Still my favourite record

Sex Party!

I think I'm going to vote for these people in the Higgins bi-election...

Australian Sex Party


Mainly because of the following policies:

• Introduce an R and X rating for computer games
  
  
• To overturn mandatory ISP filtering of the Internet and return Internet censorship to parents and individuals.
  

• To enact national pregnancy termination laws along the same lines as divorce law — which allow for legal, no-fault and guilt-free processes for women seeking termination.

• The listing of Viagra, Cialis and other drugs used to treat sexual dysfunction, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.**

• Overturn restrictions on aid to overseas family planning organisations that reference abortion.
  
  
• Ending the tax exempt status for religions.
  

** not that I have need of these types of things... currently... ;)

iPhone blog

I've got a new iPhone! Testing out some new apps and such ;)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Piracy and Advertising

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I'm downloading a lot of TV shows because Australian TV sucks. When they DO show new content that isn't "reality" shit, they'll fuck up the programming with too many adverts and worse, delay or cut the show due to sports or reality shows!

Now, I would quite happily watch HULU with all it's advertising and such, but it's blocked here. And I'd buy from iTunes if the shows were able to be viewed on my PS3. I'd pay for them on my PS3 or Xbox, but again, the service is blocked.

But one of the biggest arguments against downloading TV shows is the loss of advertising revenue networks face.

But hang on a second.

An average person in the US will see between 600-625 adverts (potential exposures as they call them) per day from all media sources including radio, billboards and the like, with about 400 coming from TV over the 4 hour TV watching average [src] . I'm fairly certain it's similar in Australia.

That means I've seen over 4 million adverts in my life time (assuming I watched an average of 4 hours of TV since I was allowed to watch TV at age 5).

Haven't I paid enough for this content already?

Isn't it enough when people ask me what I'd like to drink at a restaurant I say "coke" without thinking*? Or I know there's a glass and a half of full cream dairy milk in cadburys? Or that Beans Means Heinz?


*this is assuming it's a "dry" restaurant... otherwise it's "beer".

It's all lies!

How many lies do you believe are true?

Got a question for you - how did Apple start?
Steve & Woz in their garage, building their first computer together is what most of you will say... LIES!

Both of them worked at HP and Atari. Both of them were involved in the formative years of those companies - Woz tried to sell his idea to HP and they didn't go for it, so Steve and Woz went out on their own. Sure, they had a garage, they also had formal training and careers in the industry long before breaking out on their own.

How about Youtube?
Two dudes who wanted to share their videos with one another in a discussion after a dinner party... LIES!

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley both cut their teeth at PayPal. In fact, Hurley was one of PayPal's first employees and helped designed its logo. He is also the son-in-law of James Clark, who founded Netscape and Silicon Graphics. A long way from college kids who did it "for kicks".

How many other stories are like this - creation myths, expounded and exaggerated and falsified to sell a story rather than to tell the truth?

I'd argue all of them.

Chris Columbus' is a long cry from looking for India from the West in order to prove the world wasn't flat amongst a mutinous crew. In actuality, he went off looking for gold to get rich so he could get favour of the Queen, and sailors of his day knew the world was round from sailing around the ocean and navigating by the stars and an astrolabe for centuries.

Of course, the greatest creation myth of all is the one found in the Bible, but that's probably unfairly called out because it was the first reproduced in book form and accessible to the 'common man', the first to be set to a specific formula and stay that way, rather than alter and change like so many spoken myths before it.

But for centuries, people have been faking this myth, making it believable by things like the Shroud of Turin or Solomon's Pomegranate.

This is why the only truth is in archeology, the only science to believe is history.

Passenger Mix Tape – DJ Woody vs Body Snatchers

I had a whole different picture of who the Body Snatchers were before getting this release. For some reason I thought they were some lame arse corporate created boy band. So seeing them on a Passenger mix with the likes of Aquasky and Baobinga & ID, mixed by one of the UK's best scratch DJs, DJ Woody, had me really intrigued. Imagine my surprise and delight when instead of a bunch of boys of questionable sexuality harmonising about love, I get a gruff UK hiphop rapping about being tough and how great women with big asses are.

