Today I'm thinking about rain. Because despite it being December, it's been uncharacteristically wet this year. It feels like it has been raining for a month, and I'm just so darn sick of it!
December and Xmas time in Queensland should be sunny and unrelentingly hot. My days should be spent loving the air conditioning in my office and going home to jump in the pool for half an hour before dinner. Instead, it's just rain, rain, rain; plus the added bonus of sporadic flooding and hail to go with it.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am as romantic as the next person about the gentle sound of rain on the roof, and the wonderful smell of damp earth about a shower... but this is getting ridiculous!
Firstly, I would like to thank my long-suffering boyfriend C, for going with me to the concert. He doesn't even like concerts and also is not too hot on U2. But he did it anyway! Love him lots.
We started the evening with dinner – a shared pizza at Roma St Transit Centre. I don't know why, but in a decision that I would later regret (given the humidity and distance), we decided to walk to Suncorp Stadium. Should have taken the train. Then I could have arrived fresh and bright-eyed instead of sweaty and grumpy!
Anyhoo, we went in our gate and walked about ten steps and there was our aisle! We decended the stairs to find ourselves in row 11. And amazingly, nobody came to sit in front of us! I figured out that this was because no tickets had been sold for the first 10 rows. I'm assuming that was to keep a buffer between us crazed fans and all that expensive equipment? Not to mention that we were sitting directly in front of the 'star path'. C explained that to me – it's the term security uses to describe the route the VIPs take at a venue. Below is a pic that gives you an idea just how close we were to the action.
The downside? We were basically behind the stage. Now, as I only paid $40 each for our tickets, I didn't really care where we sat, and I was prepared for 'partial view' seats anyway. Turns out it was pretty great anyway, for the following reasons:
As previously mentioned, nobody sitting in front of us to obscure our view
Ditto, right in front of the Star Path, so we watched Jay Z and U2 walk onto the stage, and leave
We could see the whole concert on the 360 degree video screen
We didn't have to stand for 4hrs, unlike the poor plebs in the main arena. I understand they paid a lot more than us too. Well, for them it was probably worth it as the 'inner circle' part was pretty much in the thick of the action, but I'd prefer a seat any day. That said, U2 is one of the only bands I have stood for, and that was on their previous Vertigo tour.
The action kicked off with Jay Z at 6.45pm. Turns out he didn't make use of the huge stage or move from the front part, so we didn't really see him, except for his hat. I wonder why he couldn't run around on all the circular stages and bridges like U2 did? So he did about 8 songs, only three of which I knew. 'Empire State of Mind' went off, I love that song.
Then there was a break whilst roadies struck Jay Z's equipment and set up U2's. This took about 45mins I think. And then the big moment!
I have never been so close to the band before, and being able to see them so close as they strolled up to the stage was awesome. I really, really wanted to yell out 'I love you, Bono!' but Im pretty sure that C could have died of embarrassment so I just screamed a bit.
The concert itself was just amazing. I think Brisbane should feel bloody PRIVILEGED that such an amazing band brought its goddamn freakishly cool rock show to town. The set alone was astounding, but U2 live is just another experience altogether. You know you're in good hands with them. There are no stuff-ups, no embarrassing musical errors. There's some political stuff but you do expect that because, c'mon, it's Bono.
They kicked off with a short ditty of a song I didn't know, then went straight into 'Beautiful Day'. It was at this point that I may have lost my shit because I just love that song. It is my 2nd favourite. It started to rain halfway through 'Magnificent', but stopped by the end of the next song. It was like not even the rain would dare ruin the evening.
Their last tour contained a full set of political songs, with Bono even donning a headband with various religious symbols on it, signifying unity etc etc. I found though they still did a set of political numbers ('Sunday, Bloody Sunday', 'One', 'Walk On') it wasn't as pointed or sustained this time around. They did broadcast images of Aung San Suu Kyi during 'Walk On' though, and Bono reminded us there are still 2200 political prisoners in Burma.
