During my lovely break from employment, I’ve been trying to tick off a few items from our “things to do in London” list. When Mom and Dad were here back on 2007, Mom sneakily added “See Les Misérables” to the list when I wasn’t looking. It was only after buying the tickets that I actually reflected on what I had just done and thought, “wait a minute… that’s not my handwriting!”

Too late! We had booked two tickets for the matinée performance yesterday, and upon realising there was no real way to change my fate, Kristy suggested that I may enjoy the show a bit more if read over the plot beforehand. Boy am I glad I did! It also helped that Kristy told me that “Jean Valjean”‘s name is not at all pronounced as it is spelt – i.e. “GEE-n val-GEE-n” – but more like “JON val-JON”. I could have been mighty confused!

Anyway, it turned out to be much less painful than I had thought it would be. I’d even go so far as to say that I quite liked it! Well, at least I did at the start – they lost me a bit with the whole part about the French Revolution. Until then, the story had felt really personal – like you could actually relate to the characters – where-as the whole “rallying the troops” thing just didn’t do it for me.

I certainly don’t think I’m a convert into the world of musicals now, but I did enjoy this one a lot more than any other that I’ve seen (save perhaps for The Lion King). Prior to this, I think I’ve mostly only seen musical comedies, and I really don’t like them. A drama on the other hand I can totally get into – I like the way that the songs tell you a story, rather than just being a collection of lame jokes set to a zany soundtrack. And credit where credit’s due – some of those actors have amazing voices, and fantastic tonal range – I can definitely respect that!

So what would the gerrod.com rating be? I’d probably give it a 7.5/10 – nothing I’d rush to see again, but I think I can understand why Mom insisted we go in the first place.

Here’s a little video that I made of our walk on Sunday. I used YouTube for the transport mechanism because it’s pretty big (around 180 MB), and YouTube does the whole high-def thing very well. Enjoy!

Music:
Scouting For Girls – Keep on Walking
Alter Bridge – Down to my last

Little did I know that writing to your local member and requesting a tour of the Houses of Parliament was something that pretty much any UK resident can do; but Kristy somehow stumbled upon this information and did exactly that. We were allocated a slot for last Friday morning, so along we trundled to the home of HP Sauce.

On the sucky end of the scale, you’re not allowed to take any photos once you get inside, except for in this room – the name of which I almost instantly forgot. “The Great Parliamentary Hall”, or something like that, I think.

You’ll notice – as I of course did – that the room is one of the largest examples in the world of a particular type of architecture, the name of which I have also forgotten, along with all the information about what makes it so great and unique. It’s something to do with the way the wood holds up the roof.

See, our tour guide – and yes, I’ve forgotten his name too – wasn’t exactly great at talking at a volume that everyone could hear, so for the most part, the information came in dribs and drabs. Moreover, he was more of a fan of telling us stories about his time working in the Houses of Parliament, rather than actually supplying us with information that had any historical relevance. By contrast, we ran into loads of school children who were touring around the joint, and eavesdropping on their guides made me regret – as usual – that I wasn’t on the kiddie tour.

See that throne there? It’s really old! Queen Victoria would sit on that when she used to visit here – and you’ll notice that it has a little footstool there as well – that’s because she was really short!

Now that’s interesting! I wonder if Vicky’s friends used to call her “Queen Shorty”. I’m sure that nicknames for the Queen was another tidbit of information that the kids were furnished with, and yet another topic which was completely bypassed for us.

Anyway – the tour took us through heaps of places, including the House of Lords (red seats) and the House of Commons (green seats). There’s loads of differences between the two, like who is allowed in either house, and how the house’s delegates get elected, but guess what? I’ve forgotten all of that as well, save for the all important detail of the colouring of the seats. In my credit here, the nuances of each house wasn’t discussed all that heavily, but we were provided with an old wartime story or two (and yes, of course I’ve forgotten them as well).

One thing about the tour which I do remember is that you aren’t allowed to sit anywhere. It was like every seat that you saw had its own political importance, and sitting on it would be an insult to the demographic fabric that this country was founded on. Coupled with the fact that there was barely any airflow through the place, as well as our guide’s classic “old timer” voice, it made it very difficult to retain consciousness for the whole tour. I was feeling a little faint and woozy on my feet; poor old Kristy went up a level and nearly passed out before entering the House of Lords! Thankfully the security staff were very nice, escorting her to a non-political chair for her to sit on, then turning on a party-neutral fan for a bit of airflow. Good times!

