Well after a morning of playing with code for the group site and burying my head in tissues, I'd have to say Thirsty Merc was just the thing to pick me up. It was a bit of a long day, 5 buses and a few tutorials and lectures later, I found myself at Jess's place ready to head into the Valley to see Thirsty Merc play.

Originally Mel, Dani, Amy and Benji were meeting with us at Jess's place then we all catch a bus into together, but plans changed and they were just going to meet us in there. Then yet another plan change, we looked up the website and found out Thirsty Merc wasn't hitting the stage till 10pm. After informing the others, they decided to head straight to the Port Office Hotel to make use of the cheap drinks. Me and Jess weren't drinking tonight, I'm poor, sick and want to be 121% for the Red Hot Chili Peppers (2 weeks away!) and I have no idea why Jess wanted a night of sobriety, but anyway, we headed into the City itself to grab some food.

I felt like nothing but Jess tucked down some Nandos and then we headed to the Port Office. I had no chance of getting in as I was wearing my Megadeth shirt, but it didn't bother me. Benji met us out the front and I gave him his tickets then left him so he could go enjoy happy hour. Jess and I headed to The Zoo to catch the support band, Old Man River.

The Zoo is a pretty cosy place, small, no air conditioning, but it has a very cool atmosphere. There was a decent amount of talent to amuse myself with until the supports came on too, which was a bonus. We managed to get a seat right next to the bar which turned out to be a pretty good view of the whole place. After awhile we got our photographs taken by the Sunday Mail guy, so fingers crossed I'll see my face in the paper this weekend.

I've never heard Old Man River before, but from what I did, they sound very Led Zeppelinish so I'll probably snap up one of their CD's. Eventually they finished their set and I spotted Benji, Mel, Dani and Amy walking up the stairs. We waved them over and Benji came up to say hi while the girls went to the bathroom. The Thirsty Merc soundcheck started so me and Jess headed towards the stage attempting to drag Benji with us. He was talking with some Macca's mates and I didn't want to miss my spot in the crowd so I just told them to meet us in the crowd. It never happened. Oh well.

The Thirsty Merc setlist was pretty cool, they did alot of jam's and improv lyrics on the stop. Was very cool and I had an awesome time. The crowd was fairly into it and the band looked like they were having alot of fun. From what I remember, this was the setlist:

• In The Summertime
• My Completeness
• Midnight Sun
• Wasting Time
• The Hard Way
• Hope
• 20 Good Reasons
• I Wish Someone Would Build A Bridge
• Those Eyes
• The Vision
• Someday, Someday
• Homesick
• Emancipate Myself

Actually, I think the order is a bit messed up, but that's what they played. The Thirsty Merc set was only meant to be from 10 to 11, but they ended up playing until 11.45! Apparently they are playing again on May 25 at The Tivoli so I'm going to go to that for my birthday. Should be awesome. At the start of the night we were worried about transport home but turns out a ten minute cab to Jess's cost $16 and then a short drive in the beast and I was home by 12.20!

Anyway, I'm off to continue coding.

edit: no photo in the actual paper, but it did show up on the internet!

OaO

Next time you have a spare moment, or even if your just bored, go grab your iPod/mp3 and head outdoors (yes, into the light) and lay on the grass and stare into the clouds. Providing it's not raining, it's actually a pretty relaxing experience as I so discovered today. I know it sounds a little gay, and maybe slight hippie, but it's just a great way to wind down and relax, refocus and feel great.

This morning my lecture finished early and seeing as my tutorial wasn't for another hour, I somehow felt the need to go walk across the QUT grounds and sprawl out on the grass outside my lecture room. You feel like a bit of a twat at first, but after laying on my bag and plugging in, you forget that people are around and just soak up the sunshine and music.