Much of this album is Woody dropping Body Snatchers acapellas over Body Snatchers beats, with some freestyle raps dropped here and there, and scratching thrown in for good measure. According to the tracklisting at any rate, many of the Body Snatchers tunes have been re-worked with different vocals and I suspect given phatter baselines. Most of the mixes are great and work really well together but then again, when you mash up an acapella and instrumental from the same group, it's never quite as interesting as mashing up two completely separate styles. Regardless, the mix slams the bass hard, and the various MCs deliver sound rhymes most of the time.

There are a few rhymes here and there which might leave you scratching you head. "I used to date a girl and her name was Carla / now I've got a Brazilian and her name is Flavia" then something muttered about Shakira… doesn't sound that good on paper and is even worse in verse. However, the rapping over the awesome Monster Cash builds up with the music and is a piece of brilliance which will get your head nodding where ever you're listening to it.

One of my favourite elements of this mix is its sense of fun. A lot of people seem to be so serious in their mixes, yet this one has silly rhymes and shoutouts all the way through it. It has an old school sensibility, with many guests popping up, including BluRum13, Goldmouf, Sirplus, Ragga Twins, and the aforementioned Aquasky and Baobinga & ID. Admittedly you might not know half of these names, but a good mix CD should make you want more from the artists involved, and this album certainly has done that for me.

4 Stars

Test of word blogging

If you see this, expect more content soon J

 

How to get man back to the moon

On the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, I've figured how to get us back up there!

All it requires is one little man with a gripe against America...

Open letter to Kim Jong-Il from the adventurous people of planet Earth.


Dear Kim,

We loved you in Team America. But we do not wish to talk about your wonderful acting. We're writing to you to ask you a favour. We understand you don't like the Yanks much, and frankly, neither do we. They're fat, loud and obnoxious, preaching to everyone about how great and free they are, and yet they can't even show a boob on television without the whole country going apeshit.

We know you have rockets and nukes, but we know, as well as you do, that you wouldn't be able to fire one off before you were bombed back into the stone age. Sure, you might be able to hurt South Korea or Japan, but look what happened to them last time someone fucked with them! You can't deny either country is better off since the war, much better off the France, the UK and USA. Hell, the Japs have huge fuckoff robots everywhere!

So, as adventurous people of planet Earth, people who love adventure and want to see our race spread out amongst the stars, we ask you to direct your attention and missiles away from the pissants here, and instead look to the stars. After all, there are billions of planets out there waiting to be subverted to the communist cause! Hell, find one with the right kind of life, and you could be greeted as a God much like Chris Columbus was when he arrived in the Americas!

But that’s a little ways off, obviously. The first step should be the moon. If you get to the moon I guarantee this will completely piss off the Americans and Japanese, more so than if you bombed them. You bomb them, you’re ash. You own the moon, maybe charge people a fee for looking at it, and bam! Not only is your country rich, you can start negotiating properly with the capitalistic pigdogs on this planet.

Of course, this may create a space race, like in the 1960s and you might find the going tough. After all, the Americans do have an advantage with the quote International unquote space station spying on you as well as being a base of operations, but I’m sure that with your intelligence and demeanour you will be able to win at what ever you try.

Yours truly,

The adventurous people of planet Earth

Yay! I'm not going mad!

I live really close to a railway line.

On the occasional Sunday morning, usually when I've been hung over and still in bed, I've heard what sounded like a steam train go past my house.

It's always puzzled me. In fact, I thought I was hearing things and going mad (too much booze kills brain cells don't you know!), thinking it was a Ghost Train, because I didn't hear the chugging - just the toot of it's whistle - nor smell the coal-fire like I used to as a kid in Adelaide...

