Some photos my mama sent me...

..from our last lunch together (+ V!) the day before we left Adelaide... ahh the Vic, how I miss thee!

Aww.. I swear this is one of only a rare few family photos that exists. Thank god it was taken during the reign of "Skinny Rez"!

Me being a twat. Hey, we never see these kinds of photos!

One of the very last times I tasted champagne :(
(Oh, except that whole drunken week in Canberra...)

Random #2

How much will this fucking rule... I <3 the Coreys


After *finally* succumbing to Leah's plea's, I watched Dirty Dancing Tuesday night. I think this sums it up perfectly.


Also, recently (as in tonight where I am so overtired I am surfing the net for references like "stupid inventions" and "white ninja cartoons") I found a staggering number of Australian written blogs urging Aussies to get behind a bid to get Nikki (from UK's BB06) into the Australian Big Brother house. Why? .... SWEET JESUS WHY???
I need a lie down and a cup of Jarrah.

Time goes by.... so slowly

Who knew a week off work could suck SO much. I've been stuck in this house for almost a week now and it, of course, has to be the quietest week this house has seen in ages. Almost noone is home these days and when they do get home I grab their attention for as long as possible! It really sucks cause I'm totally fine apart from the fact that I can't actually go anywhere. Everyone is off to Wimbledon tomorrow ;(

I'm starting to walk more fluently now but after about 5 minutes on my feet I need to rest as my knee starts throbbing any longer than that. This is so frusrtating!!!

Evidence

Does this look like someone who was so out of control they would go flailing over a back door step?? Judge for yourselves!! (and if you're wondering why it looks so light, yes, it was 6:45am)

Michaela, Leah and my good self

Me and Matty James.. he dared me into a drinking contest.. he should've known better

NB: These were recovered only last night as they were never known to exist..

Can't sit down, can't stand up...

.... cause if I do I know I'm gonna break


Yes, the inevitable has finally happened. Whilst at a houseparty on Saturday night (well, Sunday morning), I tripped on a step onto wooden floors and injured myself. After walking - well, shuffling - home (it was about 40 houses down from us and I screamed the entire way) I dosed up on mersyndol and passed out until about 4pm Sunday afternoon.

After waking up feeling a bit sore and not remembering the fall, I got out of bed and proceeded to fall down, again. Thankfully Ange and Megs were home and helped me get to the bathroom. After the tears subsided Ange, our resident nurse, gave me some painkillers and put ice on my foot. She had today off and decided we'd go to A&E first thing as it's a known fact you can wait up to 4 hours for treatment. And wait we did...

After 5 hours, 3 consults and 1 x-ray it was discovered that I had badly sprained the medialcollateral ligament in my left knee and fractured the 5th metatarsel in my right foot. So, if you hadn't already figured, this meant that neither of my legs were quite suitable to walk on. Hobbling home with some dodgy bandages and crutches I am now confined to bed for a few days. Whats worse is that my new work contract began today. I am known for making good first impressions....

What have we become.. will you comfort me?

Last night was one I'll remember for quite sometime (despite the copious amounts of snakebites that were consumed). It has been a massive week for me and gigs and in the post-Foo Fighters aftermath we were gearing up for Australia v Brazil followed by Shihad at the Shebu Empire. The atmosphere was fantastic. A room chockas with Aussies and Kiwis (and unfortunately, a few stinking Brazilians), for just one of thousands of places showing the soccer, the noise we were making was fantastic! Unfortunately the boys didn't come through with the goods, but put up a damn good fight and we will be in force on Thursday when it comes down to do or die.

Anyhow, enough patriotism for now.

Before Shihad there was to be an AC/DC coverband, I'm quite partial to a bit of Acca Dacca myself so no worries there, to our surprise the 'had were actually the band, fronted by a different singer.. brilliant! Who on earth supports themselves?!

When Shihad finally came out (to thunderous applause) they fucking rocked the house down for a good 90 minutes. I had forgotten how brilliant they were live. Not two songs in and Jon Toogood disappeared from the stage.... he emerged 2 minutes.. on the balcony above our heads, straddled the ledge and continued to rock.. what a legend.




(Not the best photos, but hey, there were snakebites involved people!!)


