¡NEW YORK!

So work is done and we're heading down under for a holiday! On our way back we spent 3 days in New York and I loved every minute of it.


As soon as we arrived at our hotel I was eager to go and check the place out so after some obligatory peperoni pizza we decided a bus tour might be fun. As luck would have it just across the street we found the best, fastest and cheapest bus tour in all of NY. By that I mean: the worst, slowest and most expensive bus tour EVER. The kind of in depth information included in the tour? "this is the avenue of the Americas, named after the countries that share the American continent. America..... Canada..... and.... all the other countries." It ended up being a good laugh though and was a good way to have a "quick" look around.

We went out for some dinner at nice little Italian restaurant and afterwards Emma and I managed to find a beautiful bar in a park behind the ghostbusters library where we sat and had a few drinks. There is something really cool about being able to sit in a park with these gigantic buildings surrounding you on a clear night.


The next day it was time to get up and go and have a look at the city from upstairs so we headed off to the Roosevelt Centre. I was a bit worried because Catherine is a little scared of heights and a friend had told me that the elevator up to the viewing deck had a glass floor but luckily for everyone it ended up being a glass roof so that little crisis was averted and the view from the top was incredible.


From there we walked down to Central Park to have a bit of a relax. Again the contrast between skyscrapers and nature is amazing here. Another cool thing is that it almost feels like you are walking on a film set as there are soo many familiar landmarks from films. There are also lots of dogs in New York, which is something that you don't really see in London. Another thing you don't really see is a lady pick up her fairly sizeable dog, place it in a snug fitting bag then continue walking down the street. Anyway after a wander and some lunch we headed down to Soho and spent the rest of the day looking for a pub.




But all of this is only the warm up for New York's most famous of institutions Rock Kareoke! Monday night is party night with a live band mixing equal parts Kareoke, Rock and Roll and crazy New Yorkers with a flair for performing. Even though I missed out on getting to sing it was awesome fun. Big thanks to Andy and Theo for taking us.



The bad thing about all forms of Kareoke is the next day and being in New York in 34 degree heat with a hang-over doesn't make for happy people but we still had things to do and see so we were up early and off to try and get some tickets for a broadway show! We ended up getting tickets and spent the rest of the day walking around eating and just enjoying the weather and the city.



Then way too soon it was time for us to leave, take it away littlest hobo:

..there's a place,
that keeps on calling me...

Last day at the store

I woke up and suddenly it was my last day working on The Golden Compass. No more bears, No more armour, No more armoured bears. It's been an amazing 9 months so thank you to everyone involved.

The only thing left for me to do now is....

gig month

As you know August is gig month so in keeping with the spirit of things I've tried to get along to a few events lately. First on the list was Kings of Leon. Was pretty stoked about this one cause I really like 'em and we got tickets just before they really exploded over here and started playing arena shows. The concert though was a bit hit and miss. Oh well.

The next day we rented a spur of the moment convertible and drove down to Brighton to see Damien Rice. He's an irish singer/songwriter who plays quite sad songs but luckily after a few tracks he announced "right, that's all the slow depressing stuff out of the way" and played some really upbeat rockin tunes. To be fair though even the slow depressing stuff was amazing, he has an incredible voice and he put on a great show. The highlight was his theatrical re-creation of a drunken night spent wooing a girl who ended up having a boyfriend.


Our next outing was to the Red Bull Air Race which is basically a timed course that is raced by stunt planes. As usual the weather was amazing... and it was a fun day out. The funny thing is that the pilots are invariably older super experienced pilots (a 60 year old guy from turkey with a crazy moustache ended up finishing 2nd) doing really extreme flying, very, very fast. It's great fun to watch.


We were also lucky enough to get tickets to go and see the opening night of Prince's 21 night hits tour here in London. This was the one concert that everyone was most excited about. All the songs we wanted to hear were played and it was a really cool show.


After he'd played the encore the house lights came on and everyone began to leave. We had to hang around for the after party so we stayed anyway and it was lucky we did cause about 10 mins later Prince came back on stage with his guitar and began playing more of his classic songs. Since everyone had left we were able to go right down the front too and it really mde the night. Then we headed onto the after party where Prince's band jammed out some funky tunes then Prince came on and played some amazing guitar and sung a couple more songs.