No you cunts, I'm NOT old enough to remember the times when steam train was the only form of travel!!! I'm talking about when I'd see steam engines like the Steam Ranger going to Gawler/the Barossa on the odd occasion.

Anyway, the line near my house is electric and at all other times I've only seen passenger trains go on it - not freight nor anything else, and I thought a steam engine might be too big for it, or something.

This morning, I heard the whistle, so I rushed to the door, and saw what it was - a push-pull steam train. It has an engine at both the front and back, I'm assuming so it can get up the hill to Glen Waverley. So yay, I'm not going insane. Nor is it a ghost train.

It fit perfectly under the electric wires, so obviously the government who put the wires in were intelligent enough to make them high enough. Pity the current government can't get the rail infrastructure these days though... BAM!

I looked it up online, and found out Steam Rail Victoria runs trains up to Glen Waverley every so often.

If I knew beforehand, I would have prepared a day of it! As it stands, I've got two overdue reviews to write up and very little cash left from last night's shenanigans.

But I found the also do a Snow Train Ride at the end of July for about $100 return, so might take that for a lark... who's up for it?

Hawaii was awesome!

Hawaii was absolutely beautiful and a heap of fantastic fun!

A True Tropical Paradise

I had a ball swimming, kayaking, snorkelling, and hiking all over the place.

If you've got facebook, my photos are here although they might be open to view by any and everyone...

Some wonderfully friendly Russian-American girls we met

However, if they aren't and you want to see them, try here! I've added a new and improved gallery site to my website - Gallery.FunkyJ.com

The amazing black-sand beach

So far I've put all my pictures from 2006 and up until Womad 2007 up there, although I've still got to go through and fix up the dates and meta tags for quite a lot of them.

It's interesting looking through all these... people I used to hang out with but don't any more, people who used to be friends or partnered but aren't, people who used to live in the country but moved far away, and people who used to be alive but aren't any more...

Makes me a bit homesick actually... But then I look at the pictures from Hawaii and think "fuck Adelaide for a joke..."

Five more sleeps!

Five more sleeps and I'm off to Hawaii!

I've never travelled outside of Australia so this is a first for me - and another first that would simply not exist had I still be living in Adelaide...

So fucking excited!

Travelling with a couple of mates from work and spending 3 days on Oʻahu (in Honolulu) and then 4 days on Hawai'i (the Big Island) before flying back and spending the weekend in Sydney.

I'm going to be Twittering from my phone (provided it works and doesn't cost me stacks!) and I will be taking my camera as well as my extra memory card...

It's going to be awesome!

OFLC kicks the crap out of Michael Atkinson

LOL!

OFLC kicks the crap out of Michael Atkinson

My Brute

Here's a fun little flash game for you all!

My Brute!

Type your name into the box to create a Brute, and battle against my brute for internet supremacy!

V Festival review

At first I wasn't really interested in this years V Festival. Snow Patrol and Kaiser Chiefs are ok, but not enough to spend $150 to go see.

But then Madness and Human League were added to the line up, and I bought tickets immediately! I even talked Ritters into coming over to it from Adelaide! There was no way I could miss one of the most fondly remembered bands of my youth!

We rocked up to the showgrounds around 3:30 and moved into the Virgin Mobile (Green) Stage to see Temper Trap, and try and get a spot for special guest Vanilla Ice. Yes, he's always been kind of crap, but the nostalgic appeal of seeing him was too much.

But the crush was too much, as it seemed everyone had the same idea, so we moved outside to get a drink. I saw a bit of the band Elbow and they were alright, then headed back to Vanilla Ice. I found a great spot outside near a window with a view straight onto the stage, and when Vanilla Ice jumped on stage the crowd went mental. It's obvious that he was just as wrapped being on stage as we were to see him.

We wandered over to see M83, but I only saw one tune and it's faded from memory because ran over to see Madness...

Oh My Gosh!

