No Time To Blog

So Christmas has been and gone, and as you can imagine, I have a lot of blogging to do. We've met up with Mark and Kim, been to the races and had fun in the sunshine on Christmas and Boxing Days.

Unfortunately I haven't got time to do it at the moment (nor have I had the time to look at anyone else's blogs or my emails). In fact I may have to wait until mid-January, but we'll see. I may be able to squeeze the odd post in here and there but it's looking unlikely.

Anyway, I hope you are all having a fantastic festive season, wherever you may be.

It's all good down here.

Book Sixteen

After reading a couple of classics recently, it was time for something a little easier. I’d really enjoyed Book Eleven and had thought about giving Grisham another go, but given the fact he has written so many books I didn’t know which one to go for. Luckily Martin had recommended this one with such enthusiasm it would have been rude to ignore it. My decision was made. And he was right. This book is a cracker.




















So some guy fakes his own death, run’s off with his company’s cash and goes on the run. His past catches up with him and his story unfolds. It’s a page turner with a sting in the tail.

It’s back to the classics for Book Seventeen. I was going to lay off them for a bit but Mike recommended it to me, and he has just finished reading it for the third time, so it must be good!

Mike and Ella Are Here!

Well, they were here but they have just gone off to the Blue Mountains and maybe the Hunter Valley for a few days. They are due back on Friday, in time for mass celebrations across Sydney when just about everyone we have met here, including H and I, breaks up for a two week holiday.

We’ve been on the go since they arrived and as a result, we haven’t had much sleep. But it’s all good and fantastic seeing them again. I met them both at the airport early Saturday morning and we have spent the last few days watching the cricket, going to the beach, drinking beer, shopping at Warringah Mall (we got that one out the way nice and early), introducing friends and saying goodbye to Will who heads back to the UK for a couple of weeks this evening. Given the fact that Christmas is nearly here we are pretty under prepared. Mike and Ella left a Turkey breast, some pigs and blankets in the freezer before they left and I've stocked up on the Coopers but we'll have to get lots more. I think a trip to the Fish Market on Christmas Eve is on the cards. Our balcony is covered with rather nice fairy lights though, expertly put up by H and Ella as Mike and I reverted back to our finest Australian accents, lay on the sofa and watched the cricket.

As far as Christmas is concerned, I think it will involve a early morning swim and surf followed by a nice lunch and then an afternoon on the beach with the North Shore crew. Swimming, surfing, beach cricket will be the order of the day but those of you back in Blighty will be pleased to hear that the weather forecast isn't the best, with only 21 degrees forecast. Anyway, the suggested plan is to spend the evening at a friends (Martin's) house in Neutral bay where we are going for a BBQ and karaoke!! The Sydney to Hobart yacht race kicks off on Boxing Day and I think we are all going to go to the North Head to watch it.

I’ve also got a little trip to Brisbane tomorrow. There’s a work Xmas do going on up there and I’m being flown up with the Velocity Account team – BBQ and Bare Foot Bowls. I don't think my IT team are too happy about me going but I'm not going to say no to a day out the office, in the sun, eating, drinking and playing bowls in the middle of Brisbane.

And on Saturday we are all heading to a day at the races.

There is also talk of kayaking and going to the Opera House over the next couple of weeks. And that’s not forgetting H’s 29th Birthday, New Years Eve in Sydney Harbour, the 'Field Day' festival on New Years Day and the Ashes, to which Mike, Chewie and I are going, even though it’s a done deal.

With Mike and Ella here, Mark and Kim arriving in Sydney today, and the Wichards at the end of the month, it is going to be a very busy, but brilliant, couple of weeks. It also seems that most of our Sydney friends have friends of their own from the UK coming to visit.

We’ve both been looking forward to this time for so long. I can’t believe it has already come around.

Noel Gallagher and Gem from Oasis

This post of for Andy Pennington, and old Uni friend - in fact, the only one I am still in contact with.

Last night H and I went to see Noel and Gem from Oasis, with seven other mates, at the excellent Enmore Theatre here is Sydney.

I’ve always been able to get the tickets I have wanted for all the gigs I have been interested in, but this one proved the most problematic. By that I mean it took me about twenty minutes to get into the website and get them, as opposed to the first few seconds after a release date and time. Anyway, the system went into melt down but it all came good in the end.

