Oakey?

...Is that really you?

Unfortunately, he still has that bad haircut that makes him look like a girl. Hard to believe that Paul Oakenfold was once voted the #1 DJ in DJMag. The same spot Armin currently holds, the same spot PvD and Tiesto held... And I'll admit it, I was a fan of Oakey back in the days when Global Underground first kicked off. Back in the days when I was the only one in my circle of friends listening to prog house. I'm just quite surprised that he's still alive and playing...
... in Brixton...
... as the supporting act for Lenny Kravitz?!?

The other weird part is how unfriendly the crowd at Brixton Academy were. As I shuffled my way into the crowd, I got evil stares and harsh comments about pushing to the front. In all the times I've made my way to the front of a gig, I'd never come across hostility before. Come on, it's not like at my height of 5 feet nothing I was going to block anyone's view. These people seriously needed to lighten up. Drink more. Or something.

Irate Girl: "Do you mind? I've been here for an hour, and you've been here for 15 mins". She'd left her spot and come back 5 mins later. My theory is, once you're gone, it's anybody's game.
Me: "Sure, move and I'll step back."
Irate Girl's bf glares at me.

Hey, it's not my fault people aren't smart enough to figure out how gig-crowds work. Nobody should be forced to stand around listening to Oakey play for an hour just to end up near the front ;)

Nature One (Part zwei)

Me and B? Pay EU$3 for a porta-shower? No way! We have BABY WIPES, thank you very much :) And deodorant, anti-bacterial hand gel, face wash, toothpaste, moisturiser and clean undies! We were prepped. So whilst waiting for the other girls to arrive from Rondon on Saturday afternoon, B and I spent quite awhile back at the airport, freshening up in the toilets *grin* Aaah, flushing toilets!! *Luxury*... I didn't think I was that skanky until I wiped every inch of myself down with baby wipes and they turned BROWN :P We can't have been too smelly though, the others were still willing to hang out with us :)

Though, Milli-san doesn't look too pleased to be this close to me *grin*

Super Di-skies! :D

Are you wondering who that random guy is in the pictures? He's a random guy down on his luck. Got pick-pocketed, had no money, only his iPhone and his tent. So we took him into our group *grin* Really cool guy actually. I'm hoping if I'm ever in the same situation, backpacker karma repays me and takes care of me the same way we took care of him.

So who else did we see? PvD and Armin :)

I can't get enough of Armin. He totally r0x0rz these days. I still listen to him everyday. By the time Armin was done, it was 4am, and we had to find a cab back to the airport. Harder than it sounds, since Hahn is in the middle of NOWHERE. With the persistence of T, Babsy and Milli-san though, we made it to the flughafen in time for our flight. Believe it or not, we were back in Rondon by 8am Sunday. I was clean and sound asleep by 8:30am :)

Thanks B for camping out with me! I had soo much fun at our first camping festival. I'm really glad we did it :)

Thanks to the rest of the girly crew for flying out to party with us for just one night! It was worth it, right? ;)

Nature One (Part ein)

After 4.5 days of R&R in Croatia, I was back in the "real world". Not that my brain was functioning very well. It took me awhile to remember some things at work :P So I tried to do more damage to my brain by partying for 3 days straight *grin*

First came Basement Jaxx with Milli-san on a Thursday night. I think I slept around 2:30am. Then on Friday, I got into the office at 7:30am and left at 2pm to meet B at Liverpool Street. We were off to Hahn for Nature One!! Wooohoooo!!

On a side note, there is something very wrong with Crapair's seats. _Everytime_ I fly with them, I get off the plane with my back aching :( I think the seat actually curves outwards, pushing your spine in a really awkward way.

We arrived at the campsite around 8:30pm, found a spot and pitched tent. I'm glad it wasn't raining, I'm glad we still had plenty of daylight, and I'm glad we practised tent pitching beforehand *grin* We picked a spot directly under a massive pole with a heavy-duty spotlight marked "F12", so we'd know how to find it in the mix of hundreds of other tents that were pitched there too. It was AMAZING. At first we thought the music we were hearing came from the festival, but no - the music was pumping out of people's tents!! Some tents were totally awesome, huge enough for people to stand in with proper sleeping areas. Some people had marquees setup. Plenty of Germans bbqing weiners over small campfires. It was just really cool to be amidst all of it :)

Isn't our tent lovely? :D

We were soo happy sitting in our tent people-watching, eating nuts and drinking duty-free vodka, we even contemplated missing the Friday night festivities! *lol*

However, we were here to see TIESTO! So off we went to the festival ground to check out how the Germans partied.