And as for the Foo Saturday... what an adventure! We set down to Hyde Park around 1.30, met up witht he rugby girls for a birthday bash in the park and drank to our hearts content. It was a fantastic day to be in the park - about 28, there were people EVERYWHERE, even those not attending and the atmosphere was excellent (London really does come alive when the weather is worth being outside for). We pressed on in to the grounds around 5pm (as QOTSA geared up - also blowing a speaker in the throws, rock on \m/) - I cohersed the guards not to look in my bag by giving him a homemade roll.. we scored the Aussies a few brownie points that day.

After wading through 80,000 people we found a posi and began wondering how the hell we were going to hold on to all the beer previously consumed as we looked at the lines for the toilets. Festivals here just have not seemed to have caught onto the idea of having more than 5 toilets in one queue. Even in Aus our "tiny" 30,000 strong festivals have expanded their facilities in previous years as they have learnt from their mistakes! (ahem, rant over). Needless to say, there were a few 'peeing behind blankets' incidents (not naming any names, Trudi).

Foo's burst onto the stage around 9pm, just as I was making my way back through the crowd - thankfully running into both Andy and Dan, hence not being completely alone for this one-off experience. Unfortunately, I didn't see a lot of the set.. we were an excitable bunch and spent a lot of time talking and, well, being morons in general (What?! I hear you cry in disbelief). Sadly the sound on our side of the ground was dampened by the loss of the speaker earlier in the day, but they still put on a damn good show and it will be just another one of a miriad of stories I will be telling for a few more years.

Here's to rocking on to many more bands in the near future (but maybe not sharing that experience with 80,000+ people..)

P.S. Wanting to write a post Tool reflection... I'm still recovering from PTDS at the moment, it may take a while.

Slipping back into the gap again

Well... it's all over. After 3 months of waiting, our Tool odyssey finished last night in fine style (not without its ups and downs...)

4 x shows (Barcelona RZZ, Glasgow Academy, Hammersmith Apollo x 2)
4 x tshirts/2 x posters/1 x stolen security poster/1 x bottle of holy water!!!
1,220 Pounds spent all up ($3050.00 - shudder)
18 hours and 20 minutes travelling
Approx 3000km
8 days
1 missed train
1 final call
10,000,000 dreams of MJK wearing that cowboy hat .... what?!

I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.


Maynard made the HUGE mistake of remarking 'Hopefully we'll see you in November'. After we settle debts incurred this time round it'll be time to rack up a whoooole lot more.


Now what do I do?





Ok, so, he is WITHOUT cowboy hat/gun belt buckle... but he's still nice to look at

How on EARTH

.. do they think that these bands are plausible replacements???


"READING & LEEDS LINE-UP LATEST
Alas, Audioslave are out but Dashboard Confessional, Towers of London, Aiden, Fields and Duels are in!"


Towers of fucking London FFS??!


What-the fuck-ever Reading.

DOWNLOAD 2006

Well, needless to say the weekend just passed was one of the best of my life. I am still trying to work out how far we travelled and how many connections we missed (hehe - don't blame me Towsty.. my hair has to be done!!!). Despite a few ups and downs it was a fucking awesome weekend.

To be brief the highlights were Metallica capping a day at Download - an OUTSTANDING two hour set (I find myself becoming a fan more and more everyday). They decided to mark their 20 year (OMG) anniversary of Master of Puppets by playing the ENTIRE ALBUM from start to finish. To top that off they played all the classics after (which involved fireworks during One and Sandman... NOT amused Tallica).

This was followed by TooL in Glasgow the next night. We lined up for an hour to get in then stood for another hour before the show started - it couldn't have been more worth it - second row, that close to the front you could make eye contact with all of the band (I SWEAR Maynard and I had a moment!). I'll write more later but lets say when Andy caught the bottle of water Justin threw into the crowd we were transformed into screaming teenage girls (AT especially).

The only downside to the whole weekend - and it was a huge disappointment - was Korn's Jon Davis was unable to attend due to being admitted to hospital for something quite serious, apparently (well, I checked it out today and it does sound quite bad). Anyhow, the rest of the band came out, apologised, then played half an hour of Korn Karaoke with singers of other supporting bands lending a hand, but it just didn't cut the mustard. Korn are nothing without him.

More later... I'm stil recovering from the sunburn (yes, it "soared" to 28!!) and mental/emotional draining.

Jarrod I will find a way to call from the Apollo tomorrow night - promise!

***

Oh and Carls welcome to the blog world... now I'm advertising for you, you HAVE to post!

21 hours and counting

Mmmm bring on the metal goodness.

