Concert: Shpongle

On 31st October my brother and I went to a Halloween party with a difference.  We went to Roundhouse in Camden to see Chris's favourite band Shpongle perform a rare live concert in London.  Shpongle are an English band made up of Raja Ram and Simon Posford and yet this was their first full UK gig ever!!!  They are extremely popular and the best way I can describe their music is psytrance or goa trance. So instead of witches and wizards, there was lots of neon and bright lights and lasers.  There were also lots of people dressed up for a masked ball, looking like pre-French Revolutionary courtiers.  Not surprising when you see this back stage photo of Simon and Raja:

 
Photo courtesy of Shpongle's MySpace

The gig was absolutely amazing. It was really lively, colourful, energetic and psychedelic and we enjoyed every minute of it. We even managed to gain a little on the crowd and get closer to the stage.

We took this short video of the song "Around the World in a Tea Daze".  As you can imagine, with the lack of proper light, interspersed with a fantastic laser light show, it was near impossible to get any decent photographs.  So luckily we have this little video and a couple of photos but mostly we have the memories of an excellent night out and Chris will be able to tell his grandchildren he saw Shpongle perform live.

These are the only partly salvageable photos we did manage to take:

Street Food - Fruit Stalls

I seem to recall growing up in England that a pineapple was regarded as a valuable item... wow, tropical fruit! And things like mangos and papayas were just words. Even the humble banana was a special treat. Maybe my memories are hazy, but fruit in England meant apples and pears, plums and maybe peaches. Oranges were not uncommon, and there were always satsumas at Christmas time! There were raspberries in season, and we often went blackberry picking.

The words "tropical fruit" brought to mind jungles, far away places, unreachable lands. This was 30 years ago. Holidays to a place like Thailand were all but unheard of. A few brave backpackers maybe, when backpacking was still an adventure!



What is "Street food"? Well, I mean anything that is not a restaurant really - simple roadside stalls, sometimes with wheels or built onto the side of motorbikes. Temporary noodle joints that open in the evening outside shops that have closed for the day. Hawkers carrying baskets of snacks, grilled chicken by the roadside, motorbikes with kitchens as the sidecar.

And fruit stalls are everywhere, even in the main beach areas of Phuket. Mostly they are mobile. Honda Wave mopeds retrofitted with ice filled glass displays full of fruity goodness. On the photos on this page you can see watermelon, mango, papaya, pineapple, guava, canteloupe, coconuts, pomelo, rose apple... missing are things like mangosteen, durian, rambutan - all of which are pretty common.



Feeling fruity? A portion of whichever fruit you want is normally about 10 Baht. Great at breakfast time, or any time. I am a fan of rose apples (called cham-poo in Thai). I don't think I ever saw them before coming here. I also like a bit of papaya now and then. If you never had mangosteen before.. try it. If you never had durian before, you can feel thankful! Ah, go on, try it... try it all!

Where I work: My walk to work in the mornings part 2

I know - I have been scarce.  It is 29 days until I can reclaim my freedom and I am eager to get my studies over and done with.  This is the best studying experience I have ever had - I usually find it to be abject torture and I hated the time I spent studying my degrees in psychology.  Despite enjoying it (and pretty much making the decision to pursue a career in health and safety), I will be glad to be free from studying again come December.

I thought it was high time I completed my post about the walk to work in the mornings before it gets really cold and my autumnal pictures look completely outdated.

The favourite part of my walk to work in the mornings has got to be the park next to my work.  I really like the story behind it and it is such a pretty place.  I find it very peaceful even though it reminds me of the Garden of Remembrance in the zombie slasher game Catacombs.

Before I get to the park, I slip down beside the Coroner's Court and into this alley.  It's interesting because on the right, we have the ugliest example of modern fencing imaginable yet on the left hand side we have a beautiful brick wall that is hundreds of years old (as we will see inside the park).

