CD launches, the Garden and Womad

crowd
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Cripes, it's been a while. And heaps has been happening. I hate it when this happens... I don't write as often as I should, as I get slack and can't be bothered going it, but the longer I leave it, the more I have to write, so it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Ah well. :) Here we go.

So 2 Saturday's ago I went to a friends cd launch, LeighStarDust, at the Jade Monkey (she is a totally awesome musician and is in my top friends so you should check her out). She had a band with her on the night (she usually plays solo) and it totally rocked the place down. It was awesome!! The cd we all went to buy had unfortunately been delayed, so we all had to write down our addresses and I was assured the other night that they will be on their way soon.

Last week the Fringe Festival opened. I had to work that night, but was able to leave a tad early to get to the festivities and have a big ol party with Alice and co. The Garden was absolutely packed, but there were so many people that we knew it didn't matter too much. I got to see some friends from school I hadn't seen in years, so that was good. Although knowing so many people there did have a drawback - it took around an hour to actually get out of there to get home, as we kept seeing friends we had to say 'Hi' to. Ah well, if that's the only thing to complain about, things are pretty good.

The on the weekend Womadelaide was on, which for those who don't know, is a world wide music organisation that puts on concerts all around the world, including here for a weekend in Adelaide. It's amazing, and it's the only one in Australia, and the biggest one in the southern hemisphere. There were bands from remote tribes in Africa, from Spain, from Ireland, but the standout for me would have to be Huun-Huur Tu from Tuva/Russia. They do what is called throat singing, and it really is something you have to see to believe. They are able to sing in up to 3 different voices at the same time, doing different melodies and harmonies. It's incredible. And to see them at 11pm on the final night in the Botanic Gardens with eerie shadows being cast by the trees, well, yeah, I can't accurately how spiritual it felt. Just awesome.

Last night we had Alice's brothers and sister over for a lovely bbq dinner cooked by yours truly, and it went down quite well, even if I do say so myself. We went to the Garden afterwards, but we were quite tired so we didn't stay too long.

Now onto my health... Things aren't bad by any means, but they aren't going tip top just at the moment. I ran out of Ventolin a few days ago, so the other inhaled meds I'm taking aren't working as well as they should be, hence my lungs are a bit clogged up. Also, since I'm not doing much exercise, that certainly isn't helping. I think I have clinic next week, so let's hope that goes well enough to keep me out for another 2 months.

I think that's it... I have quite a few more pics on my flickr site, so have a looksee.

Rating: 6.2

What I'm listening to: Robert Johnson

It's my birthday!!

my present from alice
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Ahhhhh, the soothing sounds of an air conditioner. How sweet it is!! I sit here on my bed, on my birthday, watching Blue Heelers, 33 degrees outside and very happy that I decided last night to go out and buy an air con. Yes, it is a bit of money, but I couldn’t stand one more night of not being able to sleep properly. It sucks. But now it’s all good! ☺

Lots has been going on, so let’s see if I can recall all of it. I’ll start from Saturday the 10th.

I may have mentioned, I may have not, but I’ve started playing guitar with my friend Holly, who goes by the stage name Cookie Baker. Very nice stuff indeed. So for the last month or so, we’ve been doing some stuff together, including some gigs. On Saturday the 10th we were supporting an Adelaide girl called Emily Smart at Jive. It was an awesome gig! There were heaps of people, and even though they weren’t there for us, that made it quite a bit easier to play and have fun. We didn’t have a too big night because we needed to be at the Festival Centre at 10:30am the next morning for another gig.

On Sundays the Festival Centre has markets going all day, which those of you who live here should definitely check out. Really good things to buy, and all locally produced. So we played on the stage there for a couple of hours, and again, it was really great. Totally different though to the previous night. There were heaps of kids running around, and due to the high pitch of Holly’s voice, all the little girls were instantly drawn to her. There was a girl who was mentally disabled who walked up to the stage just to put her hands on the foldback speakers to feel the vibrations. It was amazing.

The following Wednesday we were supporting a Canadian girl called Ann Vriend at the Grace Emily. Again, the gig was so much fun (can you see a trend here?) and Ann was totally awesome. We had a bit of a drink afterwards with her and hung out till about 2.

The next night there was a gig on at The Archer, which was again going to be completely different to the last few we’d done. There were going to be quite a few different acts on, but luckily they were all pretty much friends of ours, so it was just like one big giant party. I had to work, so I actually missed a few of them playing, but got there around 10 to see Luke Ashby play, who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Really good stuff. It was a really short set, only about 6 songs, but for the first time I played the whole set on guitar, even playing a song that we had never done before. Was pretty fun!

