive bread. DJ's vege sausages are SO GOOD. My favourite thing is that they are actually made in skins, like real sausages, rather than just being a clump of soy/whatever.

After breakfast I had a few hours before Aisling arrived in Erskineville, and I went to meet her at the station. We went to visit Shenkin for coffee and frappes and sat there a good hour or so before wandering up to Newtown and along King Street. Had a look in a few shops then into Max Brenner for a hot chocolate. Then we got wine in the bottle shop and went to Ice and Slice for pizza then to Madame Fling Flong for cocktails! Then all of a sudden it was gone 11pm and I was suddenly sleepy, so we rolled back down to the station for Aisling to get her train, and I went straight to bed.

On Sunday, I got up and got the train to the city for open doors day at Sydney Town Hall. They were having a special open weekend to celebrate the re-opening of renovated parts of the Town Hall, and were allowing access to parts that are normally closed to the public. It was really good fun to have a look round, I had no idea it was so impressive inside!





Centennial Hall, and the Grand Organ. The Organ is quite famous, considered to be the finest 19th century concert organ in the world and is the world's largest entirely mechanical pipe organ. It is HUGE!



Mosaic crest of the hall.



There was a room with a picture of every mayor of Sydney.

At the end of the tour, I had a look around the new exhibition they have on, called 'Unvaulted', which is a display of the City of Sydney collection of artefacts and treasures, many of which have never been seen by the public. There were some pretty good things there, various exotic gifts donated to the City from all over the world, as well as stories and photos of various state visits, including several by the British royal family. It's a free exhibition and worth dropping in on.

Following this, I walked back up through Darling Harbour to the Maritime Museum, which currently has an exhibition on Mythical Creatures on, again with free entry. This was brilliant! I am fascinated by mythical creatures and there was a lot of information there on the origins of the myths, appearance of the animals, different attitudes etc. All the well-known ones (dragons, unicorns, mermaids etc) were there as well as some lesser known ones like the Kappa, a Japanese water-dwelling creature that drags children into rivers if disturbed, and the Kraken, a sea-monster most likely inspired by sailors early sightings of dead giant squids floating at sea.



Barong costume - a creature that fights chaos in Bali.



This guy is HUGE. Giant apes existed in asia before becoming extinct around 300,000 years ago. Remains found possibly led to idea of Big Foot.



"Fiji Mermaid" - fraudulent model mermaid exhibited in side-shows in the late 19th century. It's made from a monkey stitched to a fish! I thought it was quite convincing? Haha.

Mark came back later that evening, all stinky. He wants to do all the same things next weekend, so I may have a repeat of some of the above!

Cultural Review - January 2010

Not so much a resolution, more of a notion, but in any case I decided that I needed to get out more.

January in Sydney signifies the annual rolling round of the Sydney Festival, an arts festival in a similar vein to the Edinburgh International Festival with elements of the more lowbrow 'fringe'. A perfect opportunity for some cultural pursuits!

But, before getting on to that, I must just say what brilliant fun I had at the cricket! We attended the first day of the second test between Australia and Pakistan at Sydney Cricket Ground on 3rd January. It was so exciting!! Unfortunately the weather was bad and the start of play was delayed until after lunch by rain (wow, just like in England), but they finished an hour later so we still got the best part of a full day.



The SCG is so big and shiny! I'd only been to Trent Bridge before, which is nice and pleasant in a way that you imagine an English cricket ground should be, but the SCG is just so different. And so huge. I'd only seen county cricket at Trent Bridge so the ground wasn't that full, but the SCG was heaving!

Pakistan bowled first and they managed to bowl out all the Australians! Which was crazy but also good because we got to see the whole team bat, although none of them for very long. Mark was excited to see Ricky Ponting bat but he ended up being out on the first ball! We bought tickets for the non-alcohol stand and there were quite a few Pakistan supporters sitting near by, so we got quite into Pakistan and did a lot of cheering!



After Australia all got out, we got to see Pakistan bat briefly, but only a couple of overs. I never realised cricket could be so exciting, and I can't wait to go again!

Sydney Festival

If you go down to Martin Place very early in the morning (like, 6am - the stall opens at 8 but you will need to get in the queue and some people camp overnight) on every day of the Festival, there are a few tickets available for every show that day for just $25. Mark decided to give this a go to see if we could get tickets for a new German production of Hamlet by Thomas Ostermeier of Schaubühne Berlin that was on at Sydney Theatre. He went to queue in Martin Place at 6.30am on a Monday morning, but this proved too late, although we did get one $25 ticket. Still, we really wanted to see it and there were a few full price tickets left for that night, so we got one of those.

