These are the places I have been sent to since my last post on this thing.
Greetings all, I realise it has been a while and honestly I have no excuse as to why I haven't written anything here. I will try and give an update on the places I have been recently.
Last time I had just arrived home from my first assignment in Mexico and my enforced prolonged stay in Amsterdam airport. Christmas and New Year came and went as they tend to do and I found myself sitting in the Guildford office for nearly a month before my next assignment was sent to me. Destination: Croatia.
I had never been to Croatia before so I was looking forward to this assignment. I quickly booked my flights and packed my bags and 2 days later landed in Zagreb and was greeted at the airport by my chief. As it turned out the job in Croatia was in a kind of limbo and as a result there wasn't much to do apart from learning the layout of the unit and teaching myself the technology. I made sure I stayed out in the field as much as I could and enjoyed tracing out lines and learning the layout. I also made my first climb up a distillation column. 60 metres high and quite a workout. Great view from the top as well. The spare time I had was spent in Zagreb, wandering around and trying out the local food, which was excellent. A restaurant in Sisak (the town where the refinery is located) serves what is now my favourite steak. Trick will be finding it should I ever go back.
After about 10 days in Croatia, the crew was temporarily released as the Croatian government had to give approval before the unit could be started which could take several weeks. I was quite disappointed at this as I didn't get a chance to see much and as a result a very useful learning opportunity was lost. Never mind, I was in the UK for all of about 20 hours before flying off to my next assignment. Destination: Gela, Sicily
Sicily is quite a place to get sent on assignment. Typically refineries aren't in nice locations. Although the town of Gela is not that nice, most of the rest of Sicily is. I was lucky enough to spend a month here and saw plenty of sites. Places I visited included Siracusa, Donnafugata, Caltagirone and Arigento.
Siracusa is famous as the hometown of Archimedes and the entire town is a UNESCO world heritage site. It's a beautiful place dominated by small winding roads. Caltagirone is a town located not far from Gela and is famous for it's ceramics and Arigento is the location of the Valley of the Temples. This is a site of around 9 ancient greek temples some of which are in amazing condition. Well worth a visit.
After Sicily I returned to the UK for a while. My next destination was not because of UOP but the opportunity to reunite with Chicago friends in Dublin. It was great seeing Rachel, Kathy and Chithra again and much fun was had in Dublin doing the usual tourist spots such as the Guinness Storehouse, Jameson's Brewery, Phoenix Park and a very interesting walking town of the town.
My next assignment occurred not long after Dublin and I couldn't believe my luck. Destination: Venice.
As I mentioned earlier, refineries are not typically in nice locations. There are however some exceptions. I made a lot of people jealous when I told them where I was. Venice is a beautiful place and the best thing to do when you go there is just to wander around. Do not go there with a plan, it is a nightmare to navigate and if you know where you want to go you almost certainly will get lost. Also check out Murano for its glass making and Burano for its brightly painted houses.
Venice was also a fun place to work. Me and the rest of the UOP crew got on really well with the refinery staff. One of the staff kept on asking my chief about what he called "American Myths" such as the quarterback always dating the head cheerleader etc. Great fun had by all.
After coming back from Venice I waited around for a few more weeks and then was sent on my first billable job in Alexandria in Egypt. I can't really write much about Alex as I was only there for a few days and was on night shift so I didn't get a chance to see much. My impressions of Egypt was that its people are very friendly and their driving is crazy. An amusing highlight was our final dinner.
We asked the hotel to suggest a restaurant for us to eat. They wrote down the name of the place, however as it was in Arabic this didn't really help us. The hotel then got us a taxi to take us there and when we arrived we went into the restaurant and asked the waiter to just bring us meat. That was our order, Meat. The food was excellent, in fact I didn't have a bad meal while I was there.
After departing Egypt I was then sent on my first Chief job in Canada. The location of the refinery was the amusingly titled town of Come-by-Chance in Newfoundland. Newfoundland is an extremely rural part of the world and very beautiful. You also have to watch out for moose when you drive which was something I had never had to worry about before. I did see some moose around on the roads and one did run out in front of me, though thankfully I had plenty of time to stop. There wasn't much to do in the area apart from drive around and admire the scenery which in fairness was beautiful.
That is a condensed update. Currently I'm scheduled to go to Angola in a couple of weeks time. I was also scheduled to go to India but appear to have been taken off that one due to delays, however as I have the visa there's not much stopping UOP from reassigning me to that job.
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Goodbye Mexico
Hola Amigos,
My first post in some time. I am actually back home now, the promised post from Mexico never appeared but I can cover the same material here.
For those of you who don't know, I was sent on my first UOP assignment to the Hidalgo province of Mexico. The town I was in was called Tula de Allende and was located about 60ish miles north of Mexico City.
The journey started on the 2nd of November with my flight to Mexico City. As the total travel time was long enough I was able to fly in business class. This was quite exciting for me. The business class experience started with me going into the business class lounge at Heathrow airport. Comfortable chairs, free internet, free food, free newspapers etc. It was quite a pleasant experience. The journey to Mexico City had to be done via Paris. Business class on the plane to Paris was basically the same as normal economy only the middle seat (the plane seating was a 3-3 configuration) was empty. This flight was delayed which meant I only had around 30 minutes to rush to my next plane. No problems there and when I was on the plane I settled down into my nice business class seat. For someone of my height the major major problem is always legroom. Not a problem here. The food is much higher quality the seats are more comfortable and can go fully flat and the whole experience is that much more pleasant. One thing which really made the trip memorable was the incredible sunset I could see from the plane. As we were flying west we were essentially chasing the sunset which meant it lasted for several hours.
