Po-po-po-poker-face!

Happy hour cocktails + a beer + vodka:


A precious ticket to Lady Gaga @ Brixton Academy:


I have to say, Lady Gaga is so much fun to watch :)
If you get the chance to watch her, don't miss it!

Rockin with a Rock God

Recently, instead of buying clothes online when drunk, I purchase gig tickets instead :P Which is how I ended up watching Lenny Kravitz tonight *grin*

Dear lord. 18 years since I first listened to Lenny Kravitz. He hasn't lost his sexy, sultry, edge at all. 18 years and I can still remember the chorus to his songs :) By the end of his first song, I had left the angsty crowd at the front of the stage. Clambering up between 2 poles on the side, I had a clear view of the stage and Lenny all night *grin*

W00t w00t! Lenny rocked my world :) More drunken gig ticket purchases!

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 ;)

Dance dance dance

A couple of months ago, I received an email from my brother along the lines of, "Hey... I was back in Sydnery for New Year's, and watching a trance video clip (Armin, I think?) at a friend's place. Your face suddenly popped up onto the 1m widescreen TV!"

After that, I couldn't resist getting a copy of the Armin Only DVD *lol* So here I am in one of my fleeting dance moments captured on DVD :)

(Good thing my underarms were shaven)

It's funny, but I never thought that I'd reach the end of my must-do event list in Europe after only 5 years. Here's the list:
:: Dance Valley (the start of it all in 2004);
:: Global Gathering (my first UK festival, literally hours after I landed in Heathrow);
:: Valkana Beach (where there was no beach but instead a mountain racetrack in a little village! If you want to know more, I can forward you the email I wrote up at the time);
:: *deep voice* SEN-SA-TION WHITE (back in the Ula&Wilco days :) );
:: Various Armin Only events;
:: PvD & Groove Armada @ Amsterdam Dance Event;
:: O2 Wireless @ Hyde Park
:: Space Opening @ Ibiza
:: SW4 @ Clapham
:: Nature One (Mine and B's first camping festival!)

The last and most recent on my list, Trance Energy just a couple of weeks ago :) That's when it occurred to me, "HEY! This is it! I've done all the events that I've wanted to do!" *grin*

Armin (who else?) @ Trance Energy:

On the 11th July this year, it comes full-circle as I head back to 15 years of Dance Valley with B. Join us! Join us! This is the festival that started me on the path of global DJ hunting :)

Mussels, Leffe, Art and?

Want to know the real reason I was in Bruxelles? Come on, it's not that hard to guess ;) With not much arm twisting from B, we had our tix all booked and ready to go for Armin Only over a month ago! To me, it strangely felt like a karaoke night, as I belted out all the cheesy trance choons I listen to everyday :) Poor B, I think I only had about a 20% hit rate on the lyrics *lol* I honestly don't know how I'd make it through the work day without my music. It was such good fun at Armin Only. Front row and centre at an Armin gig with my fave dance buddy? I couldn't ask for anything more... The smile never left my face all night :)

"I keep dreaming, that I have it all..."

Bring out the fluro!!

With that, Reenie clubbing season is over for 2008. As much as I'd love to keep partying on, the chill has set in, and I'm feeeeling it. The puffy jacket is out. The scarfie is out. As tempted as I am to head to the Essential festival in Jaarbeurs, one word - *BRRRRRRR*...

Bring on the Summer season!!! :D

PS: B, this one's for you - Eller van Buuren's lekker kontje ;)

Ministry of Shit

I'm sorry, but this remaining "superclub" in Rondon was ass. I'm fact, I invite you to my ass. You'll have a better time. It'll be a lot friendlier that's a guarantee. WTF. It felt like half a step up from Home in Sydnery. I think I'm going to stick to festivals from now on.

Above & Beyond, sorry, I love you but I hated your Ministry audience. As evidenced by the number of random shouts of, "I hate you!" and, "You're annoying!" coming from me at the end of the night :P

Still, thanks to my crew for the effort :) Applause to CH for getting me drunk enough to care less.

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*....

First Rondon festival...

