Rock Chick

Thank you very much to Jeannie for giving me this lovely pink ribbon.

I thought that surely I should get this just cos I am a rock girl, hence i'm rocking. But apparently it's because I'm nice even when I have a gripe. So people, here is the hard honest truth.

truth is that I feel annoyed and angry at a lot of things and people more often than I wish. And everytime, I think of these great girls in my life who never seem to get upset at anything or anyone; and so I feel guilty for having any negative feelings and I feel envious of these amazing girls who are cool and lovely and have nothing but nice words; and always come to the conclusion that if I am not happy with someone or something it must be my fault, and for me to sort out; that's why I try to remain nice even when I have a gripe. I don't know if being guided by guilt and looking up to perfection incarnate, make me a rockin' girl but I'll accept it because I am a rock chick anyway. :)

Jenny is my nominee for the Rockin' Girl Blogger; because she is hilarious and always has something fun to share with us and has a super cute kid to make us smile.

James Fresh as a daisy

Last Friday after a long tiring few days in Dublin, I made my way to see James in Brixton Carling Academy. JAMES!!!! Can you imagine? You might cos apparently they're as popular in the US than in the UK. There is about 6 songs of James that have been "my favorite!!!!!" at some point of time:

Sit down was my favorite in Penang in 1993/4

Sometimes was also my favorite still in Penang in 1993/4

Born of Frustration was my favorite in Penang/Singapore in 1995

She's a Star was my alarm clock every morning in Paris in 1997

Tomorrow was my also favorite in Paris in 1997

Runaground was my favorite earlier this year when Alex bought the gig ticket and that I took out the albums for a refresher course in 2007

When I have a favorite, which is very frequent, it stays so forever, now... thank God for iPod which allows me to keep track of all my favorites - that tallies to about 320 songs and another 100 songs that I just don't get bored of.

At the concert, in two hours I loved every single songs, they came back twice! that's a very rare occasion. They're brilliant, I want to see them again! Next entry is all the gigs I've been to and in order of my best/favorite experience.

Nine Inch Nails - Closer

Alex got us tickets to see NIN on March 10th. I only like a couple of songs. This one particularly.

EXPLICIT LYRICS. Sensitive souls, please abstain from watching.

I thought Alex was kidding when he said he bought tickets, but why not, it should be quite an experience.

James - Laid

Alex got us tickets to see James on April 26th. I've been listening to James for the last 12 years. It's very exciting.

Radiohead - Bullet Proof

My new favorite song... a pretty good cover of Radiohead's bulletproof... I wish I was from the album The Bends.

Radiohead

I'm finally going through my Radiohead education. Alex has always been a huge fan of Radiohead for as long as I've known him. Actually I remember the time before we started dating, We were hanging out in my room in Penang, listening to CDs and he took out Pablo Honey from the collection, it must have meant a lot to him. Ever since, I always enjoyed Radiohead whenever he plays their CD, but I never paid it a lot of attention so I don;t know why a few days ago I decided to listen to Fake Plastic Trees from the album The Bends. It is a fantastic song and from the same album I always loved High and Dry and Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was and most of the songs from OK Computer.

Muse Concert

23/11/06
Muse is playing in Wembley, and I love them so much and they put up such a great show at the Reading festival this summer that we had to go watch them again. Wembley is a very nice stadium. (I will put up the pictures of the arch later, they're in Alex phone.), and the crowd was very well managed. On the other hand, Alex noticed that it was an older crowd (e.g. our age) instead of a often-rude younger crowd, so we really enjoyed the 2 hour show to the fullest. Muse were brilliant as ever, they had their space theme, which dominated their last two albums and all their music videos. It was an excellent show, just as good as Radiohead.

Scissor sisters

Saturday… My back is getting worse. Maybe I should not strain it so much. I still want to go to the Scissor sisters gig in Trafalgar Square. The Aids charity concert rose money to buy medicine for HIV infected people and help them continue contributing to their communities, take care of their families and for infected women not to spread the deadly disease to their unborn children.

Trafalgar square looked impressive bathed in red spotlights. The concert was fantastic, I loved every single song they played and they put on such a grand show. It was however torture not to be able to dance due to my increasingly painful back, so I was condemned to wriggle my toes. Well worth the night out though and a huge thank you is in order for my colleague, Sarah, who gave me her tickets.

On Sunday my back got worse yet, so Monday my boss and colleagues kicked me out of the office to see a doctor and today I am taking a rest day to let my back recover. I only saw a nurse at the clinic who said my back muscles were tender and that I should try to exercise them to strengthen them back to life and take lots of pain killers to tolerate the discomfort till my muscles are renewed. Tomorrow there is our quarterly sales conference with my colleagues from Denmark and South Africa, no partying for me this time, but that would be a good thing as I have already earned a ‘party girl’ reputation in the company, this time I’ll show them I can be very decent too. :P

Reading Festival

26/08/06
Today is Ron's birthday so I made sure I gave him a call before starting the day; his horse Magic Rush is running at New Market, so I put a tenner on the horse for an each way (unfortunately, it did not win).

Since we had the car, we drove up to Reading, it was real easy finding our way there. The car is very smooth and easy to navigate and the enterior is comfortable. A brilliant car. I cannot believe it, I feel like I'm going to be returning the car to the garage, as if it's a rented car. but it's mine!!! It's got my name on the papers :))

The festival was far from being as good as the one in Hyde Park. The place was absolutely filthy and we were put off by the smell of spilled beer and other unindentified smells which could have been pee and puke. Furthermore, there was no bands playing that was of any interest to us, so we took refuge in the comedy tent, which was very fun, as comedians were making parodies of famous songs.