On the weekend we had a wedding at McLaren Vale. Would normally be great, except that it was 40 degrees for both Saturday and Sunday. Ugh. It was a couple degrees cooler up there, but not a whole lot. The wedding itself was really nice, short, sweet, and in the gardens of a winery, so perfect setting. The reception was at the same place, so everyone just hung around, drank heaps, ate heaps, and had a merry old time. We decided around 11pm to go to Port Willunga, but we had to go to Coriole first to get the rest of our stuff. The other car went down and we said we’d meet them there. Can you believe that we drove around for 45 mins trying to find Port Willy?? I couldn’t believe it. It was nowhere to be found. Even the locals couldn’t tell us how to get there. So we got all pissed off and decided to drive back to Adelaide. It was still sooo warm – around 30 degrees at 1 in the morning – so we went to bed feeling quite unfulfilled. Never mind.

And now today I woke up to the lovely Alice brandishing a HUGE present wrapped up for me. I had no idea what it was, but I unwrapped it to see a friggen fantastic painting of us, done by her friend Tahlia. Seriously, it is so good. I’ve taken a pic and added it to my flickr site so have a looksee.

Going out to dinner tonight with mum, Dana and Alice to Rose Garden, which is a Thai restaurant. The best one in Adelaide! And then on Thurs night Holly and I are playing again at the Gilbert St Hotel, so if you’re not doing anything come along. It’s sure to be a great night.

Lungs are still going quite strong. No real change since last time, which I'm definitely not complaining about. I have a clinic in another couple of weeks so here’s hoping that all goes smoothly.

Rating: 7.1

What I’m listening to: Cookie Baker (for obvious reasons)

Exhibitions, concerts, surgeries and Germans

group
Originally uploaded by jaanus83.

Wow, so much has gone on. Where do I begin?

I'll start with Janka. When I was in London, I caught up with a cf girl from Germany (Janka). I had been in contact with her through a cf forum and we thought it would be kinda dandy to meet up in London. We did, and I kept telling her that she had to come back to Oz (she was here a couple years ago) but to make sure to see more of Adelaide, which she pretty much skipped last time.

So, over a year later, she tells me she's coming back and coming straight to Adelaide. Pretty nifty. So I picked her up from the airport last Wednesday, and brought her back to the Fortress. Just today she found out that she's moving into a house in St Peters, so that's pretty cool. But I'm not too sure what her full-term plans are. I guess if she likes it here she'll stay till the end of her 3 month visa, but if she gets bored, nothing's to stop her from going east or somewhere else. But for the moment she's planning to stay, so for those who haven't already met her, you will no doubt soon. She also has a blog, and it's on my links section, so have a squizz. She's cool.

Alice had a few exhibitions last week also. There were two on Thursday night, but I only went to one of them, at Urban Cow, which was fantastic! There were heaps of people there, and some brilliant art from Adelaide's finest up and coming jewellers. After the opening we all went down to the Exeter to have a drink or 3. There was quite a few of us, and it was a great night out. My friend Ben who's been living in Montreal the past 2 years was in town, so it was kinda a celebratory drink before he headed back on Saturday.

Then on Friday Alice had another exhibition at Fad. Unfortunately I wasn't able to go because of the Big Day Out. Wasn't too bad, but it was so hot, and there were so many school kids running around. Good for people watching though.

I left the BDO in the afternoon to meet up with Brian Ritchie (bass player of the Violent Femmes) to get an early dinner. We went with John Sparrow (another member of the band) to a friggen awesome Argetinian steak place in Gouger St. Brian was nice enough to treat me to the nicest steak I have ever had in my life. I will have to try to save up the pennies to eat there again. Sooo good!!

After dinner, I went back to the BDO to see the end of Muse, the start of TOOL and then wander over to see the Femmes. Muse were pretty good. But because we weren't in the mosh, the sound wasn't that great, so TOOL sounded quite washed out and weak. Quite annoying really... but the Femems totally rocked the place down (as always).

Saturday Pete rang me to ask if I'd seen the news. Remember that Qantas flight that exploded after take off? Well, not quite. But an engine did catch fire, and it had to dump a whole lot of fuel over the ocean before attempting to land back in Sydney. Anyhoo, Pete rang to see if I'd heard about it, because that was the flight Ben was on. We joked how he was probably asleep and didn't even know what happened. How right we were... after the numerous emails we sent to him asking if he was still alive, he replied back with how he didn't even know what had happened, since he fell asleep, and was finding out on google in the airport. Quite funny.