I arrived in Mexico City at around 9pm and had my first experience of an airline losing my luggage. Very frustrating!! I then caught a cab to my hotel for the night and went straight to bed.
The next morning after a few hours sorting out someone to guide me I travelled from Mexico City to Tula. As I had a car in Mexico I had to follow someone else to Tula. I was a little apprehensive about this but it turned out ok. I was taken to the refinery and introduced to the people I was going to be working with over the next few months.
People always ask me what Tula was like (very reasonable question). The truth is it's a fairly small Mexican town and the activities aren't plentiful. As there was a risk of me being there over Christmas I tended to work as much as I could as I didn't want to be alone in Mexico over the festive period. My days off were either spent at the hotel, driving around the town (there wasn't too much to actually do in the town) and on one occasion visiting the indigenous ruins. Tula was once a very important city in the days before the European invasion. The ruins are not too extensive but are still quite interesting.
The first amusing highlight was gettinh hold of a mexican SIM card for my phone. This is standard practice for FOS but when you don't speak a word of Spanish in a town with few English speakers this turns into quite an interesting experience. In fairness the woman I dealt with was very patient. I managed to get the idea of what I wanted across to her and 150 mexican pesos later (about £7.50) I had a mexican SIM card.
The other amusing experience was my birthday. Being alone in Mexico for my 25th birthday would not have been my first choice but I made the most of it. My main contact at the refinery was very sympathetic to the fact that I spending my birthday in Mexico and invited me to a birthday party being held for her brother-in-law. Here I ate some of the local food (don't ask me what it was I have no idea, but it wasn't bad) attempted to talk to the locals and had one of them notify the band that it was my birthday as well. The singer then proceeded to rattle something off in the quickfire Spanish they all speak and then the crowd laughed. I still don't know what he said.
After a couple of months in Mexico and several weeks of uncertainty about if I would be back for Christmas I got the go-ahead to start arranging my return to the UK. The plan for getting home was to drive back to Mexico City with a guide (the same way I got to Tula) and spend a night in Mexico City. I would then fly from Mexico City to Amsterdam and then after a few hours in Amsterdam fly on to Heathrow. But the european weather had other plans for me.
The drive back to Mexico City was horrific and an experience I'm in no desire to repeat. To get to the airport we had to drive through the city itself at 4pm on a Friday afternoon. The traffic was bumper to bumper and I came very close on several occasions to losing my guide which would have been a disaster. After several harrowing hours we made it the car rental and then after problems with my company card solved by an hour long phone call I made it to my hotel for the night. I was shattered and decided to leave the room and ordered room service for the first time ever.
The following Saturday was spent at the National Museum of Anthropology. A good museum detailing the history of Mexico and it's people. My flight left Mexico City at around 10pm and was a fairly uneventful flight with the minor exception of it being very bumpy. I landed in Amsterdam at around 3pm only to find that my flight to London had been cancelled.
And so began my stay at Amsterdam airport. After being directed to a massive queue to try and get rebooked I was advised to not bother and head downstairs where I would be placed in a hotel for the night. After about an hour waiting for the hotel shuttle (whilst befriending a few fellow strandeds) I made it to the hotel. I managed to book myself on another flight leaving Amsterdam at 10.35 on the Monday morning.
5 am the next morning I was back at Amsterdam airport. I got hold of my boarding pass and made my way to the KLM business lounge to kill time for a few hours. I then arrived at the gate for my flight to find a huge queue. No real surprise there but what did surprise me was that at Amsterdam airport rather than having a main security section after check-in like most airports I've been to. Amsterdam airport has a smaller security section at every single gate. If you ask me this is quite an odd way of doing things but that's what the system is there. This particular London flight was constantly getting delayed due to Heathrow apparently being unsure if they could receive the flight. We eventually got confirmation that the flight was indeed leaving and would depart at 1.30.
One thing I learned during my time at Amsterdam airport is never believe that you are heading for your destination until you actually land. Despite Heathrow confirming that this flight can leave they then cancelled. Although I believe that this was because KLM messed around getting our luggage on board and missed the slot. Of course KLM didn't admit this. So after getting excited and boarding the plane we then had to get back off. I managed to rebook myself onto another flight to London City flying that evening. After getting tickets and sorting out with the check-in crew about my luggage (which I hadn't seen since checking it in at Mexico City) me and another stranded relaxed with some beers for a few hours before heading to the gate. Again we boarded the flight and had to get back off again. Although they did tell us that one flight had actually taken off and was turned back. Back to another hotel for the second night. In total I had spend around 16 hours at the airport that day.
When I was at the hotel I thought to try and get on a flight to Birmingham. London seemed to be a no-go area at that point, so I figured why not. Managed to rebook myself on a Birmingham flight at 10.35 on the Tuesday.
After a few issues at check-in on Tuesday morning I found myself on my 4th plane of the trip. This plane also sat on the tarmac for about an hour and I couldn't help the feeling that this flight would also be cancelled. The plane tended to move to somewhere for a bit then stop then move then stop. Finally we reached the runway and took off. Remembering that a flight the previous night had been turned back I refused to feel relief. But this plane had no troubles and an hour later we landed in Birmingham to the great relief of everyone on board. Of course my luggage never made it with me but to be completely honest I never actually expected that it would.
The final part of my journey was in a rented car driving back to Birmingham. The decision was take a train or a car. I feel I made the right decision, the roads turned out to be fine. But the trains seemed to have troubles. I got back home finally on Tuesday evening roughly 92 hours after leaving my hotel in Tula.
Mammoth entry here, almost as long as my journey home. I currently do not have another assignment yet as my work-provided safety bag did not make it home with me. Have to wait for that to turn up first. We'll see where I end up.
