Currently Listening Houses Of The Holy By Led Zeppelin see related

No, I’m not still in Scotland. I’ve already been back long enough in the states to go through 3 days of band camp, a weekend (that was filled with uniform fittings), and an entire week of school. As you can see from that list though, that leaves little time for updating. Am just getting ready for the first Sat morning rehearsal of the year right now. Bleh!! Hate Saturday mornings =(.

Edit: So I was going to go back to changing the page's music to fit what I'm listening and realised I no longer have that program downloaded where I can upload my files from (the one to upload to the university server).  Forgot I had to reformat my hard drive before I left for the UK.  Oh well, you'll have to bear with me and listen to the Who for a bit longer.

Edit 2: OK, so now there is no music what so ever.  Sorry, was making room for some big files I needed to send to someone over the server.  Will be back shortly as soon as I find some updating time...

Currently Reading Northanger Abbey (Modern Library Classics) By Jane Austen see related

Cups of Tea: 6 ( I have a sore throat and therefore a very good excuse)

So I forgot something in my last entry.  Forgot to tell about the music in Ireland.  So almost every pub had live music, sometimes folk type stuff, but mostly traditional (or sometimes modern traditional sounding, think The Pogs or Flogging Molly).  In many of the pubs though, there was not actually a band that would come in to play.  Instead individuals would just walk in with their instruments.  If there was more then one person, they would just ask each other what songs they know and then improvise from there.

For an example, here is a bit of the music scene from the pub I went to in Doolin:

First came in and found a guitar player with excessively greasy hair.  He played his guitar and sang some Irish medleys.  Soon though, a violin player walked in.  This man (with a horrible comb over) would ask the guitar player if he knew whatever whatever song, and if both knew it, one would start and pick a key and the other would then join in.  The guitar player was pretty good (though he didn't do anything impressive) but the violin player was just horrible.  We would be sitting and just talking at our table, and then suddently the violinist would hit these high notes that he was playing at least half a step flat and in the middle of our conversation, our entire table would just cringe.  It was broken glass to the ears.  Anyways, later in the night a banjo player (with dreadlocks!) walked in and sat and played with the other two.  He didn't know many songs as the others though and so instead he would sit and just listen through the first half of each song then join in and improvise the second half after he decided he understood the tune.  Anyways, even though the players weren't hugely talented it was so wonderful to just get to sit and watch an Irish music jamming session. 

On another note.  The district, circle, and picadilly lines are back up and running!!  I can now take the picadilly to work rather then the district and then walking from embankment.  The district line is closer to the surface and more airy (the South Ken station is even located outside so it's not so stuffy while waiting at the platform).  However, because the picadilly line is very far underground, that means there are lots of hallways and areas where musicians are playing.  I would much rather walk up and down stairs and stand on hot stuff platforms while hearing live music then go on the nicer temperature district line and have no live music.  Some of the tube players are really good while others are, well, not.  In the end though, it is better then the silence or the bustling noise of so many people trying to get to so many places.  Music just makes everything so much more pleasant! (Though the little asian girl singing at S Ken today was just screeching, yuck!  the worst tube musician i've seen...er...heard yet!)

Had the greatest and worst time this weekend.  Heh, pretty good for one weekend eh?  Here's the rundown:

Thurs night: Met a neat austrailian bloke in my hostel also named Jamie, so we went traveling around to the different pubs in the area, all of which had live music.  Very touristy area though, but lots of people and lots of music.  Unfortunately he was a bit boring as he had just had a fight with his girlfriend in perth and was upset and that was all he would talk about.  He went back to the hostel around 11pm-ish.  I went to this pub with this dude and his guitar who played some good classics.  All the stuff that everyone can sing along to.  Was having a great time and met this girl, Niki, who was also an aussie.  She was by herself as well and staying at my same hostel!  We hung out and danced and had a grand time. 

Fri: Woke up early to meet my tour bus.  The people were the greatest and about half the bus were people like me traveling on their own, so met a ton of people.  Very young crowd, mostly under the age of 26 or so, but there were a few who were older, and our oldest person, Jean, was the greatest.  She sang for us and drank with us and was just wonderful.

Went to the whisky distillery.  It was super interesting.  It's really old and run powered by water.  Very neat seeing how whisky was made 100 or so years ago.  Also they gave us all some whisky at the end.

Went to cliffs of moher and basically got lots of nice pictures.

Spent the night in a cute hostel in Doolin, a very small town in Ireland.  Had a great time at the pub and later in the street (umm...yah, a few of us went and sat down in the middle of a road in the middle of nowhere for a bit...yah, don't ask).

Sat: Went to Dingle which aparently is famous for...umm...a dolphin.  Anyways, the town was way cute and I bought a neat necklace which was very cheep.  In fact, everything was cheep, and it was such a cute little town!

Spent the night in Killarney.  Lots of Irish farm boys.  Went on a horse buggy ride through the national park which was pretty.  Had lots of fun in Killarney.

Sun: Stopped for an hour or so at Blarney castle.  Had a flashlight so I explored the dungeons which were neat as I had to get down on my hands and knees and crawl through went stone caves.

