so the show in phnom penh, cambodia was a little disappointing, especially after the great shows in vietnam. the venue was good, a german run arts house with regular events and screenings, however as i started to perform, so a bunch of chatty expats came in and just talked through the whole set. there were moments where i was going to move aroundthe space more to engage them, but somehow i knew they just werenot going to be quiet and listen... which was proven when beat poet antonio pineda joined me to read some of his works to 'musical' accompaniment. he got louder and louder to rise above the chatting, which of course then drove people away... a great shame, but then there will always be bad shows to balance out the good ones! after the show we went for drinks and i ended up staying out until daylight (no idea what the time was, as you will recall my phone was stolen in hanoi and that is my only means of timekeeping...). so for the whole of my last day in cambodia i slept off a hangover!
on the 1st july i got a taxi at 6am to the airport to fly to china. i still had no idea what was in store for me when i got there, but found my way out of the airport easy enough, changed some us dollars easy enough and although slightly ripped off by a taxi driver, got to my hostel. here i faced the prospect of sleeping in a room with 5 other smelly blokes or 3 so took the latter. i set up bed on a lower bunk, met a somalian guy wh was staying there for a year to study and a chinese guy who had no english but was super friendly.
wanting to venture out and explore, i asked at the desk if they had a map but was told they only had one in chinese. then of of the guys behind the desk asked why,so i explained i wanted to just wander around, find some food but not get too lost, and he offered to take me on a walk around the area, which was awesome. he showed me to a really cheap noodle place - a bowl of noodle soup and a bottle of coke came to 160rmb, or £1.60 roughly... then we wandered along nanluogu hutong, which is a kind of touristy alley, but has some great bars and snack places. and found me a map, which cost 80rmb, which apparently was also too expensive.
2nd july i wander around the city the same way as i went the night before, which would be west from the hostel, but then headed south from the landmark i recognised from the night before, the drum and bell tower. from there i headed to the forbidden city and walked around the west side of the perimeter until i got to tiananmen square. i should now mention the heat - it was around 35 degrees C. i was melting! and i could see most other people were too.always reassuring! from there i wandered up a street that i discovered was one i was going to try and find through the week, which has at least two massive bookshops with english language books in stock. i had finished martin amis's 'the information' - which is a great read by the way - and needed another travel book. i eventually plumped for the latest david mitchell. i took it very easy that evening as far as i can remember, having walked quite a distance and been roasted all day...
the following day josh feola who runs xp with his girlfriend lulu came to meet me and we visited the venue. a really nice space - i advise anyone who is traveling through beijing, and wants to perform, to play there! i looked over the place and found a few objects that i could possibly use in my performance, and then headed back to the hostel to meet another expat, brad seippel, who i met through his sister michele (whom i met at the mcneill street pumping station festival in louisiana last year). brad is also a musician, and we chatted music over food, heading back to xp to catch a concert in the evening. first up was a guitar and iphone duo playing trancey rock in the vein of spacemen 3, whose t-shirt the guitarist happened to be wearing. and then a guitar and bass duo with drum machine followed. all loud and pretty good, but for me too much use of loop station!
on the 4th i had to get up pretty early as i had a trip booked to the great wall. i was with a great group of people- 2 from the uk of nigerian descent, 2 from hong kong and 3 turkish guys who were hilarious. we were taken to a jade factory (and pushed to buy stuff), the ming tombs (or one of them), the great wall (one of the steepest parts - a solid 45 minute climb again in the midday heat, but good to do), lunch (which was pretty good and varied), a silk factory (where we were pushed to buy stuff), the bird's nest building (where we pulled up on the side of a road not very near to the building at all), a tea house (where we were pushed to buy stuff - and at this point the turks got really angry and stormed off to get a taxi back to their hotel!) and finally a tibetan health centre for a foot massage (and yes, once again pushed to buy stuff!!). it was a fun day out and i should have got contact details from the guys that were left on the trip as we all got on really well. i got back in time to have a wee lie down and then headed to xp once again to catch a fantastic violinist and an interesting guitarist, but again the loop pedal was very much in use...
the next day brad came to meet me, as i would be staying with him from that day, and had the afternoon off, so we dropped off my luggage at his place and then visited the temple of heaven to explore with microphone and camera... we were there a couple of hours, then headed out to the end of a subway line to see what there was out there. we found quite a poor area that suddenly turned into a demolition site, but with people still living in it... i did attract a little too much attention, recording the resonance in some holes in a concrete block, but generally people were friendly. i don't think many foreigners go to that part of town. we must have been walking for around 6 hours all together, so when we got back, and faced the prospect of going to xp once again,but having the added fun of it raining, we decided to call it a day and rest.
on the 6th i made preparations for my performance in the evening , and then headed to the forbidden city, to go inside this time. i don't think i have seen so many people in a place, except maybe in a stadium. it was incredible! because the site is just huge, but there were people everywhere! it was an ominous, gloomy day which i think helped the ambience of the place. oh, and i had my first 'tea girl' experience. a pretty girl approaches the single male foreigner and asks lots of questions, stating that she is learning english and wantsto practice. she will invite you to go and have a cup of tea with her. if you accept, you will have a nice chat over a cup of tea, and then be charged something like £200 for it! well folks, i didn't fall for it, you'll be glad to hear...
so, to the concert. li jianhong started the evening off with some fine noisy guitar gnashings, and then his wife vavabond played a subtle glitchy set using a light sensor on an iphone and laptop. i played my more recent set,with recordings from australia, argentina, cambodia and vietnam, using sound exciters on the stairway and a microwave to play sounds through them, plus grinding sea shells and getting some nice abrasive sounds from a metal dustpan. we also played a collaborative set between the three of us, which was nice, but i feel the solo sets were much better.
we met up with a friend of brad's called michael, whom i had met briefly earlier in the week over donkey burgers, and we had beers a plenty and great food until around 4am - as seems to happen after my shows!
the following day was definitely an easy one, not walking too far, catching up with emails, and then heading out to catch brad's concert that evening. we grabbed some awesome dumplings before the show, and then hung out with another american expat, also called michael as well as a scot, mary. brad's set was really nice, combining abstract electronics with pop tunes and a traditional instrument called a pipa. he was supporting a chinese 3 piece pop band who were very good at what they do and great fun, even playing covers of boney m's 'daddy cool' and calvin harris's 'i get all the girls' but changing it to 'i drink all the beers' - all the more arresting by it being sung by a very sweet looking young chinese lady.
a late night was not on the cards - although i think we still didn't get back until 3am - another meeting with michael #1 and his girlfriend, barbecue chicken and more beer... however i had to get up early to catch a 09:20 fast train to shanghai. following my friend josie's directions i arrived at the metro station closest to her place and then found none of the cafe's including mcdonalds had working wifi, so i had to ask 3 people if i could borrow their phone to call my friend! i got through, she met me, and after dropping the luggage once again we headed out to the central area of pudong to get something to eat and have a walk around.