The part I enjoyed the most was when the 360 degree screens segmented downwards, forming this amazing cone. The light show in this part was just amazing, and when the band was thrashing out 'Vertigo' and 'City of Blinding Lights' it was pretty overwhelming.
The only disappointment for me was that they didn't play 'Sweetest Thing', (not for me, for C, as it is his fave U2 song) and that they included quite a bit of stuff off the latest album, which I did not like. In fact the only song I can listen to off 'No Line on the Horizon' is 'Magnificent'.
We escaped directly after 'With or Without You', as I considered the evening to be complete at this point (them having played 'Streets' just prior). I believe they concluded with one of the new album songs but not sure which, all I know is that they were still playing it by the time we had walked all the way up to Milton station!
To conclude: I love U2, I love that they came to Brisbane and I hope they continue to grace us with their presence. And I hope with all my heart their next album returns to the greatness that they are capable of.
In my opinion, the division of labour in our household is in no way even. In my boyfriend's mind however, his ability to do the heavy lifting more than makes up for the mundane stuff he just doesn't do.
Sometimes we have a garbage standoff. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this little game - it's those times when you seem to be having a competition as to who can stuff the most rubbish into the kitchen bin. And when it's full, who can balance MORE crap on top. It's a game that requires nerves of steel and a deficient olfactory system - the bin becomes smellier and grosser each day as each person waits for the other to break and actually take it out.
A big embarrassed to report, that in our house, my boyfriend usually breaks first. But it takes at least 5 days. Now that's gross.
That said, he does do the things I hate: scrubbing the loo, getting the wheelie bins in. Occasionally he even vacuums and does washing!
And still our home remains a mess most of the time. I think this is the result of a number of factors - we're both low-level hoarders, and he has a tendency to just leave things where they fall eg. shoes, socks, magazines, clothes, books, junk mail... And then there's my tendency to just stop giving a shit about how the house looks during the week when I'm exhausted from work. So a little selective blindness goes on in our household for a large portion of the time.
I read an article somewhere that the key to domestic happiness and keeping your house clean is to do a little big each day, and not save it all up for the weekend. I'm still to master that skill!
For about a year now (feels like a decade), I've been wanting to have a garage sale. Because our house is full of excess furniture, and ugly items. For those that don't know, we basically bought my boyfriends' parents' house and when they moved out... they didn't take much with them.
Which is great, because we inherited a fridge, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. But bad, because we also inherited all the old ugly furniture and every single knick-knack they'd collected and hoarded over the past 15 years.
Since we bought the house nearly 2 years ago, I've continually wondered how a person could accumulate so much "stuff" that must be important (because it wasn't thrown away) and then not want to take it with them when they moved to another city. In my various spurts of cleaning out cupboards lately, I've found things such as C's mum's entire photo album collections, C's grandfather's war medals, certificates, awards, an entire collection of Elvis memorabilia and a whole lotta "stuff" that C won't let me throw out or sell because it's an heirloom, or important, or he just likes it.
But I managed to convince him we need to get rid of some of the larger items. Because it's a damned small house, and we have a serious storage problem. I want to replace the old sideboards and cabinets with bookshelves and the like.
So I finally set a date for our garage sale, and we spent two evenings lugging furniture and books out to the garage.
I haven't mentioned the books yet, but there were plenty. All mine, so I take fully reponsibility for my book-buying habit. I really need to get rid of some (to make room for more, you see).
Anyway, 7am finds C in bed (he worked really late and only got home at 5am) and me sitting in our garage realising I have done no advertising and my signs suck.
No customers for the first hour and a half. Only one random guy who came up and asked if I'd like him to mow his lawn. With our own lawnmower and petrol. For $20. I said no.
Luckily then my parents arrived and immediately started bustling about. Dad went down the street and stuck my signs to the street post. Mum helped with price labels. And at last I could leave them to watch the "shop" and get myself a blessed cup of tea.