I love this gate - once again it represents a contrast between old and new, with a modern office building in the background.  You can see the notice on the gate informing that the park will close at 5pm every day.  This was taken a couple of weeks ago - the time has been reduced to 3:30pm now.

I told you the wall was old!  I love that this wall that is tucked away between the Coroner's Court, an accounting library and John Harvard Library is so old and so significant!  I wonder if Harry Lloyd (Dickens' great-great-grandson and the object of my fangirl obsessions) has been here or even knows about Marshalsea Prison.  I feel a great sense of history whenever I see this sign.

The park wasn't always so neat and well-looked after.  My predecessor had to call up Southwark Council and ask them to take care of it as our building was being overrun by weeds!

There are the gates again with the Historic Southwark Historical sign visible on the wall to the right of the gates. 

I got to work the other day and there was quite a buzz because a massive tree had fallen over in the park.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I walked through the park and probably side-stepped the wreckage itself and did not notice the fallen tree.  I sort of lose myself in my iMandy.

Perhaps the trees had duelled in the night and only one survivor could remain.  Johannesburg might be the largest man made forest in the world but the size and height of the trees take my breath away.  They are absolutely magnificent.

My building is just visible behind the tree.  It is covered in ivy and we have had to call Southwark Council again to come cut it back before the whole building is overcome!

Concert: Cranes + Epic 45

On Wednesday 29th, my brother Chris and I went up to Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen on Hoxton Square (nearest tube: Old Street) to see my favourite band Cranes in concert. It was in October 1993 that I discovered Cranes, one rainy summer afternoon in Caryl's bedroom. I was captivated by their ethereal, melancholy music and so began a love affair that would span 15 years, 9 albums and now two concerts. Never one to move goalposts, it was my life's desire to see Cranes in concert and when I did, I decided that I just wanted to see them again. Well, at least that's one item I get to mark off my list over at 43 Things.

Alison is as tiny and graceful as I remember and the concert was really good. Over the years, Cranes' albums have ranged from a heavy gothic-industrial sound through their dream pop / shoe-gazing years to the horrible sickly sweet pop sound of 'Population 4' in 1997. I hated 'Population 4' so much that I only transferred one song from that album onto my iPod! I believe Cranes were forced into a more commercial sound by their old record label Dedicated and after that they went onto their own label, Dadaphonic. In any event, this little bit of background is just my way of explaining a major difference I noticed between this concert and the one I attended in 2004. They played several songs from their new album (self-titled 'Cranes') at this concert - I noticed four or five - but I am sure they played more older songs in 2004. I get the feeling that they have finally found their sound again and that this is an album they can truly be proud of. This is definitely in my top four favourite Cranes albums of all times and I think it is stunning.

They played for 90 minutes and the only thing I was disappointed about the whole evening was that with two cameras and one phone between us, my brother and I managed to take not one decent photograph. Unfortunately this was a theme that carried over to Friday evening too but there you go - you win some, you lose some and then you start wishing bands would stop using projectors and shining lasers straight into your camera's lens.

Cranes at last.fm ¦ MySpace

My review of Cranes' new self-titled album 'Cranes' as well as a playlist of my 5 favourite Cranes songs is up at Emm Media.

A special mention must go to the support act, Epic 45. They were really quite good and I was quite impressed by their sound and their performance. They had a distinct post-rock / experimental sound and I would compare them to Mogwai. They were a really worthy introduction to Cranes and I am definitely going to get some of their music by the next time I have a post-rock week on my iPod. Epic 45 are at MySpace too.

Some Videos at Phuket Aquarium

We do like Phuket Aquarium. I have totally lost count of how many times we have been. I love taking the kids there and watching their reactions to the fish. As a baby they are amazed, then they start to look more closely, then they start to learn names, then they get older and ask questions about the fish. As a diver, most of the species in the aquarium are familiar to me so I am very happy to pass on some knowledge... and you know you can't fool a kid.

After our last visit, my 3 year old boy was looking at one of the aquarium brochures I had picked up. There was a picture of a small orange and white fish. He asked me "what's this fish, daddy?". I relied "It's Nemo". He came right back with "No! It's an anemone fish!". Proud dad.

