on the internetz.
Cool picture of Mt Etna from space. Luverley jubbly.
Had a great weekend in Montreal. Big city benefits with small European town feel. Lots of great food (St Denis), good music (check out Laika and Blue Dog on St Laurent) and surprisingly good weather. The Sunday drumming in Parc Mont Royale is like a mini-Glastonbury, replete with crusties and amusing dogs. Maybe I’ll go and live there for a change of scene, pour pratiquer ma francais…
Great article on BBC News about a guy who lived in Sydney flying back to propose to his girlfriend in England, only to find she’d flown over to surprise him. They were even stopped over in Singapore at the same time… Ouch. Long distance relationships are never simple are they.
I bought two Benno CD racks (which is still not enough for all my CDs), an Anslut kitchen work surface, a wall bar thing, a small stainless steel pot, a drainer for one of my large pots, a 5 x 5 huge book shelf thing (for which the amusing IKEA name escapes me), a ceramic plant pot and piles of picture frames (one of which has come travelling with me up to State College). Well you did ask…
Another busy fun weekend back in New York City. Friday night out at Organic Grooves which was down the Frying Pan, a rusty old boat sitting on the Hudson River near Chelsea Piers. Great little venue and a long conversation about lawyers and software contracts.
Saturday headed out to Long Beach, well, West Lido Beach really, for John’s birthday gathering. Much splashing and burning ensued. The day was topped off with dinner down Pisces which, although nice, was not anything special. Place was pretty empty for a Saturday night…
Sunday decided to head out to IKEA and blow some money on storage solutions. This was triggered by constantly tripping over piles of crap lying around my apartment. A happy evening spent putting it all together (thanks John) means I now have to reorganize my place. Of course I’m not going to see any of this for about three weeks between being in State College and weekends away… Hopefully it won’t all have melted in this excessive heat. Or my new landlord won’t decide to throw me out in the meantime!
Had a great weekend back in New York. Went to see Basement Jaxx at the Summer Stage in Central Park on Saturday. Then on Sunday went out to the Area:One festival out in Jones Beach. Both a great laugh, with plenty of fun people and with Natalie Portman consistently bumping into me as I wandered around.
I also have to make a decision on whether I continue to own Sushification.com and MatthewHobbs.net, both being up for renewal. I haven’t actually done anything with either of those URLs and it seems like a bit of a waste of money to keep them hanging around for no reason. More likely to keep MatthewHobbs.net than Sushification though. Decisions, decisions…
Being back at home always leads to the same thing, looking at old photos. I have so many photos from my life in a big box back here – none are even 5% as good as the stuff my photographer friends took at the same age or younger. Makes me realise a) how far I’ve come and b) how far I have left to go. I tended (and still do) take a lot of pictures of buildings. It’s also a long way between photos of me… But there are some great ‘fluffy haired’ ones. When I’m older and my memories fading these will be of great help. Oh wait. That’s now… damn you gin and tonic!
And now I know who murdered my wife, but in 10 minutes I will have forgotten that. Wait… Who are you people? What are you doing on my website? Who am I? And, more importantly, where did I leave my coffee…
Just had a couple of wonderful days with my family in Brit-land. Simon, my brother in law, now has full priestly powers (not limited to blessing things and being able to run faster than a speeding bullet) having been ordained on Saturday at Guildford Cathedral. Today he gave his first communion. This means I’ve spent at least 5 hours in churches over the last two days – enough to keep me going for a looooong time! Simon played a good first game and has a great chanting voice, with excellent wing support from his brother, Matthew, and father, Leslie, both priests already.
That aside it’s lovely to see everyone and really makes me generally homesick with the thought that I will shortly be back in New York and a long way away from them. On the plus side this trip should bring me over 40,000 Virgin airmiles, giving me a free trans-atlantic flight at some point. Huzah!!
The flashbacks to my own choir days have been quite scary though… Luckily there aren’t many photos of that. Phew!
For those of you missing your regular Buffy kick – check this stuff out. It’s clips from a Beeb show where some of the Scooby gang and others are interviewed. Roll on autumn…
If you ever feel your wrists aching away as you surf here’s an article from the BBC about the causes of RSI or ‘upper limb disorder’. I feel more achy already – think I’ll go stretch a little.
I’m currently staying in the State College Days Inn instead of the usual Mariott Residence and it’s just not the same. Not even in the same league, as can also be said for their web sites. The Days Inn is like some weird reject from the 70s with food that came straight from the era (error?) of fluorescent food colouring and shrink wrapped pastries. They even call their pool/gym area the ‘natatorium’ – a term whose etymology dates even further back than the antiquated gym equipment it possesses. Its one saving grace is that it is right downtown, allowing for super-easy access to the local bevelries.
It is a strange day when you miss the comforting atmosphere of one hotel over another. Ah, the pleasures of working away from home…