Also stopped at Cashel for a bit, though it wasn't that exciting.  Just a big fortress on a hill, but didn't get to spend much time there.

Oh, also stopped at this old women's house to buy some honey which she collects herself.  There were bees everywhere, and there wasn't even a shop, just a little table she set up neat the doorway to her home.  Very cute.  Also stopped at a cute pub before going back to Dublin.

Umm...yah, so that's about when things got not-so good.

Was in a kabab place with some friends from the tour and 5 min after leaving realised my wallet was gone!  Didn't know what happened so went back to the kabab place where the people working there said nothing was turned in.  Went to watch the CCTV cameras but couldn't see much.  I was outside the place talking to one of the managers when two guys walked by and asked if I had lost something (as I looked upset).  Said I lost my wallet, and they said they had seen a pickpocketer in the resteraunt only 10 min ago!

Now that we had a starting point, we went back to the CCTV cameras and watched a women try to steal from another persons purse but not get anything.  Then she goes up to where I am standing a bit off camera.  My bag was only open for like 30 sec too while i answered my phone.  I was so upset and had no money at all!

Luckily I met so many nice people that all helped me out.  Gar, a nice bloke I had just met only an hour before in my hostel, stayed with me through all of it making sure I was ok and giving me money to call home.  Then everyone else who was still in dublin from the bus tour + Gar took me out to a neat place with river dancing which was free to get into!  Everyone helped me out by giving me pocket change and offering to buy me things, and even was given €50 by a really nice women I had met on the bus.  I really don't know what i would have done without that money as I needed it for taxi and food and everything.

Mon: Got up early with Gar, but i was feeling sick.  have had a bad sore throat =(.  Wanted to go to guiness factory, but didn't want to waste the little money I had, so instead we both walked down to the museum of modern art as the admission is free.  Unfortunately, it was so far that before we even made it there it was time to turn around and go back to the hostel where I had locked my stuff in storage.  Got some good pictures of the city though and some neat churches and the guiness factory and stuff.  Also, there was a guiness truck loading large empty cans of guiness from a pub and they let us take funny pictures of us pretending like we were stealing the guiness.  Yah, so had lots of fun, even moneyless.

Went to the ferry.  Ferry came in fine.  Got on the ferry.  Sat in the dock for 2 HOURS!  Yah, stupid technical difficulties.  Then the ride was 45 min longer then it was suppose to be due to the problems with the boat.  Also, that was when I noticed that my shampoo bottle had opened and spilled.  Good thing I thought to put it in a plastic bag, er, well would have been in the plastic bag hadn't broken as well.  Shampoo was all over everything!  Then, when going ot the bathroom to get towels the door slammed on my ankle on accident and got all scratched up and bleeding and everything!

Missed my train and had to take the next one out of holyhead.  Train got into Crewe and I saw the london train on the other gate.  Ran to the gate and got there in time to watch the london train pulling out.  Went to information and was told I could take the train to Stoke then London, but that train was in and I had to run to it.  Luckily, this time I yelled to the guys at the gate and they held the train 30 sec or so for me to get there.

Pulled into the station at stoke just as the london train was leaving.  Luckily they come every half hour so it wasn't a long wait for the next one.  Stupid trains. 

Got on my last train and some kid kept looking at me finally.  Finally blurts out "are you israeli??!"  Turns out he's 18 and from Israel.  Sat next to him and talked the whole way back.  When we got into London, he handed me £20.  I told him that I really didn't need it and not to worry about it at all.  He was insistant though and seemed very offended that I wouldn't take something that he offered me so I finally took it.  That just made my day.  Was having a horrible day, and having someone I just met be so nice was just great.

Eventually made it to London.

Tues: Went to work as usual.  Had food to bring with me but left it at home.  Luckily Sherzod bought me lunch and I promised to make him something for lunch tomorrow.  Am thinking salmon sandwiches as that is all the food I have.

Went to Foundation House where they saved me from my money troubles!  My parents let me charge money to their credit card and Foundation House gave me cash.  Toda L'el!!  Can still go to Scotland now.  Am currently booking my hostel.  Yay!!!

I'm in Dublin!!  I couldn't find my hostel on my map so i just stoped to check the internet in an internet cafe.  Only 1£ for 20 min, so it took me 2 minutes to find my hostel and now i have about 15 more so thought I would blog a bit.

Got up real early and took the train today.  Finally ended up in Holyhead 2 hours before my ferry leaves.  Some Irish guys in Holyhead asked me for directions to someplace (they had just come in on the ferry).  I told them I just got there as well, then one guy said to me, "Are you from Austrailia?" and I was like, "No, US" and he goes, "oh, I'm so horrible with accents".  Anyways, they invited me to come to a pub with them for lunch before heading to ireland (and they paid!).  Then I took the ferry, then a bus, then ended up here.  I'm only 1 block away from my hostel!  Cn't believe I couldn't find it before!

It's a great area too.  It's right in the center of temple bar, which is the main music area of London.  Also, those irish guys told me they were going to the temple bar club tonight, and I didn't even realise at the time that my hostel was next door!  So, probably going to head over tonight and see what's happening.  Ok, off to go find my hostel now.  I'll blog again when I get home Monday.