Shanghai is a very different city from beijing, with a number of different centres and many more high-rise buildings - it seems a much more modern city, but i think i have to explore more....
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
Friday, 29 June 2012
Goodbye Vietnam - Hello (again) Cambodia
this will possibly be the last update for a couple of weeks as i am not sure which sites i can access when in china (1st-16th july).
following my phone theft in hanoi i pretty much stayed in the local area, working on a new piece for the performance at atk using recordings from argentina, australia, cambodia and vietnam. i did meet with luong hue trinh once more -we attended a pretty awful contemporary dance show at the youth theatre, and then went for some pho cuon (i think that's how you spelll it) and some other kind of noodle that is almost like tofu, deep fried and delicious! a lovely evening - thanks trinh.
and the next day i met with trang nguyen and her friend for lunch - more gorgeous noodles and beef -again no idea what this dish is called. maybe you guys can help me out here! trang is working with the onion cellar guys who arranged the concerts in hanoi and saigon for me.
so the concert began with me giving a short description of what is i do, and then i began to play, using sound exciters to play sounds from the back of the room as well as a little speaker device i bought in the market in hanoi.this little wonder takes micro sd cards and charges via usb -very handy for moving sounds around a room, and all for less than £10! the response to the show was great,especially as i think 99% of the audience had never been to this kind of show before...and then trinh took me to a little place run by vietnamese once again for some pork and tongue noodle soup.
the next day i caught a flight to saigon, visited the same are emma and i stayed in but found a place for $9 a night which was perfect. the lady running the place warned me of the thieves and prostitutes many times - what kind of a person does she think i am?? in the evening khuong (one of the onion cellar - the other being hung, but he's in london right now..) came to the hotel to take me to meet giang, who i was to perform alongside, at his family's restaurant. i can't even begin to discuss the food here as there was so much and it was all good!
another day of work and then an evening out with khuong once again to visit the venue, la fenetre soleil. we attended a music quiz where two french guys played the intros to songs and the crowd have to shout out the band/artist playing. as you can imagine, it got pretty rowdy, but it was good fun. i even got two right!
and then it was the day of the concert. we arrived around 7 and giang and i set up and briefly soundchecked, and all the while people were coming in, sitting down, chatting, eating... i started to wonder if they would actually stop and listenng to the show. and then it was upon me, khuong introducing me and asking people to be quiet, close the eyes and listen. and it went really well.the beginning wasn't noticed too much, but playing some loud rain sounds and moving the speaker and playing the venue's bell seemed to make people notice and concentrate more. i was definitely the calm before the storm, with giang starting with some abstracted beats and then filling the room with fuzz and feedback- a great set! and once again, we head out to a place no tourist would be likely to go and have some local delicacies like 1000 year old egg on deep fried rice - awesome!
at this point i'd like to thank hung, khuong, dougie at atk, trang, sebastien gesell for playing some great music at atk, giang, john at the word for his article that introduced me to the onion cellar guys, and especially trinh - you all made my last days in vietnam really special.
the day after the show i took the bus (at 9am) back across the border to phnom penh.arriving in the middle of the central market, i was taken by tuk tuk to the hometown hotel, where i am now. great big room with a fridge and aircon (which i have stopped using - maybe i'm used to the heat at last!). i visited the meta house, where i perform tonight, and met with nico who organised the show as well as antonio, a poet who i will be working with tonight... and today has been a lazy-ish day of wandering around, admin and preparations for the concert - wish me luck!
following my phone theft in hanoi i pretty much stayed in the local area, working on a new piece for the performance at atk using recordings from argentina, australia, cambodia and vietnam. i did meet with luong hue trinh once more -we attended a pretty awful contemporary dance show at the youth theatre, and then went for some pho cuon (i think that's how you spelll it) and some other kind of noodle that is almost like tofu, deep fried and delicious! a lovely evening - thanks trinh.
and the next day i met with trang nguyen and her friend for lunch - more gorgeous noodles and beef -again no idea what this dish is called. maybe you guys can help me out here! trang is working with the onion cellar guys who arranged the concerts in hanoi and saigon for me.
so the concert began with me giving a short description of what is i do, and then i began to play, using sound exciters to play sounds from the back of the room as well as a little speaker device i bought in the market in hanoi.this little wonder takes micro sd cards and charges via usb -very handy for moving sounds around a room, and all for less than £10! the response to the show was great,especially as i think 99% of the audience had never been to this kind of show before...and then trinh took me to a little place run by vietnamese once again for some pork and tongue noodle soup.
the next day i caught a flight to saigon, visited the same are emma and i stayed in but found a place for $9 a night which was perfect. the lady running the place warned me of the thieves and prostitutes many times - what kind of a person does she think i am?? in the evening khuong (one of the onion cellar - the other being hung, but he's in london right now..) came to the hotel to take me to meet giang, who i was to perform alongside, at his family's restaurant. i can't even begin to discuss the food here as there was so much and it was all good!
another day of work and then an evening out with khuong once again to visit the venue, la fenetre soleil. we attended a music quiz where two french guys played the intros to songs and the crowd have to shout out the band/artist playing. as you can imagine, it got pretty rowdy, but it was good fun. i even got two right!
and then it was the day of the concert. we arrived around 7 and giang and i set up and briefly soundchecked, and all the while people were coming in, sitting down, chatting, eating... i started to wonder if they would actually stop and listenng to the show. and then it was upon me, khuong introducing me and asking people to be quiet, close the eyes and listen. and it went really well.the beginning wasn't noticed too much, but playing some loud rain sounds and moving the speaker and playing the venue's bell seemed to make people notice and concentrate more. i was definitely the calm before the storm, with giang starting with some abstracted beats and then filling the room with fuzz and feedback- a great set! and once again, we head out to a place no tourist would be likely to go and have some local delicacies like 1000 year old egg on deep fried rice - awesome!
at this point i'd like to thank hung, khuong, dougie at atk, trang, sebastien gesell for playing some great music at atk, giang, john at the word for his article that introduced me to the onion cellar guys, and especially trinh - you all made my last days in vietnam really special.
the day after the show i took the bus (at 9am) back across the border to phnom penh.arriving in the middle of the central market, i was taken by tuk tuk to the hometown hotel, where i am now. great big room with a fridge and aircon (which i have stopped using - maybe i'm used to the heat at last!). i visited the meta house, where i perform tonight, and met with nico who organised the show as well as antonio, a poet who i will be working with tonight... and today has been a lazy-ish day of wandering around, admin and preparations for the concert - wish me luck!
