Easter in Adelaide

I went to Adelaide for Easter this year. Flew out Friday lunch time with Virgin Blue. Was able to offset my carbon emissions for about $1.50 for the return trip, which sounded suspiciously low.

The flight was great. Nan came to pick me up at the airport in her new Kia. Her Pulsar had been recently stolen, and she bought a Kia Cerato with the insurance payout.

We went back to her place in Parafield Gardens, had a bit of a chat, caut up with my cousin Jamie and Nan's boyfrend Tony. Rod, an old workmate and frend from Wodonga came around for dinner.

On Saturday, I went to see Linda and her boyfrend Okke for lunch at Sushi Train near the Adelaide Central Markets. After lunch, we went shopping. I bought some Lindt dark chocolates and Coopers Extra Dark Stout.

Linda and Okke

We went back to Linda's place in Gilberton (just to the North of North Adelaide), met Okke properly, then discussed past events, relationships, and the meaning of life. :-)

That night, Linda and Okke took me to a frend's party in the East End of Adelaide. Drank too much, stayed up too late! Had a great time! It was revealed that Okke and his mates were card-carrying Adelaide United members, so we arranged to travel to each other's home matches. Apparently they've got a blow-up doll of Kevin Muscat, but I'm sure it's all in good sport... :-/

Beehive Corner, Rundle Mall

On Sunday, we went to see the Egyptian exhibit from the Louvre at the Art Gallery. It was a little bit interesting, but I always find myself wanting to know more than the signs tell. They also used some weird terminology, possibly due to the translation from French, and called the Sun God "Re" rather than the familiar "Ra".

We went back to Linda's place. I saw the first half of the Western Bulldogs getting convincingly beaten (again!), then we went out for dinner to an Indian restaurant on Melbourne Street.

After dinner, we went to see The Host at Palace Cinema. Kinda fortunately for me, it wasn't on. I had been really wanting to see The Lives of Others, and that was on in about 15 minutes, so we did that instead.

The movie turned out to be really good. A bit of a Schindler's List type of movie in that the circumstances are those of oppression and control of a war-like regime, and that it focussed on a small group of peeple to show its effects. The story was great and was made very emotive by the direction and cinematography. I felt really worried and concerned for the characters. The ending was good, and really helped show that it's the peeple of the regime that make up the regime. It was also rather ironic, considering one of the main undertones of the movie was suicide. It lead to some interesting discussions afterwards.

Got back to Nan's place a bit after midnight, and flew out the next morning.

Felt quite sick by the Monday night. Ended up in bed for most of the week with tonsillitis.

(I didn't kiss anyone Katie, honest!) ;-)

Year of the (Lucky) Monkey

2006 has turned out to be my luckiest year ever.

After winning world cup tickets in May, I've just found out that I've won a season double pass to the Moonlight Cinema.

There seems to be a bit of a theme developing, as I won the competition at Bear Brass on Southbank by buying a James Boag's beer.

It's a shame the year's about to end, because 2006 will be a hard year to beat!

Comedy at the Spiegeltent

Last night I went out to see a comedian called Sammy J at the Spiegeltent with Katie, a girl I met at speed dating the other night.

The show was really good. Actually much better than the two comedians I saw at this year's comedy festival, Wil Anderson and Rod Quantock, who seem to be a bit out of form lately.

Most memorable moments include stealing a joke from Seinfeld and singing a song about the Melbourne train network, mentioning every station in order!

I think he's coming to the comedy festival next year, so I recommend you go and see him!

The Grates and Faker

Went to see The Grates last night. They were really gr... good! Sounded very similar to their studio work, but they were worth seeing for the sets (snowmen and snowflakes) and the singer Patience jumping around like she was crazy. I also didn't realise the drummer was a chick.

They were supported by Faker, who didn't really impress me. They have a song called "Hurricane" which is a little bit catchy, and another "Love For Sale" which seems to have interesting lyrics, but apparently it's a cover, so they can't claim credit for that anyway. Other than that, they were just a bunch of guys playing too much distorted guitar without much musical merit.

Also found a fun arcade game on The Grates' web site. It's quite fun. The game's soundtrack uses Grates songs, but does it in a really retro way that reminds me of Commodore 64 games.

World Cup Tickets!

I just got a fone call telling me I'd won free tickets to the Australia versus Brazil World Cup match!

There was a promotion for Bitburger beer at Dan Murphy's, so I bought a slab last week and entered the competition.

It was such an awesome surprise after not getting any tickets in the draw! I was so excited I started talking like people do when they win something on commercial radio. "Oh my god, thanks so much!" :-)

The flight takes me to Munich on June 15 in time to watch the match on June 18. My return flight is for June 20, but I'll see if I can stay longer.

Time to start practising my German!

Kosheen

I heard on the radio today that Kosheen is playing at the Corner Hotel in Melbourne next month.

I had been interested in her stuff for a while, since hearing "Hide U" on Triple J years ago. I figured it would be good to find out some more, so bought a ticket.

Also went to JB Hi-Fi after work to buy one of her albums. Turns out she only has two, so I picked up the old one with all the songs I had already heard of.

Shame the album was $27. JB Hi-Fi's usually got better prices than that. Will have to see what it costs on iTunes...