The setup is quite different from anything I've been to before. The main tent is smack bang in the middle and at the bottom of several hills. On top of each hill is another tent! Mostly pumping out extremely hardcore German house music. We went inside one, and I felt like I was in a running club because of the way people were dancing :P Unfortunately, because the hills were fairly close to each other, the doof doof music started to clash against each other. The idea was pretty cool though. Those hills are pretty steep, so before we got ourselves more drunk, B and I decided to hike up the hill for an overview of the area :) Here's a pic of the main tent from the top of a hill.

Lasers, yay!

Ferry Corsten was very very MEH. He didn't even play his signature Digital Punk :( I was disappointed by how bland his music was that night.

Tiesto was really really REALLY GOOD :D I had forgotten how awesome he was :) It's been two years since I had seen him live. I'd love to see him again.

At 5am, after about half an hour of Dubfire from Deep Dish, we decided to hit the tent. Pitching under that massive spotlight was a brilliant idea *grin* I was a very very tired and happy oriental :) Sleeping on the ground took a bit of getting use to with all the lumps. At least I have a knack for sleeping anywhere though. Poor B couldn't sleep. Mainly cause of the doof doof music that was pumping out from nearby tents *grin*

I had so much fun camping out at Nature One :) My only distressing moment, was facing the portaloos the next morning *shudder* I won't go into how gross it was *shudder*....

Land of the Giants

On my trip home from Amsterdam, I was contemplating a theory. I wonder if there's a correlation between megalomania and height. Because, I can seriously understand why there would be a lot of shtty short people who would want to conquer the world just to get their own way. Me being one of them of course :P I'd make all the tall people stand at the back :P

The theory was blown when I came home and did a Google search for Chairman Mao's height. He was 1.83m.

It's really difficult for me to go clubbing these days. I value personal space so very much. A Paul van Dyk gig is the last place on earth with personal space. Not only that, this time I was picked on by tall Dutch people before I even got into the club! I fell for the old "tap on the shoulder and pretend it wasn't me" trick... Ah well.

The other thing I hate in universal club culture, are the girls who are obnoxiously obnoxious about their prettiness. The ones that stomp on you with their heels, and flick their disgustingly germy long hair in your face. Those ones. The nasty part of me just wants to grab a handful of hair and rip it out.

The nice part of me just grumbles and puts up with it to prevent deportation charges. U&W, you need to teach me some Dutch swear words! "Bitterballen" just isn't going to cut it.

Anyway, 11:30pm, post Groove Armada, it was time to head off to see PvD at Powerzone. This has to be the nicest pic I've ever taken of PvD :)

There's also one more thing I'd like to mention about Dutch clubbing. What the hell is with the token system these days? Everywhere you go, it's exchange money for tokens to buy drinks. There's always a massive line to buy tokens. There's also that nasty thing they do where they give you the bottle without a cap, forcing you to buy a new bottle everytime you want a drink. Gawd, it's illegal not to give water for free in Australia.

Unfortunately, I was too tired to wake up at 1am to see PvD play at KoKo in Rondon the next night :(

I see you Baby

SHAKIN THAT ASS!

To be honest, I had no idea what Groove Armada were like. I didn't even know any of their songs. I was just going along for fun. What, you mean you don't take a day off to fly to Amsterdam to listen to random DJs for fun? ;) To be honest, I initially thought the support act were Groove Armada, and was disappointed that they sucked so badly *lol* I was falling asleep! It wasn't until Groove Armada got on and sang the words, "Whenever I'm down, I call on you my friend," that I realised, "OH! Groove Armada sang _that_ song!" And of course, there's also the infamous "I See You Baby" song :)

By accident, I took this really cool photo:

Ok, so it's not that cool, but I was never able to take photos like this with my old skool Canon :) There's something called "Intelligent ISO" mode on my new camera. One day, I'll RTFM.

Lager Lager Lager Lager!