Merry Christmas everyone and until next time,
My first post in some time. I am actually back home now, the promised post from Mexico never appeared but I can cover the same material here.
For those of you who don't know, I was sent on my first UOP assignment to the Hidalgo province of Mexico. The town I was in was called Tula de Allende and was located about 60ish miles north of Mexico City.
The journey started on the 2nd of November with my flight to Mexico City. As the total travel time was long enough I was able to fly in business class. This was quite exciting for me. The business class experience started with me going into the business class lounge at Heathrow airport. Comfortable chairs, free internet, free food, free newspapers etc. It was quite a pleasant experience. The journey to Mexico City had to be done via Paris. Business class on the plane to Paris was basically the same as normal economy only the middle seat (the plane seating was a 3-3 configuration) was empty. This flight was delayed which meant I only had around 30 minutes to rush to my next plane. No problems there and when I was on the plane I settled down into my nice business class seat. For someone of my height the major major problem is always legroom. Not a problem here. The food is much higher quality the seats are more comfortable and can go fully flat and the whole experience is that much more pleasant. One thing which really made the trip memorable was the incredible sunset I could see from the plane. As we were flying west we were essentially chasing the sunset which meant it lasted for several hours.
I arrived in Mexico City at around 9pm and had my first experience of an airline losing my luggage. Very frustrating!! I then caught a cab to my hotel for the night and went straight to bed.
The next morning after a few hours sorting out someone to guide me I travelled from Mexico City to Tula. As I had a car in Mexico I had to follow someone else to Tula. I was a little apprehensive about this but it turned out ok. I was taken to the refinery and introduced to the people I was going to be working with over the next few months.
People always ask me what Tula was like (very reasonable question). The truth is it's a fairly small Mexican town and the activities aren't plentiful. As there was a risk of me being there over Christmas I tended to work as much as I could as I didn't want to be alone in Mexico over the festive period. My days off were either spent at the hotel, driving around the town (there wasn't too much to actually do in the town) and on one occasion visiting the indigenous ruins. Tula was once a very important city in the days before the European invasion. The ruins are not too extensive but are still quite interesting.
The first amusing highlight was gettinh hold of a mexican SIM card for my phone. This is standard practice for FOS but when you don't speak a word of Spanish in a town with few English speakers this turns into quite an interesting experience. In fairness the woman I dealt with was very patient. I managed to get the idea of what I wanted across to her and 150 mexican pesos later (about £7.50) I had a mexican SIM card.
The other amusing experience was my birthday. Being alone in Mexico for my 25th birthday would not have been my first choice but I made the most of it. My main contact at the refinery was very sympathetic to the fact that I spending my birthday in Mexico and invited me to a birthday party being held for her brother-in-law. Here I ate some of the local food (don't ask me what it was I have no idea, but it wasn't bad) attempted to talk to the locals and had one of them notify the band that it was my birthday as well. The singer then proceeded to rattle something off in the quickfire Spanish they all speak and then the crowd laughed. I still don't know what he said.
After a couple of months in Mexico and several weeks of uncertainty about if I would be back for Christmas I got the go-ahead to start arranging my return to the UK. The plan for getting home was to drive back to Mexico City with a guide (the same way I got to Tula) and spend a night in Mexico City. I would then fly from Mexico City to Amsterdam and then after a few hours in Amsterdam fly on to Heathrow. But the european weather had other plans for me.
The drive back to Mexico City was horrific and an experience I'm in no desire to repeat. To get to the airport we had to drive through the city itself at 4pm on a Friday afternoon. The traffic was bumper to bumper and I came very close on several occasions to losing my guide which would have been a disaster. After several harrowing hours we made it the car rental and then after problems with my company card solved by an hour long phone call I made it to my hotel for the night. I was shattered and decided to leave the room and ordered room service for the first time ever.
The following Saturday was spent at the National Museum of Anthropology. A good museum detailing the history of Mexico and it's people. My flight left Mexico City at around 10pm and was a fairly uneventful flight with the minor exception of it being very bumpy. I landed in Amsterdam at around 3pm only to find that my flight to London had been cancelled.
And so began my stay at Amsterdam airport. After being directed to a massive queue to try and get rebooked I was advised to not bother and head downstairs where I would be placed in a hotel for the night. After about an hour waiting for the hotel shuttle (whilst befriending a few fellow strandeds) I made it to the hotel. I managed to book myself on another flight leaving Amsterdam at 10.35 on the Monday morning.
5 am the next morning I was back at Amsterdam airport. I got hold of my boarding pass and made my way to the KLM business lounge to kill time for a few hours. I then arrived at the gate for my flight to find a huge queue. No real surprise there but what did surprise me was that at Amsterdam airport rather than having a main security section after check-in like most airports I've been to. Amsterdam airport has a smaller security section at every single gate. If you ask me this is quite an odd way of doing things but that's what the system is there. This particular London flight was constantly getting delayed due to Heathrow apparently being unsure if they could receive the flight. We eventually got confirmation that the flight was indeed leaving and would depart at 1.30.
One thing I learned during my time at Amsterdam airport is never believe that you are heading for your destination until you actually land. Despite Heathrow confirming that this flight can leave they then cancelled. Although I believe that this was because KLM messed around getting our luggage on board and missed the slot. Of course KLM didn't admit this. So after getting excited and boarding the plane we then had to get back off. I managed to rebook myself onto another flight to London City flying that evening. After getting tickets and sorting out with the check-in crew about my luggage (which I hadn't seen since checking it in at Mexico City) me and another stranded relaxed with some beers for a few hours before heading to the gate. Again we boarded the flight and had to get back off again. Although they did tell us that one flight had actually taken off and was turned back. Back to another hotel for the second night. In total I had spend around 16 hours at the airport that day.
