My Dirty Pretty Things CD arrived yesterday from Amazon. It's absolutely brilliant! I've been listening to it non stop. I loved "Bang Bang You're Dead" when it came out in the UK and all the other songs are just as good. Mr Barat is a musical genius, I tell you. Not to mention he's also pretty easy on the eye.....
Excuse my Mighty Boosh geek out, but on the subject of musical Mr Barratt's, I must share some shocking information I discoved in my internet wanderings. Apparently Noel (yes, that's right, Noel)now has a moustache. Not only that but it's also reported that Julian has shaved his off!!!
On Friday night, as is becoming the norm here in Auckland, we had a powercut. This time it was limited to about ten houses in our street. Thanks Empower. Anyway after an hour or so with no power, we all decided to head to bed. I was in my room getting ready for bed when I heard my sister saying there was someone outside in our backyard. After establishing that it wasn't any of us, everyone raced outside to confront them. Turns out there was a strange guy outside, not far from my bedroom window, sitting in a bush. My dad asked him what he was doing there, and then told him to leave our property. The guy responded saying he was just eating a burger. As he calmly strode around the deck and left via the other side of the house, my mum started swearing at him (nice one Mum) and everyone came back inside before she aggravated him further. It was all drama for the next hour or so. We shut ourselves indoors and phoned the police in case he hadn't actually left. The police soon turned up and searched our property and the neighbours in case he was still around but by then he must have taken off.
Dad speculated that he may have been here before as he seemed to know his way around our massive deck when he went to leave. Scary stuff!
So the current theories are:
a) he is some kind of peeping tom (ack!) b) he may have been just a very confused/cheeky stoner c) he was looking to burgle our house since with the power out it looked like no one was home
The postscript to this story is that while I was at Dominos picking up tea the following night, I spotted a guy come into the shop wearing a distinctive woolen sherpa hat similar to the one our prowler wore. Dum, dum, dum......
So we had a power cut today. The power was out in central Auckland for over four hours. After a few hours hanging around work in the dark trying to read magazines we finally got the okay to go home, which was all well and good. But now I am going to be behind in my work after almost getting on top of everything.
Oh joy.
Four hours to bring the power back and they still didn't get it as far as my office. Ridiculous. Everyone is harking back to the dark days of 1998 when the power was out in the CBD for 52 days. Yes that's right, 52 days.
I have a job! Woohoo! It's in TV too. After loads of interviews I finally got a job offer from my first choice this week. I will be working here entering programme promos into the system and suchlike.
I'm starting on Monday so my four week holiday/unemployment will finally be over.
Not only did Radiohead play their long awaited Hammersmith Apollo gig over the weekend that I couldn't go to because I had to come back here, but apparently the Boosh boys were there as well. Damn you Thom Yorke, why must you frustrate me so! Radiohead had better get their arses down to NZ (or at the very least Oz) sometime soon. That's all I'm saying....
In other news, the girls and I, in our efforts to get out and do something different in order to avoid the inertia/boredom that can set in living in Auckland, decided to accompany my parents (yes I know how sad this sounds) to a lovely semi-local chain pub. It was an interesting experience. I'm sure the regular patrons had never seen the likes of us rock on up there. By which I mean (and I am not being vain saying this) we were the hottest women there. So of course we got hit on about 50 million times by the best dregs of men West Auckland can offer. Those of you from the West will know exactly what I mean. You London types, just think of the American road movies with all sorts of redneck/hillbilly types in and you will sort of understand what I mean. My favourite pickup artist of the night was the bloke and his mates who tried to win us with their extremely drunken dancing then tried to talk to us but his speech was so drunken and garbled we couldn't understand a word he was saying.
It was a strange night to say the least, but we now know for sure not to go to the Cock and Bull Lynfield. I will be sticking to Auckland Central from now on.
While watching Oliver Stone's epic flop Alexander, my younger brother expressed surprise that he flaunted his interest in boys so openly. I then had to explain to my brother the concept of Greek love.... Heh.
Old Gregg has been at my parents liquor cabinet....
"Captain Cabinets/trapped in cabinets/can he get out/will he get out/course he can"
And if you don't get that, go watch the Mighty Boosh. Now!
Monday, May 08, 2006
I've just realised it's exactly two weeks since I arrived back on the fair shores of Aotearoa. Here's a breakdown of just exactly what I've achieved since I got back.
1 job offer (Boring Engineering firm so turned down of course)
1 lot of Wendys
1 pair of Converse sneakers
1 top from the House of G (still no 1 NZ shop in my heart, heh)
2 low key nights out (I forgot how expensive it is to drink in town!)
2 CDs (Whoops)
3 days of window (and actual) shopping
3 meat pies
4 interviews (am getting sick of recruitment agencies)
5 lots of takeaways
6 job applications
7 bus rides
15+ hours of Mighty Boosh viewing (Thanks again Sadie!! Daytime television sucks. And the Boosh rule!!)
24+ hours of movie viewing on Sky (As above. Thank goodness for Sky.)
Yes, as the title shows I'm back on the fair shores of Aotearoa. I said a sad farewell to London and my awesome London peeps on Sunday and after a marathon 23 hour plus flight via Malaysia I arrived back in Auckland safe and sound four days ago.
It's been great to see my family and stuff. I'm still settling back into West Auckland life but it is eery how little seems to have changed in two years. With the exception of my baby brother who has grown almost a foot since I saw him last. I am now offically the midget of the family!