So here's a few little video clips of the aquarium. It's well worth a visit I reckon.

Bannerfish and Moorish Idols



Moray Eels



Leopard Shark in the big tank (you can walk through a little tunnel).



Big Groupers have their own tank, or they'd eat the sharks :)



Leopard shark and Blacktip shark in the big tank.



Eagle Ray in the big tank.

Hotel Recommendation: Sawasdee Village (Kata Beach)

Sawasdee Village is one of the hotels I have meant to add here for a long time, and today was reminded by some customers in our dive center who raved about how beautiful it is and how well looked after they felt there. It seems to me that Sawasdee Village is no ordinary hotel. It's not a big hotel really, only about 40 rooms, built in and around an oasis of tropical gardens, orchids and pools, with a 5 star spa thrown in for good measure.

It seems to me that Sawasdee Village has been around for ever... I came to Phuket in 1999 and it was there.. from what I can gather by "web research" Sawasdee Village opened in 1991. There have been a lot of improvements and additions since and now it really does seem to be well worth recommending and it's a very reasonable price for such quality. The new Baray Villa rooms look amazing (more expensive too but looks like you get a lot of extras with these rooms). I like the sound of the 8 foot beds - truly King size!

Sawasdee Village gets lots of very good reviews, and is not far off the Top 10 Hotels in Phuket, but is considerably cheaper than some of the luxury resorts that make up the top 10, and unlike most of those resorts that are on the quiet northern beaches, Sawasdee Village is in Kata - central to just about everything, with plenty of restaurants, bars and opticians (if you are in Kata, you'll see!) nearby. The only disadvantage I can see is the location. Like many places in Kata, it's got Club Med between it and the beach, so you have to walk around, though it seems there is a free shuttle also.

Sawasdee Village - Booking & Reviews

• Sawasdee Village - Rates and Reservations at Agoda.com
• Sawasdee Village - Hotel Reviews at Agoda.com


Sawasdee Village - Photos










• More Hotels in Phuket - Phuket Hotels at Agoda.com
• Last minute Phuket hotels - LateStays.com
• More Phuket Hotel Recommendations

Life in England

You Spring forward and Fall back
- My brother trying to figure out if he was getting more or less sleep on Saturday night

The clocks turned back on Sunday morning at 1am which means British Summer Time is officially over. We are now two hours behind South Africa as opposed to one hour. To answer my brother's question - we got one more hour of sleep on Saturday night.

The most discernable change is when I catch my train. I catch the 7:14 train and a week ago it was cloudy and dull at that time of morning. This week it is sunny and bright because the sun has been up in the sky for an hour longer (basically, it is as bright and sunny as it was at 8:14 a week ago. Confused yet?

It is also colder. I believe it is because the sun has had a chance to burn off the layer of cloud and we are left without that blanket of cover, so to speak. I always tell people how icy Johannesburg winters are because the sky is a crystal blue colour and without cloud cover, temperatures drop to icy conditions. Of course, the tilt of the earth will always exceed lack of cloud cover and in the months to come, the sun will hit England at such an oblique angle that it wouldn't be able to burn away the cloud cover anyway.

The most exciting thing for me is that Sunday marked the beginning of Winter in England.  I absolutely love winter here.  I find winters full of bright colourful lights, fireworks, costumes, gifts and cheer.   I believe my love of winter was programmed into me from when I stayed in England until I was 9.  I never got used to the dry, icy, still and yellow winters in Johannesburg.  Of course, the winters in Johannesburg were always followed by a summer and the same can't always be said for England!

In six weeks time, Ste's parents are arriving from South Africa for a holiday.  We are going to take a road trip and visit Stonehenge, Bath, Liverpool, Manchester, York and Grimsby.  I'll update in more detail about that soon.  Any suggestions as to what we can do on the way back down to London from Grimsby?  We like castles, monuments and old stuff.