Friday, 22 June 2012
Vietnam through June
the overnight bus to ho chi min/saigon wasn't too gruelling, remembering back, but the reason for this will become clearer as you read on. we had the good fortune of meeting thien on the journey, who gave us a lit of foods to try, places to visit and his email address. and thankfully the bus dropped us really close to the place we were staying. a quick wander around made it clear we were in tourist central, but found a great pho restaurant just on the edge of the area.
during our time in saigon we visited the cu chi tunnels, which the viet cong used to hide from the americans during the war. a very funny guide and some eye opening sights (plus a very claustrophobic visit to one of the tunnels) made the experience very memorable. i also had a wander around alone to visit the modern art gallery, which really isn't very good - sorry saigon - but also watched the sun go down from the bitexco financial tower skydeck- beautiful!
that evening we met with thien, who took us to an area of town where we were the only whiteys to be seen, and had - wait for it - amazing food!! a strange but enjoyable folded omelette with beansprouts and prawns inside, and an even stranger but enjoyable rice flour and fish dish.
the next morning i headed to the mekong delta on a day trip that cost $7 - the tunnels trip was 4! - while emma met with thien again for breakfast. she then headed to da lat to find us a cheap place to stay. so i visited a coconut candy making place, where i also saw group making rice paper, a riverside village and took a smaller boat up the narrower waterways. oh, i also had my finger shoved into a honeycomb covered with bees - pretty scarey but escaped being stung, and the honey was incredible!
on arriving back to saigon i caught a bus to da lat to meet with emma. my bus was cancelled so i had to wait another hour for the next one, meaning i got to da lat at 2am.thankfully he was waiting for me at the bus station, with all the local homeless people it seemed.we caught a taxi into town, giving a lift to another traveller - eric from seattle.
the hotel we were in hired scooters soo we got one of those bad boys the next day and headed to a mountain range called liangbang, where we hiked up the first part and had lunch in a tiny little cafe/restaurant run by some locals (and i recorded a rope bridge with contact mics), and then on to datanla, one of the waterfalls to the south of da lat. in the evening we met up with larry, a guy from los angeles that emma had travelled with to da lat. we also managed to catch up with eric once again, hiring scooters then next day and visiting various temples and a gorgeous lake, before getting a bus to danang.
this was a bus journey of around 14 hours, with very little leg room and no space for rucksacks so didn't get much sleep on that one! and when we left the bus, we were supposed to have a shuttle service to our hotel, but the guy took one look at the address and told us to get a taxi! when we did get to the hotel, it was actually rather pleasant, and a stone's throw from a gorgeous - and empty - sandy beach. i'm not a beach person, but it was really nice to go and swim in the warmest sea i have ever been in and sit with a cold beer in the sun.we could only manage a short time however as it was sooo hot. after a siesta we went out around 6 to get some food and the beach was absolutely full of people and scooters everywhere!
escaping danang the next day on a scooter - where we were was practically a building site surrounding the street we were on -we saw the caves and pagodas of the marble mountains which were amazing, nd then to where everyone else seemed to go, hoi an. this is a nicer looking town than where we were staying in danang, but the beach nearby was nowhere near as nice.
catching a bus to hue in the morning meant we were there by lunchtime, so took a wander around the citadel, which was fun as the map we had didn't cover that part of hue! i think itwas in hue that i had my first western food of the trip - burger and fries - and it was gorgeous! i realise i haven't mentioned the food too much until now - but i think it's because pretty much everything i have had in vietnam has been great, and i'd have a hard time singling out the best meals! one was a fresh grilled fish in danang, in a crazy big outdoor place where all the locals were having family meals or getting drunk!
the following day, the 17th, we hired a scooter once more and visited ming mang tombs. now up until this point i also haven't mentioned how pretty much everyone who offers to help you here then expects some money in return. ladies will show you around a cave or a temple and then hold their handout or just ask for money - and will tell you if it's not enough!on the way to ming mang a lady stopped to help us and then tried to lead us to her village rather than the tomb! it was weird!
and while we were at the tombs we parked up next to a small cafe, so felt we should buy a drink when we returned to the scooter. when asking how much it was we were told a coffee and a sugar cane drink cost 90,000 vnd - $4.50 or £3. seems cheap right? well you normally pay around 20,000 vnd for a coffee so no, not really cheap for here...we then discovered our front tyre had a puncture and so at one point it looked like we would be pushing the scooter 11km back to hue!! thankfully one of the locals stopped and took emma to the nearest village where she waited for me to arrive and we had the tube repaired. phew!
we then decided to go ino the citadel once more for lunch, before catching our bus to hanoi. now remember i said our map didn't cover the citadel? well after eating we tried to head out the way we knew, but couldn't because of a one way system. cutting a long story short, we drove blindly around and around the citadel, trying to find away out even, and eventually asking at 3 gas stations, finally escaping and arriving at our hotel with 15 mutes to spare before the bus arrived!!!
this was another14 hour journey, so we'd booked on a sleeper bus but we found our seats had been taken and the people in them wouldn't move, so we were at the back, right by the engine, and the seats are inclined at an angle with your feet beneath the person in front, and this wasn't big enough to put your feet in! basically one of the most uncomfortable journeys so far - and then we had a further 4hourson an overcrowded minbus to halong bay when we arrived in hanoi.
while in halong bay, which is gorgeous, we stayed on a boat. here we hung out with other tourists and were taken - en masse- to some caves and a floating village, then headed out to drop anchor in amongst the rocks. i won't dwell on negatives regarding this part, but there was once again the feeling that you were being ripped off all the time...
back to hanoi for a couple of lazy days before emma sets off home - and when she let i headed to atk where i will be performing on sunday evening, meeting dougie who runs the place,and trinh, a local musician whose music i am listening to right now on soundcloud - very nice! a couple of beers and some sticky rice wine and i was ready for bed, so headed back to the hotel. as i neared the place three girls rode by on a scooter, then stopped and two got off to offer me a few favours for money - i think you know what i mean. now i am still polite even when telling hookers to leave me alone, but did not realise as one was talking, the other had found a front pocket in my bag and stolen my phone!!
