easter weekend rampage

Dudes, whether you have anything to do on Easter Saturday or not, cancel all your plans and get a ticket to this. Its gonna be massive. I've got my ticket. so has angie. huge.

Gentlemen, start your engines...

Radio Soulwax presents: Nite Versions WAREHOUSE: 10pm until 7am
featuring 2ManyDjs / Soulwax / Tiga / Headman / New Young Pony Club / Simian Mobile Disco / Who Made Who / Presets / Secretsundaze / Shane Watcha / Jamie Jones / Bloc Party / Zoë Ball & Eva / Freelance Hellraiser / Baby Shambles / Rakes / People Are Germs / Tom Clarke (Highgrade)

Venue: Canvas, London
Tickets: £22 from ticketweb

movin' out

So, if you didn't already know, I will officially be moving out of my flat this weekend. Its a stressful time, mostly because we have a red wine stain on the carpet which we couldn't remove and we're probably gonna have to buy a new one.

That aside, we're moving out so that we can save 6 weeks worth of rent and bills, which adds up to a tidy sum for our travels. Its gonna be tough, more so for Sam who will be looking for a sofa to sleep on for the next 6 weeks (I have hotel accommodation through my work for 3 nights each week).

Anyway, if you're reading this and you have a sofa and you want me to cook you dinner one night and rent a DVD or go for a pint or something, just let me know. I'm sure I'll come knocking on your door even if you don't offer, but I'm not fussy. anything will do.

Bugged Out - Miss Kitten

15.132 seconds

Dudes,

try out this link. Its well addictive. On my second try I got 15.132 seconds, but apparently Ali's sister got 21 seconds, so if you do any better than her, let me know (i.e. leave a comment). Its awesome.

Phoenix Gig Announced - April 17th

The venue is still unconfirmed, but Phoenix have announced details of an
intimate UK gig on April 17th. This is very exciting. Its likely that the
venue will be small and the tickets will fly, so as soon as I get details
I'll let you know. Email me if you want me to grab you a ticket too. Its
gonna be massive.

- thanks to Paula for this one

No sleep until Ecuador

Firstly, you might have noticed I've been pretty quiet recently. Basically, I'm working my arse off up here in cheltenham, so don't have time to even *think* about the blog. But I'll do my best to keep posting random stuff from over here.

I've had a manic weekend. Literally manic. Photos to follow soon, but on Thursday I went out with the Ghetto kids (until 4am), Friday I went out for Anna's birthday (until 3am), Saturday I went out with the brighton guys to Bugged Out (had about 2 hours sleep on sunday afternoon - photos to follow as soon as the digital camera owners have posted the pictures on MySpace) and on Sunday went for a Morroccan feast with Eliisa then stayed up til 3am watching Overboard with the Ange, Tristan and Jess. It was manic. I've felt like I was on another planet for the last couple of days, and its only since I went out last night and started smoking and drinking again that I've returned to earth. All good fun though. Looking forward to equally manic weekends in the remaining 8 weeks in the country.

And on that note, back onto the travelling front. Our first port of call after leaving London is Ecuador. This excites me greatly. But it also kinda scares me. If you've been, let me know anything which I should know before I leave now. I feel a little out of my depth, but its not worrying me too much right now.

The country has 3 distinct geographical areas - equatorial coastline, high-altitude mountains and rainforest. We're not just packing for a beach holiday here. We've gotta be prepared. According to one website (here) it looks like we'll be needing a whole range of clothing, just to cope with the changes in temperature. The main points to note are:

• one or two sweaters (light wool) and a warm jacket (it can get chilly at night in the jungle and mountains)


• fast-drying trousers and shirts and lots of cotton socks (the jungle is seriously humid)


• a good quality rainjacket or poncho


• comfortable walking shoes or good hiking boots


• thick sweater (for the cold Cotopaxi national park)


• shorts, t-shirts and sandals (for the hot coast)

Anyway, we'll make sure we are well prepared and if anyone can recommend suitable footwear, I'm all ears.

Aside from those preparations, I'm starting my jabs on friday (if I can get an appointment), so will try and get a photo of one going in. But I'll probably wimp out and not bother. And I'm gonna put a "departure countdown" clock on the site, so you know how long I've got left. Just so I can make you a little bit more jealous.

