July 2011, including Benicassim and Barcelona, 13-23 July

The weekend of July started with an impulse ticket buy - to Pulp at Wireless in Hyde Park. Metronomy and The Naked and Famous were also playing, both of which Rob is quite into. Unfortunately we just missed Metronomy, as we were standing in the queue to get in, but from what we heard from outside the park they were pretty good. The Naked and Famous were a little bit disappointing. A lot of their songs are a bit rambling and nowhere near as catchy as their much-played single. As we were waiting for Pulp to start I was starting to realise how much I was looking forward to this. And Jarvis did not disappoint. He's engaging, witty, talented, and played all the crowd favourites. The best thing was that he had a little anecdote about a lot of the songs they did, and about his time at art school in London. Rob enjoyed it as well, even though he only knew a couple of the songs.

The next night, Monday, we caught up with Si and the crew at the Half Moon - if I haven't mentioned it before, its a pub on Lower Richmond Road in Putney that has singer songwriter nights every Monday night. We keep meaning to go a lot more often than we actually do, but I suppose it makes it more special when we do go. There's some really talented individuals and groups there, and this night was no exception.

The next weekend Georgia had organised a theatre/tour called Accomplice.(http://www.accomplicetheshow.com/details-london.php) The rough outline is that it is an interactive experience where you are part of a mystery that you have to solve by walking around London and finding clues. At strategic spots people from the Accomplice team met us and gave us a little bit more of the back story and another clue. There were around 10 of us in the group and there was much speculation and brain-teasing. Without giving too much away, it was a fantastic afternoon out.

Then on Wednesday we left for Spain. We flew to Barcelona and took the train from Barcelona to Benicassim. We were staying in pretty much the only hotel I could find with available spaces (I think I was trying to book to early, but didn't want to miss out). They all hike their prices for the music festival, but the hotel had had good reviews. And sure enough our room was big and comfortable, and the breakfast was a pretty good continental breakfast with the obligatory dodgy scrambled eggs and sausages in the warmer. The town is a small seaside town, that every year gets absolutely packed out for the Benicassim Music Festival. All of the restaurants suddenly sport big blackboard menus boasting English Breakfasts, Chicken and Potatoes (meaning chips) and Pizza. My favourite was the board advertising Strambled Eggs. On the first night we had a bit of a wander round the town, taking advantage of the lovely warm weather, and found a pre-festival band playing off a truck. We went to the beach and took in the sand, empty of people but with a lot of debris that gave us a clue that the daytimes would be packed.

The Festival was to start on Thursday. The plan was we would sleep in every day, hang out on the beach or by the pool, and then have a nap in the afternoon before heading out for nights full of music. Which is pretty much what we did. After a nice lazy day (I finished The Stand while we were in Benicassim - which is a big, big book! That's how much reading by the pool I was doing, lol), we headed to the Festival. It was a fair walk, part of which was on a motorway, but we finally got there. The grounds are all concrete, which I suppose makes it easier to clean up, but it seemed odd when we first got there.

There wasn't too much on on the Thursday night that we cared too much about. In the end, we watched a little bit of Russian Red, Paolo Nutini (which Rob was NOT thrilled about), Plan B and The Streets. We were really disappointed with the Streets, despite not even having very high expectations. The guy (I can't remember his name) sounded even more off-key than usual and the guy rapping with him did not harmonise with him at all. We missed Chase and Status and Pendulum because we'd had enough and couldn't be bothered waiting round for them.

 On Friday night we started with some English comedy in a stifling hot tent. There was some pretty average acts alright, but most of them did pretty well with the heat and lethargy of the crowd. After that we were both really excited to see Brandon Flowers.

We got places right up by the fence that divides the Mosh Pit from the rest of the crowd. He was amazing, and the set was fantastic.