Andy P had been reliably informing me about this little tour of Noel and Gem’s, how amazing it was, what the set list was and how lucky I was (and jealous he was) that I got tickets. I’ve always liked Oasis but have only seen them once before, at Knebworth 10 years ago.

So I was really looking forward to this semi-acoustic gig. The thing about Oasis though is that they attract a lot of scumbags. I have seen one chav in all my time in Sydney (and that was at the football). Last night I saw three. But you can tell that most of the mainly male, Henry Lloyd, Hackett, Le Cock Sportiff, Elizabeth Duke, Polo shirt with-collar-turned-up wearing brigade had made a special effort and drank their way through a fair few schooners of the old wife-beater before, and during, the gig.

Noel and Gem took the stage without any airs and graces and just got on with the music for an hour and a quarter. Noel seemed to spend most of the time staring at his feet, and when he did speak to the crowd, it was more of a mumble into the microphone. Anyway, it was an amazing gig to be at. But for some reason most people seemed to want to talk all the way through. They’d no doubt tell their mates back home that is was the best thing since glassing their bird in some hell hole boozer back in scummersdale, when in actual fact they probably didn’t hear any of the gig, let alone remember what songs were played. I think there would have been a lot more worthy people out there who would’ve enjoyed the experience for what it was (like Andy P, but he is back in Blighty where tickets for this tour were non-existent). After all, it’s not like Noel is likely to do this tour again.

Anyway, I am quite good at zoning out when there’s lots of stuff going on around me. It’s a bit like being in a cinema when people talk, answer their phone or rustle sweet wrappers. Tossers.

The set list was ace. It included beauties like' Cast No Shadow', 'Half The World Away ', 'Talk Tonight', 'Wonderwall', 'Talk Tonight', 'Whatever', 'Strawberry Fields', 'Don’t Look Back In Anger' (which, rather surprisingly, got the biggest reaction of the night) and 'Married With Children'. But for me, the deal clincher was a stunning acoustic version of my most favourite Oasis song in the world ever (closely followed by 'Columbia' and 'Take Me Away') – 'Slide Away'. I have caught all but the very first ten seconds of the song on these two videos (here and here). And I guess I should apologise for all the people walking in the way, the people around me who were chatting, and for my very bad singing, which I'm afraid you can hear on some of these videos.

Our friends seemed to enjoy the gig. Well, kind of. Four of them had to put up with a lary seven-piece Irish tribute band singing badly, and pouring beer everywhere, behind them. Nice!

Robbie Williams

On Saturday night I went to see Robbie Williams on his Close Encounters tour at Aussie Stadium.

It was, and he was, excellent, and at $150 a ticket, you'd expect nothing less. Except we all know Robbie has had his issues and I was really hoping he would be on form for the gig rather than just turn up and go through the motions. Thankfully he was.

H didn't want to see Robbie. I'd always wanted too but didn't fancy going on my own. Luckily a friend of ours, Anna, had bought 8 tickets which were snapped up immediately. I asked her if I could have first dibs if anyone decided to drop out and luckily someone did. My place with six girls and one other guy was aussured. I was hoping that would be the equivalent ratio in the stadium. Alas not. There were probably just as many blokes as shiela's. Maybe they were gay, or just have always found Robbie quite entertaining. My mate Katie reckons that blokes go to that kind of gig to pull. I'm not entirely sure how when every girl in there, for those two hours, had their eyes on one man only.

Anyway, H came into town with me and the others for a pre-gig drink at The Opera Bar before heading off to Bondi to see Will. Those of us that went to the gig arrived during the support set from the Sneaky Sound System (Whoooooooooo?). We had pretty decent seats with a side view of the stage.

Support acts always seem to suffer when 50k people have very little interest in seeing them and this lot were no different, although they are quite big here. As you can imagine, the sense of excitement in the stadium grew as we approached 8.30pm and before we knew it, the Close Encounters (Of The Third Kind) music began and Robbie appeared from underneath the stage. The first thing thought sprang to my mind was how he reminded me of Willy Wonka.