When I was at the hotel I thought to try and get on a flight to Birmingham. London seemed to be a no-go area at that point, so I figured why not. Managed to rebook myself on a Birmingham flight at 10.35 on the Tuesday.
After a few issues at check-in on Tuesday morning I found myself on my 4th plane of the trip. This plane also sat on the tarmac for about an hour and I couldn't help the feeling that this flight would also be cancelled. The plane tended to move to somewhere for a bit then stop then move then stop. Finally we reached the runway and took off. Remembering that a flight the previous night had been turned back I refused to feel relief. But this plane had no troubles and an hour later we landed in Birmingham to the great relief of everyone on board. Of course my luggage never made it with me but to be completely honest I never actually expected that it would.
The final part of my journey was in a rented car driving back to Birmingham. The decision was take a train or a car. I feel I made the right decision, the roads turned out to be fine. But the trains seemed to have troubles. I got back home finally on Tuesday evening roughly 92 hours after leaving my hotel in Tula.
Mammoth entry here, almost as long as my journey home. I currently do not have another assignment yet as my work-provided safety bag did not make it home with me. Have to wait for that to turn up first. We'll see where I end up.
Merry Christmas everyone and until next time,
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Goodbye UK
Possibly setting a record for the shortest time between posts here.
I've been back in the UK a week now but the time to leave is fast approaching. I will be leaving for Mexico on Tuesday for 2 months on my first assignment. I'm actually doing the job I was hired to do now. Quite an exciting time, I've been looking into the location and it looks nice, the major downside to this assignment is that I will be going alone. There are no other UOP people there. Let hope it all goes ok.
This week has been spent preparing for life on the road. Catching up with friends where possible and going back to work. Had a good time at a friends birthday celebration in Guildford last night. It was fancy dress and as I only found out a few days earlier that I was going to be able to go I was forced to improvise. A few hours taking a pair of scissors and red paint to my Woody costume yielded my costume of Woody gone bad ass. It got a few comments and amused looks in Guildford so I deemed it a success.
Watch this space for the first post from Mexico and my first post as a roadie.
Til Next Time,
I've been back in the UK a week now but the time to leave is fast approaching. I will be leaving for Mexico on Tuesday for 2 months on my first assignment. I'm actually doing the job I was hired to do now. Quite an exciting time, I've been looking into the location and it looks nice, the major downside to this assignment is that I will be going alone. There are no other UOP people there. Let hope it all goes ok.
This week has been spent preparing for life on the road. Catching up with friends where possible and going back to work. Had a good time at a friends birthday celebration in Guildford last night. It was fancy dress and as I only found out a few days earlier that I was going to be able to go I was forced to improvise. A few hours taking a pair of scissors and red paint to my Woody costume yielded my costume of Woody gone bad ass. It got a few comments and amused looks in Guildford so I deemed it a success.
Watch this space for the first post from Mexico and my first post as a roadie.
Til Next Time,
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Goodbye USA
My first blog post from the UK in nearly a year. That's right, my time in the US has now officially ended. A lot happened between the last post and this one.
I made my third and as it turned out last major trip outside of Chicago towards the end of August, which was a 3 day trip to San Francisco. Parents were on holiday in the West Coast (because we never made it over there when we lived there) and as I could only make a weekend out I was given a choice, Los Angeles or San Francisco. I feel I made the right choice. My trip to the bay area also brought me in contact with something I had almost forgotten existed. Hills! There aren't any in Illinois. There are plenty in SF, reminded me of Sheffield. I quite liked San Francisco, it's a very different experience to Chicago. The highlight was the trip to Alcatraz. I highly recommend it but you MUST book ahead i.e. several weeks before you actually go. The audio tour that you can take is highly recommended by me as it gives you insights into both the prisoner and guards point of view.
My final days in Chicago were marked by numerous dinners, concerts, and general nights out. My friends organised a "Sending off the Brit week" which involved a different activity each night from martini bars to unique Chicago eating to concerts. Thank you to all my American friends for the amazing send off from the official goodbye party to the pizza night on my actual last night.
My official last day of work was Monday and I flew out on Friday night so I had a few days left to see some parts of Chicago I hadn't seen yet. This included the Museum of Science and Industry (a brilliant place with an excellent exhibit on the science of storms), the Sears Tower (well actually the Willis Tower now but no one calls it that), Lincoln Park Zoo, a trip to see the Blue Man Group (Brilliant, just brilliant) and the Chicago History Museum.
Well I've been back in the UK a day now but true to recent form it has been busy. Landed at Heathrow at 7am, meet Mom and Dad and then got on a train to Manchester to see the old Uni lot at Kit's belated Housewarming/birthday. Was good to see everyone again even in my jet-lagged state. Still recovering a little now. Last time I wrote a post after a similar period of activity I discovered several odd mistakes when I re-read the post a few days later. Looking forward to seeing what mistakes I've just written now.
Well that's the update. At the moment it looks like I'll be sent to Mexico for two months on Saturday. Watch this space.
Till next time.
I made my third and as it turned out last major trip outside of Chicago towards the end of August, which was a 3 day trip to San Francisco. Parents were on holiday in the West Coast (because we never made it over there when we lived there) and as I could only make a weekend out I was given a choice, Los Angeles or San Francisco. I feel I made the right choice. My trip to the bay area also brought me in contact with something I had almost forgotten existed. Hills! There aren't any in Illinois. There are plenty in SF, reminded me of Sheffield. I quite liked San Francisco, it's a very different experience to Chicago. The highlight was the trip to Alcatraz. I highly recommend it but you MUST book ahead i.e. several weeks before you actually go. The audio tour that you can take is highly recommended by me as it gives you insights into both the prisoner and guards point of view.