thankfully it was an old one i was traveling withso my current one didn'tget swiped, but of course i then had to report the theft to orange and get the sim card blocked - at 1am - after beer and sticky rice wine. all done though, and even found i have stored all my contacts on my current phone's memory card so although annoying, not a great loss...
during our time in saigon we visited the cu chi tunnels, which the viet cong used to hide from the americans during the war. a very funny guide and some eye opening sights (plus a very claustrophobic visit to one of the tunnels) made the experience very memorable. i also had a wander around alone to visit the modern art gallery, which really isn't very good - sorry saigon - but also watched the sun go down from the bitexco financial tower skydeck- beautiful!
that evening we met with thien, who took us to an area of town where we were the only whiteys to be seen, and had - wait for it - amazing food!! a strange but enjoyable folded omelette with beansprouts and prawns inside, and an even stranger but enjoyable rice flour and fish dish.
the next morning i headed to the mekong delta on a day trip that cost $7 - the tunnels trip was 4! - while emma met with thien again for breakfast. she then headed to da lat to find us a cheap place to stay. so i visited a coconut candy making place, where i also saw group making rice paper, a riverside village and took a smaller boat up the narrower waterways. oh, i also had my finger shoved into a honeycomb covered with bees - pretty scarey but escaped being stung, and the honey was incredible!
on arriving back to saigon i caught a bus to da lat to meet with emma. my bus was cancelled so i had to wait another hour for the next one, meaning i got to da lat at 2am.thankfully he was waiting for me at the bus station, with all the local homeless people it seemed.we caught a taxi into town, giving a lift to another traveller - eric from seattle.
the hotel we were in hired scooters soo we got one of those bad boys the next day and headed to a mountain range called liangbang, where we hiked up the first part and had lunch in a tiny little cafe/restaurant run by some locals (and i recorded a rope bridge with contact mics), and then on to datanla, one of the waterfalls to the south of da lat. in the evening we met up with larry, a guy from los angeles that emma had travelled with to da lat. we also managed to catch up with eric once again, hiring scooters then next day and visiting various temples and a gorgeous lake, before getting a bus to danang.
this was a bus journey of around 14 hours, with very little leg room and no space for rucksacks so didn't get much sleep on that one! and when we left the bus, we were supposed to have a shuttle service to our hotel, but the guy took one look at the address and told us to get a taxi! when we did get to the hotel, it was actually rather pleasant, and a stone's throw from a gorgeous - and empty - sandy beach. i'm not a beach person, but it was really nice to go and swim in the warmest sea i have ever been in and sit with a cold beer in the sun.we could only manage a short time however as it was sooo hot. after a siesta we went out around 6 to get some food and the beach was absolutely full of people and scooters everywhere!
escaping danang the next day on a scooter - where we were was practically a building site surrounding the street we were on -we saw the caves and pagodas of the marble mountains which were amazing, nd then to where everyone else seemed to go, hoi an. this is a nicer looking town than where we were staying in danang, but the beach nearby was nowhere near as nice.
catching a bus to hue in the morning meant we were there by lunchtime, so took a wander around the citadel, which was fun as the map we had didn't cover that part of hue! i think itwas in hue that i had my first western food of the trip - burger and fries - and it was gorgeous! i realise i haven't mentioned the food too much until now - but i think it's because pretty much everything i have had in vietnam has been great, and i'd have a hard time singling out the best meals! one was a fresh grilled fish in danang, in a crazy big outdoor place where all the locals were having family meals or getting drunk!
the following day, the 17th, we hired a scooter once more and visited ming mang tombs. now up until this point i also haven't mentioned how pretty much everyone who offers to help you here then expects some money in return. ladies will show you around a cave or a temple and then hold their handout or just ask for money - and will tell you if it's not enough!on the way to ming mang a lady stopped to help us and then tried to lead us to her village rather than the tomb! it was weird!
and while we were at the tombs we parked up next to a small cafe, so felt we should buy a drink when we returned to the scooter. when asking how much it was we were told a coffee and a sugar cane drink cost 90,000 vnd - $4.50 or £3. seems cheap right? well you normally pay around 20,000 vnd for a coffee so no, not really cheap for here...we then discovered our front tyre had a puncture and so at one point it looked like we would be pushing the scooter 11km back to hue!! thankfully one of the locals stopped and took emma to the nearest village where she waited for me to arrive and we had the tube repaired. phew!
we then decided to go ino the citadel once more for lunch, before catching our bus to hanoi. now remember i said our map didn't cover the citadel? well after eating we tried to head out the way we knew, but couldn't because of a one way system. cutting a long story short, we drove blindly around and around the citadel, trying to find away out even, and eventually asking at 3 gas stations, finally escaping and arriving at our hotel with 15 mutes to spare before the bus arrived!!!
this was another14 hour journey, so we'd booked on a sleeper bus but we found our seats had been taken and the people in them wouldn't move, so we were at the back, right by the engine, and the seats are inclined at an angle with your feet beneath the person in front, and this wasn't big enough to put your feet in! basically one of the most uncomfortable journeys so far - and then we had a further 4hourson an overcrowded minbus to halong bay when we arrived in hanoi.
while in halong bay, which is gorgeous, we stayed on a boat. here we hung out with other tourists and were taken - en masse- to some caves and a floating village, then headed out to drop anchor in amongst the rocks. i won't dwell on negatives regarding this part, but there was once again the feeling that you were being ripped off all the time...
back to hanoi for a couple of lazy days before emma sets off home - and when she let i headed to atk where i will be performing on sunday evening, meeting dougie who runs the place,and trinh, a local musician whose music i am listening to right now on soundcloud - very nice! a couple of beers and some sticky rice wine and i was ready for bed, so headed back to the hotel. as i neared the place three girls rode by on a scooter, then stopped and two got off to offer me a few favours for money - i think you know what i mean. now i am still polite even when telling hookers to leave me alone, but did not realise as one was talking, the other had found a front pocket in my bag and stolen my phone!!
thankfully it was an old one i was traveling withso my current one didn'tget swiped, but of course i then had to report the theft to orange and get the sim card blocked - at 1am - after beer and sticky rice wine. all done though, and even found i have stored all my contacts on my current phone's memory card so although annoying, not a great loss...