Beginning with One Step Beyond, the crowd went mental and they are just as crazy and silly as I remember from the videoclips. They played pretty much all their hits; Our House, My Girl, House of Fun, and concluded with Must Be Love. They also did a cover of Max Romeo's I Chased The Devil (the tune Prodigy sampled for Outa Space). Their onstage antics were fantastic; the lead singer calling for security because he saw a hippy in the crowd; the guitarist trying to climb the scaffolding and being chased by the security, and smoking and drinking on stage.

After Must Be Love the crowd thinned out with most of the kids heading off to see Kaiser Chiefs, but as I went to grab a beer, the lead singer comes back on stage and those of us remaining were treated to an encore of (the song) Madness and Slow Boat To Cairo. Most of those remaining were the older people, and things got really silly here, with people skanking arm in arm and even a konga line snaking through the crowd!

All it all it was seriously one of the best performances I've witnessed.

Ritters and I became separated at this point, she went to see all of Kaiser Chiefs and I went to get more beer... I saw most of Kaiser Chiefs and liked them a lot, but have to admit the songs I knew well were all from videogames. I snuck off to see a bit of Snow Patrol, who were a little boring to be honest.

We reunited after Kaiser Chiefs and headed to see Human League. We got in just in time for Don't You Want Me. Their set was pretty cool and very 80s - I'm surprised how much of their lyrics I remember actually - and their encore was Electric Dreams, which was, needless to say, awesome.

Then we decided to see the Killers. Then decided that was a bad idea because they actually suck, and headed off home before the crowd.

V Festival is starting to become one of my favourite Australian festivals. It has a line up that appeals to a wide range of punters. I've seen 4 bands I thought I'd never see live - Madness, Pixies, Human League and Vanilla Ice, plus some cool acts like Temper Trap, Kaiser Chiefs, Gnarls Barkley, Jarvis Cocker and The Rapture. It's not nearly as packed as Big Day Out, and the crowd seems much nicer and less fucked up than other festivals.

Grow a pair, would you?

I'm so sick of politicians lacking a decent pair of nuts these days.

I really think the Defense Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, should step down.

Personally I don't care if he's banging that chinese woman's entire family from her grandpa to her dog, he did they wrong thing (not notifying the Senate of his overseas trips) and was caught.

If he had a pair, he'd step down. After all, the government can tell him to go shove his resignation and get back to work.

That's far more noble and honest than to lie, then apologise simply because you got found out.

These career politicians have to go.

We need a system where people are voted in on their merits and skills, and not because of their Party standings.

Lily Allen – It’s Not Me It’s You

Well, hasn't our little Lily Allen grown up a bit over the past few years? Whilst her second album contains all of her venomous working class wit, and vociferous understanding of modern culture, yet it also reveals a softer, kinder Lily who's no longer completely immature and angry about absolutely everything.

The first song is Everyone's At It, where Allen rips into everyone for not paying attention to the drug culture we've created, and everyone from users to parents to politicians refusing to accept responsibility. The Fear is all about our obsession with celebrity, and mostly Allen's celebrity. Back to the Start is about mending relationships, as is He's Not There, where Allen forgives her absent father, saying such stuff as "I'm so pleased I never gave up on him, oh you wouldn't believe some of the things he did".

22 is about a girl who parties through the 20s and finds her future unpromising unless she gets a man and settles down. Who'd Have Known and Chinese are actual love songs, insomuch as she's singing about enjoying being with an individual. She's even singing about God with the song Him, wondering what he thinks of all this. All of these songs contain deep lyrics and motives suitable to a Bob Dylan type song, but are wrapped up in such amazing bubblegum pop, and I'm just not sure if it's sublime or ridiculous.

But then Allen drops her smarts with Not Fair, a whiney number about her man not being good in bed, and Never Gonna Happen about dumping a guy who just keeps hanging on. Yeah yeah, we get it; all men are pricks, whatever. And Fuck You is a happy little sing-along aimed at George Bush, who she calls evil, racist, homophobic and dumb. And whilst that may be true, she could have said it a little more intelligently.