...of 2008!!! :D Yaaay!

Last year I hit the O2 Wireless Festival twice. Once to watch Faithless with SH (miss ya hunny :(), and the day after to watch Daft Punk and break Wazzz's festival virginity *grin* This time round, we caught Fatboy Slim and introduced two more members to the festival crew :) He was *awesome*! At 45, he can still rock the crowd!

Even better, it didn't rain on me. AND, it was even warm enough for a few hours for me to dance in my singlet top :D Summer is *almost* here...

Check this guy out with his dragon tattoo and giant fanny pack.
I was trying to be like him with my backpack strapped to my butt :P

Meltdown

Meltdown is another annual music festival in Rondon. This year, it's currated by Massive Attack. So off I went to see the, "Vangelis' Blade Runner Soundtrack performed live by the Heritage Orchestra, mixed by Massive Attack". Bit of a mouthful ;)

It was interesting... Ever wondered how wind, rain, zooming spaceship sound effects were made? :) There was a very talented percussionist there indeed. The only thing I would say that was missing, was footage from Blade Runner itself. Bit of a shame, however, I'm guessing there's probably some copyright issues involved in the decision. Instead, the stage had beaming lights and the backdrop was a myriad of ever-changing colours to occupy the visionary senses. As my eyes were constantly getting zapped by the beaming spotlights, I decided to close them and focus on the music instead...

Zap zap zap

... Errr, which made me very sleepy and I started to doze...
... Oddly, in my half-conscious state, I started seeing images...
... Words I could barely read flashed past...
... I'd open my eyes drowsily for a few seconds and see the stage dripped in colour...
... I'd close them again and my mind wandered somewhere distant to scenes I remember from the movie...

So yeah, I had a good time when I was dozing *grin* Think I'll download the movie and watch it again. What makes Blade Runner so special? It was made in the 80's and it's still one of the best utopian sci-fi movies ever! You'll always see it in one of those "Top xx.." film lists.

Happy anniversary

Yesterday was the day I arrived in Rondon 2 years ago. Has it really been 2 years already? So much has happened. Some good, some bad, some lessons learnt the hard way. How did I celebrate this momentous occasion? By leaving Rondon and flying to Amsterdam *lol* Yesterday was also Armin Only day!!! Yaaaay!!! :D

I'd bought tix to this event ages ago, and after lots of umm'ing and ahh'ing, finally decided to book my flights and go. So off I jetted to the Netherlands to spend 10 hours with my fave DJ. I left Rondon at 6pm, and was at the venue in Utrecht by 9pm - and that's with a one hour time difference. Not bad for international clubbing.

However, Armin did that annoying hide-behind-the-screen thing AGAIN! For 3 hours!! It could've been anyone throwing on CDs for those 3 hours :P

I did love the night though :) Armin totally rocked it.

I've also figured out the trick to maintaining personal space at the front row - dance in stiletto heels. In an attempt to be a liiiiittle taller amongst the Dutch giants, I wore my boots. Anyone who came near me at the wrong time was likely to get a hole stomped into their foot by my spikey heels :P However, it also meant that by the 7th hour of dancing, my feet were killing and I had to exit the front row. That's when I realised, holy shit, it's not easy fighting my way from the front through 16,000 frenetically dancing people. It took me awhile. Good thing about the venue was that there were flat screens everywhere, and the sound system was great. Because I was upfront for most of the night, I didn't really get to see the full effects of the show until I watched it on the flatscreens. It was amazing, the crowd was just constantly heaving and the lights were awesome. I'm getting the DVD just to see if I'm in it *lol*

This time, I was also prepared for the stupid Dutch "no water bottles" scam. I had to smuggle in an empty water bottle :P Which meant I could refill my bottle from the toilet taps, as oppose to spending 3 euros for a cup of water each time I felt thirsty. Besides that, how is one suppose to dance on a crowded dancefloor with a cup?!? Bastards! Don't even get me started on their token system. I totally dig their locker system though. They had enough lockers for 16,000 people and for 5 euros, I could unburden my coat and massive handbag for the night.