After Brandon Flowers was Elbow, which I had been looking forward to but turned out to be pretty boring. And the lead singer kept getting upset with the crowd and telling people to move back. We decided to stay where we were for The Strokes, (which was the band I'd been looking forward to the most) which was a big mistake. When they started with New York City Girls, the surge of the crowd smashed us up against the fence. We tried to hold our ground but got a glass of vodka thrown in our eyes for our troubles. We quickly made a run for it to the outskirts but refused to let it dampen our spirits and enjoyed the rest of the set, which was as dark, sexy and catchy as The Strokes ever are. Julien Casablancas was the epitome of cool with shades on during the whole performance. We couldn't be bother waiting for 45 minutes for Friendly Fires to start at 3am, so left after The Strokes.

Saturday was an anticlimax after Friday night. Neither of us got much sleep during the day (we went on a massive walk and checked out all the beaches), so we were pretty tired. We caught some of Lori Meyers, then some of Bombay Bicycle Club - Stupidly the organisers had scheduled Mumford and Sons to start on the main stage only half an hour after BBC had started on one of the other stages, so we had to leave early so we could see Mumford and Sons.

They, happily, lived up to our hopeful expectations. After Mumford and Sons Arctic Monkey were on, but we weren't feeling it so we left halfway through their set.

Sunday was the last night and the night Rob was looking forward to the most as Arcade Fire were playing. We watched bits of The Coronas From Ireland, and CatPeople, then Noah & the Whale was on. These boys (folk) rocked the place. We caught a little bit of Professer Green while we were waiting for Portishead to come on. Portishead were really good, but a very different kettle of fish to everything else at the festival.
After Portishead, Arcade Fire came on and electrified the place. They had the best set design of anyone, like an old movie theatre. Everyone in the band (of which there are a lot of people!) got so into it, it was great. A really good way to end the festival.

Our hotel in Benicassim had a minimum five night stay over Benicassim so Monday was a day to just recover and wander round the town before leaving for Barcelona on Tuesday. The difference on Monday in the town was eerie. During the festival, we had gone to the beach most days, and found it funny every time. Most people don't bother (or don't get in on time) to get a hotel or even camp at the festival. So all along the roads heading to the beach, and along the beach itself there were hundreds of people finding the tiniest bits of shade and sleeping there. Some were completely set up, with BBQs and lilos to lie on (I'm sure the little shops in this town make the majority of their annual income over these few days). There were also heaps of guys walking round selling dresses, sunglasses and hats. So on the Monday all of the guys selling sunglasses and hats were gone. The bodies lying on the beach were gone. Even the rubbish was gone. It was back to being a sleepy seaside town for retirees.

So on Tuesday we were ready for Barcelona. There were still a lot of people leaving on Tuesday, so the train was full and we spent the whole train journey trying not to let our knees touch the knees of the guys sitting opposite us on the four seaters. We got into Barcelona, and checked into Aparthotel Silver - a really nice hotel, and very reasonably priced by the way. Our room was really big compared to some hotels we've stayed in, and had a little kitchenette which was useful. It was really close to the Metro which was ultra-handy! Shamefully enough, one of the first things we did in Barcelona was go and see the last Harry Potter movie - we managed to find a cinema that plays movies in their original languages with Spanish subtitles. Then there was a Japanese restaurant by the cinema so we ordered Japanese food from a Japanese couple who spoke Spanish - not English - all very surreal. Handily there was also a supermarket in the same complex so we ordered some supplies for our little fridge in our room.

We had a booklet the hotel had given us with "must-see" touristy things to do. The first thing that we went to look at on Wednesday was the Hospital Santa Creu Sant Pau. The old hospital was designed by Domenech I Montaner (not Gaudi!), and is a beautiful building decorated with sculptures, murals and mosaics. Unfortunately for us, it was actually being renovated so we couldn't have a proper look or a tour, but we found our way down to an average viewpoint where we could get some photos at least.

We decided to visit the Sagrada Familia next, which was not too far on the metro. When we got there though, the line to go in stretched around the block.

We decided to come back early the next morning. We walked towards the sea, getting a look at Torre Agbar (just another Gherkin really), and the National Theatre, before we got tired of walking and jumped on a tram. At the end of the tram track, somehow we found ourselves at the zoo, and I couldn't pass it up.


















