Essex Dogs


Damon Albarn – Blur @ Southend
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Just got back from Southend where we saw Blur perform their “first official gig” (according to Damon himself). And what a gig it was.

From the very start the Blur boys rocked like they’d never stopped with a long set of all their hits. Song 2, The Universal, PopScene, Essex Dogs, Chemical World, Modern Life is Rubbish and of course, Girls & Boys, which had the whole crowd jumping along for the first of many pogo sessions.

They have a few smaller gigs to follow over the next few weeks – so if you get the chance go see them for a show you won’t forget.

The Happy Couple & Friends


The Happy Couple & Friends
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

A big congratulations again to Aimi & Gary, who tied the knot yesterday in a wonderful ceremony at Orchardleigh Estate near Frome.

And a big thanks for organising such an amazing celebration in such a beautiful location! You’ve just set a high standard for the rest of the weddings we’re going to this summer. Pretty sure we won’t get to stay in a tower with a four poster bed and a bathroom on a separate floor very often – lush.

More photos as soon as I find a spare moment to get through them. Right now though we have to shoot off to see Blur…

To Scrappage or not to Scrappage?

Recently the UK government announced a scrappage scheme, whereby you can scrap your old car and get £2000 or more in return for buying a new car. The theory behind this is pretty straightforward, incentivise people to get their old, unevironmental cars off the road and at the same time stimulate the UK car market. Simple.

Of course although many people have jumped at the chance to get this ‘free money’ the reality is much more complex. It looks as though some car dealers put their prices up on the new cars that they then ‘reduce’, meaning you can save more money from just buying a car without trading in your old clunker. Not so good from a money standpoint. And from an environmental perspective, the strict scrappage rules define that any car over 10 years is worth scrapping – but is that necessarily the case? Are we just creating more landfill from the unrecylclable parts of a car rather than learning to maintain what we have – a much more green approach to life.

Either way the scrapage scheme is here with us for a year at least, so make your own mind up. As for us, well our car isn’t quite ten years old – even if we did have enough spare cash to buy that new Ferrari I need for my pre-mid-life crisis. Mmm… red.

Song 2: The Revenge

Blur have performed their first ‘comeback’ gig in a small railway museum, and by most accounts it was a jolly good romp. This is good news as next week we’re seeing them at their ‘mid size’ pre Hyde Park gig in Southend. Huzah! Well, that’s assuming our tickets ever turn up – which I’m assuming will be last minute so people tempted to tout them are screwed over. Not very helpful for us actual fans though is it? Surely is there no other way…. Coff.

Speaking of music, as I write this it sounds like we’ve acquired a female vocalist fronted band practice in an apartment next door. On the one hand she sounds pretty good. On the other hand not a big fan of live drums on any day, let alone a Sunday. Of course it could just be a very high fidelity stereo system.

So for those of you who haven’t noticed my lack of blog posts recently, I seem to be throwing more random musings onto my twitter. yesterday though my main iPhone based app Twitterific failed during the ‘Tweetpocalypse’. This is where the numerical unique identifiers for new messages went above a certain level, a very big number that is not handle by standard data types. So a lot of subsidiary twitter apps went south. Ah well.

Finally, a big thanks to mum & Henry for a) something they know about and b) for my Gordon Ramsey sunday lunch cookbook years ago. I finally did a couple o’ recipes from it last night to stretch the normal. In fact not only did I cook, in itself a strange event as I’m normally relegated to washing up duties, but I cooked a wild mushroom pasta (recipe: shallots, mushrooms + oil, cook) and ate it all. Blimey. We’re trying to be more veggie this week and that was a first successful step. To celebrate we ate a wonderfully unhealthy lemon posset (lemon juice, sugar, cream – how can you go wrong with that?). Mmm..

