thekua.com@rest

Gigs Galore

November 1, 2009 Patrick Entertainment, Music, UK Life

October ended up as a busy month for seeing some live music. A couple of Fridays ago I ended up at Brixton Academy to see Franz Ferdinand. I’d last seen them at the massive Alexandra Palace and was stoked to see them in a much smaller venue. Although they hadn’t actually produced any new material for a while, they certainly put on a very impressive audience that kept the entire Academy packed throughout. They had amazing video and lights accompanying them and just put on an awesome show.

Wednesday this week, I returned to The Forum, this time to see the Scottish based DJ performance, Calvin Harris. I’d seen him live a few years back at a festival and although he was simply DJing then, he definitely got the audience up and jumping.

That night was the same and I can’t imagine that The Forum has ever been so hot with so many people jumping around. We arrived to see the support act, Mr Hudson who seemed to have a bit of a following of his own and did well to warm up the audience. I’m glad that I didn’t bother to bring my coat as I saw a number of people with sweaters and coats suffering from their layers in such an energised audience. Great night, great music and what a way to enjoy a good night out in London.

The Cribs at The Forum

October 26, 2009 Patrick UK Life

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see The Cribs at Kentish Town’s Forum. For some reason, I remember seeing their first support act who were… to put it simply… awful. I’m afraid the female singer probably shouldn’t have been singing and some of the other band members looked like they’d rather be elsewhere. Fortunately the second support act (Adam Green) was much better getting the crowd warmed up for, what would be, a very energetic performance. He was quirky, witty and bouncing all around the stage.

The band played their set right up to the Forum’s curfew, leaving it strangely without an encore. It definitely wasn’t needed considering how high energy the entire set was. The floor was heaving from all the people jumping around and there was definitely no chance anyone was going to get cold inside with all that body heat. The performance was much better than what I was expecting, mixing in new songs with old songs and just being very engaging with the audience from the very start. A good way to spend a Thursday night out.

What’s been going on?

October 18, 2009 Patrick UK Life

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, finishing up one project located in Tower Hill only to go back to another client for a short three days and then starting a new coaching gig way out in Cambridge. I’m trying the commuting daily to see what it’s like – slightly better than Marlow and it still means I get to do things in London.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz at the O2 Stadium. Super exciting game where it literally came down to the last minute and the last ball as the decider between who won. These Americans definitely have entertainment down with every little break, every little time out and half time filled with some sort of entertainment generally including audience participation, or just simply acrobatic or cheerleader type entertainment. Great atmosphere.

This week I went along to see The Cribs at The Forum, one of my favourite venues around London. Packed out and heaving with people with lots of energy, it was definitely a hot and humid session inside. One really terrible support band (the audience almost booed them off) and one really great support band.

Weekend Wrap Up

September 30, 2009 Patrick UK Life

MelAndBen This weekend went by so quickly. Fortunately it was full of sunshine, warmth and lots of face time with some good friends. Friday night kicked off the weekend by meeting with Mel and Ben (pictured to the right) who I know from back home and saw when I first got to the UK over four years ago now. We ended up at the Two Brewers and being one of the last to leave. I remember some people having food there, with a disappointing review of the Chilli Con Carne (really bad proportions).

Saturday started off rather slowly, with an outing to the gym to work out Friday night’s drinks. I settled at one of my favourite cafes where I continued on some writing I was doing. Catching up with one of the people I worked with in Copenhagen, I dashed out quickly to Dollar Grills and Martini, a hip martini and cocktail lounge in Exmouth Market. Awesome selection of drinks and atmosphere, it was a little disappointing I had to leave so quickly before heading out to dinner. I met up with Mike and his wife with a couple of their friends for dinner at Navajo Joe. With a bar downstairs, music pumped through but the entire experience was pretty nifty with interesting decore and great tasting food (the spiced-rub fish was amazing!). Interesting people arrived in small packs throughout the night to slowly filter to the bar downstairs. We all remember having a laugh at one girl in particular who had a black dress backed by a zipper right from the top to the bottom. The number of jokes we had with that! Everyone else had to catch the last train out, living out of London so I meandered back home where I caught up with a few other people at Smithfields.

Sunday I walked all the way out to Limehouse to catch up with some university friends from back home. It was great to see both Amanda and Marc where we had a lazy Sunday lunch at The Gun in the Docklands. A fantastic, light and airy atmosphere, it was a nice place for a lunch but not as good as I thought it might have been. I’ll write something more about it on my food blog later. Walking back home and indulging in what sunlight was left, what a great way it was to finish off the weekend.

So good to be back in London

September 28, 2009 Patrick UK Life

My only question is: How long will this last? Since returning from Copenhagen I’ve been working a project that’s now wrapping up that’s been (finally) based in London. By my rough calculations, the last real project I’d had in London was probably about two years ago. This, most recent one, was based in Tower Hill so I count myself lucky being able to stroll to work and I count myself even luckier that the weather has been so wonderful.

St Mary’s Axe is one of the many wonderful landmarks I get to walk by every day on the way to work. I’m appreciating every single moment of it whilst it lasts. My only worry is really about how soon will be my next project out of London.

London Open House Again

September 25, 2009 Patrick Entertainment, Travel, UK Life

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since London Open House was on. Every year, different buildings around London open up their doors to welcome the public with most of them being free. Some are worth applying in advance for, ushering limited numbers of people around, whilst others you can only turn up on the day, and practice your British queuing skills with all the other people.

This year, the whole weekend was planned out but I’ll share some of the highlights with you and I visited far too many sites worth mentioning. Saturday’s highlight was the OXO tower, one that you could only turn up on the day to book a tour given each hour. With only 18 people allowed each hour, it was definitely worth waiting the hour before the first tour began.

The Coin Street Community Builders, responsible for the entire site were kind enough to at least collect the names and contact details for the huge volume of people they ended up turning away. The start of the tour begins on the ground level where you collect your hard hat and they give you instructions about how things to watch out for and the plan for the hour. We’re instructed to take the lift to top, where the Harvey Nichols Restaurant sits before we duck into a small door to take the, normally, restricted access door to an even smaller set of stairs where it’s obvious the hard hats are needed.

We stopped at the various different floors on the way up, stopping at each O-X-O before emerging at the top where you get an amazing view of the surrounding area. We were so high that we towered over the rest of the diners enjoying their river front views (pictured below).

Day 2 started with another queuing experience at the Horse Guards near Buckingham Palace. We waited much longer than we did at pretty much any other venue but it was definitely worth the wait with a great story lead by one of the members of the First Guard walking us through the different rooms.

I also really enjoyed your time visiting City Hall, namely because for the time invested queueing to get through security granted you access to some great views, a wonderful building to walk through without feeling overly crammed or rushed. Below is the cool staircases you got to walk down at the end of the tour.