The show got off to a flyer and the crowd were well up for it. It was the first gig I have been too where everyone, and I mean everyone, was either waving, jumping, clapping, screaming, shouting. Whether in the seats, like us, or standing, everyone was up for a good time and Robbie ensured that we had one. Mind you, he seemed to spend most of is time playing up to the many cameras that followed him round, which broadcast his winks, cheeky grins and other Robbie-isms onto the giant screams for the crowd. Everyone lapped it up.

There were a couple of cool bits in the show, like this, which was when he cut the lights and then asked everyone to take a photo at the same time. This was also quite funny. He liked to take time out and chat to the crowd (a sure sign he was having a good time). And this bit was nice and loud. However, it was a shame he had to get his best-mate, Jonathan Wilkes (Whoooooooooo?), onto the stage for a couple of songs. I think most of the stadium found this the perfect time to buy more beer or make space for more.

Mind you, it was nice that Rich Swatton from Hope FC also put in an appearance.....

Robbie played a great set, including 'Rock DJ', 'Millenium', 'Come Undone', 'Back For Good', 'Feel', 'Let Me Entertain You' and of course 'Angels'. Thankfully he didn't finish with that though. 'Kids' had that honour. It was a very good night's entertainment.

So I expect I have set myself up here for a Shane Warne style sledging so come on then.....

Book Fifteen

Faster than Pob can shout "Yes Shane!" or "Bowling Warney!" during a spectacular second innings collapse, I give you Book Fifteen.






















It’s supposed to be about Stalin. I thought it was about animals taking over a farm.

Either way, it’s a beauty of a book. It reminded me a lot of 1984 (but I thought it was even better), most probably because of the style of writing, but also because it seemed to tell a similar tale. Winston could have easily been any one of the animals that weren’t a pig, dog or sheep, with Big Brother Nasty Napoleon and his Inner Party comrades ruling the show with iron trotters.

Having learnt my lesson from 1984, I avoided reading the Introduction until I’d finished the story. I’m glad I did because once again, it would’ve told me what happens in the story before the story even starts. I don’t know why publishers do this with classics. I think they think the Introduction is as important as the book. I don’t. Either way, it didn’t really interest me (I found the Introduction to 1984 was quite interesting though but I guess I have had my fill of them now). I have never been into history or politics even if it is what inspired the book. Maybe it reminded me too much of A’ Level English Literature with GCSE History thrown into the mix.

I guess I should avoid reading the Introductions altogether, but then I wouldn’t feel like I’ve actually finished the book.

I did find the “Notes On The Text” section quite interesting though, and the two Appendices which were actually written by Orwell himself, which gave his own reasons for writing the book.

Book Fourteen

So it was back to Mr Elton for Book Fourteen.




















Given the following;

1) My enthusiasm for the three books of his that I have already read (two of which have formed part of this read-a-thon - Books Seven and Ten), and,
2) My enthusiasm for Pop Idol / Pop Stars / X-Factor / Australian Idol and all things “real” in TV

I thought I’d have go at this book, especially as it has only just been released over here and was hot off the shelf, just as the series of ‘Australian Idol’ was coming to a spectacular climax at the Opera House (with fantastic fireworks that we could see from our friends place in Neutral Bay). In fact as I neared the end of Book Thirteen, which was pretty hard going, I was really looking forward to cracking on with Book Fourteen, which was sure to be a lot more light-hearted.

Unfortunately I thought this book was quite disappointing. In fact, I formed this opinion no more than 29 pages in (and there are 427) when the most ridiculous story line was hatched, and that opinion stuck with me most of the way through. I won’t explain what it was, just in case someone out there happens across this post, who is actually reading it, but if you are intrigued as to what annoyed me just pop into your local WH Smiths and read pages 28-29. You can then guess what happens from there.

Sure there were some good bits in the book and his character assassination of the Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell-alike’s was quite amusing, but I just thought the story was too predictable and I found myself getting bored.

Still, I stuck with it and added another notch on the ever-expanding converted wardrobe come bookshelf we have here in Manly-ville.

It’s back to the ‘Classics’ shelf for Book Fifteen.

And I am trying to avoid “So You Think You Can Dance” like the plague.