On a school night :) It's been such a looong time since I've been to a gig. SW4 was way back in August. So it felt good to be out again :) Who cares that it's a school night when it's UNDERWORLD! It's funny, they're one group I never thought I'd see live. The singer's nuts! On my best-live-gigs list, I'd rank them #4. B, this one's for you :)

Drive boy dog boy
Dirty numb angel boy
In the doorway boy
She was a lipstick boy
She was a beautiful boy
And tears boy
And all in your innerspace boy
You had
hands girl boy
and steel boy
You had chemicals boy
I've grown so close to you
Boy and you just groan boy
She said comeover comeover
She smiled at you boy

Let your feelings slip boy
But never your mask boy
Random blonde bio high density rhythm
Blonde boy blonde country blonde high density
You are my drug boy
You're real boy
Speak to me and boy dog
Dirty numb cracking boy
You get wet boy
Big big time boy
Acid bear boy
Babes and babes and babes and babes and babes
And remembering nothing boy
You like my tin horn boy and get
Wet like an angel
Derail

You got a velvet mouth
You're so succulent and beautiful
Shimmering and dirty
Wonderful and hot times
On your telephone line
And god and everything
On your telephone
And in walk an angel

And look at me your mom
Squatting pissed in a tube-
hole at Tottenham Court Road
I just come out of the ship
Talking to the most
Blonde I ever met
Shouting
Lager lager lager lager
Shouting
Lager lager lager lager
Shouting...
Lager lager lager
Shouting
Mega mega white thing
Mega mega white thing
Mega mega white thing
Mega mega
Shouting lager lager lager lager
Mega mega white thing
Mega mega white thing
So many things to see and do
In the tube hole true
Blonde going back to Romford
Mega mega mega going back to Romford
Hi mom are you having fun
And now are you on your way
To a new tension
headache

Darren Emerson

Unranked, and for good reason - Darren Emerson's music is boring. _Really_ boring.

I don't know if it's because I like my trance cheesy, or my house hard, but gaaawd... I've rarely ever stood infront of a DJ and felt that unmotivated to dance. So that's it, no more house music for me.

Even the overdressed crowd was boring. Girls performed their mating calls in spikey heels, boys performed their monkey moves in preppy shirts. I even saw a girl do the Elaine Dance. That was the most entertaining part of my night. Of course, there's always at least one twat in the club that wants to talk to me.
Twat: "What do you dislike most about Western guys?"
Me: "They can't dance" :P

Ignorance isn't bliss

I never knew the Chemical Brothers were Electro Gods. All this time, I'd heard their name, but never seen them live or heard any of their music. Until tonight. At the spur of the moment, I bought myself a ticket to their gig at the Roundhouse. Best gig I've been to in Rondon yet! They're amazing live! Good enough for me to get over my frustration of being evacuated from the venue about 10 mins before they came onto stage. I waited out in the cold for over an hour, with no news about what was going to happen. I eventually walked away and headed to the bus stop. Good thing the bus stop was close by. Just as I was about to turn my back on the Chemical Brothers, I saw people heading back into the venue again. So I stayed.

It. Was. GREAT.

I was one level up and had soo much dancing space with a perfect view. Tons of people were packed on the dancefloor below. To think I was ready and willing to give up on the Chemical Brothers, all because I had never heard them before. It wasn't just the music that was good, the accompanying background visuals were pretty awesome too. I had so much fun :) I'm so glad I stayed.

All these years, I've been missing out on the Chemical Brothers. Ignorance isn't bliss at all. And I can't believe I forgot my camera :(

Oooh, and I finally had myself a Hache burger from Camden! I ordered a Sicilian, which was a Prime Beef steak, topped with Parma ham, and melted buffala mozerella cheese. On a fresh ciabatta bun. MMMmmm, YUMMO. I had to wait 20 mins for it, but I chowed it down in less than 10 :) The place was packed. Not sure if it's worth 8+ squids, but it's definitely one of the better burgers I've had. I'll be back, with friends.

Queen's Day!!!

It's a nice sunny day in Amsterdam, and everyone was out to party! In boats! The canals were endlessly filled with party boats. Anyone want to organise a theme boat for next year's Queen's Day? :)

The day was topped off at Leiden with a free gig by Armin van Buuren (ranked #2). It would've been a lot better without the crazy puberscent kids around. I'm starting to sound like an old fart :( Think from now on, I'll stick to over 18 events.

48 hours

Well, we know it's possible to do Milan in 24 hours. So what can I get up to in Rondon in the space of 48 hours?

How about:
- 3 DJs
- 2 gym classes
- 1 Duck Challenge
- 2 hours of shopping (new stripey singlet top! yay!)
- 1 freebie event at the BFI

#18: Marco V
#71: Mauro Picotto
Not even in the top 100 list but free entry: Seb Fontaine
Overall impression: Meh. Marco V was alright. Better than Mauro Picotto. However, by 330am, I was bored and ready to go home. Definitely not DJs I would travel just to see. But for 10 quid to see both Marco V and Mauro Picotto, it was a deal I couldn't resist. Can't say I liked Seb Fontaine much either. Very samey throughout the night.