And we were glad we did because it was great (there were subtitles on a screen at the top for anyone who's wondering if it's easy to understand Hamlet in German!). The pace was very fast and the whole thing was very in your face, with a set that came right out into the stalls. The guy who played Hamlet was really quite good at going mad, and his performance went from hilarious to shocking to repulsive and back again. And they had rain on stage and I'm always a fan of rain on stage.

Another play we wanted to see, and did manage to get $25 tickets for this time, was a new adaptation of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Six Characters is a metafictional play, concerning the arrival of the eponymous characters during the editing process of a documentary (in the original play it was during rehearsals for another play). They insist that they are characters looking for an author, and demand that one of the production staff step into this role. One of them eventually agrees, and they begin to play out the life stories of the characters, in the process posing many questions about the increasingly blurred boundaries between fiction and reality.

The idea is a pretty clever one and I would actually like to see the original play to see if it works better. The first half of this production was very good, but it seemed to lose its way slightly towards the end, becoming a little bit too clever and trying to incorporate various in-jokes which led to it seeming a little rambling. It was super-well acted though, particularly on the part of the Father (I didn't know the actor's name but his CV included a lot of big-name British tv drama work) and the Stepdaughter.

Last weekend, the Festival drew to a close with the Opera in the Domain. This year's offering was a production of Leonard Bernstein's Candide, which seems an odd choice for an opera, since it...well...isn't an opera. It's a musical. Still, I thought it was great and we had a fun time, although Mark was not convinced since he hates musicals (except Cabaret)!

So there we go, that's the more interesting features of January. We also had some days out at Manly and Balmoral, but other than that, just money-saving and trying to keep cool, really.





Now I shall go and spend the rest of my Sunday afternoon making scones I think.

Tonight with Trevor McDonald....

I completely need to write the blog more regularly so that when I do go to write in it I am not overwhelmed by all the many many things I need to report about.

Some things that have happened recently are:

Vintage Fair at Canterbury Racecourse - huge fair of vintage clothing, homewares, accessories etc - loads of stalls and lots of fun to look around! I fell in love with an antique pearl and silver ring but at $450 it was a bit out of my price range :(

Der müde Tod - I know I mentioned this before, but to elaborate: this was part of the Sydney Silent Film Festival, for which somehow we managed to gain free tickets for a showing of our choice. We chose Fritz Lang's 1921 film Der müde Tod, called Destiny in English-speaking world for some reason. The greatest thing about it was that it was with live musical accompaniment from a pianist, which was awesome. It's actually a really good film, really spooky and with really good special effects considering the time it was made! It's the story of a young couple, who are very happy until Death comes to take the man. The woman bargains with Death and he says that if she can save just one of three people from their fate of death she can have her lover's life back...

Opera House open day. On a Sunday of horrendous torrential rain we battled on over to the Opera House for their doors-open day, in which you can walk around the whole place - all the venues including backstage areas - for free.

We made sure we sat in all the seats we wouldn't normally be able to afford (haha) and it was good to see inside the Opera Theatre!



The Opera stage is set for the Mikado.



In the Concert Hall.

Wicked

OH MY GOODNESS Wicked was amazing!! I had to think about whether I could afford to go, but it was SO worth the money. It's such a fun story and it's fun to spot all the references to the original Wizard of Oz story (including the origins of the cowardly lion, tin man and scarecrow).



In the bar, they were serving 'Oz-mopolitans' in light-up green glasses!!! We could not resist.



Katherine and Caroline, my Wicked companions.

Melbourne Cup. Tuesday 3rd November.

Australia is properly into racing season, and the biggest event of the season is the Melbourne Cup, which is possibly also one of the biggest sporting events of the Australian calendar. At 9.30am I found myself in a betting shop, with Karl and Sally helping me to place the first proper bet of my life - $10 on a horse named C'est La Guerre. I then entered the sweep at work and got Master O'Reilley. Unfortunately, neither horse even placed! What a fail. And thus ended my short-lived gambling addiction.

That Tuesday was also an insanely hot day. It hit 37 degrees in the city and was really unbearable. It was windy and the wind was hot, exactly like standing in front of a huge fan heater, if you can imagine such a thing. This unfortunately coincided with two non-air conditioned, rush-hour trains breaking down on the Harbour Bridge and being stuck for 40 minutes. This created quite a kerfuffle with a lot of criticism of CityRail for still running the 30 year old, non-aircon trains in excessively hot weather during rush hour, as it obviously creates a health risk. There were a lot of people arguing that they should have evacuated passengers from the stuck trains. I went home on a non-aircon tin can train, not in rush hour so it was empty, and I still felt ill after 10 minutes, so I can't imagine what being stuck for 40 minutes was like.

