Ouch!

I am suffering with toothache...

While away on holiday Sue lost a filling and as seems to be the way I can't let her suffer alone. In fact I must go one better.

Not long after we got back I started to notice a dull ache in my lower jaw at the back. Over the next few days it steadily got worse until I noticed a lump develop on the jaw-line. I thought it must be an abscess so decided to go to the dentist - unfortunately we didn't have one, so it took a couple more days before a got checked out.

Turns out that I have a cyst growing under my wisdom tooth and I need to have it and the tooth removed in an operation.

There is one thing I hate more than dentists and that is the hospital.

I have some antibiotics to take until I hear about a date at the hospital (thing is I have been told that I should not drink while taking these under any circumstances. Tomorrow we are having friends over for dinner - Oh! How Jamie & Sue laughed). I really don't feel like drink at the moment any way, as the pain is pretty bad (I don't have a high pain-threshold), I don't think I should be taking as many pain killers as I am. I am starting to rattle.

Woe is me!

What’s all that noise?

Once again I have spending my hard earned (well not all that hard earned) money on my addiction to music.
 
Mirah is an artist that I heard of through KEXP who’s music is very much from the same mould as many of the Seattle folky scene at the moment. The album I bought ‘advisory committee’ has some real gems on it, but it won’t suit everyone’s taste.
 
Calexico are a band with a definite Tex-Mex feel to them. ‘Convict Pool’ is a rocking good album, very spicy.
 
The ‘Bedroom Communities O2. ReLounge’ compilation from Kriztal Records  is a fantastic Sunday on the Sofa album (pitched as dance/electronica/chillout).
 
The Streets, ‘a grand don’t come for free’ is my only real nod towards the rap genre. Mike Skinner doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously yet for people from a white, middle-class, suburban UK his lyrics are spot on. Again this is not to everyone’s taste, but I have both his albums.  
 
Zero7 are so ambient-cool and their ‘when it falls’ album is sublime. This is a very easy sound that just washes over you.
 
The US band Passenger (not to be confused with the Nordic Heavy Metalers of the same name), are another group I heard whilest listening to KEXP. They play music that is similar to the current flavour of the month Keane, Coldplay and the other Indie-Pop outfits. Their EP ‘late tonight’ is all good.
 
The Veils with their album ‘the runaway found’ are a top band. Their song ‘the valleys of New Orleans’ brings me close to tears.
 
Sun Kil Moon  is a very distinctive sounding band, due for the most part to lead singer Mark Kozelek. The sound tends to the country-folk side if the scale, but don’t let that put you off. ‘Ghosts of the Great Highway’ is a great album.
 
If you every wanted to know what all the fuss about the late Nick Drake  was all about then ‘Way to Blue’ is a good place to start. This influential folk artist is less well known at large, yet many current artists rate him very highly. The track ‘Hazey Jane II’ is one of my favourites.
 
Grant Lee Buffalo  with their album ‘Fuzzy’ are a jingly-jangly band that I am sure you will like if you like Sun Kil Moon.
 
I really love the sound of the Willard Grant Conspiracy  and their album ‘Regard the End’. It is kind of Nick Cave meets Lambchop. Beware this is defiantly of the country persuasion (though not the Stetson and Spurs type).
 
Black Cherry is the second album I have from Goldfrapp and I am a little disappointed in it. It is not as good as the first.
 
Sue did buy me a CD of Jim Reaves, but I haven’t got around to listening to this yet!
 
Unusually it has taken me some time to listen to all of this music. It wasn’t due to the quantity but to do with holidays, having family around (Dad is a big fan of jazz), and the fact the CD Player finally expired (I have borrowed Jamie’s while I look for a new one).
 
Play on.

The Italian Job

Joyce, Terry, Mum, Dad, Sue and I all headed off to Heathrow airport early on Monday to catch our flight to Rome. After much pissing about at the Hertz desk (we’ll try Avis next time), we finally got our two hire cars and were on the way to Bolsena in the north of Lazio near the borders of Umbria and Tuscany.
 
Those Italian drivers are absolutely nuts (reminds me of driving in NZ). Driving down the motorway at a respectable speed (and still being overtaken) you had to be careful when approaching a junction as it seems the Italians don’t so much merge onto the road as invade!
 
We still managed to make it to our destination without any major incident. We were staying at the Agriturismo La Riserva Montebello , which was not just a wonderful hotel but a working farm as well (aptly growing Olives and Kiwi fruit). The bonus of staying at this place was that they provided sumptuous four course evening meals of the finest foods. It was not by accident that we came here as Joyce and Terry had been here before and were eager return.
 
Being avid fans of everything Italian, Joyce and Terry have been to Italy many times (Sue and I tagged along on one of these occasions) and so they new the best places to visit. We were out and about every day and managed to see some great places including, Orvieto (the last Etruscan city-state to be defeated by the Romans), Montepulciano (a wonderful hill town of fine food and wine), Monte Castello Di Vibio (with a lovely small theatre – reputed to be the worlds smallest at 99 seats), Saturnia (with its natural hot springs forming pools and terraces before running into the stream). We also visited the ancient and almost deserted town of Civita Di Bagnoregio (on the top of a hill and only accessible by foot – or moped), the incredibly moving Abbazia Di Sant’Antimo (a lovely Abbey in a picturesque valley). We also spent some time at Bolsena itself (where the Etruscans recamped to after their defeat at Orvieto) and on one of the islands in the lake (the largest volcanic created lake in the country).
 
