Bloc Party, Brxiton Academy

Patrick Music, UK Life

I’d managed to get some tickets to see South London indie rock band, Bloc Party at Brixton Academy. As usual, the academy was packed out and the usual ticket scalpers stood at the Tube station entrance trying to work the market. We missed the first support act (Mahogany), but caught the second support act, Biffy Clyro who were very impressive and played a very decent set. I’d highly recommend trying to find a track or two of theirs to listen to.

Bloc Party

Bloc party came on in no time and really got the crowd pumping. We were upstairs which was seated although that didn’t stop some people from standing up. Strangely enough, security constantly went through the crowd in waves shouting at people to sit back down, the first time I’ve seen that at Brixton upstairs. It turned into a little bit of a game with many of the attendants as it became what looked like a whack-o-mole game.

The band played a fantastic set, part of which came from their new album, A Weekend in the City, and the other, made up of many hits from their previous album, Silent Alarm.

Thekua.com Rating: 7 out of 10

28 Weeks Later

Patrick Movies, UK Life

28 Days Later was a pretty impressive film for me mainly for the way it managed to empty (or simulate) many parts of London (such as the ever busy area of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey).

28 Weeks Later

I stumbled across this painted sign (above) all over pathways around East London and is promoting the upcoming sequel release, 28 Weeks Later. I don’t know if they had local council or city approval, but I like way this biohazard symbol is enigmatically painted all over the pavements. This one I caught outside Old Street station on the way to Hoxton Square.

Worst Long Haul Flight Ever

Patrick Annoyances, Travel

Although a trip to the West Coast of the States isn’t as bad as it can be flying home to Australia from the UK, it’s amazing how little things can make the trip a lot more painful. How’s this sound for a not-very-ideal trip:

  • An hour by train
  • Two hours at the Gatwick airport
  • A ten and a half hour flight into Dallas
  • Two hours standing in queue to get through immigration
  • You miss your connecting flight to Vegas by ten minutes
  • Another two hour wait in the airport for the next flight
  • Another three hour flight to Las Vegas
  • A half hour waiting for luggage only to discover it never made it on your flight

My only consolation was that my hotel had only one room left by the time I got there and it just so happened it was a Jacuzzi suite (click more to see the picture) Read more “Worst Long Haul Flight Ever”

It’s Official…

Patrick Farringdon, Food, UK Life

I’m now a member of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

Scotch Malt Whisky Society

Being a member gives you access to their private tasting room located in the middle of Farringdon as well as invites to their tasting nights. It also gives you discount to rooms and suites available in Edinburgh. Better yet you get to sample a wide variety of whiskies from around the world at very reasonable prices. Let us know if you ever want to visit since it’s a pretty nice experience even if you’re not a big fan of whisky.

Boeing Boeing

Patrick Entertainment, Theatre, UK Life

Last Monday I went along to see a comical theatre show called Boeing Boeing. The script is extremely old with a movie released in 1965 with actors such as Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis. The story is simple with a small cast of only six people based in a stunning apartment in the middle of Paris. It is set in a time when the aviation industry is starting to take off and revolves around the man that owns the apartment and his three flight hostess fiancés (one from America, one from Italy and one from Germany). Things get complicated when a mate of his comes to visit and is let in on the little secret and all while his maid is trying to keep up with everyone’s whims.

It’s got some great lines that just keep coming and coming and although some of them are admittedly a little cliché, it certainly kept the audience laughing throughout the entire night. It was so funny that some of the audience were randomly laughing even though the actors weren’t saying anything and it even got to a point where one of the actresses had to turn away because of a fit of giggles.

It’s a great show I can recommend to anyone even though the play is coming to an end of its season in London.

TheKua.com Rating: 9 out of 10

Andorran Skiing

Patrick Sport, Travel, UK Life

My latest skiing adventure was only the third time I’ve gone skiing and it just seems to get better and better. I’m a little bit worried though that this time we were so spoilt that it might make skiing back home less enjoyable. Overall the trip was fantastic and made even more fun since we went in a nicely sized group of eight. You can check out Stickfly’s review and Gerrod’s discussion to find out some different views.

There are many reasons I think we were spoilt on this particular holiday. The hotel we stayed in, the Sports Village Hotel was extremely nice – the rooms were big, the bathrooms very nice and the whole place was in a perfect location with the ski lift gondola two floors directly below our hotel. As a result it was extremely easy getting up the mountain in the morning. Better yet, at the end of the day you can ski right down the mountain (as fast as you want) and ski directly underneath the Gondola a few more floors down, keeping your commute time down even more. Attached to the hotel was a three storied sports wellness centre full of saunas, pools, spas, heat beds all of different heats. It was a must for every single member of our party at some time during the week and well worth the €30 for the three hours to drain the aches and pains of the week.

On top of that, despite the “worst season Andorra has ever seen” we managed to get two days of fresh snow, giving us a few days skiing on some lovely powder snow. Admittedly a number of the other days were painfully windy and slightly icy, but I think we were lucky with the snow that we did get.

I was happy that on my first day I managed to survive a red run since on my second time skiing, it took a couple of days to get my ski legs back on. By the end of the week, other than the fact I was extremely physically exhausted, we even had a small go at a few jumps and tried learning how to spin around skiing backwards and failing dismally at turning around facing forward again.
Amazingly despite the adventurous nature of some of our party members, no one came away with any major injuries with the most a bruised inflamed rib, and maybe a few sore shoulders, arms or legs.

Andorra is a great blast for people skiing though I can’t recommend it for a cultural trip since it seems to cater mainly for English tourists given the number of pubs and perfect resemblance of a high street, and for the Spanish and French locals with all menus pretty much in their native languages.

Thanks to Ben for organising it all and everyone else (Michelle, Gerrod, Kristy, John, Kirsten and Matt) for the fabulous company and great skiing/boarding.

UK Site of the Week

Patrick UK Life

You know when you think that there’s some store on a street somewhere you can’t remember but it sits between two other ones you can remember. Well if it’s on a major street in central London, then Street Sensation is the site for you. This website keeps a pictorial representation of many streets around London, and it is always somehow kept up to date (including stores being constructed, etc) and great if you want to check out what’s on a particular street or where a street is relative to other ones. I highly recommend it.

Cay Tre – The Vietnamese Kitchen

Patrick Food, Restaurants, UK Life

Surprisingly I haven’t eaten that much at Vietnamese restaurants in London. It was only recently that I found out that a plethora of them exist out east near the Old Street tube station. I ate at Cay Tre (also known as The Vietnamese Kitchen) most recently and was surprisingly impressed by it.

Flaming Hot Pot

The restaurant was busy throughout our entire meal with many patrons cascading into the ground floor. Another good indicator of the quality of the food was the large number of Asian people that were dining. The menu offers a wide selection of starters and mains ranging from soups, noodles, stews, fried dishes and other speciality grilled things prepared on little portable grills at each table. The dishes are extremely affordable with most of the mains averaging £5 or £6.

Chicken Dish

Service throughout the night was non-intrusive and I didn’t feel at all rushed through our meal like you would in many Chinese restaurants. Better yet, if you find Cay Tre busy, it also has a sister restaurant just around the corner.

Details: Cay Tre
Found on: 301 Old Street, London, EC1V 9LA
Contactable on: 020 7729 8662
Highlights: Cheap, fresh Vietnamese food with a huge offering on their menu.
Room for improvement: Nothing too much to note here (for once).
The Kua Rating: 8 out of 10