It's Not Me It's You is a great second album, showing however unlikely, Lily Allen has staying power. If you've never liked her accent and overall vibe you're not going to really get into this either, but the music is poppy and fun, her voice still melodic yet brash, and it's just an enjoyable album.

3 Stars

More bands I've seen

I thought I better add to the list bands I've seen as my memory ain't what it used to be ;)

These are all from the last two or so years...

Bloc Party
Billy Bragg
Bjork
Cypress Hill
Devo
Dizzee Rascal
Funkoars
Good Buddha
Gorilla's Sound System
Headless Chickens
Jungle Brothers
Mark Ronson's Version
Midnight Juggernauts
Nine Inch Nails
Pendulum Live
Pharcyde
Public Enemy
Q-Tip
Rage Against The Machine
Regurgitator
Roy Ayres
Sarah Jones & the Dap Kings
Stevie Wonder
The Bamboos
The Presets
The Stranglers
UNKLE

Melbourne Earthquake

So, this earthquake occurs tonight...

but funnily enough it occurred at the exact same time as I started up a game, so I thought it was just my subwoofer being too loud and shaking the desk

The BPA – I Think We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

Norman Cook drops the Fatboy Slim moniker and presents a varied album of not-quite dance but still catchy and often fun tracks, in the guise of The BPA (Brighton Port Authority) – I Think We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat. Some of the quality dips below that of the best of Palookaville, whereas others are shining examples of Norman Cook at his bes

Without a doubt the stand out track is Toe Jam with David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal. This calypso inspired load of nonsense is Cook channelling Talking Heads incredibly well, with Dizzee's brief cameo being brilliantly placed. Other tracks which really pleased my ear were the jangly guitars on He's Frank with Iggy Pop, and the very Bloc Party sounding Local Town with Jamie T on guest vocals.

One unexpected highlight is So It Goes, a 70s inspired soul jam with gospel organs and Olly Hite's quite impressive voice belting out. Another is Seattle, an incredibly catchy pop number featuring the modestly named Emmy The Great. It's one of those songs that just gets stuck in your head for days. Jumps The Fence is the oddest song next to Toe Jam, with Connan Mockasin's strong New Zealand accent lending a further amount of surrealism to the track.

The middling songs come from Pete York on Dirty Sheets and dance DJ turned singer Ashley Beedle on Should I Stay Or Should I Blow. They're not terrible songs, but just don't have the impact of the other songs. However, Superman and Superlover are both slower tracks, and to my mind some of the weakest songs. Then again, I've never been able to get into Cagedbaby.

One of the biggest disappointments of the album is it has in clear writing on the cover the word "Lateef", yet he's not to be found anywhere on the album. Lateef saved Palookaville from complete condemnation, and his absence despite the advertising is sorely missed.

2 Stars

Stupid Survey

Survey:

1. My ex... probably still hates me...

2. Maybe I should... stop spending money on gigs!

3. I love... music.

4. People would say that I'm... better than you.

5. I don't understand why people... don't think like I do.

6. When I wake up in the morning... spend too long in the shower.

7. I lost my... lust for life.

8. Life is full of... broken dreams and unfulfilled promises... luckily none of mine!

9. My past is... full of mistakes and missed opportunities.

10. I get annoyed... often.

11. Parties are... a staple of my life.

12. I wish... I did all this 10 years earlier.

13. Dogs... are good for attracting women.

14. Cats... are selfish cunts - just like me.

15. Tomorrow... can wait.

16. I have a low tolerance... for people who can't tolerate others.

17. If I had 10 million dollars... I would get a ticket into space.

18. I'm totally terrified... I won't ever get to experience space travel.

19. My spouse... will have to be awsome.

20. I'm listening to... everything.

21. Outside... is there for the taking.

22. My car... is waiting to be bought... and for me to get a license .

23. Fish n chips... are best by the beach.

24. Music... is often the only thing worth living for.

25. I completely trust... no one.

26. I am thinking... it's late and I shouldn't be posting this crap.

27. This weekend I am... enjoying my free time. And playing videogames.

28. True love... is like the cake... a lie.

29. Down at the disco... I get my groove on.

30. Before I go to bed I... think about my friends and how much I miss them.

one word answers

OK, Maz sent me this via facebook.

