Entries from July 2005 ↓

Recovering from Glastonbury!

31/7: Kind’ve loses its impact when you describe an event more than a month after it happened - but guess your used to that sort of treatment by now. Glastonbury for those who don’t know is the worlds biggest outdoor festival in the world and has been running since the days when my dad had a moustache, flat stomach and had yet to utter the words ‘f**cking Campbell’. We lucked out and were chauffered in by our housemate at the time, Jane and her mate Mike. The drive was largely uneventful, we randomly drove past Stonehenge, screeched on the brakes and took some touristy shots. God the English countryside is beautiful though, pity London is such a cesspool. We made it to Glastonbury at about midnight, little did we know that over the next 5 days this would become the time of day we would have lunch. We had to walk about 3 miles from the car to our camping spot, no mean feat given that Fi and I had packed enough supplies for about 8 people. Kate Mac, Flic, Jonesy and Fi(number 2) had arrived earlier that day and reserved a spot for us up on hill, strategically placed in-between the toilet block and the main stage, but sufficiently distanced from both objects to avoid over-awing our senses of smell and hearing.

Thursday was largely uneventful, in other words I don’t really remember what we did, in that case we must’ve taken a lot of drugs. I’m joking, we say ‘no’ to drugs like the TV advertisements tell you to. Now if only i could kick my TV habit. I digress. Thursday we basically scoped the place out. Glastonbury is a seriously big place, you’ve got two major stages (Pyramid and Other stage), Jazz World, Dance World (another 4 or 5 stages), Greenfields (several smaller performance stages, lots of naked hippies, a tent where people debate, great organic food and other quirky things), Las Vagueness (A casino where you had to hire tuxedos and dresses, the smallest nightclub in the world, lots of very abstract dance performances and a circus), Kids world (not sure whats here because im not a kid, probably cool toy trucks and stuff). I haven’t even mentioned all the areas, but you get the idea, this place is not small. What’s most incredible is the vibe of the place, theres a great sense of community, such a contrast to London. Thursday night we camped in front of the big projector screen in one of the fields and watched the Goonies (we remenisced until I fell asleep half way, gotta love one-eyed willie, the fat kid and the japanese dude with the gadgets).

Friday the music kicked off and so too the rain, torrential downpours infact. The great thing about getting to the campsite on Wednesday was that we didn’t have to jostle with 150,000 other people for a space to setup camp. Some unfortunates were camped right next to toilet blocks (not fun because they overflowed with the rain!), right next to walkways (people splashing mud all over your tent) and worst of all those who weren’t on the hills were basically washed away by the flash flooding. A lot of people left the campsite, on one hill a river had formed and was just driving water straight into a group of tents. Totally mad stuff, but undeterred, largely unaffected and with wet weather gear in toe it was time for the music. Thankfully we had Jade and Lucas’ wet weather stuff; so many people were fooled by the brilliant Thursday weather and hadn’t brought anything at all, the camping stores did a mad trade in gumboots and ponchos, i looked on smugly as the price of gumboots hit 40 quid ($100).

Rather than go through and detail every day (the detail is hazy) i’ve listed our musical journey below:

Friday

John Butler Trio - Front row! Aside from Coldplay this was the highlight for me, only John Butler could pull off a 10 minute vocal-less solo.

The Thrills

Elvis Costello - Fi didn’t even know who he was, kids of today.

The Doves - Great set.

The Killers - Left early, crowd was going crazy.

Fatboy Slim (Fi saw this) - Was meant to have been a great set, played all the oldies.

Chemical Brothers - Dissapointing, had front row and knew one song. Missed White Stripes, which was meant to have been great.

Saturday

KT Tunstall

James Lavelle - Didn’t play any UNKLE!

Ash - Played all the oldies which was cool.

The Coral - These guys were really good.

New Order - Old bastards.

Coldplay - Definite highlight of Glastonbury, they played an amazing set; there were fireworks, they reworded one of the songs for Glastonbury and played a tribute to Kylie Minogue singing ‘Cant get you out of my head’. Only bad part was I was standing next to some older bloke who was just belting people who tried to creep forward in the crowd. Once Coldplay had finished it was seriously dangerous getting out of there. by now the ground had been ripped apart from two days dancing, it was a huge mudpool and with the number of people peaking at 152,000 on Saturday night, it was chaos. People were falling in the mud all over the place and then getting trod on, we survived.