That night another friend Becky was having a housewarming party thingy at her new pad, and it was bling themed. We did our best to bling it up (by donning bling necklaces) and went alot. It's a totally awesome house, but we were all completely buggered, so Alice, Janka and I left only after a couple of hours and went to bed.

Now onto poor Muffin... Last week, we noticed that he had a little scab on his back. Our neighbour John told us that he had seen a white cat and Muffin have a little 'disagreement'. Knowing Muffin, he was prob sleeping on John's verandah, minding his own business, and whitey came along and took a chunk out of his back. Stupid thing... Anyhoo, we didn't think much of it and left it to heal on it's own.

After a few days it had festered into this absis thing, so we thought he better get looked at. The vet took a look, squeezed a pint of puss out of it - much to the displeasure of Muffin - and said it needed to be operated on. Ugh... so much money. But being the good parents we are, we got him knocked out, cut up, and stitched back up like a damaged hand bag.

It doesn't end there - after a few days of him acting like a good little boy, I saw him on Monday morning licking frantically at his wound. By the time I got up to see what was going on, I saw him eating out the last of his stitches like it was his final meal on Earth. So now he had his wound all opened up and bloodied. Charming. I took him back to the vet who said he needed to be put under again to have it cleaned out and stitched back up. More money.

This time however they were kind enough to give me a cone to put on his head. Poor thing... he's not a happy chappy. But I keep telling him it's for his own good, so he's just gonna have to like it or lump it. The world can be a cruel place sometimes... especially when you have us as parents. :)

Lungs are going alright - not getting any worse, and not getting much better. But their above average, which means that I'm at a stable 'good'. I still need to up the exercise, but I've been walking a little bit every day, so I'll take that. Need to do more though...

I've put some new pics up, so have a looksee. They're fun.

This Saturday night I'm playing a few songs again with Cookie Baker at Emily Smart's cd launch at Jive. So if you aren't doing anything, come on down. It will be a great night. And then on the Sunday morning, we are playing at the Festival Centre markets thing, on the outdoors stage. The weather so far looks like it'll be a pearler, so forget your hangovers from Saturday night shenanigans and come down for some delicious tunes. :)

Rating: 7.4

What I'm listening to: Brian Ritchie - Taimu

Victor Harbour, sunshine and gigs!

So I've been away yet again. First it was Yorkes, then it was Yorkes again, and then this week we went to Victor Harbour. After having to drive to Yorkes twice in a week, the hour drive to Victor was nothing! So much so that I even went back to Adelaide to pick up fishing rods (and Holly). But the rods were the priority... ;)

I got up there Sunday afternoon, and we had a lovely fondue dinner with Peter, Trudy, Maestro and Stickers. Good times. Then on Monday Dan and Magda came down for a night. We all had fun walking around the town and going to op shops. I found a lovely beanie which I can't wait for winter to crank it out. Alice (as usual) found an array of stuff that she'll prob never use... but it's fun nevertheless.

On the Tuesday morning we got up around 6am to go down to the jetty to do a spot of fishing. It was fantatsic! You would literally throw your line in and the fish would be biting at it straight away. Only problem was since they were so small, you wouldn't actually be able to hook them. They just had a great free feed. Bastards... Then that night I went fishing again, but didn't even get a nibble. There was a seal that was swimming around and eating all the fish. But that's alright - he made up for me not catching anything, and I was quite content to just stand there and watch him (I decided he was a boy).

Wednesday we went for a walk around Granite Island, which brough back lots of memories from the cf camps I went on when I was little... ahh, good times. Then we came back home and went to Peter's for a lovely webber bbq as Ben was back from Montreal for a couple of weeks. We went for a walk to the oval nearby and saw the comet that everyone has been raving about. Pretty neat.

Then tonight Holly (aka Cookie Baker) had a gig at the Gilbert St Hotel, and as a little something extra, I played 6 songs with her on guitar. Twas awesome fun!! I think this may be a semi regular thing, so I'll keep all you up to date on how that goes, and if it continues, you'll just have to come and see me rockin' out!

I think that's about it at the moment. Back to work this weekend. I need some money, so that'll be good. And it's always a little easier going back after having some time off. Health isn't the best right now - but that's because I ran out of some meds last week, and being as slack as I am, I didn't do too much physio when we were at Victor. But I've loaded up on drugs now, and I'm back home, so there's no more excuses!

Right - it's 2.13am and I'm knackered. Time for bed. I'm not cut out for this rock 'n' roll lifestyle...

Rating: 6.2

What I'm listening to: Cookie Baker