Facebook allows you to import blogs as notes.

As I'm pretty lazy and rarely update my own blog, let alone have another one on facebook via the notes system, I thought I'd do that fancy-schmansy import thing.

So here it goes:

You're only allowed to post one word answers to these:

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Your significant other? nonexistant
3. Your hair? neat
4. Your mother? elsewhere
5. Your father? nonexistant
6. Your favorite thing? music
7. Your dream last night? coincidental
8. Your favorite drink? beer
9. Your dream/goal? spaceflight
10. What room you are in? computer
11. Your hobby? games
12. Your fear? celibacy
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? there
14. Where were you last night? concert
16. Muffins? occassionally
17. Wish list item? sex
18. Where you grew up? Adelaide
19. Last thing you did? crapped
20.What are you wearing? clothes
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? dead
23. Friends? fine
24. Your life? busy
25. Your mood? tired
26. Missing some one? nope
27. Car? nope
28. Something you're not wearing? watch
29. Your favorite store? online
30. Your favorite color? blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? forget
35. Who will resend this? GAF
36. One place that I go to over and over? work
37. One person who emails me regularly? spambots
38. My favorite place to eat? everywhere
39. Why you participated in this survey? bored
40. What are you doing tonight? nothing

Friends

Pippa's post about friends made me want to post this, because I've been thinking about friends a lot too lately.

I think I'm a bit lonely in Melbourne. I've noticed it's really hard to make friends here. I would call my flatmate and a few people at work "friends", and that's about it.

In Adelaide it seems I went to a few gigs, meet a few people, and then became almost life-long friends with them. In Melbourne I'm lucky to meet the same group of people twice when I'm out.

I met this girl at a wedding in Adelaide, and yes, I won't deny there was an attraction (at least one way) but we went out together the next day, and had a ball together. I met some of her work friends, and I could tell pretty much instantly that if I was back in Adelaide, these people would become my friends.

Nothing like this has happened in Melbourne except with workmates. Which is fine, I work with some great people, but it's just weird to me it's like this. It's something I didn't plan on encountering when I moved here. I expected to go out, see the same people, hang out, get friendly and become part of "the group".

Yet it hasn't happened.

It's like that episode of Seinfeld when he's talking about making friends with people when you're older.

"When you get in your 30s, it's very hard to make a new friend. Whatever the group is that you've got now, that's pretty much who you are going with. It's as if you're not interviewing, you're not looking at any new people, you're not interested in seeing any applications for new friends. The fact of the matter is they don't know the places, they don't know the food, they don't know the activities. If you're introduced to a friendly guy at a club or a gym, it's like you want to say to them: Hey look, I'm sure you're a very nice person, you seem to have a lot of potential, but I'm just not looking for friends now.

Of course when you are a kid, you can be friends with anybody. There are almost no qualifications required. If someone is standing out in front of your house now, that's good enough, You walk out say hello -and before you know it you're jumping up and down on the bed! As children you can have almost anything at all in common and its good enough for a friendship - You like coke? I like coke. Great let's be best friends!"

This, and the fact I can relate my life to an episode of Seinfeld kinda freaks me out...

Pure Bliss

I just found a great webpage all about one of my favourite Adelaide bands...



Written by the extraordinarily talented and incredibly friendly Dave McCain (aka DAMC / Techione), it details the rise and unfortunate fall of this incredible band.

On top of that, Dave's got their two eps available for download!