Sunday

Goldie Lookin Chain - Wierd hip-hop.

Van Morrison - Golden oldie.

Brian Wilson - Beach boys.

Garbage - Saw a few songs, all the good ones.

Primal Scream (Fi saw this) - Annoyed I missed this, apparently the lead singer, Bobby Gillespie, was totally off his face, was frothing at the mouth and abusing the crowd calling them ’stupid hippies’, abusing people who came to see Kylie, antagonising Ian Brown and Basement Jaxx at the end of his set asking the crowd whether he should continue or let Basement Jaxx keep going. The crowd lapped it up and all wanted Primal Scream to keep going, but eventually the lights were turned off and security dragged him away. What a rock star!

Basement Jaxx (Fi saw this)

Ian Brown - Awesome set, ex front man for the Stone Roses and played heaps of old and new stuff. This guy has an amazing presence and played the crowd beautifully. Great finale to Glasto.

So the music was brilliant, I think the rain added to the whole event, even if we did end up with welts on our legs because of the gumboots rubbing them all day. The mud was mad, it got whipped into a mousse by day and then when the sun came out got all sticky and impossible to walk through. Only lowlight was a young guy overdosed on I think it was Friday night and I didnt even hear anyone give him a tribute, pretty poor I reckon. There was a big Make Poverty History theme to the event and on Saturday night everyone had to hold hands and have silence for the millions dying in Africa each year. I was in the dance tent and everyone held hands while they danced through the next song - amazing atmosphere (sorry i’ve said amazing 9 times now). We finished the weekend watching some of the cool abstract dance acts in Las Vagueness and had a Chai tea in Greenfields with Sam and Sarah.

Monday was hard, time to pack up, time to think about work again. We got up pretty early and already heaps pf people had started to leave. We were pretty drained from the last 4 days events, but getting home to our first shower in that same time frame was a nice reward, although there was a decent fight for the shower and washing machine. We drove past Stonehenge (”whatever, already seen it”) and so ended our journey. I think if we are here for the next festival (2007) then we will definetly try to go again, that way it would be a twice in a lifetime experience.

19/7 (6:49pm): Insert content here, slack jerk.

Comments:

Jenny (August 1st, 2005 at 7:57 pm)
Sounds like a lot of fun you guys had!!! Just to let you know i resigned from my job yesterday!!! Thought you guys over there would like to know that!!

ross (August 3rd, 2005 at 2:40 am)
Firstly I resemble those opening remarks and secondly there is no way that I am responsible for your poor language!! Were there any oldies there? About half the acts were around when I had a flat stomach and you didn’t swear so easily - or is that publicly? Keep taking lots of care - your f*****g Dad

Lindsay (August 21st, 2005 at 2:47 am)
Hi Mc Conachie! Carole and I are going to be in London for a few days at the beginning of Sept. ( 1st to 3rd) before we head up North. So we hope to catch you for a lunch or something and will give you a ring when we arrive. Glad to hear ( and read)that you are both having a ball. Cheers, Lindsay.

Ross (September 21st, 2005 at 7:48 am)
You slack jerk!! No entries for weeks! What’s going on? We’ll have to come over and check!!! Anything you want us to bring??

First of all an apology. No, i’m not sorry I never update this thing, i lost interest in all of you a long time ago. This apology is for the 35 people who I randomly chose to call from my mobile contact list last Friday night after a big night out (and sorry to those I didn’t call, you missed out). I don’t remember calling you nor remember what we talked about but I do know I wasn’t making much sense, so hope you had a good laugh at me anyway (I think I called my old work under the name Billy Brownless, thankfully reception doesn’t follow football).