Thursday, 7 June 2012
The last two weeks in Australia - part 2
realising i have much more to tell, i have split this post in 2.
managing to get back to castlemaine in the early hours of the morning on saturday 26th may allowed me to do some much needed laundry in the morning,and then go and set up the installation ready to run from 2pm. although the show ran for 4 hours, i only received a couple of visitors that day, but the ones who made it stayed and enjoyed it. eamon also came on the saturday to have a listen and try out some ideas for the performance on the sunday. on the way back to the house i was staying in we stopped in to selvi's curries to get a take away, tried some of the food before buying, and then were invited to eat in the restaurant, which was a huge room with an open fire that was very welcome... for anyone visiting castlemaine, try it out!
the next morning we all met up at the icu at 11am to set up the sound system and sound check for the performance, which was scheduled for 5pm, then packed way as much as we could to run the installation from 2-4pm. this time i had quite a few visitors, and most then stayed for the performances. i started off, with a precomposed piece using various tones and drones captured in the space,and then used various objects, moving around and within the audience. i was then joined by lizzie pogson, who performed with a combination of sounds from the local area and japan. a very pleasant, nicely paced set. next up was tarab, creating vibrations through a plate attached to a wire mesh that makes up one side of the space,and then taking a signal from the mesh using contact mics and playing that back into the room. again nicely paced and a good use of space. tarab was then joined by jacques soddell for the short overlap crossover characteristic of 'active crossover' performances, which worked really well, with jacques playing what was arguably the most musical set of the evening and closing the event perfectly. thanks once again to eamon, lizzie and jacques, as well as the guys of punctum for their support and hosting the event.
over the next few days i was kindly hosted by eamon, emily and helki in melbourne, which gave me a chance to catch up with friends teresa lane, simon hampson and sophie trebilcock, as well as get some tattoo work done by kat scarlet (http://katscarlettattoo.blogspot.com/), reworking one old and one new piece, and then creating a new one for me in return for a food hamper when i'm back in the uk!! i also managed to finally get my second japanese encephalitis vaccine injection and my visa to visit china in july. itall cametogether nicely at the end of my trip, and it was great to see everyone and spend time.
then on the 2nd june i flew to bangkok airport, where i waited for around 11 hours for my friend emma to arrive, then we had to wait a further 6 hours to fly to phnom pen, cambodia. once there we were taken to a nice hotel on the riverside. we spent 2 nights in phnom penh, visiting the killing fields on the first day and arranging our visas to visit vietnam, and explored a little of the city. as many people will be expecting, here comes the food bit - fish amok is awesome in cambodia, as is lok lak. and as with most places, the best food is in the cafes and restaurants that the locals eat in!
from phnom penh we got a bus to siem reap, where we are now. on the first day we visited the main temples, took it easy yesterday,and then did a couple of the remaining ones today. i also recorded the dawn chorus at angkor wat today which was great - i even managed to escape the surprisingly big crowd of people, all of whom had gone to see the sunrise, which because of cloud was not so impressive... then we traveled further out to banteay srey, visiting ta prohm afterwards - this was the best for me, with the trees and the temple becoming as one in places. many tourist groups and a huge restoration centre made it difficult to get around but we managed.
so now we wait until 12am when we get a bus overnight to ho chi min city in vietnam. more later!
managing to get back to castlemaine in the early hours of the morning on saturday 26th may allowed me to do some much needed laundry in the morning,and then go and set up the installation ready to run from 2pm. although the show ran for 4 hours, i only received a couple of visitors that day, but the ones who made it stayed and enjoyed it. eamon also came on the saturday to have a listen and try out some ideas for the performance on the sunday. on the way back to the house i was staying in we stopped in to selvi's curries to get a take away, tried some of the food before buying, and then were invited to eat in the restaurant, which was a huge room with an open fire that was very welcome... for anyone visiting castlemaine, try it out!
the next morning we all met up at the icu at 11am to set up the sound system and sound check for the performance, which was scheduled for 5pm, then packed way as much as we could to run the installation from 2-4pm. this time i had quite a few visitors, and most then stayed for the performances. i started off, with a precomposed piece using various tones and drones captured in the space,and then used various objects, moving around and within the audience. i was then joined by lizzie pogson, who performed with a combination of sounds from the local area and japan. a very pleasant, nicely paced set. next up was tarab, creating vibrations through a plate attached to a wire mesh that makes up one side of the space,and then taking a signal from the mesh using contact mics and playing that back into the room. again nicely paced and a good use of space. tarab was then joined by jacques soddell for the short overlap crossover characteristic of 'active crossover' performances, which worked really well, with jacques playing what was arguably the most musical set of the evening and closing the event perfectly. thanks once again to eamon, lizzie and jacques, as well as the guys of punctum for their support and hosting the event.
over the next few days i was kindly hosted by eamon, emily and helki in melbourne, which gave me a chance to catch up with friends teresa lane, simon hampson and sophie trebilcock, as well as get some tattoo work done by kat scarlet (http://katscarlettattoo.blogspot.com/), reworking one old and one new piece, and then creating a new one for me in return for a food hamper when i'm back in the uk!! i also managed to finally get my second japanese encephalitis vaccine injection and my visa to visit china in july. itall cametogether nicely at the end of my trip, and it was great to see everyone and spend time.
then on the 2nd june i flew to bangkok airport, where i waited for around 11 hours for my friend emma to arrive, then we had to wait a further 6 hours to fly to phnom pen, cambodia. once there we were taken to a nice hotel on the riverside. we spent 2 nights in phnom penh, visiting the killing fields on the first day and arranging our visas to visit vietnam, and explored a little of the city. as many people will be expecting, here comes the food bit - fish amok is awesome in cambodia, as is lok lak. and as with most places, the best food is in the cafes and restaurants that the locals eat in!
from phnom penh we got a bus to siem reap, where we are now. on the first day we visited the main temples, took it easy yesterday,and then did a couple of the remaining ones today. i also recorded the dawn chorus at angkor wat today which was great - i even managed to escape the surprisingly big crowd of people, all of whom had gone to see the sunrise, which because of cloud was not so impressive... then we traveled further out to banteay srey, visiting ta prohm afterwards - this was the best for me, with the trees and the temple becoming as one in places. many tourist groups and a huge restoration centre made it difficult to get around but we managed.
so now we wait until 12am when we get a bus overnight to ho chi min city in vietnam. more later!
