Hyde Park Calling
Hi all!
Well last weekend was a good one. Me and Gem went to a festival called Hyde Park Calling with Belinda and one of her friends Rachael in, funnily enough, Hyde Park. It ran for 2 days but we only got tickets to the Saturday show. The day’s event started about 2pm, but we only wanted to see the three headline acts so we rocked up about 5pm. There was a massive queue to get in but it was flowing quickly so in no time at all we had pulled up a spot around the main stage. Just as we got there, The Feeling took to the stage. They were brilliant and they have a great stage presence. They are quite popular here so quite a few of their songs from their new album have been on the radio a fair bit.
Next up was the recently re-formed Crowded House. There were heaps of Aussies and Kiwis in the crowd and a big roar went up when they came out. They played mostly old classics and also a couple of their new songs. At one point Neil Finn made fun of all the people who would be at Glastonbury where it has been almost flooded while we were in the nice sunshine... bad mistake.
About an hour into their set the rain came... hard. It is without a doubt the hardest and heaviest rain I have seen in the UK in our 18 months here. We all put up brollies but we got absolutely soaked to the bone. It rained for about 15 minutes but then cleared up again, but by then basically everything but our heads were completely wet. At least it wasn't cold or windy or it would have been miserable. It actually rained so hard it passed from being miserable into being hilarious. In just 15 minutes the ground had gone from nice grass to 2 inch puddles and mud.
Crowded House played for a bit longer and then Peter Gabriel came out. His start was a bit slow as he played about an hour of his lesser known stuff. As they don't have a new album out right now, they apparently put up a poll on their website for people to vote on older songs they'd like to here... so they played the winners. There were quite a few die hard fans in crowd who loved it, and even though I didn't know the songs they were still great to listen to. He loves to use odd instruments like chinese drums, sitars, xylophones, and tin whistles. After that he played some of the classics like Steam, Sledgehammer, In Your Eyes.
It wound up about 10:30pm so we still got home at a reasonable time. All in all was a brilliant festival.
On other news, all four of us (me, gem, Grant and Vic) bought ourselves tennis racquets. There are quite a few free courts around our apartment and me and Gem are also thinking about joining a tennis club. We're going to have a season off from netball and see how we like it.
Ooh ooh, we've also just booked in our Christmas holidays... a week in Sass Fee in Switzerland over Christmas for snowboarding, then a week in the Laplands (Finland to be more specific) doing a husky dog tour for new years. Can't wait :)
But it will mean that we cut down our travels a bit up to then to save some money. Might have to do more camping around the UK instead. We do have a quick trip to Norway planned in August (well being planned) but that is with people who know the area and have a cabin so the costs are cheap. Not travelling too much will also help us get hold of a second property in Oz. We have now got all the bits of paperwork we need to get the loan from here so hopefully we'll get that ball rolling asap.
Right, better get back to work.
By for now.
Duncan
Well last weekend was a good one. Me and Gem went to a festival called Hyde Park Calling with Belinda and one of her friends Rachael in, funnily enough, Hyde Park. It ran for 2 days but we only got tickets to the Saturday show. The day’s event started about 2pm, but we only wanted to see the three headline acts so we rocked up about 5pm. There was a massive queue to get in but it was flowing quickly so in no time at all we had pulled up a spot around the main stage. Just as we got there, The Feeling took to the stage. They were brilliant and they have a great stage presence. They are quite popular here so quite a few of their songs from their new album have been on the radio a fair bit.
Next up was the recently re-formed Crowded House. There were heaps of Aussies and Kiwis in the crowd and a big roar went up when they came out. They played mostly old classics and also a couple of their new songs. At one point Neil Finn made fun of all the people who would be at Glastonbury where it has been almost flooded while we were in the nice sunshine... bad mistake.
About an hour into their set the rain came... hard. It is without a doubt the hardest and heaviest rain I have seen in the UK in our 18 months here. We all put up brollies but we got absolutely soaked to the bone. It rained for about 15 minutes but then cleared up again, but by then basically everything but our heads were completely wet. At least it wasn't cold or windy or it would have been miserable. It actually rained so hard it passed from being miserable into being hilarious. In just 15 minutes the ground had gone from nice grass to 2 inch puddles and mud.
Crowded House played for a bit longer and then Peter Gabriel came out. His start was a bit slow as he played about an hour of his lesser known stuff. As they don't have a new album out right now, they apparently put up a poll on their website for people to vote on older songs they'd like to here... so they played the winners. There were quite a few die hard fans in crowd who loved it, and even though I didn't know the songs they were still great to listen to. He loves to use odd instruments like chinese drums, sitars, xylophones, and tin whistles. After that he played some of the classics like Steam, Sledgehammer, In Your Eyes.
It wound up about 10:30pm so we still got home at a reasonable time. All in all was a brilliant festival.
On other news, all four of us (me, gem, Grant and Vic) bought ourselves tennis racquets. There are quite a few free courts around our apartment and me and Gem are also thinking about joining a tennis club. We're going to have a season off from netball and see how we like it.
Ooh ooh, we've also just booked in our Christmas holidays... a week in Sass Fee in Switzerland over Christmas for snowboarding, then a week in the Laplands (Finland to be more specific) doing a husky dog tour for new years. Can't wait :)
But it will mean that we cut down our travels a bit up to then to save some money. Might have to do more camping around the UK instead. We do have a quick trip to Norway planned in August (well being planned) but that is with people who know the area and have a cabin so the costs are cheap. Not travelling too much will also help us get hold of a second property in Oz. We have now got all the bits of paperwork we need to get the loan from here so hopefully we'll get that ball rolling asap.
Right, better get back to work.
By for now.
Duncan
posted by Duncan at
8:36 PM
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