Rock steady

Get in!!! Got into work early this morning and managed to secure 2 tickets to see Bloc Party in Birmingham on 10 February. We are going to make a weekend of it and check out the fair city. Now if only February was next week...

So another week is almost done. Thank goodness I say, I'm tired! The plan for this weekend is pretty simple - having dinner with Pointi and maybe Sian tonight. Tomorrow James is meeting me in town as he is cashing in a birthday voucher I gave him (will explain more shortly) and then we may go to a place in Covent Garden for dinner called Fire and Stone - you basically pick your meal - whether it be Asian, Australasian, Italian - or whatever you fancy - and then they put it on a pizza! The Sydney one sounds superb.

I gave James a few things for his birthday the other week;

• A Mr Men story I made up about how we met, had it colour printed and bound.
• A jumper from one of his fav. shops in Soho - Jakes
• A voucher for a day of record shopping with me - and I will shout him a few choice items, in the fine print of the voucher it insists 7 Magners must be consumed throughout the day so I'd say it should be a fun filled one! Will report in on Monday!

Sunday we are planning a roast lunch in one of the lovely pubs around town with the fast diminishing crew, trust everyone to start heading home as the cold kicks in! Where's the love??? I will battle on and report in unless my fingers freeze off and I can no longer type. If this happens I will simply phone.

Have a fun weekend everyone!

Ren xxx

Just another one of those Bloc rocking beats

There are good nights out, and then there a GOOD nights out. Saturday night was a GOOD night out. It was Carmel’s birthday on Saturday and so after a few drinks at our flat we (Carmel, Pointi, James, Robbie, Sian) all headed into town to go to The End (where we met Jade, Kat, Josie and Kat’s friend) for the Bugged Out! birthday. We had to get there early (before 10pm when the club opens) due to the popularity of the night and the line up which was as follows;

Main Room: Miss Kittin, Uffie (live) & DJ Feadz, JoJo De Freq, Brendan Long
Lounge: Erol Alkan, James Priestley, Siesta Fernandez DJs (Razzmatazz Barcelona)
AKA: Ditched Disco feat. Bones & Ramsey and special guest

The club filled up quickly and as we were lining up for second drinks the line at the bar was 4 or 5 deep. James suggested moving to an area where we might get served a little more quickly so we did and not only did we find Pointi there, but a few people over, low and behold it was Russell from the almighty and my beloved Bloc Party!!!!!!! I went over and spoke to him and can you believe he remembers signing my bass guitar in Melbourne when they performed on, ‘that funny TV show’, as he recalls Rove Live. Pointi very kindly took our pic - see below. I still can’t believe I was so brazen to go up and just say ‘Russell, hi…’ and so forth. But very glad I did!!! I told him quickly about my Bloc Party adventure last year my travels thus far – he liked Australia and said he wants to go back for a holiday. He was lovely for letting me indulge in the moment.

So as if that wasn’t enough to make it a magnificent eve – I got to spend the next 7 or so hours with some cracking friends, celebrating Carm’s birthday, having many a laugh, dancing to Miss Kittin & Erol Alkan, and having brilliant chats and playing fashion and beverage police in the AKA bar with James. We all got the bus home at about 6.30am the next morning – terribly unglamorous mode of transport at that time of the morning, but at only 80p and a bus stop over the road from the flat, we no complain.

Yesterday was spent sleeping, awake for a bit, more sleeping, bangers & mash, resting and then waving James off at the bus stop in my slippers.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend xox

Aye - Scotland is chuffing marvellous

This time last week James and I were off our on four day weekend in Scotland – it may only be distant memories now but the memories are coated in gold. Had the most amazing time...

Friday

I was rudely awoken at the ridiculous hour of 4.45am and thought it was just a warning alarm going off – and that the real one would come later. I muttered ‘This can’t be right’ and James ‘Mr switched on even in his sleep’ F-M, mutters back ‘It’s certainly not wrong’, then my brain ticked over with a ‘Hoi hoi – you’re off to Scotland today’ and somehow I managed to get into the shower and proceed to get ready. After dodging the most disgusting spew I have ever seen in my life (On the bottom door step down at street level. It was bright red…) we hopped in the mini-cab and headed to Heathrow airport. Strange as it may seem, I have never been to any London airports as I arrived by ferry from Amsterdam! So you can imagine I was pretty excited to see the Big H. It was just like any other bloody airport though.