I really can't wait till the next Armin Only :) More pix here. To my Sydnery party crew, I missed you!! Looks like you guys had a big night at SH's housewarming anyway ;)

Happy anniversary to me...

Rick Astley

Ok, I'm not ashamed of liking Rick Astley. It brings back a lot of fond memories for me. My eldest brother use to be such a fan when we were kids. I grew up knowing all the lyrics and watching my brother copy Rick's side sway dance moves :) We use to go on family road trip holidays every year, and Rick Astley, WHAM! (we'd always start the drive with this one!), Kylie, a-ha, Frankie goes to Hollywood would always be blaring out of the car stereo. My poor parents, they endured it for the endless hours it took for us to get to Penang or Singapore :)

Rick Astley isn't just a one-hit wonder either. Other classics are:
* Whenever You Need Somebody ("... I'll bring my love to you...")
* Don't Say Goodbye ("... Don't make me cry girl, you're my girl!")
* She Wants to Dance with Me ("... Cause I'll hold her so tight next to me...")
* Ain't Too Proud To Beg ("... sweet darling! Please don't leave me, girl don't you go...")
* It Would Take A Strong Strong Man ("... My heart starts breaking...")

I'm glad there's a Rick Astley revival going on ;)

Rodrigo y Gabriela

"We'd like to dedicate this song to the US Visa Department... We call it, Fuck the US Visa Department!"

I'd feel the same way if I was mistaken for a terrorist too *grin*

Rodrigo y Gabriela were brilliant! It was amazing watching them play, well from what I could see between heads anyway. I have never heard anyone play guitar like them before. It's not just one person playing perfectly, it's two people playing perfectly and in perfect unison. So much energy, and so much fun to listen to :) If they had another gig in Rondon, I'd pay to see them again. Clicky here to watch vids of them.

I now have a new requirement on my dream-man list: Must be able to play acoustic guitar *lol*

Guitar heroes need not apply :P

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

Long weekend

For the first time in a week, the sun finally peeked through, and the rain clouds disappeared. Thank gawd. I was about to spend the day outdoors at SW4 :P As much as I love Paul van Dyk, it really wouldn't have been that much fun if it was raining on me during his set. The pic above is of the massive line to get into SW4. Single file, people pretty much circled the park to get into one entrance. I think I stood in it for at least half an hour!

SW4 reminded me a lot of my last Field Day actually :) Just with a lot more DJs.

Bosom buddies *grin*

Wazzz with the munchies:

Bonding with my tattoo buddy:

"We are ONE"

Pierre, I will never forgive you for not inviting me to Faithless in Sydnery. How could you? Fck me. I'm now more in love with Faithless than the Chemical Brothers. Thank gawd I'm unemployed and was able to make it to the O2 Wireless Festival on Friday. It was a last minute decision, and after some scrounging around, I even managed to score SH a ticket for 20 squids. Pretty good deal considering I paid 40 squids for my own ticket!

I'm quickly finding out I've been missing out on a lot when it comes to live gigs. I've always been a fan of Faithless, just never seen them live. To be really Engrish, "I'm GUTTED that I didn't see them when they were in Sydnery!" *grin* We made it pretty close to the front of the Main Stage, and it was practically a mosh pit. Loads of fun, and the vibe was great :)

I also saw Kelis bring the boys to the yard with her milkshake :)

After 4 hours of festival goodness, I headed off to meet T&W at Fix for more dancing. Imagine my surprise when J&D were there too! *lol* But I quickly set them straight, and sent them off packing with their cousins to the more RnB friendly, Cafe de Paris. By that stage, I was also well and truly pickled by multiple Smirnoffs and mojitos :P And I still made it to Pacha! Can you believe Pacha is only the third club I've been to in Rondon? Gawd, I poked a guy right in the eyeball on the dancefloor *cringe* At 3am, SH and I left the club (after she had finished beating up the bouncers), had a late night falafel pita with chips, and headed home.

20 hours later, it's time to do it all over again with Daft Punk back at the O2 Wireless Festival :) Only it's raining at the moment :(