More interesting to talk about pick-up efforts on the night :) I find it odd that in a crowded doof doof club, a guy comes up to me and asks, "Do you want to dance?". I'm like, "Eh? No". Who dances with someone at a doof doof club? I know this sounds weird, but most of the time, people face the DJ rather than each other when dancing. Truth be told, I think he only asked me cause I had a good spot, and he wanted me to move to the dancefloor so he could take it :P

It's usually hard to distinguish the genuinely happy people, from the genuinely drunk people, from the genuinely wasted people at clubs. Friday night was a breeze. Those hyper orientals with the glowstix posing for photos - happy. That topless guy with the viking hat - drunk. The girl doing the sexy dancing and hair flicking with an inanimate object for ages - wasted.

Moving on.

So, what is the Duck Challenge? After a year of wondering if Four Seasons really has the best roast duck, we decided to confirm it by pitting it against ducks from three other other restaurants. Challengers were Gold Mine, Magic Wok and Tai Ka Lok.

D, the Duck Master:

Being the only person in the household that doesn't care anything about duck besides eating it, D was designated the Duck Master - the One Who Knows Which Duck Is Which. D was responsible for creating 20 bite sized morsels of each duck and keeping each duck anonymous.

9 of us judged the ducks in two categories.
- Best duck flavour:
1. Magic Wok
2. Four Seasons
3. Gold Mine
4. Tai Ka Lok

- Best duck with sauce:
1. Four Seasons
2. Magic Wok
3. Gold Mine
4. Tai Ka Lok

Before and After:

Results are a bit skewed though. Something about Magic Wok's duck being pre-sauced. There were also a few convinced that Gold Mine had the best sauceless duck. So there you go, Rondoners. The secret's to get the duck from Magic Wok, and the sauce from Four Seasons!

A note on Tai Ka Lok's duck. It's the crappiest duck I've ever tasted in Rondon. The only reason it was in the competition, is because the restaurant has a sign outside saying it had hired a barbeque roast master from China called Mr Tham, and had the best duck in Rondon. HAH. I should've known never to trust anyone called anything other than Sifu to be master... "Mr" Tham. HAH.

#1: Paul van Dyk

To be honest, I didn't enjoy the night. Firstly, I've never had to turn up at a club at 1030pm and wait approximately 4 hours for a DJ before. Why turn up so early? Because the club was intending to squish as many humanoids into the small space as possible, and this was their way of making sure members got in before the plebs. Secondly, too many retards. I've always been clubbing for the music. It's too hard to enjoy the music when people are constantly stepping on my feet. Or I'm too squished in to dance. Or at my height, all I see infront of me is some guy's beefcake back. Or I'm always on the lookout for flying elbows and retards with lit cigarettes. It's really really disappointing when I hear a tune I love being played but... just can't dance or enjoy it properly. Great to see PvD... But, I think I'll avoid the big gigs at Turnmills from now on. It's just too hard.

Why did I go? You know who you are :P I paid the price. Today, my mucous has transformed from yellow to green and I've lost my voice.

Here's the obligatory DJ pic :) Looks like PvD's balding tho!!!

#9: Above & Beyond

Fck, Above & Beyond were absolutely *brilliant*. It was worth flying over to Glasgow just to see them. It was worth all the lines I had to wait in just to see them! Airport security (the usual), getting on the plane, traffic jam in Glasgow, waiting to get inside the club, waiting for the cloakroom... All worth it to see Above & Beyond live.

Funny thing about Scottish clubbers. They're the most enthusiastic about DJs! It's BYO whistles (admittedly I wanted to garrote the guy with his whistle yard), and mass chanting. No kidding. "Go! Go! Here we fcking go!" Or for those who felt more inspired, "Let's! Let's! Let's go fcking mental!"

What on earth?