Looking at the clouds is relaxing and you find that after awhile you become a bit of an expert at creating monsters, animals and scenes in the sky. I guess it taps into your creative juices. As time passes you don't really think about anything at all, you start to just feel the music pumping through your ears. Highly recommended, just you, the clouds, an army of hungry ants and music

OaO

Well now that summer is over and I've officially been back at uni a month, I found myself reflecting over my summer and what I actually did. Here goes:

• Managed to go to the beach at least once a week, even pushing it to three one week.
  • Benji, Jess, Yeatsie and Kyle were the normal crew with a few special guests including Cameron, Yank, Amy and Adam.
  • We discovered that there is nothing like going to the beach early (ie. 7am).
  • Main Beach the most solid beach, North Burleigh produces the biggest waves and North Surfers occasionally good for a paddle. Coast
  • Coastwatch is a good guide to swells and conditions, but not bulletproof
• I was introduced to the game of poker.
  • To date, I'm $32 ahead
• I started to play guitar
  • I'm still terrible
  • In time your fingers really do stretch though so stringing some notes together now isn't as hard as it once was, but I'm still no Mustaine.
• I went to Sydney with Mel and Benji to watch Tool play and have a holiday
  • I'm glad it happened. I now know that it's about $500 to see a band in Sydney
  • I went to a strip club, no cover charge
  • I don't think Benji, Mel and I has 0 BAC the entire time we were there
  • We learnt that cask wine is terrible
  • I randomly hooked up (unsure?) with a 26yo British backpacker
  • The Empire Hotel was awesome
  • Benji and Mel learnt not to doubt my navigator ways
  • Mel and Benji loved to bicker about money that one fateful night
  • Mel and I were ready to destroy Benji if he said one more quote
  • Bondi Beach isn't all that great
  • Return tickets on transport doesn't exist in Sydney
  • The Harbour Bridge is well, a bridge. The Opera House is, well, put it this way, if she was a girl a club, you'd call her a DDW
  • The Tool show was great!
  • Utopia is CD heaven (sorry Mel and Benji)
  • The Cambridge Quality Comfort Inn wasn't what we expected.
• I managed to continue and then stop my CD collection at the magical 199 mark. Megadeth's new album (United Abominations, May 15th) will be my 200th.
  • I have saved alot of money by abstaining from CD's!
  • I have rediscovered some bands that had been forgotten in my CD buying spree, aka Dungeon, Pantera and Lacuna Coil.
• I completed a Bar Course and obtained my RSA
  • I still haven't got a job to utilise it yet
• I discovered a range of different bourbons, from McK, Southern Comfort, Woodstock, Jim Beam/Black, Black Douglas, Cougar and Wild Turkey
  • Black Douglas and Cougar are terrible
  • Southern Comfort isn't much better
  • McK is a nice smooth drop, along with Jim Beam Black
  • Woodstocks are dead cheap, go down easy and sofar I've had a 100% happy drunk success rate with them
  • Jim Beam has a nice taste, just below Woodstock for me
• Eating out is fun
  • Hogs Breath gets two thumbs up
  • Need to do it more often!
• The Shack maintenance and improvements kept me busy every other week
• The Group website and various web projects entertained me until midway through December.
  • Don't worry, I've started getting back into it, a new version will be released this year, in fact, I'm using an alpha version to type this blog.
  • The most frequent bloggers would have to be Amy and Benji .
  • Mel , Kyle and Yank take the cake for laziness, I'm not far behind.
  • Danman's blogs were entertaining 100% of the time.
  • One of Amy's articles was discovered by Google and has since had discussion by randoms
• Enjoyed many weekends out on the town clubbing
  • Yeats, Kyle and Benji were the normal crew.
  • I tagged along every so often, Adam even less so and Yank even less then that
• I got myself a 30GB Ipod, it's pretty cool
• I discovered a bunch of random TV now that the OC is gone (tear)
  
  • My Name is Earl is a great show, watch it.
  • The Biggest Loser keeps Cameron and I entertained every weeknight
  • LOST confuses me, but I'm interested enough that I'll probably rent the first two seasons so I have some clue
  • Bondi Rescue isn't a bad show
  • Rewatching That 70's Show is definitely worth it
• I joined two websites that I think people could benefit from, 43things and last.fm
  • Amy , Kyle and Cameron agree with me.

That's about it, I'll add to it as I remember. OaO