crazybobbles

Yeah, I texted Jason asking him whether he was about yesterday but he wasnt, so to make up we arranged a quick day out on Saturday. Twas a nice and manly date haha. Met up at Wimbledon and literally went to Waterloo via super trains (not tube). Had a talk about DSLR cameras, seems like Jason is interested in getting into photography as he understands that compact cameras are quite limited at awkward conditions, mainly indoors etc. I told him about the whole divide of Nikon and Canon and how he had to make the right choice first time round.

We decided to go watch Magicians (rather than 28 Weeks Later, I’ve sort of gone off that due to lack of original talent hehe). But yeah, we decided to piss about in Funland before the film, we booked our tickets and all (I was still Student oh yeah) Jason bought the tickets (and I bought the food later on). We felt like adults haha. We then went to the arcades and played Point Blank, was an awesome game, Jason only discovered it today, he enjoyed it quite a bit and yeah at 50p a game you cant really go wrong.

After that we went to watch Magicians, shockingly we were the only ones there! Well later on another couple turned up, was slightly homo erotic one might say haha. But yeah, the movie was really good. Not as gross as Peep Show but still nonetheless good. Not really a Shaun of the Dead / Hot Fuzz though, I dont think Magicians was that impressive as a movie when you compare it to the likes of Shaun of the Dead etc. Was fun seeing loads of Peep Show casts in the movie.

Afterwards we went to Yo Sushi for some Sushi, Jason was missing Japanese food from Japan so I thought it was the best place to go. We had chicken yakisoba straight away and then ate all sorts of japanese stuff, including Prawn Tempura! mmm, that was godly haha. We also had some fried chicken stuff, it was all nice and yummy. We had a very minimal amount of Sushi, just one prawn/tuna/salmon Nigri. We talked a lot about Japanese culture and it was pretty interesting. No singing sushi chef though Thats the only reason you spend £2 on 2 nigris instead of £1 at Wasabi’s. Ah well, the tempura was awesome enough to cover that.

Afterwards we went to loads of random shops in the rain haha, Jason told me to have a look a Abercrombie and Fitch, he explained how Rachel told him to go there and it was filled with women in Bikini’s and thumping techno music. OH HOW WAS HE WRONG! First thing we got was a topless man and thumping music. The paintings are homoerotic and everything else followed the same theme, immediately we left haha.

We also went to the Apple centre, I played some Logic Express, wasn’t too impressed by it to be honest, Xpand and Pro tools did the same job and all. But yeah, afterwards we went back to Wimbledon where we had a nice Frappe Latte and some hardcore DS battling (Elite Beat Agents). Jason met up with Rachel and yeah, she was too tired so they left and I went back home. Quite a nice day, I enjoyed the sushi in particular No photos sorry.

Today I managed to catch up with Jason and Rachel, it was sort of a semi celebration for me handing in that ungodly report. We’d celebrate it typical Nando’s style (could have done Gourmet Burger Kitchen but we did a coin toss for that last time and went there). Prior to that I had half a crispy duck to eat for myself for lunch so I was already feeling a bit full so I decided to opt for half a chicken too (half a duck and chicken, what do we get? goose haha).

Anyway, main reason to meet up with Jason and Rachel was the fact that they have come back from Japan. Loads of stories to tell and all :). After the food ordering and slight use of homo erotica with me and Jason (we like teasing Rachel that Jason and I are a couple haha but its pretty fun), we got straight down to business and talked about stuff them two did in Japan.

Seems like they had loads of fun in Japan, quite a hectic one for them too since they were moving around hotels almost every day. They even stayed in the hotel used in Lost in Translation (I asked Rachel if she did the whole “Lip my stockings” thing with Jason haha). They went to all sorts of places including… STUDIO GHIBLI! I was gutted that they had went there! Though thankfully they had bought me some presents in the gift shop :D.

Jason and Rachel got me a DS Lite stylus (pink) which they got from those vending machines, as well as a Porco Rosso badge and Keyring I loved them (not too keen on Porco Rosso but nonetheless, its still awesome that its from Studio Ghibli so I’m no doubt going to treasure it)

They also went to a naked spa haha, Jason was talking to some random Japanese businessman type guy there, apparently the guy mentioned about how Japanese guy’s things…werent too big haha. How lovely. The whole journey seems like super fun, they were going to save up for another time to go to Japan AGAIN. I said I’m definitely going to come along that time. I want to see studio Ghibli

They bought alot of stuff from Japan, including DS games (which were disturbingly cheap), Jason had got himself a DS Lite after his trip to Japan to play his games so now we can have crazy battles, I advised him to get an M3 Simply so we can have proper battles on whatever games we had and all :D.

