From a Suit to a Fluorescent Jacket

On Saturday afternoon, I decided to pop out for a quick bicycle ride, relying on @londoncyclist's Bike Rides iphone app. I chose the route named "From a Suit to a Fluorescent Jacket", which takes in Canary Wharf, Greenwich, around the O2 and on to Woolwich and back again.

I figured it'd take about an hour, and I'd be home in good time to meet my friend Maria for dinner. An hour and a half later, as I lazed in the hot evening sun at Greenwich Park, I realised I was not going to be back in E8 for some time. All up I was out for about 3 and a half hours, including chill time. Click to see photos on flickr.

It was a gorgeous day, and it felt good to be exploring. I should mention this was partly intended as a training ride, as this bank holiday weekend I'm off to Normandy with some friends to cycle between Bayeux and Cherbourg. More on that later.

In Transit II

Once again I'm in transit in Hong Kong, and I'm in much better shape than last visit. I think it's around half 4 in the morning NZ time, and around eleven thirty local time, and physically I feel fine. Mentally, I have no idea how I feel... I do know that I had a brilliant time in New Zealand, loads of great experiences with great people and just one or two that I don't need to repeat ever again.

Because I'm a fledgling data geek, here's a look at where I spent my 90 days in Aotearoa:



Within those locations, I stayed at 26 different places. Thanks to the kindness of a then-stranger, turned-out-to-be-a-relative, I drove over 7000 km and was driven another 1000 or so. I went to three weddings and three music festivals. I drank 40 litres of sauvignon blanc and 175 Mac's Great Whites. The last sentence isn't true. I took a roller coaster ride with the farmer poet and developed a dog-crush on Taffy the coolest labrador ever (affectionately known as my perfect man in canine form).



And now I'm London-bound, to start a new job and find a new flat, and looking forward to jaunts to Iceland, Japan, and Spain in the next few months. Bring it on.

a letter to a friend

Hey bro,

Cool to hear from you. Hope you're well. Life for me is pretty good. I've got lots going on to keep things interesting, and summer is shaping up ok so far (although we're all too superstitious to point it out too much).

I had 3 great weekends out of town in May. First, at an All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by the Breeders, held at Butlins holiday park in Somerset. Highlights were Bon Iver, the Frogs, Shellac, Holy Fuck, CSS, I forget who else... And the restorative powers of the onsite water slides :)

The following weekend I visited Prague for a couple of days with a friend I met on a Christmas tour to Paris, the Swiss Alps and Amsterdam. Prague is very beautiful and we had great weather. We went to see an opera: Don Giovanni. I nearly fell asleep a couple of times but still really enjoyed it! I think the highlight was having a golden eagle perched on my arm. Check it out: this thing can crush a human skull in its talons!

And the following weekend I spent four days in beautiful Barcelona at the Primavera Sound festival. I met up with Mark Kneebone and Dave Benge and his girlfriend Tanya, you know them?? The festival was the best ever, great lineup, mellow and interesting crowd, perfect weather plus we stayed in a cool old apartment in the Gothic quarter, close to George Orwell Square. Cue much intellectualism about 1984, Animal Farm and the life and times of Orwell. Over pitchers of sangria, naturally.
(photos to come)

Best bands..Neil Young kicked ass as the headliner. Nearly 2 hour set which flew by! He sure knows how to rock out. Also enjoyed Art Brut, Shellac, Bat for Lashes, Sonic Youth, the Jesus Lizard, Spiritualised, My Bloody Valentine, the Drones, Sunn O)) (fucking mental, they were!) and loads of others. Definitely keen to head back there next year. Spanish festivals are great: the music starts in the evening and goes late, so you have all day to enjoy the city, the weather, and generally put yourself back together. Which I definitely needed.

I thought of you the other day. I've been listening to the new British Sea Power album: you need to hear it! It's a soundtrack to an old black & white film called Man of Aran. The dvd came free with the cd but I haven't watched it yet. It's mostly instrumental, quite minimal and cinematic, I suppose, very atmospheric.. I think you'd be into it. Send me a postal address and next time I'm feeling generous (and like spending my lunch in a post office queue;) I'll send it your way.

I have had a couple of weekends here in London now. Haha - the other week I saw Britney Spears at the O2! I didn't know any of the songs but it was an experience nonetheless. Far more significantly, last week was the realisation of a long-held dream: Faith No More!!!!! Fuckin aye. No one following my twitter feed would ever accuse me of being neutral when it comes to #FNM, so it won't be a shock to hear that the entire experience was nothing short of religious. There are photos posted here on flickr and various outpourings squeed liberally about the internets.



This Thursday I head to Scheeßel in Germany for Hurricane festival, to see Faith No More again alongside Nine Inch Nails, the Pixies!, Nick Cave and lots of other cool stuff. Then back to London for a couple of days before I take on Glastonbury. I'm working there, collecting setlists so we can distribute the performance royalties 100% line by line to the publishers and composers.

Looking forward to some downtime, but for now, can't really complain. Although I still will. Work is pretty uninspiring, hoping to fix that before too long.

So, what's your news?

Jessie x