I've been updating my songkick account tonight and it's had me reminiscing about old gigs.
Especially the early ones that I can't remember full details of. Motor ace and Taxi ride specifically.

Taxi Ride are an interesting one, definitely one of the first original bands I ever saw live, I know there was a night at The Hallam with Sneak and Deadstar supporting - before that there was a night at The Prince of Wales, and I know neither of those were the first time I saw them live.

I was scouring the net unsuccessfully to find dates of these gigs, I suspect they were in 1999 or 2000 or at latest 2001 as one of the band members left in 2001 and I was well over TR by the time that happened.

I came across a message board, not old enough to be useful but it did remind me that I had been moderatly active on a taxi ride message board back in the day. I'm sure it's long deleted but there were a few things I remember.

1. It was my first introduction to true groupies, and I realised that I was never going to be one of them!
2. It was my first experience of making 'friends' with people online that I subsequently met up with in real life
3. It was when I realised that people online are always sicker, more depressed, more popular, more liked by the band - basically 'more' anything that makes them feel like they're important - when in reality they're probably not

It also reminded me of a funny situation that happened - at the PoW gig we met a girl, she was nice, from Sydney (yes she travelled the east coast to see taxi ride, and this was the first time Id met anyone that followed a band!) and we became sort of friends.
She came to Melbourne for the Hallam gig and stayed a couple of nights with us. I was still working at Target at this stage (another indicator that this was pre 2001).
TR were playing at one of the Myer Melbourne fashion shows and so of course we had to go see them.
Me and Manda tagged along and lo and behold discovered that we were supposed to run, literally run, up the stairs to the seats so we could sit close to the band. Now, we'd never done anything like that before so we went along with it - but I think that was the first inckling we had that we were never going to be that sort of fan, it was a tad bit embarrasing!

Moving on, I dropped her off at one of the band members houses one day - ok I was a bit naive at the time, but yes indeed she was a proper groupie, sleeping with him when he felt like it (and I'm almost ashamed of how naive I was about this, I'm pretty sure that Andrew - a mate in a cover band - subsequently told me that was what was happening, years later when we were telling him about the events... he knew the TR boys and it had come up that we'd known a proper groupie and stories had to be told!)

Finally we went to the Hallam gig. I think this was the gig that sneak and deadstar were supporting, but equally I'm not sure as I don't remember the girl (I can't remember her name) being with us.
I remember dancing around the middle of a packed dancefloor to deadstar - I remember standing at the front of the stage for sneak (I don't remember that being the same gig but the internet tells me it was!)
I remember having Anne with us at Deadstar and Chantelle at Sneak. I remember me and Chantelle being so over taxiride and really enjoying sneak and chanting bring back sneak when they finished!

I do remember the end of the gig with the groupie. It was the one and only time I've waited at a stage door for a band to come out. It was cold and me, manda and Chantelle/Anne (at least one of them was there) were jumping up and down singing grinspoon and green day songs.
When the band finally came out Tim Watson (who I'd met when he was in a cover band and did not expect him to remember me - and he didn't :) ) walked straight past all the girls at the door ignoring the lot of them, down to our little jumping circle, who were oblivious to his arrival - said to us something like "thanks for coming guys" to which we just waved and kept singing and he was off.
The other band members did stop and say something to the groupies, but every one of them headed to us before leaving - it was weird and later, when we became friends with Pean and then Adam 12 and a few others - who were only cover bands but by gee they attracted groupies, we realised we must have been oddities at taxiride that night and that possibly is what made the boys wander past.
Either way we didn't particularly interact with them and just wanted to go home!