The last two weeks in Australia - part 1
so it seems from the last post that i had not played the show in sydney by the end of it, so i'll start there... i invited kate carr to join me in the performance, so we played in the same style as the active crossover events, with kate starting, playing a solo set of nice musical parts combined with field recordings. i then joined her for a short collaborative section where both of us were unsure who was playing what(!) and then i continued solo. after playing a laptop set combining recordings from the trip so far, i then proceeded too move around the room grinding two pieces of concrete together that i had obtained from some workmen outside of serial space. the grinding sound combined nicely with some metallic tones i left playing and worked well in the room. we had a nice appreciative crowd and the guys of the now now who organised the show were great. and of course it was a pleasure working and hanging out with kate.
heading back to melbourne the next day, i managed to catch up with anthea varigos, who also goes under the name 'chopin's lovechild' and who i have many mutual friends with, as she used to live in bristol. very nice to meet her after all this time as well as her fella and housemate, then had to run to the airport, fly into melbourne (to an airport waaay out of town called avalon), get a very expensive bus back to southern cross station, get a train to castlemaine that was delayed for over an hour because of an attempted suicide on the line, meet jacques soddell at castlemaine train station, take his speakers and connectors to the icu and then try and relax in preparation for setting up the installation over the next few days. thanks once again to jacques for the loan of all the equipment.
for the whole of the week i was in the icu space composing with my recordings and combining them with the compositions supplied by my 3 collaborators (lizzie pogson, jacques soddell and tarab/eamon sprod), working out speaker placement (6 active speakers), and also using my sound exciters once again to play sounds through resonant objects. it was great to have the time to get it all working without too much pressure. during that week i was also fortunate enough to have (a gorgeous african) dinner in melbourne with eamon, camilla hannan and lawrence english, who was in town for a couple of days.
also during that week i met r
heading back to melbourne the next day, i managed to catch up with anthea varigos, who also goes under the name 'chopin's lovechild' and who i have many mutual friends with, as she used to live in bristol. very nice to meet her after all this time as well as her fella and housemate, then had to run to the airport, fly into melbourne (to an airport waaay out of town called avalon), get a very expensive bus back to southern cross station, get a train to castlemaine that was delayed for over an hour because of an attempted suicide on the line, meet jacques soddell at castlemaine train station, take his speakers and connectors to the icu and then try and relax in preparation for setting up the installation over the next few days. thanks once again to jacques for the loan of all the equipment.
for the whole of the week i was in the icu space composing with my recordings and combining them with the compositions supplied by my 3 collaborators (lizzie pogson, jacques soddell and tarab/eamon sprod), working out speaker placement (6 active speakers), and also using my sound exciters once again to play sounds through resonant objects. it was great to have the time to get it all working without too much pressure. during that week i was also fortunate enough to have (a gorgeous african) dinner in melbourne with eamon, camilla hannan and lawrence english, who was in town for a couple of days.
also during that week i met r
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Castlemaine - Brisvegas (Brisbane) - Sydney
just when you thought i'd be updating once a month, here's a quick update from sydney, where i am being hosted by my new friend and great musician kate carr and her partner tanya.
i had to leave the house in castlemaine around 7am on 10th to drop off the keys to the i.c.u. and then catch the train to melbourne, then got the bus to the airport and printed off my boarding pass. then just checking with one of the virgin australia staff found out there was something up with my flight, as i was booked to fly at 12pm and the pass said 3pm! on complainingi found my flight had been cancelledand although put onstandby for the 2pm flight, had to take the 3pm, which got to me brisbane around 5:15pm. a frantic taxi ride got me to the venue i was performing in at around 6pm. thankfully the excellent sound engineer was ready and we got soundchecked super quick. so th show kicked off at 7 and i played at around 7:10, tentatively at first and then hitting my stride and giving the merzbow fans some melody mixed with more gritty textures and tones! i hope they liked it, although i didn't have too many adoring fans worshipping me afterwards...cured pink followed me, with motors affixed to industrial ducts moving around the audience, and then settling into a gently throbbing spacerock section - nice. a short break and then the man himself (merzbow) proceeded to blast everyone with a caustic set of white noise that was actually a processing of a self-made tin pan instrument played most of the time with a pasta scoop! i sat on the floor to soak up the low frequencies, and made sure my earplugs were rammed in, but even with that precaution my left ear was ringing for a while afterwards!
following the show lawrence english, who kindly added me to the bill, masami and i went to eat dinner - salt and pepper tofu, a mushroom hotpot and steamed greens - delicious! we were then joined by andrew, the driving force behind cured pink, and as masami and lawrence are not drinkers, when they decided to call it a night, i headed to 'the brunswick' with andrew and a couple of friends. it seems this is the place to go on a thursday night, and once again karaoke was on the menu. some great performances, including a rendition of ac/dc's 'back in black' from a guy who looked like thursday night karaoke might be the only time he left the house, and amazingly men at work's 'down under'! seemingly without too much irony!! what a night!
i stayed in a lovely room at the judith wright centre, where the event was hosted, so the following day headed into the city centre to have a wander around. i actually ended up at goma museum of modern art and spent quite a bit of time there.
later on i met with lawrence once again for food (mexican, which was pretty good) and then hung around to see the concert he had arranged. a very nice night and met loadsof very nice people, including greg hooper,who i met the following day for a japanese gyoza lunch. yep, talking great food again!!
we then parted company and i headed to the train station to catch my overnight train (which turned out to be a 3 hour bus ride and then a 12 hour train ride) to sydney.
i must have got more sleep than i thought i had, because all yesterday i actually felt quite fresh! kate had her mum visiting so i killed 4 hours by walking around sydney, stumbling over the opera house within the first hour of being there! after a bit more meandering and a spot of breakfast (the most expensive bacon and eggs i think i have ever had) i met up with kate and tanya, had a spot of lunch and headed back down to the harbour to visit the art museum in sydney, mainly as they had marclay's 'the clock' playing. some really great work there, but only catching 15 minutes of the clock i realised i need to go back and see it for a longer period....
amazing thai food (crispy basil pork belly - mmmm...) and then a couple of beers and not surprisingly i slept really well!!
today instead of going back tothe museum, i headed to chinatown for lunch, darwin harbour for a coffee and people watch, and a walk back through an area of outdoor supplies stores looking for a replacement soft shell and not finding anything under $200 australian. i think i'll stick with the one i have...