Laters dudes,

dunc

beans

Check it out. This is what I ate for lunch today. My first ever Salad Box (excluding ones filled solely with bacon bits, croutons and thousand island sauce, which is my favourite dinner EVER). I nipped into Waitrose to buy a sandwich, and got sucked in by, of all things, the ROASTED VEGETABLES pot. And how nice was it? Marks out of ten, about a 5. But I reckon it'll go up as I get used to eating more of this stuff.

On a slightly less appealing note, someone tried to mug me on saturday night. I'M FINE. REALLY, I'M FINE. I was waiting for the nightbus at Tottenham Court Road, hands in my pockets, in the mass of people trying to storm onto the bus, when someone slipped their hand into my pocket, where my phone was. Obviously, this would be an almost foolproof way of stealing a phone (assuming most people waiting for the nightbus at 4am are drunk), however its not such a good idea when you slip your hand into a pocket which already has a hand in it. I grabbed the dude's fingers, attempted some kind of bending back of said fingers before they slipped out of my reach and away with the crowds. I didn't even see the dude (or girl, whichever it was). Could have been a nightmare. But it wasn't. I'm practically fighting crime all over the place at the moment.

In other news, I completed the wonder of Shadow of the Colossus (see the last post if you don't know what that is). 14hours of joy, for £30. And I can probably sell the game on eBay now and get £20 of that back. Seriously, if anyone tells you computer games are a waste of money, they're fools. They keep the kids out of trouble, and their money in their pockets. I totally rate them.

Ico 2?

This weekend (my first long weekend since I now don't work fridays, did I mention that?), I bought my first computer game in months. Now, for those of you who know a bit about computer games, you'll know I bought the most exciting game to come out in the last 12 months. If you don't, this game is absolutely THE most awesome thing to decend on the playstation 2 since its predecesor, Ico, was released to coincide with the playstations debut.

"Shadow of the Colossus" wipes the floor with every other game out. In 3 days, I've played it for 11 hours (which doesn't sound like much, but equates to the same amount of sleep I had this weekend). Its stunning. Horse riding across beautiful landscapes that stretch for miles in a palette of washed out greys and blues. Levels that paralyse you with their scale and difficulty. Graphics that you would never expect for a PS2 and speed which you wouldn't expect from any console. Its awesome.

If you don't know about this game, come to my house and play it. The basic jist is that in order to revive some dead brunette (which I assume the lead guy had a fling with at some point from the way he looks at her), you need to defeat 16 MASSIVE colossi. These guys are huge. some of them are like 10 storey high buildings, some of them are winged flying monsters, some are like massive pitbulls that throw you around and shake you to death. The idea - each colossi has weak points which need to be found and destroyed. Each massive monster needs to be navigated, from scaling body parts covered in grassy fur, jumping between stony scales (read: platforms) protrubing from their arms, to attacking weak points on their head by hacking wildly into their flesh. and if working out how to get onto these huge things is bad enough, you also have to ensure you don't run out of grip while being constantly being tossed around and hanging on for your life. Its one of the most exciting and addictive, if frustrating, platform games to have come out on the PS2, and almost matches the brilliance of Ico perfectly. £30 for a computer game? I'd have paid £50 for this bad boy. Money well spent.

'nham

In case you didn't know, I have sold my soul to Vertex Financial Solutions and agreed to work in Cheltenham for the next 2 months before we go away. Its nuts. I'm getting paid an extra £500 a month to come here. On top of that, I don't have to pay my travel, so I'm saving £350 on my Brighton-London train fare. I'm staying in a swanky hotel with a gym, and I'm being taken out to dinner by people whereever I turn. Its cool. A little lonely, and a little rubbish working in a strange, empty town, but I can't complain at all, because they've even chucked in FRIDAYS OFF WORK as an extra bonus. Could it get any sweeter? No, not really.

Anyway, if you have any sympathy for me left, you should consider emailing me and cheering me up, so that I don't feel that for 4 days a week the whole world has forgotten I exist. Alternatively, come out with me EVERY thursday night (usually to the Ghetto) and I'll get you drunk to celebrate my lie-in in the morning.