Not much to report here, other than:

Summer

Spending plenty of time in the backyard with my feet up. Summer has finally hit the UK, cold mornings, unbearably hot days and beautiful balmy nights. Pimms, picnics, thongs, music festivals; the mood has radically changed over here, suddenly I wouldnt want to be anywhere else in the world. Last weekend I went to a cool bar called Cargo in Shoreditch (very cool place) and drank Mojitos (Mint, Lime, Bacardi Rum, Sugar and Soda) which is potentially the best drink in the world. The taxi ride home was in a brand new Mercedes C Class. No I haven’t suddenly become a pimp, this is the quality of cars the taxi touts drive over here - they charge a premium too I can tell you (well I could tell you if i remembered how much I paid). Fun, nonetheless and I almost got kicked out for inferring the guy has stolen it (sure he had). Saturday I fittingly saw Saturday Night Fever with Chris, it wasn’t as bad as I expected, although there were quite a few cringeworthy elderly couples showing off their moves in the aisles. Sunday I caught up with my best mate from school, Josh, who has just arrived. We went to the park right beneath Tower bridge; amazing view, crap park. Later that night I had a workmates birthday picnic and Pimms-fest at Hampstead Heath. Hampstead Heath is an amazing park up north, more of a forest atmosphere, picture Robin Hood, which is mostly unkempt and just a beautiful place to chill out (and get drunk). Feeling very sore come Monday morning. This weekend i’m off to Victoria Park, Hackney to see Groove Armada and then frantically cleaning the house in anticipation of Fi ‘clean-freak’ Mckell’s arrival.

Greece

Fi has now been in Greece with the girls for a week and I must say it has been great to be able to leave the toilet seat up that whole time (and have a fair share of the bed, and to have time to relax after work, and… nah i’m missing you darling promise). Christ I just used the word darling, I think my dad says that or something, scary. I got a text message from Fi about 6 days ago saying ‘i am never going away without you again’ and haven’t heard from her since. I suspect she may be having a good time.

Bombings

I actually haven’t read a paper for about 2 weeks now, sick of the propogandic crap to be honest, but everything seems back to normal these days, i’m waiting for the government cover ups to leak, Tony Blair is just dodgy. There was an amazing event last Thursday, the 1 week anniversary of the bombings. At midday everyone was asked to leave their offices and occupy the streets for 5 minutes of silence. Even the gridlocked traffic stopped their engines in respect. Very cool tribute I thought, things like this are what amaze me about London. Everyone has some connection to the bombs, there were a few close shaves at work. I’m avoiding the tube at the moment, catching the overland train to Waterloo and walking through the city to work. Its a great walk anyway past the London Eye, IMAX Cinema, through the theatre district and Covent Garden and takes only about 15 minutes, plus the tube is horrible in the hot weather anyway. Fi has a pretty sad story to tell about the bombings, but I’ll let her tell it to you herself when I force her to do a posting on her return.
And a few things that I forgot to mention that you’ve probably seen in photos:

Toast Festival

The Toast Festival held at Clapham Common celebrates the food and wine of Australia and New Zealand. In other words Aussies and Kiwis get sublimely drunk and wreak havoc on one of London’s finest nature reserves. The Kiwi’s had their day first, on the Saturday and drank and destroyed the place so much that the council banned glass at the Australian do the next day. If you’ve checked out the pictures, you would have seen my efforts with the Coopers beers. If you haven’t then go look because I can’t be bothered writing a description and its not worth a description anyway. But I have just wasted three sentences talking about it and you have read them all, so go check it out anyway. Apparently we got our photo in the TNT magazine over here (free magazine they give away all over the place dedicated to ex-pats), which is cool. I’ll scan in a copy when I can source it. Entertaining at Toast was Kath and Kim who were hilarious and were joined for a while by Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist (whose quality of cricket was hilarious until recently) which was a highlight for my cricket mad self. The blurry photos are not so much the result of the camera as they are of my shaking jubilant hands.

Glastonbury

I can’t believe I haven’t told you all about Glastonbury yet, it feels like so long ago. Deserves its own post though - so give me a couple of days / months.

Footy Show

Whilst we were in Glastonbury, Chris and Verity used our tickets to the Footy Show which we had booked having forgotten that we were going to Glastonbury. I almost was prepeared to forego Glastonbury for my favourite TV show, however i’m glad common sense prevailed. Apparently this show has taken a dive anyway, or people in Australia are trying to make me feel better about not being able to watch it.

