I should really start by explaining my lack of updates lately. You see, over the past couple of weeks while Cal has been working I've been trying to sort out my own work situation. I've had a very solid offer (I think) with that Ninja Theory company which I'll probably accept, but they've been sorta slow in getting my contract to me to sign. This has meant that I've had a fair amount of time sitting around the house keeping myself occupied. Naturally, this means that I don't have an afwul lot to say, unless you're somehow interested in me catching myself up to date on this season's 24 (which I have to say is far and away the best season ever).

What I will do, is show you a picture of the place we're staying at in all it's 'slummy' glory:

Now, I also have to clarify that I now understand that our place isn't really as filthy on the inside as I may have previously mentioned – this is all due to the limescale which I'm not used to seeing. So uhh… I retact my previous statement. 😛

As Cal mentioned in the shoutbox, we spent this weekend in the seaside town of Brighton, which was actually a pretty cool place. But before I can describe more, I must take you back to the days of Saturday morning (or more specifically; weekdays at 5pm on the ABC) cartoons.

This is Linka:

As you might know from watching Captain Planet and the Planeteers, linka was given a ring by Gia, the spirit of the earth, which gave her limited power over the element of wind. This meant she could create small localised gusts of winds or whirlwinds to pick up and move around people or objects.

I'm going to get really nerdy here and remind you all of an episode in which some alien comes to earth and offers the planeteers "suped up" versions of their powers in the form of these power glove type things. These gloves amplified their powers, so that Wheeler could set fire to an entire continent, Kwami could create 10 on the richter scale earthquakes, Gi could create Tsunamis, and Linka could create wind storms capable or ripping up trees and buildings. In the episode they all go a bit mad with power and try and destroy a nuclear weapons base or something before Mati stops them, but that is all irrelevant.

Brighton on the weekend (especially Saturday) was like being under the control of Linka's power glove. The wind was so strong it was amazing – we were walking down the streets leaning diagonally into the wind.

http://www.eclectical.org/crap/wind.wmv

So this pretty much ruled out any beach related activities while we were there. At one point Cal actually pointed out that she was thinking of bringing her swimming gear.

As a saving grace however, there were a number of other attractions around which kept us occupied. We first went to a holiday palace of King George IV. Cal can probably elaborate on what the place was like better than I, but for want of a better description the guy was like the equivalent of a modern day Japanophile except for the fact that females were attracted to him. He had his palace decked out in certain rooms with dragons and other oriental art which was quite impressive.

We also noticed that the Brighton festival was on, which meant that there were all sorts of shows of all varieties on for us to check out. On Saturday night we were planning on going to two different shows since neither of us particularly liked the one the other was planning to go and see. Unfortunately for Cal, her one was booked out, so she came along to see mine.

We went as saw Howe Gelb & The Handsome Family mainly on my part due to the following quote in the paper:

'Howe Gelb has never acknowledged any borders that might theoretically exist between mariachi waltzes, psychedelic guitar rock, uptown piano jazz, or dusty improvised C&W.'

This was attributed to pitchfork media, an online (and very elitist) music review site that I've read a couple of times. I figured that if they liked it, chances were I would to.

It was an interesting experience. The first band on stage, The Handsome Family, were pretty much standard country fare. Their songs featured balads about "Walmart", "Deers", and "Something I found in my Backyard". Now I'm generally used to a bit more depth in the music I listen to, but they were enjoyable enough.

Next was Howe Gelb, who also had with him a 9 member gospel choir. It was sorta like the part in Back to the Future where Michael J Fox plays Johnny be Good with a Choir in the background, which was pretty :cool:. We also got tickets for �6, so that went down pretty well.

Sunday was a lot less windy than the Sat, but it was also a lot more wet. The weather was so bad we tried to transfer our bus tickets to come home early. This failed due to us having the cheap tickets, so we went and saw MI:3 instead. I think we were both suprised by how it was actually pretty good (as far as mindless action films go). From there it was off to the pub to kill time until our bus which we did with much gusto.

Aaaand that's about it! Gabby is due to fly in this weekend which is really exciting. It'll be great to have another one of the crew over here.

And with that, I'm out. (sorry again for the length)