After checking my monstrous pack in (I think it weighed more than when I came over from Australia! It was strictly luxury packing incl. 3 pairs of boots) we devoured HUGE bacon sandwiches for breakfast and felt slightly ill afterwards and then waited for our BMI (baby) flight. The flight went off without a hitch and 55 minutes later we were at Glasgow National Airport. We caught the bus to the centre of town and hopped off near where we thought our hotel would be. Heh. It wasn’t really. We had a lovely day trudging around with our luggage, being led up primrose paths by the world’s WORST map! But we softened the blow by stopping in for the occasional drink (in two of the most amazing pubs!) and was a little delirious by the time we finally found our Travel Inn.

The first pub we stopped in was called The Counting House which was a huge old pub with an old glass dome roof – all beautiful detailed. The second pub was very rock and roll – old but marvellous - with a huge stack of CDs against a great hotch potch hi-fi system, semi-circle seating around cool tables and a huge fish tank. I want to live in there. Only drawback was a flashback to Trainspotting when I visited the female toilets – could very well be crowned ‘The Worst Toilet in Scotland’. They obviously don’t have a huge female clientele so it can definitely be excused – and the rest of the pub makes up for it 3,987 fold.

So anyway back to the story. We found our hotel and were so shattered that we got a quick afternoon kip in and then after a very hot bath to wake up got dolled up and headed to James’ favourite curry house for dinner – Ashtons I think it was called (please forgive me if I got it wrong precious!!!) It was amazing, who know curry could get better than it already was? Bleeding marvellous! The garlic naan was the icing on the hot and spicy cake. I’ve never seen or tasted anything like it – sooooo good! After this we went for a drink at Brel and met one of James’ v. cool mates – Claire! She is great and was wearing the same grey H&M dress I have which gave her automatic brownie points!!! After Brel we headed to ‘Sleazys’ which is a great bar and was right near our hotel – nice and handy to stumble back to. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, we were absolutely knackered!

Saturday

Got up around 9am and off we trudged to Queen St Station where we caught a train to Edinburgh. The journey was peaceful and we got to take in a lot of countryside views – rolling hills, sheep, cattle etc. Oh it was so good to see some colour after the grey of London! The train only takes about an hour so we arrived fairly early and started pounding the pavement straight away! Straight into Avalanche for some tune shopping and then around the wide, windy streets we went. Edinburgh is amazing! You look down a side street and there is the castle staring back at you in all it’s glory! Stunning.

We wandered the streets and headed into this very strange children’s museum – filled with toys and dolls from many years ago. Woah the dolls were terrifying!!!! But a good source of amusement! After this we ventured across town and into Armstrongs which is a HUGE vintage shop – I could have fainted once we stepped inside! There are 3 rooms full of clothes – and the most beautiful 60s and 70s dresses!!! I got a really cool 60s long sleeve green and white dress that fits perfectly for £14 – stoked! We continued on our merry way and found a tres cool 2nd book shop stacked ceiling high with nuggets.

We stopped for lunch at a deli that Mr James used to visit in his uni days. By this time we remembered we hadn’t yet had an alcoholic beverage which is very unlike us and promptly found a quiet pub to enjoy a pint (or Magner’s in my case). After this we felt revived and ready for more shopping and sight seeing! I noted with great hilarity the various shops selling kilts! They have really ‘funked’ them up for the youngsters.

As the sun set and the stores closed, we headed to another pub for another drink and then on to Le Monde for an amazing dinner! Fillet steak, my first one since leaving the land of Oz all those months ago – so tender and worth every penny of the £16 I paid for it! We were served by a lovely lad from Australia too (Newcastle). After dinner we had to prepare to leave this amazing city (much to my dismay) and headed on down to the train station. As we still had a while to wait James took me on a quick adventure near the smallest pub in Edinburgh which leads on to…the bit in Trainspotting where they walk under the bridge and across the street with the briefcase…………………………… I can’t tell you how cool this moment was for me. It still makes me shudder with delight. We dozed on the train back to Glasgow listening to A Certain Trigger – Maximo Park, very special album.

This day is one that will remain in my memories very vividly. It was so strange – I had such homesick moments mainly because I think I loved the city so much and could actually see myself living there which means probably even longer till I get to come home. Very special city.

Saturday night we just spent at the hotel as there was not an ounce of energy left in either of us.