My next step is to find a proper job to keep me busy. Meanwhile I have changed my blog name to more accurately reflect the current content.
I had an absolutely amazing time in London and I will really miss all my friends back there but I suppose it is now time to get myself sorted and be a proper grown up. Well as much as I will ever be. :P
Last night I finally got to go and see The Mighty Boosh Live and in the flesh at the Carling Academy Brixton! It was amazing, the guys are hilarious! I didn't stop laughing the whole time. All the main characters were in the show - Vince & Howard (of course), Naboo, Bollo, The Hitcher, The Moon, Rudy and Old Greeeeeg and they looked fantastic! Noel was gorgeous in his mirror ball suit and Howard gets down to his undies. Excellent. Also Bollo (the ape) really sounds just like Tem Morrison. I even managed to get some pics.
After the show my flatmate Sadie and I went to the offical aftershow party at Plan B just down the road. Robots in Disguise were playing (the Boosh's offical band, well sorta) and the guys were all there. Robots in Disguise played really good electro pop and Sadie and I indulged in some Boosh watching/gawking. After a bit we slowly infiltrate our way behind the VIP rope to get a better look. We ended up sitting in the exact right spot that the Boosh guys had to push past us to leave the VIP area so Sadie and I both managed to cop a feel of Noel's arse as he went past and I got Julian's thigh!! They were lovely.....*sigh* Also Naboo is really tiny, a good four or five inches shorter than me!
We also drunkenly chatted/rambled to Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossill) and Bollo's alter ego, Dave Brown. Sadie even persuaded Rich to sing the hilarious Rapper with a Baby song from his own show, Snuffbox. (Go here to watch it.)
We also took part in a group congo on the dancefloor with Noel somewhere up the front and us at the back with his girlfriend Sue (from Robots in Disguise) holding onto me! (I didnt tell her I touched his arse, probably wouldnt have gone down well)
All and all it was a fantastic night and a great way to spend one of my last nights in London. *sniff*
Last night while watching The OC, I discovered yet another reason to loathe James Blunt. He murders the memory of the beautiful Crowded House original with his cover of "Fall At Your Feet". Evil, evil little man. I also partly blame Josh Schwartz for encouraging him and playing that song on his show about fifty times.
The one of the highlights of my weekend was watching the awesome Ziggy Stardust The Movie on BBC4 on Friday. Filmed in 1973, it's touted as being Bowie's final performance as Ziggy Stardust and for a Bowie fan like me, it was brilliant.
I was subsequently struck down with Avian Death Flu on Saturday so pretty much spent the rest of the weekend tucked up in bed/on the couch, apart from Sunday night where I managed to rally myself to cook dinner for a couple of friends with help from my flatmates.
I'm still battling on but hopefully will be feeling better soon. If you dont hear from me in a while, you'll know I've succumbed.
We had our house party on Saturday which what's lots of fun. Everyone (well almost everyone) dressed up and their costumes were fab. Here are a selection of photos from the evening.
Last night I went along with my flatmate to see the excellent Ok Go. I hadn't really heard much of their stuff beforehand, except for the publicity surrounding their DIY home dancing video for "A Million Ways". Or so I thought.
We cruised along to Scala in Kings Cross, which is a pretty cool and relatively small venue. We were there early enough to catch both the support acts. The first was one guy with a ridiculously long performance name that I can't remember at all. Something Slap....Something Fish? He resembled a better looking Jamie Cullem and played much better acoustic-y pop rock. Also apparently from Essex.
The next band the Bright Space came on to dry ice and the theme from James Bond (You only Live Twice, I think). A slightly poncey start but they proved they had the goods. They were pretty impressive and rocked out the crowd. Although I swear I recognised almost all their guitar riffs from other bands but still they poached from the greats - The Cure, Radiohead etc. Also they seem to specialise in clones - their bassist was the splitting image of a young Alex James (complete with the classic casual side to side head nod) while the actor Alan Davies was on drums.
Then it was onto the main act. Ok Go came onto the Stones "Miss You" and a very groovy wallpaper slideshow. Very cool! I swear they had at least 5 different wallpaper designs from houses I have lived in as a child. Got to love that 70s design.
Anyway the band was amazing! They are very much that American Californian style peppy indie rock. They reminded me of a much happier Weezer. Really up-beat and fun. As they progressed through their excellent set, I realised I actually knew some of their songs. One song “Get Over It” I’m sure I heard on an ad somewhere. At one point, just between songs, my flatmate Liz yelled out “You’re so damn hot” quite loudly. I agreed with her that the lead singer was attractive but possibly not quite that sexy, but then as they launched into the track “You’re So Damn Hot” I realised that I had a) that song on a mix cd and b) really liked that track. So Liz and I had a good boogie to that one.
They ended the night with a rendition of their now famous “Million Ways” dance routine which is absolutely hilarious, as you can see below. Seeing them do it live was even funnier.
It was a wicked night and I am now converted. Ok Go kick ass.
For many years now you and I have had an unspoken agreement about the terms of our relationship. You indulge fairly occasionally (once or twice a month) giving me plenty of time to recover between drinking sessions while I faithfully process all toxins you feed to me.
But now I find you have broken the terms of our agreement and I must protest.
Three nights in a row of steady drinking is completely unacceptable!! I find no time to recover before you bombard me with yet more alcohol and fatty foods.
This must stop, or else I will be forced to abandon you and find work elsewhere.