I tried some of the green olives on Rachel’s little bowl of Olives, Alice kept telling me to give them a go so I thought I’d have a taste at it, not bad I must say Going to buy some soon after.

After food and crazy sangria we were sort of told we had to leave since we had no food on our table and yeah, they were quite busy *shakes head*. We then walked around blockbusters and talked about random films, including Studio Ghibli ones. Jason and Rachel kept rubbing it in that they saw a Ghibli Museum exclusive short film when they were in Japan ;(. Was a fun night, afterwards I took a few photos of them and we said our goodbyes, quite a nice day and all

Me, Jason and Rachel had planned on going to see Tilly and the Wall perform at the Scala, Jason and Rachel booked their tickets well in advanced so I was pretty much joining in on the fun. I was pretty drained from gigging still, I was still recovering from my crazy weekend of Muser Meetups and Howling Bells madness.

Jason told me to meet up with him at Russell Square where we would find a local Nando’s and just eat there before the gig. Jason and Rachel were working so we had to meetup right after their work and all. Both were slightly late. Rachel being the latest (about 40 minutes late!). Anyway, we went straight down to business and got to Nando’s in no time (was pretty easy to find one must say) I really should have met them there so I could just munch on food whilst waiting haha.

We talked about DS lites, their holiday they were planning on going, stuff that was happening (and stuff that wasn’t), and my DSLR camera. I told them my plan of smuggling the camera in my laptop bag. Theres a wee compartment in the back of the bag which looks like its just padding (but it has zips and everything for storing extra stuff). So yeah, I also showed them my new lens I got, I was planning on using that lens if I wasnt at the front of the stage. We managed to munch down our nando’s pretty quickly and spent quite some time talking and drinking bottomless fizzy drinks.

Eventually we made our way to the gig, Scala was pretty close from where we were at so that was good. We initially thought the band wouldnt have sold out and I would have easily bought my ticket on the door without the need of booking fee’s and p&p charges. Turns out I was wrong, Tilly and the Wall actually managed to sell out tonight! There was queue going on outside which meant we had to wait a bit. At this time the bottomless drinks had kicked in and I needed to use the bathroom, thankfully that desperation disappeared when we managed to swiftly get into the venue without much hassle. Jason did get some hassle though, the security guard said they werent allowed to bring bottled water into the gig, so jason had asked them to hold onto the bottle until he left the building, he even had a ticket for his bottle bless him!

I managed to smuggle my dslr camera in without any problems. After using the toilet, I met up with jason and rachel who were buying t shirts from the gig. We went down to the dance floor/stage and immediately I said we should goto the front and watch the gig. It was a pretty risky decision as the security guards can easily spot a dslr camera being used and all.

I was a bit nervous about bringing the dslr camera at such close proximity to the security guards, but I decided to risk it and only take photos when needed (not doing a Regina Spektor again where I get told off for going nuts on the flash!). Anyway, the support bands were alright, the first one was Kate Nash, apparently she was a friend of Lily Allen and has the same style as her and the notorious Regina Spektor (no idea why I called her notorious, perhaps she sings too fast that it offends people or something i dunno?) anyway, the second band were called the small ones or something haha. They were an american band and played pretty chirpy songs. At one point we REALLY thought they were going to play coca cobana! They had the bells and everything! Unfortunately they didn’t.

Anyway, most of the time I was perving over band photographer and their photo pit access. Though one thing I had to remember was the fact that they were only allowed to take photos of the band for a limited duration (usuaully 3 songs) then after that they would be ushered out of the pit by security. I think the security guard took more notice with the photographers then with my smuggled camera.

I noticed that most of them used 50mm prime lenses for their photographer, I’ve already read alot of reviews and positive comments about this lens (it was even recommended by this author of an lens guide article who had pretty much slagged off every cheap lens there was out there). So yeah, I’m pretty certain that this the next lens I was going to be getting since it’s faster then any lens I have right now and was a f1.8 lens. (£60 too!)