Sunday

We allowed ourselves a little sleep in due to the fairly full on schedule of the past few days. When we eventually emerged – it was a brilliantly crisp day and definitely the most perfect conditions to explore Glasgow. How can I describe this city? It’s sort of like a Melbourne/ London hybrid. It has the grid set up of Melbourne, the age of London but smaller, nicer people and prettier buildings. And a cracking night life! Oh we did shop on this day. But I only bought one dress and a CD – James did very well for himself in some of his favourite spots. We stopped in at the Modern Art Gallery and had a gander at some beautiful pieces and some that we clearly will never understand. Each to their own, they say.

Stopped in for another drink at The Counting House and promised ourselves another if we missioned back to the hotel quickly before dinner to dump bags. We were successful and headed to The Variety Bar for the drink and gander at their choice décor. As the curry was so incredibly good on Friday we decided we deserved another – it was the garlic naan that made us do it! It was just as good the 2nd time… I’m nearly drooling thinking about it again. After this we headed to Brel for another drink and met up with Claire again! Claire was reviewing a gig at King Tut’s which is a venue in Glasgow and who should be playing? A band from Melbourne – Howling Bells. They were really good! After this we headed to Sleazys again where we proceeded to get a bit tipsy. Felt very sad saying goodbye to Claire – I definitely want to go back and visit her again soon, great value chick! She is going to keep an ear to the ground for work for me!

Monday

With heavy hearts we packed our bags and trudged through town to wait for the bus to take us back to the airport. It really was such a magical weekend and think we both would much prefer to be there than stinky England! No it’s not that bad, but gee whiz Scotland has the goods… It took us all day to get home and when I finally got there – I’m so glad Carms was home to greet me! She softened the blow and it was fun telling her all about the weekend and reliving the goodness!

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Wow I’ve waffled on terribly today but I just loved this weekend so much I wanted to you to hear all about it. I’m about to leave work to start another one now – it’s Carmel’s birthday tomorrow and we are hitting the town! Catching Miss Kitten amongst many others playing the Bugged Out! birthday at The End – should be a quality event!

Peace out xox

Mixing with the rich and infamous

Under normal circumstances being asked to work back on a Monday night would omit an inward groan from yours truly but seeing as I’m a temp and I have two days off work coming up – I welcomed the extra hours.

After agreeing to stay on I was given the details of my task - at 8pm I was required to go down to reception and welcome people to a special screening of Borat we were holding for the Executive Producer in one of our theatres. Then, I was sent the guest list.

Take a moment to peruse some of these key players;

Andrew Newman (writer - Da Ali G Show)
Andy Nyman (recently starred in Severance)
Chris Martin!!!!!!!!!!! (Coldplay - read below for full story on this one…)
Damian Jones (very well respected producer with latest credits going to The History Boys & Kidulthood, new one coming out Straightheads)
David Livingstone (from Dark Angel)
Eric Fellner (v. v. well known producer)
Gwyneth Paltrow (she didn’t show – probably at home looking after the fruit)
Harry Enfield (for anyone that has seen Kevin & Perry…Spanks!!)
Hugh Grant (I’m sure everyone knows this ‘lovable rogue’…)

And the list goes on.

Orlando Bloom breezed in and he is tiny! Not much taller than me – very scruffy, hair needed washing but still managed to look great.

Chris Martin lopped in – that is the only way I can describe his entry!!! Like he felt too tall or was made of plasticine or something. He was very relaxed and came straight up to my work friend Kate and kissed her on the cheek – I tried to not look stunned! She introduced me to him and he shook my hand whilst touching his nose with the other – he asked if he had a spot coming up. I was still in shock and couldn’t help but say ‘yes’! He asked me what I did at Fox and wished me luck for it before going into the screening.

I arrived at work this morning still buzzing from the events of last night and my boss told me he could arrange for a poster sized version of last week’s Time Out magazine (featuring Alan Bennett – writer of The History Boys) to be signed for me by the man himself!

One thing’s for sure – I miss everyone back home terribly but when on earth would all this happen in the space of about 14 hours in Australia?????

I’ll report back in after Scotland – 3 sleeps!