Jes’ Bean Recipe

While I was over in NYC the ever lovely Jes made a splendid vegetarian platter for us to enjoy. One of the things on this platter were heirloom beans, big, flavorsome beans that I couldn’t get enough of, so I asked for the recipe. And since I can’t ever find it when I need it (like now) I’ve decided to post it up for posterity:

  1. First up, find yourself some good, dried beans – ideally not too old. Jess recommends cranberry beans from Rancho Gordo who have a fine selection of heirloom beans. Unfortunately they don’t ship to the UK, so I ended up using a local supermarket packet of crab eye beans (barbunya) and they’ve worked out just fine (if not as wonderful as Jes’s!) (Note: an equivalent European bean is the Italian borlotti bean)
  2. Soak your beans overnight, at least 8 hours. I’ve been using filtered water and changing the water semi-regularly as this helps reduce the bean chemicals that makes you less popular at social events (if you get my drift). If you end up soaking them too much just put them in the fridge to stop them fermenting. The beans will at least double in size, so allow for that, and once they’ve soaked the skins should look a little bit wrinkly. Don’t worry – they’ll absorb more fluid in the next steps.
  3. Once ready, quarter an onion and about 4/5 cloves of garlic and throw in a pan with some olive oil. Cook until nice and brown.
  4. Drain the beans and put them in the browned onions, cover with plenty of water and add some ground pepper. Bring to the boil then pop in a bay leaf (don’t forget to take this out at the end.
  5. Boil for 30 minutes, then turn to medium high.
  6. After 15 minutes add some vegetable broth and salt and keep cooking. You’ll have to keep checking at this point to see how tender the beans are.
  7. Once they’re done, drain and eat! Or put in the fridge for a handy bean salad for the week. Yum!

It’s a great simple dish, dirt cheap, good for you and handy for lunches. The only downside is remembering to soak the beans the night before. So thanks for that Jess, you’ll make a vegetarian of me yet!

Art Brut @ Electric Ballroom


Art Brut @ Electric Ballroom
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Yet another great gig last night with the ever lovely Art Brut. This was our first British Art Brut gig, in the cavernous Electric Ballroom in Camden, and thankfully the home country crowd now loves them as much as they do in New York.

There are a few pics up on my Flickr – not my best I’m afraid, my G7 is having a lot of trouble focussing. Ug. Plus I also put a few long distance shots up of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs from the amazing Shepherds Bush Empire show a few weeks ago.

A Fun Day at the London Marathon – with side of Gordon Ramsey

Just back from a fun day down at the London Marathon, helping raise awareness of Battens Disease with my sister. We were camped out down by the west entrance to Canary Wharf, next to the BBC London radio bus, all wearing our bright orange t-shirts. And while we were there who should run past but Gordon Ramsey. Bless. Who knows, next year maybe I’ll give it a go… Maybe.

PJ Harvey & John Parish @ Shepherds Bush Empire


PJ Harvey & John Parish @ Shepherds Bush Empire
Originally uploaded by ultrahi.

The every amazing Polly Jean with her co-conspirator John Parish rocked Shepherds Bush Academy last night for the second of two gigs. Wonderful stuff indeed. How such an amazing range of sound comes from her small frame is somewhat beyond me, but I’m sure glad it does. From the opening epic rock of Black Hearted Love, to the very end, every moment was wonderful and tight – we even got a few minutes of PJ banter as one of the band’s laptops gave us a crackly acapella moment.

It’s been a long time since my last PJ gig at Glasto over ten years ago, and before that was at the Que club in Brum (supported by Tricky) and this gig just shows she’s going from strength to strength. Thanks to Polly and John for a splendid night, to Rich and Andrew for coming along to enjoy, and to Sooz for Facebooking her original comment when she missed the first round of tickets! Now let’s see if I can get some Blur preview gig tickets this morning…

Back in sunny London

Back in London again after my super fun week and a bit back in New York. Thanks to everyone for making time to hang out – it was great to see you all – and those of you who I didn’t get to see, fingers crossed for next time! Plus a big ‘up’ to Sandra for letting my couch surf for the week. You rock!

Now I just need to adjust to getting up in the morning for work at the time I was just about finishing carousing for the night… Ug. Thankfully it’s a bright and sunny morning, so the walk in should shake the last bit of sleep from my eyes. Then it’s the longer term trauma of re-adjusting back to London life after a week of the New York simplicity and intensity, with the usual question – “why don’t things in London just work as well as they do in New York?”. Or cost as little. I mean.. $25 for a week metro card in New York.. that’s about £18 for unlimited travel all over the five boroughs 24 (yes, count them) hours a day. It’s always a sobering thought. Not that London isn’t a great city, it’s just one you have to work at enjoying more than you do in NYC.

OK.. enough blog related procrastination. It’s back to work with me.