Most of the bands on the main stage were pussy rock/indie pop, I found it boring. The festival truly started with The Like, the rock chicks from Las Vegas, whom I discovered at the Festival in Hyde Park, followed by more comedy, then Jet, the Australian pop rock band, I liked them back in 2004. I ever only sung one song, and it was Jet's 'Look what you've done'. I really enjoyed that gig. Then we waited patiently and excitedly for Muse! They were absolutely amazing, brilliant, thrilling. He's got a fantastic voice and vocal range. The show was as good as Radiohead's, now we will have to source tickets for their gig in London in November, that's gonna be expensive but definitely worth it.

Oh, and I almost forgot... I got hit on by a very cute 20-year old. Alex isn't all that pleased. The kid, Chris, refused to beleive that I was either 29 or married, until Alex came back. Ha! ha! Come' on you can't blame a girl for being flattered.

Divine Comedy

06/07/06

On the way to Somerset House, a grasp of the gorgeous views of London. If you ever only have two minutes to visit London, you just come to the London Bridge and you see the best of the capital.

I thought I would never have the opportunity to see the Divine Comedy live. They were awesome!I have a long love story with them. Not only because of their sometimes beautiful love songs but also because of the hilarious sexy lyrics of their other tracks.

I remember the very first time I ever heard the voice of Neil Hannon, it was a cold autumn day in Cardiff (mind you Alex' room was always cold because of the broken window letting in the cold welsh weather). It was a Sunday morning, on BBC Radio 1 and Alex and I were under the blanket; The violin caught my attention at first and later the funny yet deeply romantic lyrics:

"every body knows that I love you;

every body knows that I need you;

every body knows that I do...

except you."

I was leaving back to Paris a few hours later. Back then everytime I left; I never knew if I'd see Alex again.A few weeks later, I was back in Cardiff again, and Alex had bought me the album "A short story about love". That was the first present I ever got from Alex.

They played their new songs and some very cool songs from previous albums, like "my name is Alfie", "If you were" and of course, an old favourite "Charge". I made a video for my mom who also shares some happy memories of the Bang Bang song. For those who have not heard the song, it is about a war between the English and the French; with cannons on the right and cannons on the left that go bang bang bang all night long, and the British soldier that shouts "Charge!". My mom and I loved to sing the song very on the top of our voices in the swimming pool in Penang.

I highly recommend their latest album "Victory for the comic muse" which contains funny track "(I don't want) to die a virgin" and a song for all mothers in the world to let them know how much we love them and appreciate their love and devotion on a chirpy tune "Mother Dear". The concert had excellent review in the next newspapers, they are touring this autumn, I'm gonna go again.

O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park

21/06/06

It's the big day! It's the day that I get to watch The Strokes live!!!

Alex and I went to London early so that we could enjoy the festival to the fullest. There was really a hippie feel about it, in spite of the festival being more punk rock.

The gig was opened with three sexy things from Los Angelos called 'The Like', they sounded good, a few tunes sounded very cool, I'll buy the album to find out more. They were followed with very entertaining Gypsie Punk 'Gogol Bordello' from New York, who were particularly popular with Italians.

Dirty Pretty Things and The Raconteurs were not as exciting as the CD, then again, I only like a few songs of theirs. I think Belle and Sebastian were the best perfomers of the day. Don't get me wrong, The Strokes were great, but out of all the gigs I've been to, the Festival was not that good, it is only memorable because of the whole festival experience, whilst Belle and Sebastian were solo gig quality good.

Finally the stars of the day, The Strokes, came on stage, we were very near the front so we could have the best view, but when they started playing the crowd went so wild that I just too busy trying not to fall and be stampeded to actually enjoy the music, so after picking up a girl on the ground (who was being stepped on), I walked a few meters away from the stage where the crowd was a bit better behaved. They played 'automatic stop', 'Reptilia', 'The End has no End' and 'I can't win', when the drummer played 'Three Lions', the whole crowd came singing the chorus, including me because it was fun! They finished the festival with Lou Reed's 'Take a walk on the Wild Side'.

We got home drained and strung up at the same time, on the journey home I was humming Queen's 'another one bites the dust' there was so much dust raising from the ground while we were dancing, that my face and hands were grey with dust, and my mouth tasted dusty, and my nice new trainer looked like I had run along Route 66 accross Arizona. One regret, we missed Guillemots, they were playing at a different stage, that's truly a shame, they are so awesome; I hope they have a tour of their own soon. Oh well, what a great way to spend the longest day of the year.

Next gig up July 6th Divine Comedy at Somerset House.

The Feeling & Genius

They are cute and talented!!!
Ouh la la... I enjoyed the sight as much as the music. he he!

Alison, Sarah and I took time to catch up before the gig started.
The Genius were on stage and since i did not know what The feeling looked like, I got the girls to come around. I really enjoyed the Genius, they are very cool and easy to listen to, they reminded me of Queen and a bit of the Beach Boys kind of fun in there as well.

While enjoying and dancing to Genius, this very cute guy kept walking past; I did not think much of it, being surrounded by 20-somethings, I expected them to be young and attractive lads. It is not until The Feeling came on-stage that I realised that I'd been brushing shoulders with the very cute lead singer!!! Raaaaagggghhh. there is no justice, I could have asked for his autograph 3 times.

Oh well, Sarah, Ali and I were right in front of the stage and it was brilliant. The music was great and the songs were lovely. Can't hardly wait for the Genius album to be out and on sale, you can check them out at www.myspace.com/thegeniusband

Radiohead Concert

The concert was great. The best gig I've ever attended. It was well worth staying up late and fighting for those tickets on eBay. They played songs from their unreleased album, that promises to be another very cool album. Even better, it means that Radiohead will be back on tour next year.