It is not the best zoo in terms of enclosure size, but you can see that they're trying and improving, and have a good breeding programme going on. There were twin baby orangutans which I could have watched for hours. They also have a lot of gorillas and chimps, big cats like leopards, black panthers, lions and tigers. The tigers gave us a bit of drama when we noticed that a mother duck with about 6 ducklings were in the moat surrounding the tigers, and the mother duck had climbed up into the tiger enclosure. All the ducklings were trying to follow her up, and kept falling back into the moat. Eventually the last duckling got up there, but by that time the rest of the ducks were back in the water, and the tiger had noticed the duckling. The tiger stalked the duckling, and pounced, all of us holding our breath and me squealing a little bit. A clump of grass hid what was happening. All of a sudden the duckling popped out from behind the clump of grass and sprinted for the edge, plopping back into the water to be reunited with a relieved mother duck. It felt like a moment for applause, if it was an American movie...

The best part of the zoo was the dolphin show. We lined up for about half an hour, but it was worth it. There were three dolphins and two trainers. They both spoke in Spanish but we could pretty much follow the gist of it. They leapt, raced each other, and then towed the male trainer round the pool. It was very spectacular.

After we had made our way around the zoo, including hippos, rhinos, elephants, flamingos... the list goes on...

we went into the Parc de Ciutadela and found the spectacular fountain, some of the sculptures within it made by a young Anton Gaudi. Unfortunately, in what was to become a bit of a theme for us in Spain, the fountain wasn't actually going as it was being cleaned. We relaxed on the grass for a bit and in about 20 minutes must have had 10 different men come past us with plastic bags surreptitiously asking us if we wanted to buy "ice-cold beer or water". At the end of the park or the beginning I guess, there is a big tree-lined avenue with an Arch at the end of it. People walk, roller blade and cycle along it. We later found out the it is the Barcelonian Arc de Triomph, and they were offered the Eiffel Tower first but refused it due to it's ugliness...

Once we'd wandered back to our hotel, we decided to head out and find some authentic Spanish Tapas for tea. The lady on reception recommended us a place close by, so we headed there and found that sure enough it was no touristy gimmick place. The guy that ran it was an old guy that recommended lots of bits and pieces for us to try. We tried Catalan sausage, fried eggplant, an AMAZING layered tart with who knows what in it but i think things like salmon mousse, and some other items, which left us incredibly full. Yum!

Thursday we set out bright and early for the Sagrada Familia. Gaudi took over the design for the cathedral in the late 1800s, and it is still not finished over 120 years later. This is mostly because it is built purely on public donations. It is a truly amazing building. The queue was much shorter than the day before, thankfully, so we waited for around 30-45 minutes before we went in. While we were waiting a lady handed us a flyer for a Flamenco show which Rob decided we should go to that night. Inside, the cathedral is beautiful. The entire principle of his design is for the place to be filled with light. Once the cranes and builders are all gone it will be spectacular. I might have to go back...

The Nativity Facade (1894-1930)

The Passion Facade (1954-1976)

The spiral staircase

View from the top

After we'd spent a few hours working up an appetite looking at the cathedral, we decided to go to Las Ramblas and visit La Boqueria for lunch. It is a food market, with beautiful food of all sorts. The first thing we bought was a fruit smoothie - banana, chocolate and coconut. Definitely one of the best smoothies I've ever had! We wandered around the market, taking in all the amazing sights and smells, then bought some scrumptious food at a deli stall in the market - fish and asparagus bake and salad. So cheap and good!

We then tried to get ourselves lost in the Gothic quarter off Las Ramblas, and I managed to find the little street famous for chocolate, where I bought some chocolate and churros - mmmm! We then headed to find more of Gaudi's works. One of them, the apartment block, we just looked at the outside, but we went inside the house that he made for his friends (Casa Battlo). I wished I could have lived there, it is amazing with everything in the house made to be completely ergonomic, and there is barely a straight line in the house due to Gaudi making the house echo nature, with a lot of references to water and waves.

The Skylight

Chimneys

In the evening we went to the Flamenco show and paid way too much for dinner (average) and a show (mostly good but when it came to the lead "world class" male dancer, hilarious!).