Eventually Tilly and the Wall came out… no not to play, but to set up their own gear!!! I was pretty shocked that they had to do it all themselves, the venue roadie was pretty much standing about doing nothing. Though jason did tell me that previously when they let the roadies do the gear and all, they’d fuck up and it ended up with the band themselves fixing it. I guess its useful knowing how to do your own gear but its not good for the fans to see you doing it yourselves hehe. Though you must remember that this was no ordinary band, this was a tap dancing band haha. They had to install their tap dancing booths JUST right in order to really show off the tap dancing and all. The main tap dancer had to put a metal plate over her large platform. Was fun watching her gaffa tape it all together on her own. I felt bad for the band but then again, they’re not THAT big and their setup is pretty complicated.

Once the gear was all set the band pretty much started.

Photographers on your marks, get set.. SHOOT!

As always, the photographers go nuts when the main act comes out and starts their first song (wouldnt blame them, thats their third to last song they can have photo pit access to haha). I was doing some pretty discrete shots since I really didnt want to get caught, more photographers arrived on the scene and it was a hectic slush of photographers in the pit (as always).

At one point of the gig they played a new song in which the singer had forgotten the lines, that was pretty funny. The tap dancing was amazing. Its pretty cool how the tap dancer was doing it right in front of me, waas like my very own dancer haha. The second song they played was Fell down the stairs, that was pretty much my favorite song so it was nice to hear that.

The stage was pretty dark I must say, taking photos of the people on the right was hard, my lens wasnt wide enough to take a whole band photo so that was a bummer too. This was where I began playing about with settings too. At times I had to surrender to the camera and use ISO 1600 which took some slightly grainy shots but most of the time I was stuck on ISO 800.

The photos were pretty nice

Notice the third shot has a bit of light. Those are the fortunate shots you take where another photographer went nuts on flash and you’re using their light to take a nice photo haha. They were pretty sharp photos I must say

They even did some synchronised dancing at some point. I was really enjoying the gig and at the same time, enjoying taking photos of them.

The band did an encore of “requested” songs in which they pretty much pretended to hear what the fans said haha. Looking at the setlist they pretty much stuck to what was on there rather then listen to the fans. It was fun, the term used for it is “selective hearing” when you hear only one person suggest the song you already had in mind :p.

The ended with Night of the Living dead in which it was joined in with the support bands. The stage was pretty much invaded and mental looking haha. Hoepfully the last photo shows how mental it was.

I was really happy about the photos for the gig, I managed to juice out a whole gig worth of photos and also got the setlist (and guitar pick which i gave to jason) which was an added bonus.

And yeah, that was pretty much it, Rachel tried using the camera a few times and was jealous of the photos I had taken hehe (she tried taking some on her mobile and all bless).

our journey back was quite fun, since Rachel lives in Wimbledon it was quite an cosy journey back (ie I had company haha). I immediately reviewed the photos when I got home and deleted whatever I thought wasn’t “flickr quality” haha. I mananged to figure out a new system for my band photography in which I would only take a limited amount of photos, I made the number the same as the number of photos a 35mm film would store. inn said that was 32 but later on i found out it was 36. So yeah, I managed to squeeze the best photos from that gig and upload them to flickr. They’re pretty nice and varied so overall I was pretty proud of them :).

My usual birthday setup would involve a quiet night in with my friends, and thats what happened.

Managed to get my closest friends to come out for a quiet night out at GBK in Wimbledon. I would have stuck to traditions and do a Nando’s but after last night I had to opt for a different kind of meat. Anyway, Rachel was at work that evening so I arranged the time to meetup around 7.30 (and Rachel finishes at 8). I was slightly late haha, but managed to catch Jason and Elliott at the two fat ladies promptly. Twas nice seeing Elliott again, especially with the right bunch of people (college goers and all). We considered going to a pub or a coffee shop (well, Elliott anyway) but opted for bantering at HMV for 30 minutes for Rachel to finish work. It was literally a case of looking at DVD’s and talking about them haha. Was fun.

We eventually went outside to meetup with Rachel and quickly shuffled into Gourmet Burger Kitchen for some burger action. We ordered our drinks and spent a bit looking at what to eat. I thought since it’s my birthday I might as well spoil myself with a double pattie burger with bacon. It was definitely money well spent. The size of the burger was just ridiculous.