i had to leave the house in castlemaine around 7am on 10th to drop off the keys to the i.c.u. and then catch the train to melbourne, then got the bus to the airport and printed off my boarding pass. then just checking with one of the virgin australia staff found out there was something up with my flight, as i was booked to fly at 12pm and the pass said 3pm! on complainingi found my flight had been cancelledand although put onstandby for the 2pm flight, had to take the 3pm, which got to me brisbane around 5:15pm. a frantic taxi ride got me to the venue i was performing in at around 6pm. thankfully the excellent sound engineer was ready and we got soundchecked super quick. so th show kicked off at 7 and i played at around 7:10, tentatively at first and then hitting my stride and giving the merzbow fans some melody mixed with more gritty textures and tones! i hope they liked it, although i didn't have too many adoring fans worshipping me afterwards...cured pink followed me, with motors affixed to industrial ducts moving around the audience, and then settling into a gently throbbing spacerock section - nice. a short break and then the man himself (merzbow) proceeded to blast everyone with a caustic set of white noise that was actually a processing of a self-made tin pan instrument played most of the time with a pasta scoop! i sat on the floor to soak up the low frequencies, and made sure my earplugs were rammed in, but even with that precaution my left ear was ringing for a while afterwards!
following the show lawrence english, who kindly added me to the bill, masami and i went to eat dinner - salt and pepper tofu, a mushroom hotpot and steamed greens - delicious! we were then joined by andrew, the driving force behind cured pink, and as masami and lawrence are not drinkers, when they decided to call it a night, i headed to 'the brunswick' with andrew and a couple of friends. it seems this is the place to go on a thursday night, and once again karaoke was on the menu. some great performances, including a rendition of ac/dc's 'back in black' from a guy who looked like thursday night karaoke might be the only time he left the house, and amazingly men at work's 'down under'! seemingly without too much irony!! what a night!
i stayed in a lovely room at the judith wright centre, where the event was hosted, so the following day headed into the city centre to have a wander around. i actually ended up at goma museum of modern art and spent quite a bit of time there.
later on i met with lawrence once again for food (mexican, which was pretty good) and then hung around to see the concert he had arranged. a very nice night and met loadsof very nice people, including greg hooper,who i met the following day for a japanese gyoza lunch. yep, talking great food again!!
we then parted company and i headed to the train station to catch my overnight train (which turned out to be a 3 hour bus ride and then a 12 hour train ride) to sydney.
i must have got more sleep than i thought i had, because all yesterday i actually felt quite fresh! kate had her mum visiting so i killed 4 hours by walking around sydney, stumbling over the opera house within the first hour of being there! after a bit more meandering and a spot of breakfast (the most expensive bacon and eggs i think i have ever had) i met up with kate and tanya, had a spot of lunch and headed back down to the harbour to visit the art museum in sydney, mainly as they had marclay's 'the clock' playing. some really great work there, but only catching 15 minutes of the clock i realised i need to go back and see it for a longer period....
amazing thai food (crispy basil pork belly - mmmm...) and then a couple of beers and not surprisingly i slept really well!!
today instead of going back tothe museum, i headed to chinatown for lunch, darwin harbour for a coffee and people watch, and a walk back through an area of outdoor supplies stores looking for a replacement soft shell and not finding anything under $200 australian. i think i'll stick with the one i have...
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Buenos Aires - La Plata - a 2 day journey + a lost day - Castlemaine
updates are going to be more infrequent as the trip progresses i have realised, mainly because i am flat out busy all the time it seems!!
when i last wrote i was preparing for the performance at alianza francesa in buenos aires with my good friends alan (anla) courtis, juan jose calarco and alma laprida. however i completely missed out the presentation i gave on wednesday 25th at the cia, where we had a room full to bursting of people who listened attentatively to my history, thoughts and work... thanks to florencia and julia at cia, alan and fabiana for making it happen. i had to leave very quickly afterwards with jj and alma to play for a radio station based in buenos aires, which was kind of fun although i couldn't hear a thing through the guitar amp monitor.
the following night i ran a listening workshop from my buddy fernando perales's house - i had 3 participants, which was actually the perfect number for the exercises we did. we spent some time listening to the street from different positions on the roof of the building, then visited a nearby square where the locals were playing what looked like skittles, then tried to record some small detailed sound in the streets of buenos aires, which at 8pm in the evening is a very difficult thing to do! thanks to fernando for setting it up, and he and his partner rosa for feeding me that evening!
the friday alan and i arrived early in the afternoon to set up for the concert, then he had to go to work for a couple of hours, and alma and juan jose then set up and sound checked. and it turned out we had a 'green room' where we had snacks, juice, water, and most importantly 2 bottles of wine! thanks to leandro of mamba for that - much appreciated! we had a good sized crowd, and played in a new configuration of the 'active crossover' method of working, so we all played solo sets of around 15 minutes, but overlapped - so juanjo played first, followed by alma, then me, with alan closing - with an excellent bit of screaming into a netbook! after this we hit a pizza place and i had my first proper argentinian pizza - delicious, but so think with cheese i thought i was going to have a heart attack while eating it!!!
saturday i was invited to fernando's once again, this time to try asado - which consisted of chorizo and blood sausage as an entree, and then a huge piece of pork and an even bigger piece of beef, with ribs, and roasted potatoes - absolutely amazing, and i could hardly move afterwards!!
and then alan turned up to take me to retiro (the main bus and train station in buenos aires) to meet jj and alma, and then we headed to la plata, a nearby city, to play in the back room of the great store 'mal de muchas'. jose de diego and cristian carracedo kicked off with sub-bass and scraping metal object on turntable action - a very nice 15 miniute set that entranced the audience, then the four of us once again played a solo set with overlaps session, with alma starting with great performative gestures, then alan blasting everyone's eardrums with white noise, then me and juan jose finishing up in his elegant understated way. i felt the energy was much better than the previous night, even though everyone else felt their set was worse...
and then the dreaded day arrived - i had not only to leave argentina, but also had a 50+ hour journey ahead of me... taxi to the shuttle bus, then to the airport in buenos aires, a flight to santiago, chile; a flight to toronto, canada; an 8 hour wait in toronto airport; a flight to vancouver; a 6 hour wait in vancouver; a flight to sydney, australia; a 4 hour wait in sydney airport; a flight to melbourne; a 2 hour wait in melbourne airport; a bus trip of around an hour and a half to castlemaine... then met by jude and krista of punctum, who showed me to where i am staying while here, and then the space i will be working in (icu).
the lost day in the title refers to me crossing the international date line so i actually arrived in australia a day later than i thought i would!