By now gig month was really getting into the swing you'd see people walking around in a musical daze from having been to soo many shows but for me it was finally time for the big daddy of all concerts, the one that I was most looking forward too... Silverchair! Amazing vibe, amazing sound, it was pretty much australia comes to Brixton. I can tell ya nothing helps a bout of homesickness like a band from home. I can't remember a concert with a better atmosphere. Everyone was singing along the band was thanking everyone for coming out every few songs.


...and even though technically it is september now last night we saw a couple of cool bands and a randomn pub. Well it's coming up to a year that I've been here now not sure how much longer this blog will survive but I reckon there is a few entries left in me so stay tuned.

Oxford MotoGP

It was the British MotoGP last weekend so we thought why not rent a car and go do some exploring on our way to the race. We decided to go to Oxford and our visit was given a kick start when we were introduced to the owls from the local Owl sanctuary upon arrival. HA! then we walked around taking in the sights and eating scones and jam. It was a typical english day.


We even stumbled across some of the locations for "the golden compass" (the movie we are working on) which must be doing some re-shoots cause they were preparing all the lights etc for that night.



Oxford is a really beautiful little town but we couldn't hang around we still needed to find some accomodation for the night somewhere near the track. We thought maybe a little country inn/pub somewhere would suit us but by 11:30 that night we had given up on the idea of an inn and of the idea of near the track. A motel very very far from the track was the best/only thing we could find. We did however see loads of the countryside during our evermore frantic search for somewhere to sleep that wasn't our car.

Next day we woke up and drove to the track and it was pouring with rain. When we finally got into the circuit it was exactly what I had expected for a Britsh MotoGP... wet. In fact it would almost have been a disappointment if it had stayed dry (we are in England after all). If only we had bought those wellies. Oh well....



I had been worried that the new bikes (now 800cc not 990cc) wouldn't be as loud but I was wrong. The first lap proved that beyond any doubt. At other GP's I have always been a little further away from the bikes but we were sitting right next to the track and they are still tear the fabric of sound LOUD!


The one thing I didn't expect was the level of reserve in the crowd. There was a round of applause for the leader as he came around and also for Rossi but that was it. Needless to say it was easy to spot the aussie sat in the middle of it all yelling "C'mon! aussie C'mon!" everytime the bikes came by. Thankfully when the race was over the crowd dutifully invaded the track and it felt a little more like a proper GP. The aussies finished 1st and 3rd and we got to listen to the national anthem from right in front of the podium.


After the race we walked around the paddock for a while and stumbled onto the Ducati stand where we found the entire range of Ducati motorcycles arranged for anyone to sit on... I sat on! :D Well done Ducati.

When I say Motley, you say?

I went to see Motley Crue and it was awesome! It's worth the ticket price just to see the people outside before the show, everyone there had decided to forget the last 20 years and showed up in there 80's rock sunday best. From way too long hair to tight green leopard skin dresses it was all happening. The show opened with Vince Neil shooting fireballs out over the audience from a gatling gun then went straight into Dr. Feelgood (a fire and spark explosion fiesta) and from there it was all on. There were lighter's held high for "don't go away mad, just go away" and the finale "kickstart my heart" had the whole crowd singing along to what was basically Sydney's new years fireworks display inside the apollo theatre. It was great.

Croatia (part 2)

Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful places I have been. Split was like being in another time but Dubrovnik is like a different world. We stayed there for a few days and just relaxed and did holiday thing's like: swimming at the beach with the old town in the background...

... drinking beer...

... eating more seafood...

...walking the walls of the old town and sunbathing...

We also met up with our friend Amanda who came down with her folks and had a relax on the beach. Mostly we just chilled and basked in the sunshine :D it was fantastic.

Croatia (part 1)

We recently spend 10 days in Croatia which was great fun. We flew into Split and worked our way south through various different islands until finally reaching Dubrovnik. This part of Croatia is very heavily influenced by italian culture and it is absolutely beautiful.



In Split we stayed in a small hotel inside the old palace (built in 300 A.D. by a roman emperor). There really is nothing even close to this at home, you walk around on stone streets (very slippery) surrounded by sphinx and beautiful old buildings, it's a really fantastic place. The food is all seafood and pasta but i LOVE seafood and pasta so that's ok with me.


We hopped on a ferry and went over to our next destination Hvar. Unfortunately when we got there our accomodation had been double booked. So we spent the arvo rushing around trying to get our deposit back and find somewhere new to stay... which could have been really boring but I rented a scooter and it ended up being great fun! and soon enough we were sitting enjoying our closer/cheaper/better view.