Despite my complaints, the tour was actually quite good, simply for the fact that it’s a little bit out of the ordinary. I’m still a bit dirty that they wouldn’t let us take photos of anything (“there’s plenty of photos in the books available at the gift shop!”), but whatever – it was still a very memorable morning.

It’s been almost 18 months since we took a walk with Aubain and Ingrid, so a second one was definitely overdue. As such, and to make the most of the gorgeous weather we had on Sunday, we set off on a 10 mile walk through the countryside in Sussex. Cousin’s Louise and Kylie also joined us for the trip, bringing the numbers for Team Awesome up to six.

Upon setting out on our walk, we soon noticed that the sense of humour is a little… well, “different”, out there in the country. We’re still not entirely sure what this sign meant.

Secondly, things are a lot quieter out in the country. Instead of cars, sirens, and general city ambience, the background noises are provided by birds, wind in the trees, and various farm animals. Of course, this was really no surprise to any of us, though it’s quite alarming when you actually stop and listen for the differences.

Given that it had rained a little bit on Saturday (how rare for England!), we had thought it may be a little bit muddy, but none of us really had any idea what we’d be up against. For the most part, we tried to dodge around the outside, but sometimes we had absolutely no choice but to just trolley on through. Poor Weezy and Kylie didn’t have waterproof shoes, and so they were especially noticing it by the end!

Though the mud may have dampened our shoes and our trousers, it did little to dampen our spirits! It was such beautiful scenery, and we were blessed with perfect walking weather – around 10 degrees, with loads of sunny intervals. Aubain did an amazing job at keeping us all on the right track, and at setting a perfect pace to land us back at the train station only a few minutes before the train arrived.

10 miles may have been a bit more ambitious than we had anticipated, especially given the added degree of difficulty added by the muddy terrain; but it was such a great way to spend a Sunday, and I’d be the first one to sign up again for the next walk! Suffice to say, we slept very soundly on Sunday night!

Where does the time go? Todd and I went to the Karnivool concert last Monday and I’m only now finding the time to write about it! Goodness me!

Anyway – it was only October last year when I last saw Karnivool perform to a very limited (but sold out!) crowd of 300. This time, playing at The Relentless Garage in North London, they doubled their audience capacity, and still ran out of tickets well before the show!

As expected, the performance was fantastic – this is one of those bands that constantly amazes me with how well they play live. While I’m watching, I often try to isolate the music from each individual instrument, and for each one, I’m always impressed at how well it’s being played. I felt a little sorry for the warm-up band because their singer was pretty ordinary – especially when compared to the almost pitch-perfect singing of Karnivool’s Ian Kenny.

It’s hard for me not to compare this performance with their previous one, given how close they were together. I definitely enjoyed them both, and I think the set list was pretty similar for the two of them, but overall their first show really stands out as the better one for me – mainly due to the sound quality. I’m not sure if it was the venue’s fault, or if the sound engineers weren’t as good for this show, but The Relentless Garage seemed a bit washed out in comparison to the Angel Academy.

Overall though, Karnivool have become one of my favourite acts to see live, and I’d recommend them to anyone. Do yourself a favour and get a copy of Sound Awake – you won’t regret it! (Well, if you don’t like progressive metal as a genre, then maybe you will regret it – but you can’t blame anyone but yourself for your poor taste in music! Heh heh…)

It’s with much sadness that we say “Farewell” to our dear friend Shannon, who has headed back home to the lovely warm beaches of Australia. After the winter that we’ve had here, we can’t say that we blame her, though choosing Perth instead of Brisbane as her hometown is somewhat of a questionable decision. She went with the excuse of, “My whole family lives there! And I already have a job there!”, but all of those reasons seem a bit weak to me.

Still, we’ve never been to Perth, so who are we to criticise? And now that we know a local, we’re looking forward to visiting!

By the time this gets posted, Shan should have already landed and be well on her way to getting over her jetlag. Better yet, her pasty white London skin should already be starting to fade under a glowing warm Australian tan – the lucky devil!

Farewell Shan – we’ll miss you! But we hope to see you again soon!

The other day when I came home, I looked up and noticed that our smoke detector was missing a battery. Surely that can’t be safe! So today I picked up a new one down at Sainsburys.

I noticed the security tag on the back of the packet when I picked the battery up, but I didn’t take much notice of it (other than thinking it would probably set off the security alarm, which thankfully it didn’t). It was only when I got home and opened the packet that I noticed what it actually said.