Looking back at where we started

We decided to use our last full day to go up to Montserrat (Serrated Mountain) Monastery. We took the train out there then got a cable car to go up to the Monastery itself. It was a long way up, and we could see the little path that they used to use to go up there snaking for miles below us. In fact you can still walk up if you're so inclined...

Can't see the start anymore...

Once we got to the top, we looked around for a bit and then went into the cathedral where we saw a massive line for something. We didn't know what it was for so didn't bother lining up. We went back outside and round the side there was a little tunnel lined with candles, so we went in there then followed some people through a door that said No Entry (naughty!). We went through some old rooms then suddenly found ourselves in front of a small statue of Mary and Jesus. Jesus was holding a little ball. It didn't take long for us to realise that that was what the line was for, and we'd come in the exit! Seeing as we'd made it in there, I thought I might as well touch the ball, as that was obviously a luck thing, then beat a hasty retreat...

Not sure what she is doing here but makes for a good picture

The Serrated mountains behind the Monastery

Scarves

We walked up the mountain further to the Hermitage of St Jean, which was a cave overlooking an small, old building, and felt like we were in Tibet or something - not Barcelona!

The name of Rob's bike...

After we went to Montserrat, we came back down to the city and found the night bike tour place that we'd decided on. When everyone eventually turned up there was quite a few of us. Some girls from Egypt, a couple from Hong Kong, some fellow Kiwis... the girl that lead the tour was from America, but had come to Barcelona to study Chinese Medicine. As you do.

Placa Reial - the lamp-posts are Gaudi's first piece

It took a couple of wobbles to get used to riding a bike again, but then I remembered how much fun it was and hooned along the bike tracks. We rode along Las Ramblas, then through the Parc (this time the fountains were going so we had to get a photo!) and then to the beach where we stopped for a drink.

Our Tour Guide

We had a bit of a panic when the Egyptian girls disappeared but eventually they were found and we set off again. Because of the lost girls incident we had lost a bit of time so our guide was worried we would miss the climax of the tour - the Magic Fountain, but we managed to get there in time for the last few tracks (it is set to music).

On Saturday it was our last morning in Barcelona. We took one last photo of a Gaudi house (Casa Vicens - just around the corner from the Aparthotel Silver) then walked to the Metro one last time.













Our July adventures were not quite over though. I had gotten tickets for the Ben & Jerry's Festival for the Sunday (the day after we got back from Barcelona), so we gorged ourselves on ice cream and enjoyed the perfect weather.

June 2011

I had bought one of those deal vouchers a while back for a B&B in Bournemouth. I had looked into the city on its website and it looked promising, with a beautiful sand beach. We had booked it for Friday the 2nd June (naturally being a great deal we couldn't book it for a Saturday night!). We took the train and got there early afternoon. It was already sweltering. We went down to the beach and walked along it on the way to the hotel. It was packed, and we were tempted to strip off and run into the water but were worried our bag would get pinched so decided to check in first. The funny thing about Bournemouth is that the beach is down a big cliff and its a bit of a climb. By the time we climbed back up and found the hotel we were sweating buckets. We decided to get into our togs and head down to the beach, but got waylaid by the hotel pool. It was so nice that we never quite made it to the crowded beach that day...


On Saturday I was very excited to have a dream come true and visit Monkeyworld. I'd watched the TV show on Animal Planet for years. It was like meeting some famous TV stars. This is Gordon:
We visited the memorial statue of Jim Cronin, the founder of Monkeyworld, and Charlie, the face of Monkeyworld. Jim died from cancer a few years back.
We saw the Orangs, Chimps, nursery chimps and Sally, Woolly monkeys, Capuchins, Lemurs, Gibbons... The funniest thing was when the Chimps got their evening meal in their bedroom and this guy gathered up as much as he could carry and took it up to his nest.
It was a really lovely weekend. For me Monday was going to be something new, as I had a new job. No more locumming, I'd decided to join the 9-5 crew. It is for an online veterinary pharmaceutical company. The first couple of weeks were a steep learning curve, but the people all seem really nice and the job seems to suit me so far.