One day we rented a small boat and went out to the neighbouring islands for the day. We ended up tying the boat up to some rocks and jumping into the crystal clear water for a swim and just lazing around. On the way home though we got caught in the middle of a passing storm which turned our pleasant cruise into a bit of an adventure ("it's an adventure! go back!"). We putted back into port looking like a couple of drowned rats which must have looked weird cause the storm had passed and there was nothing but sunshine in town.



Amongst days of lazing in the sun and swimming in the sea we also ended up renting another scooter (500cc this time not 50cc) and driving through the mountains of the island to another little town. It was one of the best rides of my life and the closest I have come to the opening of the italian job. Beautiful weather, awesome windy hilly roads with sheer drops overlooking spectacular views. Really great fun.


We changed our plans a little bit (thanks to Croatia's "relaxed" view about updating ferry timetables) and decided to go to another island Korcula on our way to Dubrovnik...

Budapest

Budapest in Easter can only be described as a city of delicious cake and shatterred dreams...


Our first day started with a walk up Castle Hill (a much more appropriate name than Castle Hill in Western Sydney, trust me) to the Palace and let's face it, the cake shops. There is a beautiful little village up there with heaps of antique shops (selling "genuine" antiques from the socialist era) and also a couple of markets. It was morning though and the promise of a good coffee was a powerful mistress so we headed on to the areas most famous Cake shop and were not disappointed.


The sugar and coffee high provided just the right motivation for me to go into an antique shop and ask if I could try on what looked to be a space helmet. A few moments later I had my head stuck in a rubber balaclava half way inside an antique helmet and had begun to regret my decision. It's amazing how quickly radioactive thoughts flood into your head in this situation but luckily the helmet was soon removed and I settled on a roomier fighter pilot helmet from the same shelf.




The rest of the day was spent doing the tourist thing, trying on some wacky hats and checking out the sights. Then at night we got some fantastic food at little restaurant by the hotel followed by the strongest shot of anything I have ever tried. I coughed my way back home but it had been a good day.


Pest was the next place to visit and the morning found us searching it's streets for cake. We found what were looking for and then spent some time wandering around some little markets. Somewhere along the line we decided that it might be fun to go and see an opera but as we were to discover nothing kills inspiration like a 6 hour running time... we decided instead on the Bath option.


Medicinal Baths are big in Budapest and when in Rome... we didn't go to any baths. In Budapest though! It's quite a weird feeling having your arms floating around in what feels almost like 0 gravity. You sit there for 5 mins thinking "I am completely relaxed" then 5 mins later you feel your muscles let go a bit more and now you are completely relaxed, until another 5 mins is up and then you are even more relaxed! Of course when you walk up a million steps straight after, in what can only be described as suspect forward planning, the benefits are somewhat short lived. The view however is amazing, the fact that your girlfriend is scared of heights is again not ideal...


There are certain things that really don't need to be done on holiday. The House of Terror in Budapest is one of those things. Sounds like a ride at a fun park right? Ba-bow. It's the place where the communist's tortured and killed people. Must see?!? Bad tourist book! Anyway after being thoroughly depressed we were thrown a life line by the theatre across the street. A big sign advertised "The Odyssey" in Puppet form. The Odyssey? with Puppets? C'MON! the news from the ticket desk however was not good. There would be no Odyssey tonight.


So we headed instead to the amusement park. How good are Rollercoasters? How good is watching your girl overcome her fear of them and want to go on increasingly bigger rides. How bad is the pirate ship? looking into the eyes of the girl in front of you hoping that they don't puke in your face. Good times, good times.



After the adrenaline rush had worn off we wandered back and decided once again to put our faith in the guide book. It's promise of jousting knight displays every evening were too tempting too pass up but when we arrived it was puppet theatre all over again. Firstly the restaurtant was worryingly small to host any kind of jousting display but the armoured knight standing at the door gave me hope so I asked him:

"Umm I don't supposse that there are jousting displays held here every night?"
"HAHA! NO!"
"...... thanks."

He was wearing a suit of armour and yet I looked like an idiot. It had been that kind of day. We did stumble on a fantastic Indian restaurant though and ended our trip with a stroll along the river at night and a cruise the next day. All in all it had been a very fun trip.