Ended up we only sold a few items - some pot plants (which my parents brought with them as part of a clever marketing scheme, to draw punters in) and a single book. I think we made $8.
Two months since I last blogged. By now, readers, you will realise that I am not the most consistent person in the world. I hasten to assure you, however, that there was a time when I blogged EVERY DAY. Granted, I was in Uni then and had a bucket-load of spare time to devote to things like fandom and livejournal!
So Christmas is coming. Every year I make an internal resolve to organise things in October, every year I don't. It's closer than I realized too when you split it up into pay days. I think I only have about 3 until the big day.
This year I am working until New Year. We get the public holidays off, but otherwise I'll be at work every day. Including Christmas Eve, which I'm not looking forward to. Taking calls at 5pm on that day from people with very unrealistic expectations about what can or can't be done will be stressful, to say the least. I have had annual leave the past two Christmases so previously I've escaped this chaos for the most part.
I actually don't like Christmas much. That is to say, I detest tinsel, Santas and all the tacky decorations that spring up like Holiday Fairy vomit at this time of the year. I caused a bit of a stir in my team at work when I asked them not to tinsel-up my pod with their decorating. Announcing that I detest Christmas apparently is a bit shocking. One girl sat there with her mouth open and eyes wide, like I'd just announced I eat babies.
But there are things I LOVE about Christmas too. I love finding and buying the perfect gift. I love wrapping presents and the anticipation of giving and receiving. And I love that I get to spend oodles of time with my family. That part makes me happy.
So you'll never guess what I'm doing right now. Nope. Not that. I'm loading ammunition.
Yep, I've been putting freaking gunpowder into bullet cases, yo. Nothing sinister going on at my house, just helping C out loading his ammo for his target shooting on the weekend.
He's asked me to go with him and I'm reluctant. Not because I don't enjoy firing a few rounds myself - and he will definately let me have a go - but because it's really, really boring most of the time you're there. It's like being in the army; lots of waiting around interspersed with exciting but short bursts of gunfire.
Ah well. I'll take a good book and try to catch up on my reading. And compliment his shooting, of course.
My tooth hurts. It has for three days now. It's not terrible, just a faint dull ache but I'm coming to terms with the fact a dentist will need to be consulted. This has made me realise, I literally cannot remember the last time I went to the dentist. I can recall going as a child, and doing all those fun things like get fillings and get your tongue stuck on the spit-sucker, however I do not recall ever going since I left high school. And that's 11 years ago!
And it's not even that I'm afraid. I actually used to quite like getting a tooth pulled, or a filling put in. It was interesting. And for some insane reason, I had faith that it wouldn't hurt. Whether it was the power of the mind or not, it never did. Even when one time the dentist offered to do a filling without any anaesthetic, which I enthusiasically accepted. Looking back, that seems bizarre. I guess I was just a strange kid.
I am afraid of one thing now though - not the pain. It's the cost. What does it cost to go to the dentist these days? I was kind of hoping it was one of those things you can bulk bill like the doctor, but I am informed no such luck. It's money I can ill-afford but I guess it's got to be done. Or I can put up with this tooth. Hmmm.
Hi, I'm Sarah! I'm 33 and searching for my passion.
Until then, I slog away in a cubicle working full-time and focus on enjoying my downtime with things like TV (my old friend), movies, twitter, (trying to) cook, reading and hanging out with my hubby. My head is turned by things like vintage homewares, stationery, chocolate and scrapbooking. I blog about whatever takes my fancy.
Hi, I'm Sarah! I'm 33 and searching for my passion.
Until then, I slog away in a cubicle working full-time and focus on enjoying my downtime with things like TV (my old friend), movies, twitter, (trying to) cook, reading and hanging out with my hubby. My head is turned by things like vintage homewares, stationery, chocolate and scrapbooking. I blog about whatever takes my fancy.