I managed to present everyone with their presents, Jason got a Casio Poptone watch (since he didnt have a watch), Elliott got a copy of Punch Drunk Love (which Jason and some waitress recommended), Rachel got a years subscription to a Flickr Pro account, that would hopefully make her use her damn digital slr camera that she got. Everyone was chuffed with their xmas presents (me being good at selecting presents and all). Jason got me a rather unique and awesome game called We <3 Katamari whilst the other two didnt (poor being a reason).

Eventually our food came by and we went nuts at the eating. My burger was simply too much. A single burger was enough to give someone a locked jaw, but two was just asking for a lock jaw. Nonetheless I resisted using knives and forks and resorted to tackling the burger with the risk of locked jaw. It was simply too much, but I think I managed anyway haha.

We had a nice long talk, Jason mentioned his Wii he got as a present, was pretty jealous that he had one but its only a matter of time when the consoles aren’t sold out silly and I can get a copy myself. I need a decent tv as well to make sure its in proper use.

That was pretty much it. Very good company and everything, received a few birthday texts as well as a birthday thread from the muse board. Spent the rest of the evening playing We <3 Katamari, awesome game haha.

Today I managed to meet up with Jason and Rachel to see Casino Royale and eat at Nandos. I managed to arrive at Odeon Cinema at 2:20 haha, slightly late but I got there anyway. I missed seeing them two, last time was god knows…

We got our tickets and bought some pop corn / drinks, jason bought the stuff, I told him I’ll buy him Nandos and everything. Me and Rachel shared a large sweet popcorn. I’ve noticed that the different in sizes were SO small. I poured a medium sized popcorn into a large pop corn box, turns out there was only room for a little bit more.

Anyway, on with the show, Was slightly glad that we were a bit late for the film. It was FILLED with ads and trailers, they really know how to sell stuff. Anyway back to the film, here’s a quick synopsis stolen from imdb about Casino Royale

Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to ‘00′ status. Bond’s first 007 mission takes him to Madagascar where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. Following a lead to the Bahamas, he encounters Dimitrios and his girlfriend, Solange. He learns that Dimitrios is involved with Le Chiffre, banker to the world’s terrorist organizations. Secret Service intelligence reveals that Le Chiffre is planning to raise money in a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro at Le Casino Royale. MI6 assigns 007 to play against him, knowing that if Le Chiffre loses, it will destroy his organization. ‘M’ places Bond under the watchful eye of the beguiling Vesper Lynd. At first skeptical of what value Vesper can provide, Bond’s interest in her deepens as they brave danger together and even torture at the hands of Le Chiffre. In Montenegro, Bond allies himself with Mathis MI6’s local field agent, and Felix Leiter who is representing the interests of the CIA. The marathon game proceeds with dirty tricks and violence, raising the stakes beyond blood money and reaching a terrifying climax.

This film was made by the guy who did Goldeneye, which was a proper classic so this bond film was definitely worth watching.

One of the first things I noticed in Casino Royale was when the guy opened his drawers at the first scenes, and BAM! A SONY WALKMAN!! It looked so out of place. Instantly I saw a trend going on, Sony REALLY went crazy on the product placements! Throughout the film I saw the following products that they tried selling: 3 types of Sony Erricson phones, Omega watch, Ford car, Sony Vaio Laptops, Sony Cybershot Camera, Prada Sunglasses (rachel mentioned them to me), Virgin planes (complete with Richard Branson), Aston martins, DBS, Rolex (just the name), Channel and Evening Standard.

The film itself was very good, it was done very nicely but was perhaps let down by the product placement, its really hard to treat the film seriously when you are so aware that the film is trying to sell countless products to you. The phones in particular, probably because its one of the things you COULD buy, rather then an Omega watch.

I’d give the film an 7 out of 10, would have been an 8 if it didnt have so many product placements. Everything was done nicely, the main villain looked like someone from Franz Ferdinand haha.
After a nice movie, we went straight to Nandos for some greasy hot chicken action, I ordered my usual :). Jason bought a medium quarter chicken and Rachel got some random pita bread chicken. Both medium I think haha, they should try hot, its awesome.

I took a nice photo of them (and my food haha). The camera went nuts on the ISO so its grainy as ever, hopefully it wont be the case when I invest myself in a Canon 400d haha.

and my food haha, the chicken is nice and dry

After a nice meal, I ordered some additional ExTRA hot wings, they were hotter then the ones at Wembley. We had a nice long chat, was awesome

Afterwards I went back home and enjoyed the rest of the evening lounging about