“Please remove prior to microwaving”.

That’s some solid advice.

Credit where credit’s due: The wife has a talent for coming up with awesome ideas of things for us to do! Unfortunately for her, she also has a talent of somehow jinxing their execution, such that the awesomeness of the event doesn’t quite live up to the awesomeness of the original idea.

The first instance of this happening that we can remember was way back in the good ol’ days when everyone was still living in Chiswick. She suggested we go down to one of our locals to participate in a quiz night, and so along we trundled – about eight of us, if memory serves me correctly. But when we got there and tried to register, we were told that the quiz had been cancelled due to an overwhelming lack of participants!

Not too long after that, it was brunch at a local restaurant in Chiswick. We’d all eaten there before and always enjoyed it, so it seemed like a safe bet. Once again, the usual gang had trolleyed down to join us, and we were all seated around the table when the waiter came out and said, “Sorry, the basement is flooded and we can’t cook anything”. No brunch for you!

The latest of these happenings came just on Sunday, when she suggested we go to a chocolate shop in Richmond for afternoon tea with Kirstin, Roland, Matthew and Emily. Great idea, right?

Unfortunately, it was only when we arrived at the chocolate shop that we realised why they didn’t have any information about their dining-in options on their website. It was tiny! Ignoring the fact that the limited number of tables they had were already packed out, there was no way we were all going to fit there. No biggie though – we just bought a few truffles for the road, and decided to try our hand somewhere else for afternoon tea.

And yet somehow, when we pre-arranged the date, we had all missed the fact that Sunday happened to be Mother’s Day (probably because it wasn’t really Mother’s Day to us – that’s in May! – still, no excuse for Roland!). This meant that practically every Mother in west London was also in Richmond, taking up what should have justifiably been our seats! How dare they all have the foresight to book ahead!

Luckily for us, Costa (think: Starbucks, in maroon) doesn’t take bookings! Who’d have seen the day coming when Costa would be our saving grace?

Poor Kristy. She tries so hard!

Last night we attended Nathan and Kelly’s engagement party at The Whistle and Flute in Putney. Cleverly, I had my camera on me all evening, but didn’t remember to take a single photo! This is disappointing for two reasons; one, because it would have been nice to actually get a shot of the happy couple; and two, because right when we were leaving, there was a guy sitting at a table who was a dead ringer for John Bettiol. He was so close, that when I pointed him out to Kirstin, she screamed! So, here’s an old photo of John that I’ll use; try to convince yourself that I took it around midnight last night, on our way out of the bar.

Truth be told, I actually did take one photo last night, and I must admit, it’s a good one. Here’s Roland, Kirstin, Emily, and Kristy waiting for a train, at Putney station.

Now, you may think this photo is a little ordinary, but look closely. Closer…. perfect! You’ll notice that everyone is smiling; that’s because we all had such a great time! You may also note that everyone’s hair is a little bit singed; this is from the spontaneous combustion of the paper menu inside the pub. Seriously! We were all just standing around grabbing some finger food (the chicken satay sticks were delicious!), when suddenly the menu burst into flames! Our South African friend from behind the bar ran up to us and said, “I’ve been here for 3 years and never seen a fire in the place; you folks have been her for five minutes and you’re already trying to burn it down!”. No-one claimed responsibility, but we all know it was Emily.

Anyway – it was a great night overall, and it was fantastic to finally catch up with Nathan and Kelly. Hope you guys had a great night too, and sorry again about the lack of photos!

One of my favourite entrepreneurs (who rarely updates her blog) has recently launched Skimp: a new website which will help you get the best price on home electrical and white goods. Unfortunately it’s only available in Australia, so hard-luck to all us overseas types. But for those of you in the Great Southern Land, the concept is stupidly simple:

1. Tell them the details about the product you want (brand, model number, etc);
2. Skimp contacts their network of well-known, reputable retailers in order to get their best price;
3. Skimp then e-mails you back within 24 hours (on weekdays) with the best price it found;
4. You confirm your order with Skimp, who then puts you in touch with the retailer, and you buy directly from them – no middle man!

Requesting a quote is free, and if you like the price that you’re offered, the whole service costs you only a tenner! That wouldn’t even get you a Darwin Stubby these days! And best of all, I get 25% commission for any referrals I send through to the website! So for all you Aussies that need a new OLED TV, Washing machine, or D-SLR: don’t forget to tell ‘em that “gerrod sent ya”!