Website Updated

Well, as per usual I've been a little slack in keeping my website updated.

So this weekend I've gone and updated it all just for you!

I've added all my CD reviews from 2008, as well as updated the Interviews section with the work I've done for inthemix.com.au including my interview with Portishead's Geoff Barrow

Enjoy!

Top Shit of 2008

Yeah, I know it's a little late, but here are my top ten lists for 2008

Top 10 Video Games (all formats)
There are many games that maybe should be on this list, but I simply haven't played them so can't make judgement.

1. Fallout 3
2. Fifa 2009
3. Left 4 Dead
4. GTA IV
5. Saints Row 2
6. Grid
7. Fable 2
8. Civilization Revolution
9. NHL 09
10. Braid


Top 10 CDs
Again, these are CDs I've listened to / own / reviewed.

1. The Bamboos - Side Stepper
2. Baobinga & ID - Big Monster
3. CW Stoneking - Jungle Blues
4. The Heavy - Great Vengeance and Furious Fire
5. Sharon Jones & Dap Kings - 100 days, 100 nights
6. Downsyde - All City
7. Belleruche - The Express
8. Mr Scruff - Ninja Tuna
9. Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
10. DubXanne - Police in Dub

Another year been and gone!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that.

My Christmas was pretty much a debacle, again.

I wanted to have Christmas with my mum and my aunt Laurine (her real sister) and my blood cousins.

On the hour long train ride to Gawler to meet my mum, who now lives in Saddleworth, my 4 year old reliable companion, my iPod, decides to die.

As an aside I also think it was stolen from my bag at the airport - but sucks to be them for getting a broken ipod!

Going on the old train line to Gawler Central brought back a load of memories - it's one I used to be intimately familiar with - but I was amazed at the amount of change that has occurred in the last 10 years too.

On the way to Ardrossan my mum tells me my cousins won't be coming... which annoys me no end as I could have caught up with my other family instead! So I had Xmas with my mum, my aunt, and my aunt's crazy friends - all about 60 years old and with whom I had nothing in common with. They were nice people, but still, I obviously would have preferred to be elsewhere.

I stayed at mums on Xmas Day eve, and the next day she went to drive me back to Gawler so I could catch the train back to Adelaide. She had little petrol, so we did the normal thing and went to the petrol station. However, the petrol station had no petrol either, and wasn't expecting the trucks to arrive until Mid morning. And the nearest petrol station was too far away to risk driving to, because there would have been a good chance it would have been closed for the boxing day holiday...

Worse still, I had to be back in the city by midday for what I consider my REAL Xmas celebrations - the ones with my friends from school, the ones we do every year with this year being even more special as one of whom was back from the USA and another over from WA...

Luckily the one bus which runs every two days from Far North SA to Adelaide just happened to be coming at the same time in the morning - If I had chosen to go any earlier or later I would have been stuck in Saddleworth.

I got on the bus, paid $20 and arrived 2 hours later in the city, then had another half hour trip to where I was staying...

Then, when I went to Stef's house for that Xmas, the Metroticket people who I had phoned earlier to enquire about buses told me the wrong number, and I had to walk for about 20 minutes from the wrong road to the right road!

Luckily, the rest of my trip to Adelaide was fucking awesome.

Renee & Paul's wedding was splendid, and I met a really nice girl there too! We went out again after that, and had heaps of fun with her and her crazy workmates. It was weird being in Adelaide and hanging out with a bunch of people I didn't know at all, but heaps of fun at the same time.

I also cuaght up with pretty much everyone I wanted to catch up with at Summer Break - lots of people I didn't expect to be there were there. It was awesome drinking, dancing and chatting with friends there.

That's my only issue with Melbourne - I don't have a regular crew here. There's a few guys from work I hang out with, but they're not as passionate as I am about music and gigs. So I always go out by myself - which I don't mind - but sometimes it would be nice to have friends here who had the same passion for music and gigs like I did in Adelaide.