The weather was so hot that we had to adopt the way of the Romans and take a break in the afternoons (one day it was around 40 degrees C). Luckily the hotel had its own pool where we could cool down after our days out before setting to the serious task of eating and drinking.
 
Ah! That’s the life.
 
All too soon it was over and we were back in blighty. We back to work and Mum and Dad back on another plane this time for the long journey back down under. 

All that Jazz

The day I got back from the US, Sue and I went down to Gatwick to pick my Mum and Dad (they had flown in the weekend before but were dropping their hire car off there after visiting other family on friends in the north).
 
Mum and Dad got the royal tour of the estate and smallholdings, and they were introduced to most of Sue's family.
 
I had to go into work Monday and Tuesday but from Tuesday evening the holiday started in earnest.
 
On Sue's birthday we decided to all go into London for the night where we had a slap-up meal at Smollensky's on the Stand, a fine eatery with live music. We all had some of my Pork Shank meal and yet I still had to leave most of it.
 
We had reserved a table at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club  where we whiled away a few more hours listening to more music.
 
On Wednesday we took the car and went to France for a 'booze cruise' to pick up Sue's wine (part of last years birthday present) and have a mooch about. The Channel Tunnel is so handy for these little excursions into France.

We had a great times catching up with relations and friends and eating and drinking (getting into training for our trip to Italy). On the weekend we went up to stay with Joyce and Terry for more intensive training before we left for the airport on Monday.

California dreamin’

A few weeks ago I went to California, well Orange County to be precise, just south of Los Angeles. I had been asked to take part in a workshop at my company’s head office.
 
To get the best possible price for the airfares I volunteered to travel out and back on the weekends (don’t worry I will do my darndest to claim these back as days-in-lue). Getting cheaper flights also meant I could convince the powers-that-be to upgrade me to Virgin’s Premier Economy. The Virgin flight was fine and they have a great in-flight entertainment system – It is totally digital and on-demand (this means you can select your film, TV program or music when ever suits you and even pause, re-wind or fast forward as you please. It also has seat-to-seat and air-to-ground e-mail facilities – at a price).
 
In Flight Movies
I saw:
- Grand theft Parsons (loosely based on the true story of the theft of the body of the American singer Gram Parsons). It was Quirky and very enjoyable.
- American Splendour (based, again, on a true story, this time of an odd-ball cartoonist). This was also quirky and enjoyable.
- School of rock. This was a light and not too taxing comedy staring Jack Black. (Jack Black so reminds me of my friend James).
 
While I was in California I did get to see a bit of the countryside and did enjoy the arid tough scenery and the wide expanse of Pacific Ocean. I found a couple if interesting seaside towns of 
Laguna Beach and Newport Beach  and I took a trip out to Catalina Island  which has a great garden set up by the founder of Wrigley’s Gum, Wrigley's Memorial Garden  I also played tourist in LA by visiting the Queen Mary  a fascinating look at how people used to travel before the jet plane.
 
 It wasn’t all fun and games though as I did spend most of our week in the office with colleagues from France, Singapore, the Middle East and the USA, but all of this is too way too boring to write about here.
 
A did overhear a couple of interesting things while I was sat in the bar at the hotel watching the TV. A long discussion was had between several people about the fact that there is so much ‘reality TV’ on all the time, when an advert came on for male treatments “if erections persists for more than four hours, call a physician”. One of the women in bar retorted “if erections persists for more than four hours, call me!” Who says the Americans don’t have a sense of humour?
 
One of my American colleagues was a guy from Louisiana. He was extremely lively and very funny. He told us a story about his little old mother, who was troubled by alligators in the bayou out the back of her house. They had set a trap for the beast and had left instructions that the old lady was not to touch it until they came back next weekend. Of course he receives a phone call from her the next day to say that she and her boyfriend had hauled up the trap to find a small alligator (only six feet long) and while the old boy was trying to restrain it the little old lady was ‘wailing’ into it with a baseball bat. Luckily (for the alligator) it escaped. He had many more tales about his mum including the one where she saw a deadly snake in the backyard and blew it to bits with her shotgun.
 
It seems this sort of behaviour ran in his family as he decided to test out the four-wheel-drive hire car by driving to the top of a nearby mountain. He had convinced one of the guys in the office to join him and one night they headed off into the canyon. Some of their enthusiasm was fuelled by the Margaritas, though a short way across rough terrain soon emptied out the contents of the jugs all over the inside of the car (they decided they didn’t need the seatbelts after that as the seats were sticky enough to stop them sliding about). When they reached the top they were surprised to find another truck up there, and having heard stories of a local sniper they started down. The journey down became very steep and so our Southern friend opened his door and suggested his passenger do the same “it’s getting a bit hairy so if you see me jump, bail out.” Needless to say they survived. 
  
 

Back down to earth

We are back after a fab holiday with the family in Italy.

I have so much to tell you...

...my trip to California,
...Sue's birthday,
...my folks visiting from NZ,
...our trip to Italy,
...loads of new music.

I've not enough time right now, but look out...