That is all for now I think. I just went to check to see if I've been paid (I've been living on $10 since Sunday..boooo) and found my tax return had...returned!!!! AND I got $1500! Brilliant! Rich beyond my wiiiiildest dreaaaaams!!!

Scandal! Russellmania!

So last Wednesday was Russell Brand in Sydney !!! Apologies therefore if this post descends into some kind of extreme sickly feast of sycophantic adoration.



We went to the show at the Hordern Pavilion. It would have been amazing to get Enmore Theatre tickets for the previous night as the Enmore is a small theatre (whereas the Hordern is a large arena) but I think they underestimated his fame in Australia when booking that one, as it sold out in 30 minutes! Fortunately they then added the Hordern date to placate those of us who didn't realise how popular he would be!

The warm up act was an Australian duo called Merrick and Rosso...I wasn't expecting much as let's just say I've not thus far been overly impressed by Australian comedy, but they were ok, they got the crowd going and due to a late start were only on for around 15 minutes.

Then it was time for Russell! The lights went down and the show started with a series of video clips of Russell's career played over a soundtrack of Mozart's Requiem. Beginning with the footage of the MTV awards trailers where he is in a room with the elephant and asks "Am I in a dream?" followed by news clips concerning Sachsgate, old footage from when he got naked in the MayDay riots, radio show footage and his BBC resignation, end ending with the footage breaking down into just clips of various people saying "Russell Brand; Russell Brand; Russell Brand; Russell Brand", and onto the stage he marched!

You can see someone's video of the show opening (in Liverpool) here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yANkmosnDp4

I was actually shaking when he came out on to the stage! After greeting the people of Sydney he then went for a walk through the audience. He paused about 2 metres away from where Mark and I were sitting to talk to a 13 year old boy who was in the row behind.



I am amazed I even managed to take this photo, I was shaking so much and had to concentrate to catch my breath. It was like Beatlemania but with only one person (me) and Russell instead of Beatles. Russellmania!

He made his way back to the stage and I tried to take deep breaths to stop my heart pounding. Calm down, Anna, you are almost 25 years old, not 15!

The show itself was mostly concerned with the Sachsgate affair, as well as the MTV VMA backlash. He played the clip of the song he sang with Jonathan Ross onto Andrew Sach's answerphone ("not ONE person congratulated me on making that song up on the spot - I even rhymed 'menstrual' with 'consensual'!), and described his reaction to the ensuing madness.
"I had 70 people with cameras outside my house for 3 weeks. The main thing that went through my mind was: 'what does one wear to go on the news?!'"

"Now, I already think I'm quite important. So when I put on the 6 o clock news and hear 'On tonight's news: Russell Brand', I think 'yes! what have I been doing?'"

He also poked fun at comments by members of the public, who came up with such punishments as "send them both to Afghanistan" and "Russell Brand should be on the sex offenders' register".
"What, with all the paedophiles and rapists? YES. I don't wanna go on the sex offenders' register....Well...not for that!"

He also did his Bush speech from the VMAs (*audience laughs* "Yeah thanks...I wish you could have been there on the night....") and read out some of his favourite death threats. The whole show was about an hour and a half but it felt like about 10 minutes, I could listen to Russell for days on end! [And indeed I do sometimes with my iPod full of Radio2/6music podcasts!]

After the show we made our way out into the foyer where there was a crowd of people waiting to see if Russell would come out, including the usual girls in way too much make-up and way not enough clothes that make up the usual post-Russell-gig entourage it seems. And all of a sudden he appeared!! Everyone crowded him and he could barely move across the room, I stayed back a bit to see what would happen.
I think some people at the Australian shows were a bit shocked to see the way Russell acts after some of his gigs, the way he picks up girls whilst simultaneously signing autographs and getting photos with other fans. They lack the exposure to the extent of press it gets in the UK perhaps. I was very wary of getting too close to what was going on because it is part of his personality I do not like and although I accept that that is the way he is I don't really want to see it. I guess when you have basically deified someone in your mind for so many years you just don't want to be reminded of their most negative aspects. For me, his public personality is what I love about him and I feel that in his case, his private persona is probably very different and I don't want to be disappointed. I don't think that's foolish, I know what goes on, I just don't want that to be my overriding impression of him.
So anyway, I stayed towards the back whilst everyone else crushed him. He then got up onto a table and spoke to us all, and then I moved forward to get some pictures!