After my first week of work we had another exciting first lined up. Rob had a conference in Paris for work. He went on Thursday, and I joined him Saturday morning (which meant a really crazily early morning for me!) I was apprehensive as so many people had told us they had had bad experiences in Paris. My first hurdle was to get a train ticket from the airport to Garde Norde. There was a massive line at the ticket office so I tried a machine. Unfortunately it didn't take debit card or Euro notes, but a kind guy behind me who spoke English pointed out a change machine nearby. Ticket bought, I got on the train and took in my first sights of Paris. Fortunately Rob and I eventually found each other at the station, and set off for our B&B.

We figured out the Metro system, but when we got to the address, we couldn't find the B&B. After standing there looking lost for a few minutes, ringing the B&B lady and not getting far due to language difficulties, a lady stopped and asked us if we were lost (first in French, then in English when we looked at her blankly). Rob rang the B&B lady again and the nice lady spoke to her for us, finally coming to the conclusion that we were on the wrong General de Gaulle road - there's a Rue and an Avenue, and the one we needed was on the outskirts of Paris... We finally got to our lodgings, and got a bit of a surprise when we realised it was just a lady's apartment, in her spare bedroom. She was lovely, but didn't speak great English and we spoke way too fast for her!


We eventually got ourselves together and headed into town - First stop: Le Tour d'Eiffel!

We got some photos of the towering steel tower, but decided we'd come back later to climb it and see if the lines had abated somewhat. We did take in some funny sights - one of which was cops on bikes chasing guys that obviously didn't have a licence to sell their crappy little Eiffel Tower statues. We headed to the Arc de Triomph and had a bit of a look before going to Montemartre to find the cafe that Amelie was filmed in. We took in the Moulin Rouge then found the Deux Moulins - Amelie's cafe.
It was exactly the same as in the movie, apart from the drug counter was missing.
I had to get l'escargot. The waiter was hilarious, showing us how to use the little snail utensils and telling us about his passion for eating them.
After the entree I got beef tartare and Rob got salmon, then we both had to have Creme Brulee in homage to Amelie. After our scrumptious dinner we went to the Sacre Coeur, and climbed the 225-odd steps to the top of the basilica. There was a magnificent view, and unlike the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, this one includes the Tower!
The steps below the Sacre Coeur are host to buskers and puppet shows... this guy does tricks with a football while hanging off this lamp post - very impressive! This park in front of the Sacre Couer is also part of the Amelie movie.
After climbing all those steps we decided to take the lift up the Eiffel Tower. It was still very busy (we had asked the lady at info earlier when the lines would go down and she said with a completely straight face: "Tuesday"), but we thought nowhere near as busy as earlier in the day. As it turned out, we had timed it perfectly, as we reached to top as the sun was setting - how cliche is seeing the sun set from the top of the Eiffel Tower with your soulmate?We saw the moment the Eiffel Tower lit up from the number of camera flashes going off all at once down below. When we got down we took some photos of our own.

We got back to our B&B without incident and tried to be as quiet as we could as it was after 11pm and we'd been warned!

The next day we planned to go to the Louvre as early as we could. We got there just before it opened, and joined a short line that rapidly expanded behind us.

We managed to see most of the big famous pieces of art, the Mona Lisa, Madonna on the Rocks, but probably only managed to see a tiny portion of the works in there. It is much, much bigger than I ever imagined.

After the Louvre Rob had a surprise for me. He took me to the Pont des Arts. This bridge is famous for lovers coming here and putting a padlock on the bridge to symbolise their love. We didn't have a padlock to put on so decided to come back for our next anniversary.
From there we wanted to go to the Catacombs, but when we got there it was closed. We were disappointed but went to the Jardin de Luxemberg. Along the way we saw so many Parisian families out enjoying the sunshine and having picnics, and even a couple of guys playing ping pong in a park. In the Jardin itself there was a big pond with little sail boats that the kids could hire.

We left Paris having had such a good weekend, and for me it is one of my favourite places in the world now! The food, the people and the beautiful city itself, have a big place in my heart.

