Done so many wonderful things this weekend with wonderful people at the 10th annual coast party Damian hosts. A few brief highlights (in no particular order):
Spent time talking, singing, dancing and hanging out with some of the loveliest people in the world (the whole wide world)
Drove a Porsche
Ran 12 miles
Tried ‘rock’ fish (Huss, a white fish)
Threw actual rocks at other rocks
Contributed to the construction of a giant sand village (chief Architect: Nicky. Chief Engineer: Pob)
Got bowled out in one ball in a game of beach cricket, sulked
Swum in indoor and outdoor pools
BBQ-ed
DJ-ed for 3 hours
Danced for 3-4 hours
Told many embarrassing story about ‘Banana Oops’ Damian
Got styled as Bowie (check out my current FB profile pic)
Acted out all the moves to ‘I’m on a boat’
Ate fresh apples off a tree
Lost a sprint race
Won a push-up challenge
Failed to ignite a grass-filled moat/trench defence at midnight on Saturday
Learned how to play an exceedingly complex board game designed to halt the rise of Cthulu (Arkham Horror, I think)
Was impressed by Serena’s mad poetry skills.
Failed to play any poker due to an inadvertently early bedtime
Failed to go to bed till morning due to an advertently late bedtime
Referenced FoTC at every possible occasion
Tried to take some good pictures with my recently acquired Nikon D-80 (need to work out depth of field).
Discovered I actually like marmite. Never thought I did.
Amazing weekend. Massive props to all involved. Big up yourselves.
In a word, awesome. I didn’t particularly know the support acts (Broadway Calls and Rival Schools), but (despite being alright) they paled in comparison to the 80 minutes of high-paced, high adrenaline action the Offspring delivered. Can’t help but think they deliberately mess up the levels on the support acts to make the headliners sound better.
I persuaded Matt to come with me, and despite the fact he’s not a fan, the Offspring’s 20 years of performing and recording (!!) resulted in enough tunes for him to recognise and nod along to. Having lost some weight I was able to do the jump-up-and-down-headbanging-thing (bouncing? that’s not very rock) without injuring my knee, which was pretty satisfying when they played Self-Esteem.
Huge fun.
Amusing to see Dexter play a song on piano too (vid not mine, but courtesy of YouTube). In a separate note, Noodles (whose chat is pretty awful) was one of the most precise guitarists I’ve seen for a while.
Amanda’s birthday was huge fun. Bloomsbury Bowl is THE place to be. In addition to the bowling, karaoke and Big Buck Hunter game on tap, by the end of the evening we’d found innovative ways of deriving entertainment from balloons and a simple barrier (oh look, I’m walking down the steps… now I’m catching a lift… watch out, it’s a SHARK!)…
Wonderful fun, and Amanda liked all her gifts, so life is good. If slightly post-birthday hazy. And it wasn’t even my birthday!
We’ve received an unexpected parcel today – Pasties by Post from Plymouth, we think a gift from a cousin who stayed with us lately. A styrofoam box filled with uncooked pasties and ice arrived and we’ve eaten the baked product.
I was an early tester for Songkick, a social music application that scans your musical tastes and finds you local gigs to buy tickets for. A friend introduced me to a founder of the service who invited me in, but it is now open to all.
It’s awesome. I’ve become determined to be a little less middle aged and do more fun stuff like this mid-week and so the emails recommending gigs all around London from bands I already like? Fantastic. It probably wants integration with Last.fm so it can draw on historical listening patterns rather than just what you’ve got in your database (I have a lot of crap music I really ought to delete/archive)…
That said, I haven’t got around to booking anything yet. Maybe I’ll start with the next Urusen gig in a couple of weeks…
Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.
In a word, awesome. I didn’t particularly know the support acts (Broadway Calls and Rival Schools), but (despite being alright) they paled in comparison to the 80 minutes of high-paced, high adrenaline action the Offspring delivered. Can’t help but think they deliberately mess up the levels on the support acts to make the headliners sound better.