So - I wanted to capture that memory as it comes back every now and again and the reaction of the band that night, along with actually being friends with people who attracted groupies - and subsequently having girls attempt to be friends with us because we knew the band - certainly had a big impact on how we act.
Mind you, I think the reason we became actual friends with the cover band guys was due to the fact we treated them like normal people. With Pean we were always girls that got to know the band, but started as fans.
With Adam 12 we met Ben and Andrew not knowing they were in a band and it grew from there. Subsequent band guys we met and interacted with tended to be ones we met either at an Adam 12 gig or at a Crazy Haus gig when we were there with some of the Adam 12 boys so we had some credibility when we met them. Which, actually we became friends with some of the CH boys - who had seen us at gigs for a long time, we were regulars at a couple of venues for them, so they knew us before A12, but we became much more interesting to them when we were clearly friends with Ben and Andrew and not just groupies.
Interestingly, Kristin was the one that was the wariest of us when we first met, understandably so, and he's the one that it's turned out the friendship has truly remained a friendship not just a gig thing.
Which makes me feel even worse that I didn't manage to catch up with him when I was back home. Too many people, too many emotional dramas and too little time sigh, must make a concerted effort next time to have him top of my list!

And that's tonights memories, I'm going to stop thinking now so I can stop typing and sleep!

back in london
I missed the change from super winter to start of spring so it was strange to wake up and look out this morning and see the trees with leaves on them
its sunny so everything is pretty
but still freeeezing cold so I'm camping out inside today
missing the melbourne peeps & the city, but that's to be expected!

it's good to be home
it's even better that I've made a new friend
and the best is seeing the people I love

still feeling all agitated
am slightly nervous about going home, not sure why, not even 100% sure it's nerves
maybe it's just excitement
whatever it is I am really looking forward to a few weeks of relaxing and seeing people I care about again

uncontrollable itching
damn allergies

I'm all agitated and insomniacy at the moment.
There's no real reason for it.

I think it might just be excitement and anxiety for friends who have big things going on right now.
(I can accept that as a good reason to feel like this)

Hopefully that's all it is cause then things will calm down in a few days.

ignore my last self indulgent post, I have come to a conclusion!

Someone asked me today, if money and talent were no object what would you want to do with your life?

My initial response was travel the world as a city/landscape photographer.

They then said cool, but would you be truly happy?

That made me stop and think. Photography satisfies my creative side. But there is another side, actually a bigger side that wants to constantly challenge my intellect.

I love what I do. Whether it's a job that requires data mining, trend and root cause analysis, coding, project management, information architecture, user experience process design or solution strategising. The thought of spending my life without the opportunity to challenge my mind in a role that requires skills such as the above, well, it's a scary thought.

I need to do the creative stuff, it relaxes my mind. But, if I'm honest with myself it's not something I'd want to be the focus of my life.

and a side note.. I'm filling in for the Product Director while she's away, which leaves me in charge of running the development team through the development cycle to release. Got a release out today (which I only had to do the release for not the cycle) which means we're ready Monday to start the next project cycle... I'm sure all will go well for next Friday's release :D

I've realised something this morning.
I miss Australia.

It's not the people (although I do miss them!) as I will miss people wherever I go in the world now.

It's the country.
It's taken me nearly 4 years to realise it, but Australia is home and although I hate the heat and the country is a harsh country, it's my country and I think I will eventually move back there.

schamp guides have decided to include a photo of mine in their Hyde Park & Kensington Gardens section!
http://www.schmap.com/london/toppicks_attractions/#p=528&i=528_38.jpg

They found it on flickr and decided it was what they wanted.
It's really nice to have someone completely independent of me (ie not family, friends or a teacher) tell me my work is good!

schmap guides are pretty cool, I hadn't heard of them before but they cover all the major cities in the world and are brilliant on the iPhone.

I put a shirt on this morning, looked in the mirror and realised it's no longer just big on me, it's way too big and looks awful.

Not to worry I thought, it's getting warmer, I'll put one of my knitted vests over it.
Um yes, well they're too big too!
I finally found a vest at the back of my drawer that had shrunk a bit over the years and managed to look decent for work today.

I'm going to have to invest in some more shirts soon.

sigh, the problem with losing weight is it costs you money!

I'm feeling amazingly good.
My health is coming back on track and just feels like it's getting better daily.
It's getting warm again - 10 degrees today!
We're seeing a bit of sun.
3 week holiday in Aus is looming.
Birthday plans are set in stone (hooray for Download festival).

I've also realised that London will never feel like home.
When I first came over I said I'd be here 5 years.
From the way things stand now, March next year is the earliest I should consider leaving my job (stock options and things mean it's crazy to leave before that.)
July next year will be 5 years.