He said happy birthday to everyone, "whether or not it is your birthday today", and then said he was very sorry but he had to go off to a party Time Out had organised for him. Then he was whisked away by Danny, his huge security guy!
I would love to meet him but definitely in different circumstances, I would just like to say thank you to him really for making my life a slightly smilier place since...well, years ago....2002/3 I guess. It sounds stupidly gushy but he honestly has helped me through lots of stresses and sadnesses over the years. He has always given me hope that there are better people and better places out there in the world, and has just made me feel a little less alone. He is someone who's work i can always escape with.
To be honest if I did meet him I would probably spaz up, like when I met Will Self and I had spent all day thinking of brilliantly witty things to say, but when the moment came I just thrust my copy of Dorian at him and went "MYNAMEISANNA" and looked scared and forgot to blink. I would probably also never be able to meet Stephen Fry for similar reasons. Actually if I met Russell I would probably just pass out.

I am now going to give my The Young Ones DVD the full attention it deserves and then get my poop hat on ready for a visit to slumbertown.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

My GOODNESS I have neglected you so long once more, dear readers. Although I do seem to begin most blog posts now with words to this very effect, therefore they are most probably redundant as you have likely grown used to my lengthy pauses between flashes of news and ponderings.

Many events have occurred and ponderings pondered over the course of time since I last opened up the white box of blogspot entries on my laptop. I shall write what I did this weekend I suppose, since it is freshest in my lovable little memory box.

As a brief preamble: last Wednesday, we baked a macadamia, date and beer cake. So named as it contains macadamia nuts, dates and a nice cup of Hoegaarden. It is a beautifully tasty fiend. Unfortunately little remains of it now.



So. On saturday morning we pootled our way in to a garage sale. Teenagers in Tokyo, a Sydney band, were selling many of their belongings in order to shift themselves over to London and live in a house all together and make music and generally have a lovely time.

I picked up a copy of Haruki Murakami's Dance Dance Dance for the princely sum of $5, and we indulged in several of their homemade cupcakes. The sale was in the garden of a photography gallery, so we poked in that a bit, there was a Lomo shop in the gallery too. I really want a fisheye lomo a bit, but I'm not sure I'd ever really use it after the novelty wore off...



Grabbed a coffee in the cafe next door then poked in Paddington Markets. It's nice there, it's like a big version of the Glebe Markets, although more newer stuff and therefore not quite so interesting. But it made a pleasant stroll, and then we had a look in some of the Oxford Street shops, before ending up at Ampersand for salad and chai latte. Then because we saw these shoes with square toes we got obsessed with The Witches (because they have no toes which makes normal shoes uncomfortable for them) so we tried to get a copy of that.



We enjoyed the presence in Ampersand of 'Stirling Macoboy's "What SHRUB is that?"' I believe this would make a good basic concept for a new TV quiz show.

By now much of the city end of Oxford Street was becoming cordoned off and busy for the Mardi Gras parade.



We sat in the Cricketers beer garden for a while and had a few beers.





Then we escaped into Darlinghurst and found a cheap and cheerful thai restaurant for some dinner - well under $10 for vege mains but surprisingly tasty. Up the road is the Victoria Room, an amazing cocktail bar. It's how I imagine a really luxurious bar would have looked in colonial Africa or something. All opulent furnishings and indoor palms.





After some gin, we headed back down to the Mardi Gras parade. It was so amazing to watch! It's meant to be the biggest gay pride event in the world or something. There were so many floats representing so many things....drag queens, aboriginal gays, scottish gays, asian gays, big shiny corporate floats like foxtel and ANZ, high school lgbt communities, atheist gays, catholic gays, jewish gays, raelian gays ("f*** homophobic religion, love UFOs"), S&M, dancing lifeguards, sex workers unions, mature age gays (with a glittering pink triangle and the words "lest we forget" on the back of their bus), bears (bears have their own flag, aw), Amnesty International ("in 77 countries, love = prison; in 7 countries, love = death"), equality for same-sex couples campaigners, campaigners for same-sex civil unions, furries..... but mostly just a lot of happy people in a lot of glitter having a great time. There was such a brilliant atmosphere of love and acceptance there.





I love how Sydney is such a tolerant place. So different to what we are used to in the UK. It feels like somewhere where people can really accept you for how you are, like a little pocket of sense in a silly old world.

My leggy pegs ached SO MUCH after all that.

On Sunday, we found a new café in Glebe, Clipper Café, that had only been open since Friday. It was really lovable, all decorated clean and cosy, and did lovely juice and lovable sourdough toasted sandwiches. The staff were all really friendly, seemed like they were really interested in what you thought of the place and if you had any suggestions. I will definitely return.

Then I felt ill so we went home. I can't remember what I did then. I watched about 764872 episodes of House I think.

Now I am sleepsome. It is monday night, I am going to watch the end of Amores Perros then get the fast train to slumbertown.