Main Stage
20:15-22:30 METALLICA
18:30-19:45 KORN
17:20-18:10 TRIVIUM
16:10-17:00 AVENGED SEVENFOLD
15:10-15:50 STONE SOUR
14:10-14:50 ALICE IN CHAINS

Snickers Stage
20:00-21:00 ALTERBRIDGE
19:00-19:40 OPETH
18:05-18:40 WITHIN TEMPTATION
17:10-17:45 SECRET MACHINES
16:20-16:50 BILLY TALENT
15:30-16:00 WICKED WISDOM
13:50-15:20 HENRY ROLLINS


And to make matters even BETTER, it's supposed to be 31 tomorrow. Oh happy days.

Naughty, naughty

Looks like I pissed little Johnny off..

Passing time, all your addictions are so sublime

Went and saw Pete Murray at the Shepherds Bush Empire last night... fucking superb. I hadn't really listened to his music until a few years ago and recently got my hands on his second album - haven't stopped listening to them since.

From the opening band (from ADELAIDE!! - yes I was one of the only people to yell out when they announced this) to Pete's last song we were treated to some brilliant Aussie sounds. The acoustics in the place were fantastic (as it was an old theatre it made the perfect place for his set to go off).

Half way through he played "Ten ft Tall", which I always loved but never really listened to the lyrics. He told the story of how the song came to be - I was nearly in tears throughout the entire song ;(

He left Lines and Bail Me Out til the end - and his tiny son ran out just as he finished up. The crowd wouldn't let that be that though and he came out to play three more songs. He finally played So Beautiful - just him, the guitar and some very soft mood lighting. At one point he went completely a cappella and it was us and him... I've got goosebumps just writing about it. God I love live music. (And Pete Murray <3)

***

So now, we sit back and wait for Saturday to roll round when we'll be train-ing it to Donington for part of the Download Festival - Deftones, AIC, KoRN and Metallica!! followed by Glasgow the next day for the second of four TooL shows (OMG).

THEN, next week TooL x 2 (@ the Apollo), Foo Fighters in Hyde Park Saturday and rock on Shebu Empire next Sunday - Shihad followed by Brazil v Aus on the big screens... fuck London is handy for the finer things in life.

X

Thanks sis!

My BSB sent me a survey which gave me a bit of a chuckle. (Note: for survey purposes I have given myself a middle name.. the name I always wanted to be called, god knows why).


YOUR EIGHT ALIASES
8 fake names that reflect your personality

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)
Cookie Fleetwood

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother last name on your mom's side, your favorite candy)
George Chico (haha IT'S CHICO TIME)

3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your middle name)
Rbre (Huh?)

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Orange Squirrel

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Breanna Brisbane (I am SO immediately changing my name)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's (or father's in this case) maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name)
Hawebbzim

7. JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's (dad's) maiden name spelled backwards)
Annaerbbbew

8. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, the automobile you drive/want)
The orange datto ("She never fails to stall just when you need rescuing")

R.I.P. (June 2004 - 6 June 2006)

She was a good friend, a faithful partner and gave me the TLC I needed. She will be sorely missed. *sniff*



(Time of death, 7:36am)

Zig Heil!

Ok, so I finished reading my Aussie World Cup guide on the train to work this morning. I've also rearranged my visit to the Reddy (booo!) to coincide with Australia taking on Brazil (thinking a nice British pub would be best so we can rub it in their faces). I get to work and they've started a sweepstakes, so, with my fingers crossed and fiver in the jar I reach in (hoping for Australia in a miracle coincidence) and pull out.... Germany (who happen to be 9:1 just below England (pffft) and Brazil).

As I said in my email... my heart says Australia but my wallet says Zig Heil!

Our first...

Summer barbecue (the last one doesn't count cause it wasn't this bloody fantastic, weather wise)

Nothin sounds finer than an 8-0-8

Tonight I'm off to see http://www.bfi.org.uk/incinemas/nft/film/6539
(And after a night in it's down to Borough Markets and Camden tomorrow).

It's times like these I am glad to be living in London.



(Edit: This doco is rockin... if it comes to a cinema near you, check it out - even if you're not a fan)

I could never, wear that sweater

Someone send me a copy of the new Joe album... I didn't even know they had released one. I can't lose touch with the Aussie music scene now!!

It's a biggun

Well, today is our 6 month anniversary of living in London. God time flies when you get old. And where is my travel whore?? In bloody Sicily.

So, to celebrate, here is a photo Vanessa hates so much...

Thank god we outgrew getting that drunk a long time ago.

Hahaha... kidding!