Wimbledon

Wimbledon was over before I even realised it. I watched this religiously back home, but by the time I got home from work it was all over. Seems to be the theme over here, I miss most of the Grand Prix, Tour De France etc. which I would typically watch on late night TV in Oz, sad. Plus my housemates are more interested in some crap show about being a supermodel than such world important events as the Tennis. I can’t believe the Soccer has started up again so soon, these guys must get so tired at seasons end. Must be horrible earning £200,000 a week. Seriously what a joke the trading market is over here, give me AFL any day.

Harrods and Buckingham Palace

As you would have seen in the pictures we had a stroll through Harrods and Buckingham Palace a while back. Both highly overrated joints in my opinion, although we did get a photo right next to a Palace guard who was walking through the crowd and the food section at Harrods is a sight to behold. The Dodi and Di memorial is perhaps the crappest thing i’ve seen on my journey to date (including Geelong’s score against Sydney last week).

Tiroler Hut

Tiroler Hut, as you can see by the photos was an absolutely brilliant night. This is an Austrian restaurant in Bayswater who serve beer by the stein and traditonal Austrian fare. The result being two-folds of sickness the next day, food and alchohol poisoning. The master of ceremonies sings rancid renditions of popular songs such as Frank Sinatra’s New York New York and then plays the cow bells and invites audience members up to sing karoake. After 16 steins, the quality of singing aint so good, but no one cares and I would recommend this night out to anyone in London as their first stop - then 3 days of sleeping to recover.

That about covers it. Can’t believe I forgot to tell you about Glastonbury! More pictures coming soon and more videos because they are damn cool, even if I say so myself. p.s. We got the Labour MP’s website deal - what a story for an interview back home! Missing you all so much. Love Cam and Fi.

Comments:

Jenni (July 20th, 2005 at 8:53 pm)
And I thought lord of the rings was long!! you’ve certainly been busy seeing and doing lots. Keep enjoying yourself before winter returns. love Jenni & Kate

Campbell (July 21st, 2005 at 6:16 am)
Nice to know someone in the family cares. Don’t worry Jenni, you’ll forget all about Chris after six months, if the response trend from my family is anything to go by! Sarah must actually be doing some work (although i still recieve five emails a day about David Hasslehoff jokes, tell me that guy’s not cool).

Ross (July 22nd, 2005 at 7:19 am)
You clearly subscribe to the theory that the best form of defence is attack! Our list of unanswered SMS’s ,e-mails and questions in general is over 2 pages long !! Take care mate, go Catters and Aussies to win—you of so little faith!!

Chris (July 22nd, 2005 at 1:25 pm)
Was going to update my website, but after reading this I need a rest. Will try to update this weekend (Yeah yeah….heard it all before….) I’m so glad Cam is over here as well….I think I’d have gone crazy or turned back if he hadn’t been able to put me up and keep me occupied….I’ll pay you later btw

Update (5:45pm): Its almost the end of work for the day, its surreal that London has just been bombed and we just continued on our business day. Everyone at Fi’s work left early. There are no tubes running so getting home is a nightmare, i’ve got about a 30 minute walk and then am catching an overland train to Clapham. Didn’t realise there was so many fatalities, the Age says 45 dead. The attacks seem to have mostly been in the North East, we live in South West, so I guess thats some level of safety, will be avoiding any major train stations tomorrow, apparently all services are resuming, I think there’ll be a few edgy travellers.

There’s been a number of bombs go off around central London. We thankfully are all safe. Not sure if there are many fatalities anyway, more walking wounded. People stuck in tube stations. Bus was blown apart right near my work which is crazy. Temporarily working in Covent Garden on the 8th floor overlooking all of the north and south of London so have a great view, but the feeling is very strange, everyone naturally worried about friends and family. Difficult to concentrate on work, trying to work out how the hell to get home without public transport. Fi works right where the first bomb went off, so had me worried for a bit, but everyone we know over here seems to be ok. I’ll keep you updated.

Sorry to overwhelm you with multimedia. Speak to you in a month. Take care, Cam. PS. Wimbledon + Australian cricket final + Live 8 + B Live at Clapham Common + Gay Pride march = long afternoon drinking at home in front of the TV.