My final days in Chicago were marked by numerous dinners, concerts, and general nights out. My friends organised a "Sending off the Brit week" which involved a different activity each night from martini bars to unique Chicago eating to concerts. Thank you to all my American friends for the amazing send off from the official goodbye party to the pizza night on my actual last night.
My official last day of work was Monday and I flew out on Friday night so I had a few days left to see some parts of Chicago I hadn't seen yet. This included the Museum of Science and Industry (a brilliant place with an excellent exhibit on the science of storms), the Sears Tower (well actually the Willis Tower now but no one calls it that), Lincoln Park Zoo, a trip to see the Blue Man Group (Brilliant, just brilliant) and the Chicago History Museum.
Well I've been back in the UK a day now but true to recent form it has been busy. Landed at Heathrow at 7am, meet Mom and Dad and then got on a train to Manchester to see the old Uni lot at Kit's belated Housewarming/birthday. Was good to see everyone again even in my jet-lagged state. Still recovering a little now. Last time I wrote a post after a similar period of activity I discovered several odd mistakes when I re-read the post a few days later. Looking forward to seeing what mistakes I've just written now.
Well that's the update. At the moment it looks like I'll be sent to Mexico for two months on Saturday. Watch this space.
Till next time.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Lollapalooza
Chicago's answer to Reading or Glastonbury just without the camping occurred this weekend past. Been looking forward to this weekend for a while now. Chicago is famous for its many festivals during the summer but if I could only go to one this was the one I'd go to.
I saw many acts over the weekend most of which I had either never heard or had only heard a few songs. The list includes: Wavves, The Constellations (my favourite new band of the weekend), The Big Pink, The New Pornographers, Neon Trees (who played a set in the Hard Rock Cafe car park, which is 2 blocks from me, the next morning), Chromeo, a little bit of Lady Gaga, The Strokes, Rebelution, Stars, Social Distribution, Slightly Stoopid, Switchfoot, Minus the Bear, MGMT, Arcade Fire and my favourite act of the weekend Green Day.
The Constellations are an act from Atlanta who describe themselves as a Psychedelic soul-rock explosion. They didn't have the greatest slot of the weekend (1pm on the Friday on a minor side stage) but they certainly gave everyone a good show. Their bassist looks like John Belushi with Jeff Lynne's hair. Their album is called Southern Gothic and I'd advise everyone to check them out on Myspace
Neon Trees are a band who have released one single which is getting a fair amount of airplay. The song itself is called Animal and is a decent indie pop song. When they appeared on stage what I wasn't expecting was to see that the singer looks alot like the male singer from the Scissor Sisters and certainly has a similar stage presence. They put on an excellent show which I got to chance to experience again the next morning. I was lying in bed when I heard music from the Hard Rock Cafe. I recognised the song and went to my window to see it was Neon Trees soundchecking. About an hour later they played a full set a very random experience but a good one.
The small amount of Lady Gaga that I watched from afar was certainly interesting, which is to be expected. I wasn't really interested in seeing her but as The Strokes started half an hour after she did I figured I'd have a look. Her stage show takes the form of a musical play more than a normal gig. She would play a song and then tell part of some story. It did get to the point where I was thinking just shut up and play a song.
By far my favourite act of the weekend was Green Day who played an incredible two and a half hour long set. I am normally someone who maintains that smaller venues are better than larger ones. However this set made me reconsider, being outside you can definitely do things that you can't do inside. The ridiculous amount of fireworks being a good example. One defining part of the set was the amount of people from the crowd that the band brought up on stage. One guy was brought up to sing the song Longview, he then became the most envied person in Grant Park when Billie Joe Armstrong (the singer) gave him his guitar. Other memorable moments include the sheer amount of fireworks, the size of the production and the guy dressed in a pink bunny outfit staggering on stage and downing beers before the show. I was certainly hurting the next day, concerts can be quite an effective workout. In fact my feet have only just stopped aching after the punishment I inflicted upon them over the weekend.
I saw many acts over the weekend most of which I had either never heard or had only heard a few songs. The list includes: Wavves, The Constellations (my favourite new band of the weekend), The Big Pink, The New Pornographers, Neon Trees (who played a set in the Hard Rock Cafe car park, which is 2 blocks from me, the next morning), Chromeo, a little bit of Lady Gaga, The Strokes, Rebelution, Stars, Social Distribution, Slightly Stoopid, Switchfoot, Minus the Bear, MGMT, Arcade Fire and my favourite act of the weekend Green Day.
The Constellations are an act from Atlanta who describe themselves as a Psychedelic soul-rock explosion. They didn't have the greatest slot of the weekend (1pm on the Friday on a minor side stage) but they certainly gave everyone a good show. Their bassist looks like John Belushi with Jeff Lynne's hair. Their album is called Southern Gothic and I'd advise everyone to check them out on Myspace
Neon Trees are a band who have released one single which is getting a fair amount of airplay. The song itself is called Animal and is a decent indie pop song. When they appeared on stage what I wasn't expecting was to see that the singer looks alot like the male singer from the Scissor Sisters and certainly has a similar stage presence. They put on an excellent show which I got to chance to experience again the next morning. I was lying in bed when I heard music from the Hard Rock Cafe. I recognised the song and went to my window to see it was Neon Trees soundchecking. About an hour later they played a full set a very random experience but a good one.
The small amount of Lady Gaga that I watched from afar was certainly interesting, which is to be expected. I wasn't really interested in seeing her but as The Strokes started half an hour after she did I figured I'd have a look. Her stage show takes the form of a musical play more than a normal gig. She would play a song and then tell part of some story. It did get to the point where I was thinking just shut up and play a song.