so far here i have explored the route to and from the house to the icu; been visited by eamon sprod (aka tarab); met another collaborator - jacques soddell - who will kindly be supplying the speaker system for the installation also; visited melbourne with eamon, where i met his lovely family, partner emily and daughter helki; played a show at tape projects alongside tarab himself, jesse scott & alice hui-sheng chang and tim catlin - a fantastic sunday afternoon - evening event that was a pleasure to be part of.
thanks eamon for everything!
and also got to catch up briefly with teresa lane, whom i met in tallin, estonia in 2009 when i was artist-in-residence at the polymer factory.
yesterday (7th may) eamon and i headed back to castlemaine - after some delicious indonesian food for lunch/brunch - to record more material in the icu for our performance and installation pieces. the highlight was a point where i was bowing a metal dustpan with a violin bow and eamon was doing the same with the large round base of a metal post, with a thin rod of metal, creating some incredible tones that bounced around and filled the space - thankfully we have both recorded it so will have to hear the results and maybe combine them!
today lizzie pogson, the fourth collaborator for 'active crossover: seedpod', came to castlemaine from trentham and took us to the dredger near maldon: http://www.maldon.org.au/attractions/DD.html which we had to clamber along rusty cables to get to, but was a playground for the three of us for a good couple of hours!! thanks lizzie!
on returning i managed to get my laundry done - i was completely out of underwear!! - and purchase the next travel book - 'the diceman', which looks pretty dark, but will be a good follow on from 'the adventures of sherlock holmes' which i have enjoyed over the last month of plane flights - although towards the end i couldn't help thinking 'surely you can see where this is going, watson.... even i can!'... still, i love the way conan doyle describes both holmes and 19th century london...
when i last wrote i was preparing for the performance at alianza francesa in buenos aires with my good friends alan (anla) courtis, juan jose calarco and alma laprida. however i completely missed out the presentation i gave on wednesday 25th at the cia, where we had a room full to bursting of people who listened attentatively to my history, thoughts and work... thanks to florencia and julia at cia, alan and fabiana for making it happen. i had to leave very quickly afterwards with jj and alma to play for a radio station based in buenos aires, which was kind of fun although i couldn't hear a thing through the guitar amp monitor.
the following night i ran a listening workshop from my buddy fernando perales's house - i had 3 participants, which was actually the perfect number for the exercises we did. we spent some time listening to the street from different positions on the roof of the building, then visited a nearby square where the locals were playing what looked like skittles, then tried to record some small detailed sound in the streets of buenos aires, which at 8pm in the evening is a very difficult thing to do! thanks to fernando for setting it up, and he and his partner rosa for feeding me that evening!
the friday alan and i arrived early in the afternoon to set up for the concert, then he had to go to work for a couple of hours, and alma and juan jose then set up and sound checked. and it turned out we had a 'green room' where we had snacks, juice, water, and most importantly 2 bottles of wine! thanks to leandro of mamba for that - much appreciated! we had a good sized crowd, and played in a new configuration of the 'active crossover' method of working, so we all played solo sets of around 15 minutes, but overlapped - so juanjo played first, followed by alma, then me, with alan closing - with an excellent bit of screaming into a netbook! after this we hit a pizza place and i had my first proper argentinian pizza - delicious, but so think with cheese i thought i was going to have a heart attack while eating it!!!
saturday i was invited to fernando's once again, this time to try asado - which consisted of chorizo and blood sausage as an entree, and then a huge piece of pork and an even bigger piece of beef, with ribs, and roasted potatoes - absolutely amazing, and i could hardly move afterwards!!
and then alan turned up to take me to retiro (the main bus and train station in buenos aires) to meet jj and alma, and then we headed to la plata, a nearby city, to play in the back room of the great store 'mal de muchas'. jose de diego and cristian carracedo kicked off with sub-bass and scraping metal object on turntable action - a very nice 15 miniute set that entranced the audience, then the four of us once again played a solo set with overlaps session, with alma starting with great performative gestures, then alan blasting everyone's eardrums with white noise, then me and juan jose finishing up in his elegant understated way. i felt the energy was much better than the previous night, even though everyone else felt their set was worse...
and then the dreaded day arrived - i had not only to leave argentina, but also had a 50+ hour journey ahead of me... taxi to the shuttle bus, then to the airport in buenos aires, a flight to santiago, chile; a flight to toronto, canada; an 8 hour wait in toronto airport; a flight to vancouver; a 6 hour wait in vancouver; a flight to sydney, australia; a 4 hour wait in sydney airport; a flight to melbourne; a 2 hour wait in melbourne airport; a bus trip of around an hour and a half to castlemaine... then met by jude and krista of punctum, who showed me to where i am staying while here, and then the space i will be working in (icu).
the lost day in the title refers to me crossing the international date line so i actually arrived in australia a day later than i thought i would!
so far here i have explored the route to and from the house to the icu; been visited by eamon sprod (aka tarab); met another collaborator - jacques soddell - who will kindly be supplying the speaker system for the installation also; visited melbourne with eamon, where i met his lovely family, partner emily and daughter helki; played a show at tape projects alongside tarab himself, jesse scott & alice hui-sheng chang and tim catlin - a fantastic sunday afternoon - evening event that was a pleasure to be part of.
thanks eamon for everything!
and also got to catch up briefly with teresa lane, whom i met in tallin, estonia in 2009 when i was artist-in-residence at the polymer factory.
yesterday (7th may) eamon and i headed back to castlemaine - after some delicious indonesian food for lunch/brunch - to record more material in the icu for our performance and installation pieces. the highlight was a point where i was bowing a metal dustpan with a violin bow and eamon was doing the same with the large round base of a metal post, with a thin rod of metal, creating some incredible tones that bounced around and filled the space - thankfully we have both recorded it so will have to hear the results and maybe combine them!
today lizzie pogson, the fourth collaborator for 'active crossover: seedpod', came to castlemaine from trentham and took us to the dredger near maldon: http://www.maldon.org.au/attractions/DD.html which we had to clamber along rusty cables to get to, but was a playground for the three of us for a good couple of hours!! thanks lizzie!
on returning i managed to get my laundry done - i was completely out of underwear!! - and purchase the next travel book - 'the diceman', which looks pretty dark, but will be a good follow on from 'the adventures of sherlock holmes' which i have enjoyed over the last month of plane flights - although towards the end i couldn't help thinking 'surely you can see where this is going, watson.... even i can!'... still, i love the way conan doyle describes both holmes and 19th century london...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)