On Saturday, March 31, between 7:30pm and 8:30pm, it was Earth Hour, when most of the buildings in the CBD (including the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House) turned off their lights and switched off appliances on standby, and people at home did the same. Our mates Jo and Andy have a flat on the north side of the harbour, in Kirribilli, with a great view across to the city, and they invited us round for a dinner by candle-light to watch the spectacle. It was pretty impressive, but not exactly the total black-out we'd been picturing (especially as the Opera House was 30 minutes late in turning off its lights!). Lots of lights were never going to be turned off - street-lights, etc - and the parade of cars who'd specially driven down to the harbour foreshore to watch kind of defeated the purpose of the whole thing, which was to raise awareness of climate change. Delicious dinner though!
The great event of the following week was, of course, BhangLassi's debut at The Cat and Fiddle. A resounding success, loads of people came along to watch, and if the boys had any pre-gig nerves, you couldn't tell from the audience! The follow-up is happening tonight, at The Hopetoun in Surry Hills, well-known for the quality of its live music, and in Matt's words, "BhangLassi's Wembley".
A day to recover from that, and then it was Good Friday, and off we set for The Great Escape. A fantastic weekend was had by all, even in the torrential rain. Luckily, although wet, it wasn't cold, and by Sunday there was even intermittent sun, necessitating constant changes of clothing (hoodie on, waterproof on, waterproof off, hoodie off, waterproof on...) My personal favourites were The Magic Numbers, but I kind of knew they would be, being a band that are dear to my heart, but in terms of acts I'd never seen before, The Bird, a Sydney-based reggae-type outfit went off, I really liked the Hilltop Hoods and also Flogging Molly. Plus lots of others... Saw some bad and some great comedy in one of the bunkers (the festival is held at an old armory), and certain of the males in the group went to watch the same cabaret show on all three nights...
We had left Alex's old housemate from Battersea, James, in our flat for the weekend, handing over the key as he arrived from Brisbane on the Friday morning - looking a little unprepared for the wet weather, in Queensland-suitable shorts and thongs - so we were able to catch up properly over lunch by the beach on Easter Monday (it was sunny by then!), which was good.
Another short week at work last week, and then on Friday, we headed off to the Blue Mountains for another weekend camping, only this time it wasn't in a tent, but in a cave! It was Rach's 30th birthday, and her boyfriend Mike (the BhangLassi drummer, no less) had organised the trip for 11 of us. And it was wicked! 405 steps down through the bush from the lodge, which comes included when you rent the cave (or the other way round) was a massive, sandy-floored cave, fitted out with a barbecue, various acoustic musical instruments, area for a big campfire and a large, trapeze-like swing/hammock. We carried down food, booze, guitars, percussion and lots of drums, and partied like cavemen. It were great.
And after the excitement of the gig tonight is over, Alex and I are heading off to Fiji for a week of chilling and snorkelling on Saturday! Woohoo. I think it's raining at the moment, but, hey, I can cope with tropical rain. Fiji, here we come!