So here are some statistics for the night:
- Number of orientals in the club: 1 (that's me)
- Number of guys who kissed my hand/cheek: 5
- Number of chicks who kissed my cheek: 1
- Number of wasters who tried picking me up: 2
- Number of wasters who fondled his bits after I turned him down: 1
- Age of the youngest guy who tried to pick me up: 19 (man, I felt like a paedophile)
- Number of guys who showed me his chest and asked if I liked it: 2 (must be a weird Scottish mating call thing)
- Number of times topless guy next to me rubbed against me: 3 (ewwww...)
- Number of guys who took off clothes for me: 1 (He said, "It's really hot in here. I said, "Why don't you take it off?" So he took _everything_ off. I just meant his jumper, I swearz)

And this, made my night:
- Number of times I was kissed by the Above & Beyond DJ: 3!!! :D W00T!!!

I in turn became a giddy schoolgirl and started yelling, "I LOVE YOOOU!!"

The one on the left smooched me :)

#6: Ferry Corsten

I know I made it a priority this year to be a bigger DJ slut, but do you realise how hard it is to go clubbing at midnight when it's cold and potentially raining outside? Not to mention I'm a lot closer to 30 these days and my body's breaking down on me (excuses excuses). Regardless, I made the effort to see Ferry Corsten play at Turnmills last Friday. He's ranked No. 6 on the Top 100 DJ Mag list. Sadly, Ferry's music didn't inspire me to stay very long. At 3.30am, an hour and a half into his 4 hour set, I left for home. I use to love Ferry's music. These days, his sets seem... boring. So, no more Ferry Corsten for me this year. I did manage to get up close to him though :) I had to shine my super bright mobile light at him in order to take this really fuzzy picture *lol* Poor guy...

I can't wait for Above and Beyond in Glasgow next weekend! You can listen to their weekly radio broadcast every Tuesday @ 8pm UK time at their website.

Priorities

I don't believe in making NY resolutions.

Mainly because it implies that there's something wrong with the way I'm living my life and it has to be fixed. When I think about it, I'm quite happy with the decisions I've made. If you ask me, it's more about priorities. Sometimes career comes first, sometimes family, sometimes it's that special someone.

My numero uno priority this year - To follow more DJs around Europe! *grin* Starting off with Above and Beyond at the Arches in Glasgow. Raaarh! Can't wait! Flights for Jan 27th are booked and sorted! Can you believe that London-Glasgow cost me GBP$9.99, and Glasgow-London cost me GBP$8.99? :D Aaah, Easyjet, how I love thee. Taxes were an additional 20 quid, but it's still a value for money flight.

If anyone's interested in becoming a fellow DJ slut, let me know and I'll send you gig dates *grin*

Bus 98 will be the death of me...

... but more on that later.

I absolutely luuuurve clubbing in London! OMG! It was a fantastic night at Turnmills, listening to Eddie Halliwell. B had the great idea of us becoming Turnmill members. Best 25 quid I've spent soo far! We got there, and were escorted to the head of the line! Everyone in the club was soo unbelievably nice! If people stepped on your foot, they apologised! *Shock* People offered us water! People chatted to me outside while I was waiting for B. I even got a free challenge on an arcade game :) I don't know what it is about clubbing here, but I was just soo pleasantly surprised by how nice people were. You never get the friendly attitude at Sydney clubs :(

I also never got the pick-up lines in Sydney clubs :) Hehe. Maybe because I was always surrounded by three giant Kiwis :) I miss having those boys around me while I dance. So, worse lines for tonite?

"You have some great moves. Are you a student?" - This came from a chubba flailing his glowsticks at me. He also kept yelling in my ear. Very annoying. His, "Are you a student," call confirms my suspicions that I still look 20 though. I think the bouncer at the door couldn't believe my age either, he kept looking at my card.

"How are you doing? I like you" - He was foreign, I think that's all he knew how to say.

So, 4am, we leave the club. Got back to Oxford Street. B and I parted ways. I jumped on the 98 bus. This is the second time I've jumped on this bus. This is also the second time it's taken me the wrong direction!!! *Arrrgh* I think my bus number is actually 94. But for some reason, I just see a "9" and jump on :( Sooo, the bus turned off Bayswater Road, onto Edgeware, I'm thinking, maybe it'll hook back and head towards Notting Hill. Nope. It's at Paddington and heading towards Kilburn!!! So off I get, and walk back towards Bayswater Road. Eventually I tire of it, and catch a black cab back home. It's now 530am. I should've been home ages ago...

I MUST NOT CATCH BUS NO 98 ANYMORE!

Here are some lousy club pix :) It's too dark to take any good ones. Btw, a solution to the nasty topless guy problem! Make the club well ventilated and airconditioned! It was cold enough for everyone to keep their shirts on at Turnmills :D I was very happy about that!