So while I've been thinking about leaving London and possibly moving home to Melbourne.
I've at least another year/year 1/2 left here.
I've some big travel plans to undertake before I leave so I'm busy deciding on where to go on weekends to make the most of the time. This weekend is a tooth extraction (eek), next weekend I'll be in the midst of a health fixing up project, then the weekend after, I'm thinking maybe a day trip to Cardiff :)

super homesick and counting down the days to holiday

I've been missing home for a while, but everything really hit with the fires and just seeing the stories of everyone pulling together and just being so Australian. I've realised I miss feeling that sense of community and national pride - it just doesn't exist over here.

It's times like this that you remember the most important things in your life are the people.
It also makes you want to just get on a plane and gather all the people you love in one place so you know they're ok.

My heart goes out to everyone who's lost someone or something in the Victorian bush fires.
I think all Australians, wherever they are in the world, have been affected

everyone says the longer you do it the easier it gets
everyone says you get used to not eating sweet things (and wheat, dairy etc. etc.)
everyone says stick with it you'll feel better

OK so physical symptoms have clearly improved, brain fog is gone, the random aches and pains are going and generally feel healthier. Physically.

Mentally I'm a mess, it gets harder and harder every day.
I'm so focused on food and preparing food and having the right food and enough of it in the house that I'm forgetting other things.

I think it's because everything takes an effort, nothing is easy. You have to think about food, prepare food, prepare juice and it all takes time. You can't just be tired and grab something easy to eat. There is nothing easy to eat.

Maybe it's because I'm not used to having to work for things, things come easily and I'm not used to putting in an effort with anything.

But it's getting harder and I don't like it.

I hate this stupid diet, I'm not sure even why I'm still sticking to it now - other than the fact that I have to see my naturopath again in a few weeks and I don't like failing in front of people.

Don't know how long I can keep this up though, it's getting harder not easier.
Even the fact that I do feel less foggy and don't feel the need to pass out every time I eat isn't enough to stop me being angry every time I think of food. :(

Started getting gig tickets for next year
felt a bit lost the last couple of weeks due to having nothing planned - no gigs, no holidays - its been a while since I'd been in that sitch.

So, no really great bands have announced 2009 tours that I know of, but Manda likes Boys Like Girls so got tickets for them, and Attack! Attack! are supporting someone in Feb so got tix for them too.

At least there's something solidly booked for 2009 now.
Next thing is to sort out holiday dates and places but that can wait until mid-Jan.

I've been busy writing lately
few different types of things
some throw away fiction
some blogs on various bits and pieces that interest me
and some businessy stuff that I really care about (not for my current job, more for myself)

annoyingly the stuff I care least about is coming really easily and the stuff I care most about I can't seem to make sound right.

Maybe I'm just overthinking the stuff I care about.
All through school and the bit of uni I attended I generally got much better marks on a first draft than on a third or fourth - and by better I mean the difference between an A/HD and a D/Pass - it was that drastic.
The rule of thumb may be write it, put it down, reread and edit once and leave it at that!

O2 have responded and confirmed my order is in progress and DHL will be in contact about delivery.
Must say, turn around on email response was good and they did answer all my questions (that I wrote, I now have other questions but those can wait until delivery is confirmed and the iphone received).

We'll see what happens over the next week

for the first time in my life I failed a credit check (thanks O2)

after much freaking out that my identity had been stolen, or that I'd completely forgotten that I owed someone money - I paid my £15 and got a credit report.
Turns out my credit is excellent, way off the scale for goodness.
However... I've been registered on the electoral roll for 2 years - some companies want to see 3 years on the roll at your address, from reading the forums it sounds like a lot of people fail O2s credit check for this reason.

So, have since spoken to their credit department, provided more information and been told my check passed.
They've taken my money for the phone and setup
and I've heard nothing about what is happening with my order... great start to a partnership with them.

Have dropped them an email and will attempt to call them again tomorrow
not surprisingly, there is no clear number to call if you've ordered and want to chase it up.
There's a 'new order sales team' and an 'existing customer service team' but nothing in between!!!

Here's hoping my order is accepted and I'll get a phone delivered soon
otherwise I'm going to have to go chase the money they took from me
sigh