Pardon? I didn’t quite catch that

That is what I have been having to say all week since waking up on Tuesday with my right ear blocked! Took myself off to the doctor and turns out it is all inflamed and swollen – hence the lack of hearing. Sympathise with all of those old dears out there that live with this on a daily basis, it really is annoying and wish I had a hearing aid I could turn up to 11! Hopefully the antibiotics they prescribed kick in soon – they are certainly knocking my system around but not fixing what they are intended for! Feel like the nerdy kid at school with ear medicine...ew.

Enough whinging. What have I been up to I hear the fans asking? Well it has been a funny couple of weeks – a few comings and goings but I have stayed put, merely a spectator to others exciting lives. Goodness I’ve turned into John Peel – I lie! I did have a weekend away last week – but more on that later.

Since I last wrote we had a flat warming for our new flat on Friday 22 September, combined with Jaden’s farewell who is now safe and sound back in the arms of Australia. We miss you Jaden!!!! The party was meant to start at The Woodbine, lovely little pub near the flat, and then move on to the flat as numbers dwindled (the flat is quite small so we couldn’t fit everyone). We ended up staying at the pub until close and starting the festivities around midnight! Was wonderful as we had the remaining Aussie contingency in force – Carmel, Pointi, Robbie, Jaden, Sian and myself. Had a lovely day following with the crew but was very sad when it finally came time to wave Jaden off in the cab… We really do miss you ya great big lanky lad!

Unfortunately James one was unwell and couldn’t make it but I carried him through the weekend in my thoughts. Spent the Sunday wandering aimlessly alone in the sun down Blackstock Rd and then got the bus to Angel to do the same. Was quite lovely actually.

The weekend that has just passed I went to Rugby in the Midlands to visit the sick one. The journey there was something else! Firstly there were no buses going up my road due to someone being shot! Nice. So I walked almost all the way to Highbury station and then got a bus to Angel (due to the tube being down at Highbury all weekend) and got the tube to Euston. From Euston you can normally get an express Virgin train all the way to Rugby – however due to engineering works you need to get a SilverLink train from Euston to Harrow & Wealsdon (sp??) and then a Virgin train the rest of the way. This was fine – except lighting had struck the track somewhere along the way and there were huge delays in the SilverLinks trains!

Somehow I made it there in one piece and enjoyed the peaceful surrounds of Rugby and the company of James. We watched TV (bit of a novelty as I don’t have one!) and went out for a few drinks at one of the local Rugby bars. The next day we had a great roast lunch at a pub formally owned by an Australian! It was absolutely lovely and I enjoyed the peace and quiet very much. Did not want to head back to the big smoke at all. But I did – got on a train back at around 6pm on Sunday after briefly meeting James’ parents, they are really lovely! Unfortunately the train was full to the rim and the only patch of ground I found to sit on was outside the toilet… I buried my head in NME and somehow got through the journey without crying.

The next night, Monday 2 October, was our Royal World Premiere of The History Boys. I have already bigged up this film in a previous post so I won’t bore you again with the details. But I was involved in helping put together the guest list for the event, writing the invitation and managing the RSVPs – quite a stressful but rewarding job! Prince Charles and Camilla attended the event – hence the Royal title. And it was AMAZING. I had another job to do on the night – before the film I had to sit in a little CCTV booth and point out all the Fox Execs and cast to the presenter who was reading a blurb over the airwaves while Princes Charles shook hands with them all. We were baffled about one stray in Royal Line-Up – the next day we found out he was dared £100,000 to sneak into the premiere and meet Princes Charles! It’s all over the news here 'Royal Security Scare' blah blah blah gee The Sun know how to write a good tale…

After I completed my task I was ushered down the stage by security right past the entire cast of the film (including Richard Griffiths & Frances De La Tour) and the director Nic Hytner and the writer – Alan Bennett!!!!! I nearly keeled over with joy as I think they are all so talented. I then sat down for the presentation and introduction of the cast etc., watched the film and then headed to the after party at Floridita. Didn’t stay too long but I did manage to squeeze through the crowd next to Alan Bennett *faint*. Please do me a favour and watch this film when it’s released in Australia.

So that brings us up to date, I’m leaving work in about half an hour to start the weekend quietly – heading home to an early night in bed with a good book! Currently reading London Belongs to Me, The History Boys play script and On Beauty. Not a bad combination but On Beauty is annoying me a little.

James is popping to London tomorrow and we are going to check out a new moving art exhibition called Kinetica and have a relaxing weekend.

One week till Scotland!!!!

Bye for now xxx