By far my favourite act of the weekend was Green Day who played an incredible two and a half hour long set. I am normally someone who maintains that smaller venues are better than larger ones. However this set made me reconsider, being outside you can definitely do things that you can't do inside. The ridiculous amount of fireworks being a good example. One defining part of the set was the amount of people from the crowd that the band brought up on stage. One guy was brought up to sing the song Longview, he then became the most envied person in Grant Park when Billie Joe Armstrong (the singer) gave him his guitar. Other memorable moments include the sheer amount of fireworks, the size of the production and the guy dressed in a pink bunny outfit staggering on stage and downing beers before the show. I was certainly hurting the next day, concerts can be quite an effective workout. In fact my feet have only just stopped aching after the punishment I inflicted upon them over the weekend.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
My return to the UK and Stanley's return to Chicago
Wow, just realised how long it's been since I've updated this thing. Where to start!
Well I guess one major thing that happened since I last updated was me returning back to the UK for a few weeks. The fact that I've been in the US for well over 6 months now is a scary idea. I very nearly didn't make back home because of Icelandic volcanoes and striking cabin crew. But amazingly I made it back with no trouble at all, even managed an emergency seat. Being back home was a great if slightly odd feeling. Driving on the left and having a clutch pedal to deal with being some of the adjustments that had to be made. During my 2 weeks back home I caught up with friends, went to Twickenham to see the IRB Rugby 7's and attended Kit's wedding.
The IRB 7's was my first foray into the seven man code and I had a fantastic time. The weather was sunny and warm and the rugby was awesome. Possibly the best moment was when Kenya beat France, you'd think that England had won the World Cup again the roar from the crowd was that loud. Unfortunately SA lost to Australia in the final but never mind you can't have them all.
The main reason for the my return to the UK was to attend the wedding of Kit and Ellie. Drove up the night before for a little reunion with all the university friends. A fun evening cut short due to the rehearsal dinner happening at around 11pm.
The next morning we were up bright and early looking sharp. The wedding ceremony was in the morning at a beautiful little church near a manor house which served as the location of the reception. After the wedding we had a champagne reception followed by lunch followed by the speeches and more champagne, followed by a blessing ceremony, more champagne, a hog roast and a samba band. A long but extremely enjoyable day. My congratulations to the newly married couple.
After 2 weeks of reunions and a wedding it was time to return to the states, again my flights were threatened by striking cabin crew but the flight still left on time so it was all good. Managed the emergency exit seat again.
One major event that was occurring when I went back to the UK was the finals of the 2010 NHL Play-offs. I was a little worried I'd miss them as Chicago was playing against Philadelphia for the Stanley Cup. Chicago hadn't won the cup for nearly 50 years, the longest of any other team so it was a big deal. Chicago were 2-1 up in the 7 game series when I got back to the US. Philadelphia evened the series in the 4th game but then Chicago won the 5th. This prompted me to organise a night out to watch game 6. A group of 10 of us went to a sports bar to watch the game. Chicago were looking ahead but Philadelphia managed to even the score at the end of regulation time. Extra time in ice hockey runs on the golden goal rule. 3 minutes into extra time Chicago scored and the place went nuts. People were jumping and hugging and singing. Chicago plays Chelsea Dagger whenever they score so we heard that song a lot. Afterwards we went out around Chicago and celebrated, me and a friends ended up in Wrigleyville where the streets were packed, extremely festive atmosphere that reminded me of Mardi Gras.
Finally the last big event was Mary visiting me from the UK. Activities in Chicago included a Cubs (baseball) game, boat tour on the lake and marvelling at the magnificent thunderstorms that blew through Chicago. Mary's visit also brought about my second major trip outside Chicago, New Buffalo in Michigan and then Niagara Falls.
New Buffalo is a quiet little lakeside town in Michigan state just across the border from Indiana. Spent a quiet day on the beach and exploring the region. We then spent a day driving to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls is quite an awesome sight. It's not the tallest or widest set of waterfalls in the world but there is an enormous quantity of water flowing over them. I could spend ages just standing and watching them. The first night was spent on the Maid of the Mist tour which is quite an experience and I'd definitely do it again, only the next time I'll put my contact lenses in. Other things we did included going behind the falls, checking out the local attractions, dinner at a revolving restaurant and walking about both the Canadian and American sides of the falls.
That's the reduced update, plenty of other things have happened but these are the main ones. Thanks for reading
Til Next Time,
Well I guess one major thing that happened since I last updated was me returning back to the UK for a few weeks. The fact that I've been in the US for well over 6 months now is a scary idea. I very nearly didn't make back home because of Icelandic volcanoes and striking cabin crew. But amazingly I made it back with no trouble at all, even managed an emergency seat. Being back home was a great if slightly odd feeling. Driving on the left and having a clutch pedal to deal with being some of the adjustments that had to be made. During my 2 weeks back home I caught up with friends, went to Twickenham to see the IRB Rugby 7's and attended Kit's wedding.
The IRB 7's was my first foray into the seven man code and I had a fantastic time. The weather was sunny and warm and the rugby was awesome. Possibly the best moment was when Kenya beat France, you'd think that England had won the World Cup again the roar from the crowd was that loud. Unfortunately SA lost to Australia in the final but never mind you can't have them all.
The main reason for the my return to the UK was to attend the wedding of Kit and Ellie. Drove up the night before for a little reunion with all the university friends. A fun evening cut short due to the rehearsal dinner happening at around 11pm.