After the excitement of Paris we had to try and recover, but for me the next weekend started with a bang when I went out with my new workmates and we had a few too many Sherbet shots and Jaegar Trains at a Barvarian Beerhouse...

Keren was here the next day from the Isle of Wight for Fat Freddies drop, so she stayed at ours on Saturday night. Rob and I decided not to venture out to Brixton for Fat Freddies, but instead went to a movie and had an early night. On Sunday we had a nice cruisy day having a yummy brunch at Moomba with Keren, then meeting up with her friend Aaron and sitting at the Jolly Gardener drinking strawberry beer (well I did anyway... the others had normal beer!)

I was extremely looking forward to the next weekend, because we were going to The Killers!! Sure enough, it was the most amazing concert, even though it rained the whole time...

The next night was Jen's birthday party, Tight and Bright. It was a fun night with some hideous outfits showing up.

And then before we knew it it was July already!

May 2011

While we were away London had the hottest weather so far that year, with temperatures up in the 30s. With the royal wedding and the normal May Bank holiday giving people a four day weekend, there were street parties and BBQs happening all over the city. We couldn't help but be a bit jealous that we had missed out. Sure enough, by the time we got back to London the weather had settled down and was back to normal May temperatures. Still, it was spring and lovely to come back to after autumn in NZ. The Friday after we got back, Shapeshifter were playing at their usual hangout - SheBu O2. we went along and caught up with Nick afterwards. This time it was just Rob and I, Simon was off exploring Europe still.


On Saturday we went and watched our flatmate Matt play AFL in South Wimbledon. It was Ladies day, which meant they were selling tickets to girls for £10 for 15 tickets, then massive jugs of Pimms were 5 tickets. Needless to say, I was pretty sleepy by the time evening rolled around and didn't manage to go out dancing with Jen like she wanted.


The next weekend, Si and Mon were having their joint birthday party at Camden Pride. We headed along on Saturday night and found ourselves in an extremely trendy slice of London. The pub/club (or whatever it is) is situated in the old Camden stables. You can book a "stall" if you are rich enough and get it protected by a bouncer so the plebs don't crash your private party. We had a table in the main part, we weren't quite special enough to have a stall. Because we got there early so we could get the table, the dance floor was empty for quite a while, but the dry ice machine was in overdrive so it was like a smokey warehouse with some really dodgey music. It was a shame that the smoke made it impossible to get good photos. Maybe its because I'm on the wrong side of 30, but I didn't really feel like it was my scene. I also felt like the staff were completely over the top - before you could even enter the place you had to line up for ages, then write down your name and email address, then once you were in, you couldn't leave unless it was for good. There was a small outdoor area out the back, where they were cooking a BBQ, but the bouncer kept making us move up the stairs. Flynn ordered a burger but found out after waiting for an hour that they were only cooking for the restaurant next door. So we didn't stay too late, but it was an experience. It reiterated that the cool places aren't necessarily the best places to hang out. But it was great to see Mon and Simon.


The next day we had the London Sevens, for the second year in a row. We went with Si, Mon, Flynn, and the rest of the usual clan. It was a beach theme, so we dressed as Pirates.
Luckily as it turned out, as it was not a very warm day (unlike last year - the hottest day of the year!). As usual, it was entertaining seeing the lengths people went to with their costumes.
Again, NZ did not win, and didn't even get into the final, unfortunately. To console ourselves (not really, we were going to go anyway) we went for a good Pirate dinner at Bodeans, and scoffed more meat than we could handle.

I had been booked to work the next Saturday, but as it turned out, they didn't need me. It was a bit of a shame as it was a long weekend, with the 2nd May Bank Holiday, and we hadn't arranged to go away or anything. So we just had a bit of a quiet weekend. On the Monday we went to Richmond and met Georgia.

We people-watched by the river, then the clouds came in and it started pouring, so we ran and sheltered in a shop that happened to be a great gelato place. We went and met Mon and the crew and had a drink before going home and cooking dinner for Georgia - it was the first time she had been to our flat!