The next morning we were up bright and early looking sharp. The wedding ceremony was in the morning at a beautiful little church near a manor house which served as the location of the reception. After the wedding we had a champagne reception followed by lunch followed by the speeches and more champagne, followed by a blessing ceremony, more champagne, a hog roast and a samba band. A long but extremely enjoyable day. My congratulations to the newly married couple.
After 2 weeks of reunions and a wedding it was time to return to the states, again my flights were threatened by striking cabin crew but the flight still left on time so it was all good. Managed the emergency exit seat again.
One major event that was occurring when I went back to the UK was the finals of the 2010 NHL Play-offs. I was a little worried I'd miss them as Chicago was playing against Philadelphia for the Stanley Cup. Chicago hadn't won the cup for nearly 50 years, the longest of any other team so it was a big deal. Chicago were 2-1 up in the 7 game series when I got back to the US. Philadelphia evened the series in the 4th game but then Chicago won the 5th. This prompted me to organise a night out to watch game 6. A group of 10 of us went to a sports bar to watch the game. Chicago were looking ahead but Philadelphia managed to even the score at the end of regulation time. Extra time in ice hockey runs on the golden goal rule. 3 minutes into extra time Chicago scored and the place went nuts. People were jumping and hugging and singing. Chicago plays Chelsea Dagger whenever they score so we heard that song a lot. Afterwards we went out around Chicago and celebrated, me and a friends ended up in Wrigleyville where the streets were packed, extremely festive atmosphere that reminded me of Mardi Gras.
Finally the last big event was Mary visiting me from the UK. Activities in Chicago included a Cubs (baseball) game, boat tour on the lake and marvelling at the magnificent thunderstorms that blew through Chicago. Mary's visit also brought about my second major trip outside Chicago, New Buffalo in Michigan and then Niagara Falls.
New Buffalo is a quiet little lakeside town in Michigan state just across the border from Indiana. Spent a quiet day on the beach and exploring the region. We then spent a day driving to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls is quite an awesome sight. It's not the tallest or widest set of waterfalls in the world but there is an enormous quantity of water flowing over them. I could spend ages just standing and watching them. The first night was spent on the Maid of the Mist tour which is quite an experience and I'd definitely do it again, only the next time I'll put my contact lenses in. Other things we did included going behind the falls, checking out the local attractions, dinner at a revolving restaurant and walking about both the Canadian and American sides of the falls.
That's the reduced update, plenty of other things have happened but these are the main ones. Thanks for reading
Til Next Time,
Monday, 8 March 2010
Fat Tuesday
Last time I was settling into life as a shift worker and am now well adjusted to not having a set schedule. So many things have been happening at work to screw up my shifts that I don’t think I’ve managed to complete a full 2 week cycle. Does mean that I can quickly adjust to a new schedule pretty quickly now.
Life in the US has been good recently, plenty of socialising and new activities. A few of us went and played a few games of whirlyball a couple of weeks ago. Whirlyball is basically a mix between polo, lacross and basketball played on bumper cars. A tremendous amount of fun with much screaming and shouting, I highly suggest it to anyone who finds themselves in the Chicago area for whatever reason.
A fairly large group of us recently went on a one day ski-trip a couple of hours away in Wisconsin. The place was called Wilmot Mountain. I’m not 100% certain what the definition of a mountain is but this place definitely wasn’t one. Still I had a great day zipping up and down the small runs. The most amusing part of the day was spent watching one particular friend who suffers from a slight over-confidence problem attempting to ski. He perfected the method of stopping where you fall on your back and spin around. How he didn’t hit anyone, I will never know. I also had my first experience as an instructor guiding two friends, who had never been skiing, down a slope. Can’t say I was the greatest instructor, but they got down in one piece.
I also had my first big trip out of Chicago last weekend. For those of you who don’t know what Fat Tuesday is allow me to call it by it’s more common name. Mardi Gras.
Have to say that New Orleans way of celebrating the beginning of Lent is much more amusing than Shrove Tuesday. A group of 6 of us made the trip down. After looking into flights it was decided that it would be better and cheaper to rent a car and drive down. 14 hours and one speeding ticket later (not me I hasten to add) we arrived in New Orleans and prepared for the 4 day extravaganza that is Mardi Gras.
The first night we spent at the parade route. Mardi Gras has no shortage of parades that get bigger and better the closer to the actual Tuesday you get. This parade was nothing special. The floats drive by and throw beads at you. The atmosphere was extremely festive, everyone was out to have a good time. After a dinner at a Chinese restaurant (I say Chinese and I say restaurant, the food was so bad I’m not sure if I can call it that) some of us crashed at the hotel and the rest went out to Bourbon Street, the local party area. I was in the group that crashed, 14 hour drive combined with the inability to sleep in cars meant I was shattered.
The next day we decided to do some touristy things so we went on an airboat tour out in the Louisiana swamps. Fantastic fun, the guide was extremely knowledgeable and funny and he managed to catch an alligator, so we all got a chance to hold it and have our pictures taken. One woman on the boat was completely freaked out and it was only after some teasing from her husband that she decided to hold it. Afterwards we were directed to a local Mom and Pop restaurant where we sampled the local cuisine. The evening was once again spent at the parade route. We picked a spot along the main route and discovered that Sean Payton was on the balcony just above us. Sean Payton is the coach of the New Orleans Saints, who had won the Superbowl a week before. So he is considered royalty in New Orleans now. The parade was much the same as the previous night’s one. One highlight being the float with Drew Brees on. Drew Brees is the New Orleans quarterback, so he is also royalty in that city. The rest of the evening was spent on Bourbon Street. We found a very amusing karaoke bar called the Cat’s Meow. The atmosphere in this place was that of a small gig with an extremely popular band. The difference being the band was whichever drunken person got up the courage to go on stage and perform. Fantastic fun especially when people were clever with their song choices. By this I mean they chose songs that the entire crowd would know, therefore they didn’t have to sing and just acted out their rock star dreams on the stage.
Monday was spent wondering around New Orleans, after lunch we wondered down to the riverside and chanced upon a small stage with some bands playing. This was the Lundi Gras festival (Fat Monday) we decided to stay and watch for a while. The MC got on stage and announced they had a very special guest. The guest was the rapper Ludacris. Admittedly I’m not his greatest fan. But it was still pretty cool getting someone as big as that as a guest performance. After his 30 minute set, we went to a nearby casino, where I managed to only lose $10. Another one of us lost $90. He wasn’t that happy with himself. The evening was spent in a club called The Beach. An entertaining club, that played a large mix of music. They were playing standard club dance music, then completely out of the blue Enter Sandman was played, followed by a couple of songs such as Limp Bizkit and Iron Maiden. Then back to dance music, very odd.
The final day was spent again wondering around New Orleans. As this was the actual Mardi Gras, there was a parade that seemed to go on all day, made getting around the town quite interesting as there were very few places where you could cross the parade route. During this day we encountered a very entertaining break dance toupe. A second much smaller parade and a guy who made fantastic paintings using spray paint. The evening was again spent at The Beach.
That’s the update for now. Hope you are all well and thanks for reading.
Life in the US has been good recently, plenty of socialising and new activities. A few of us went and played a few games of whirlyball a couple of weeks ago. Whirlyball is basically a mix between polo, lacross and basketball played on bumper cars. A tremendous amount of fun with much screaming and shouting, I highly suggest it to anyone who finds themselves in the Chicago area for whatever reason.
A fairly large group of us recently went on a one day ski-trip a couple of hours away in Wisconsin. The place was called Wilmot Mountain. I’m not 100% certain what the definition of a mountain is but this place definitely wasn’t one. Still I had a great day zipping up and down the small runs. The most amusing part of the day was spent watching one particular friend who suffers from a slight over-confidence problem attempting to ski. He perfected the method of stopping where you fall on your back and spin around. How he didn’t hit anyone, I will never know. I also had my first experience as an instructor guiding two friends, who had never been skiing, down a slope. Can’t say I was the greatest instructor, but they got down in one piece.
I also had my first big trip out of Chicago last weekend. For those of you who don’t know what Fat Tuesday is allow me to call it by it’s more common name. Mardi Gras.
Have to say that New Orleans way of celebrating the beginning of Lent is much more amusing than Shrove Tuesday. A group of 6 of us made the trip down. After looking into flights it was decided that it would be better and cheaper to rent a car and drive down. 14 hours and one speeding ticket later (not me I hasten to add) we arrived in New Orleans and prepared for the 4 day extravaganza that is Mardi Gras.
The first night we spent at the parade route. Mardi Gras has no shortage of parades that get bigger and better the closer to the actual Tuesday you get. This parade was nothing special. The floats drive by and throw beads at you. The atmosphere was extremely festive, everyone was out to have a good time. After a dinner at a Chinese restaurant (I say Chinese and I say restaurant, the food was so bad I’m not sure if I can call it that) some of us crashed at the hotel and the rest went out to Bourbon Street, the local party area. I was in the group that crashed, 14 hour drive combined with the inability to sleep in cars meant I was shattered.
The next day we decided to do some touristy things so we went on an airboat tour out in the Louisiana swamps. Fantastic fun, the guide was extremely knowledgeable and funny and he managed to catch an alligator, so we all got a chance to hold it and have our pictures taken. One woman on the boat was completely freaked out and it was only after some teasing from her husband that she decided to hold it. Afterwards we were directed to a local Mom and Pop restaurant where we sampled the local cuisine. The evening was once again spent at the parade route. We picked a spot along the main route and discovered that Sean Payton was on the balcony just above us. Sean Payton is the coach of the New Orleans Saints, who had won the Superbowl a week before. So he is considered royalty in New Orleans now. The parade was much the same as the previous night’s one. One highlight being the float with Drew Brees on. Drew Brees is the New Orleans quarterback, so he is also royalty in that city. The rest of the evening was spent on Bourbon Street. We found a very amusing karaoke bar called the Cat’s Meow. The atmosphere in this place was that of a small gig with an extremely popular band. The difference being the band was whichever drunken person got up the courage to go on stage and perform. Fantastic fun especially when people were clever with their song choices. By this I mean they chose songs that the entire crowd would know, therefore they didn’t have to sing and just acted out their rock star dreams on the stage.
Monday was spent wondering around New Orleans, after lunch we wondered down to the riverside and chanced upon a small stage with some bands playing. This was the Lundi Gras festival (Fat Monday) we decided to stay and watch for a while. The MC got on stage and announced they had a very special guest. The guest was the rapper Ludacris. Admittedly I’m not his greatest fan. But it was still pretty cool getting someone as big as that as a guest performance. After his 30 minute set, we went to a nearby casino, where I managed to only lose $10. Another one of us lost $90. He wasn’t that happy with himself. The evening was spent in a club called The Beach. An entertaining club, that played a large mix of music. They were playing standard club dance music, then completely out of the blue Enter Sandman was played, followed by a couple of songs such as Limp Bizkit and Iron Maiden. Then back to dance music, very odd.
The final day was spent again wondering around New Orleans. As this was the actual Mardi Gras, there was a parade that seemed to go on all day, made getting around the town quite interesting as there were very few places where you could cross the parade route. During this day we encountered a very entertaining break dance toupe. A second much smaller parade and a guy who made fantastic paintings using spray paint. The evening was again spent at The Beach.
That’s the update for now. Hope you are all well and thanks for reading.
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