Two gigs, one window and I’m out of noodles

Ugh. I didn’t sleep well last night. I had to sleep on the couch. I had to get one of the windows in my room replaced. Inconveniently, it’s a high window that my desk sits under. I had to move my desk and my chest of drawers and cover everything up with sheets. I had to get this window replaced because my parents wanted to replace all the older windows in our house. The older windows are the kind that open with metal curved handles or that you have to pull up… woo, 1920s. Actually, windows in the 1920s probably looked a hell of a lot more majestic than modern windows. No doubt they’d open with double doors to the outside and have pretty framing.

Anyway, since they made a mess last time they replaced the glass feature windows at the front of our house and the windows in my brother’s and parents’ rooms, we didn’t trust them to keep my room clean. Sucks.

I had to unplug my computer and other things (my record player 😢) from the power, as well as the internet to the whole house. I came home from work at about 8:00pm and they still weren’t finished. They had to replace our front glass door too, but I don’t understand how it could have taken so long. I left the house at 7:00am before they even got there, I had a full day at work and even arrived early and left late, and plus my two-hour-long commute there and back, and they were still not finished.

Needless to say, they’re still not finished with my window. /angry

I’ve been so busy moving stuff in and out of my room that I haven’t had much time to post, so a few things have happened that I haven’t written anything about. We did connect the internet again at home, but now it has problems connecting. I’m now at work having breakfast and listening to Bob Evans… it is better than staying at home, that’s for sure. Sadly, the noodles in my soup are nearly gone. :(

Last Thursday I went to Select Music’s birthday celebration. Select Music is an Australian agency that manages a bunch of Australian artists. They celebrated their seventh birthday with four gigs across various venues across the city, with $20 gaining you access to all. I only went to two of the venues in the same building (the Oxford Art Factory), but I had a great time. I heard a bunch of bands I hadn’t heard of before, and some that I did. I wanted to see Bob Evans the most – having seen him last year, I couldn’t miss an opportunity to hear him play live again. I was happy to hear him play his hilarious song Ode to my Car.

On Friday I went to see Art of Sleeping who were supported by Anabelle Kay and All The Colours. It was free, and to be honest I’m glad it was because I didn’t have as great a time I thought I would. The music was clear and crisp and the sound check was done well, but it was incredibly loud for my liking. Since it was a free show, I felt that a lot of people were there just to drink and chat. There were a lot of people just chatting and not paying attention to the music. As a show-goer myself, the main reason I go to shows is for the music.

Anabelle Kay has an amazing voice. I think she was wonderful on Friday. She has such a high vocal range and she really makes the stage hers. I can’t quite remember but I think she did a cover of a song, though I couldn’t quite pick the song I knew it wasn’t an original piece. She was enjoyable to listen to. At times, because of the sound, her voice was quite piercing.

I went to the show with James and we bought some food from the bar. I had a burger and fries and he had a steak sub kind of thing… I don’t quite remember, but we did enjoy the food. :)

I didn’t like that although the show started at 6:00pm, there were really long gaps for the DJs to play music, and the acts didn’t even play for that long. That was a bit disappointing.

All The Colours were loud, but they were loads of fun. I remember the first few songs having a similar bass line and sounding like rip-offs of songs I’d already heard, but other than that, the band’s music was fresh and new. They were groomed well, and they put on a fun show. This was pretty much the first time I was not in the front row of a show, and I still enjoyed the music. I guess being ill and having a headache wasn’t really helping, because I could have enjoyed it more than I did. The most memorable part of All The Colours’ set was their cover of She’s So Heavy by the Beatles.

James popped outside after their set because he wasn’t feeling well. I waited a while for Art of Sleeping, but to be honest they were probably not worth the wait. It was nearly 10:00pm and I wanted to leave, so I stayed for a bunch of songs and left when it got too boring. I guess it could have been improved if my mood was better, but the atmosphere wasn’t really one that I liked either. I think I’ve been to far too many relaxed gigs at this stage… :P

I tried to take photos during the night, but the lighting was insufficient and practically atrocious. Horrible colours, stupid patterned lights… yeah, totally not good for photography.

I guess it could have been a better night, or I could have felt better… but there you go.

Sadly, I’ve been packing. I’m going on a family trip this Saturday, and I’ll be gone for three weeks. I’m going to Indonesia to visit family. My cousin’s getting married as well – I don’t know how to describe it, but I suppose that as his cousin I’ll be one of the flower girls or something. My aunt (who is his mother) made a dress for me to wear. It’s blue like my other cousins’ dresses.

I suppose I should be excited, but I’m not, really. I haven’t been in a good mood what with this cleaning and window business. I haven’t been to visit my family in Indonesia since 2007, and usually, I don’t have a great time there. The list is endless, but it starts with the people staring at me, right through to the toilets and the lifestyle.

If there’s anything I miss, it’s probably the meatball soup the street vendors sell. 😢

It’s sad, I know, but I’m not looking forward to this trip. Just when I think I’ve got a break and finished my exams… sigh.

Okay, I just went to look for an image for this post… maybe it won’t be so bad.

Lesson of the day: bakso is meatballs in Indonesian. /eee

Comments on this post

I didn’t know that much work went into installing a window! Moving things out and in a room is such a hassle, but I usually take the opportunity to clean my room haha. Oh! Weddings are so exciting to me, I hope you do enjoy yourself over there. I get what you mean about not enjoying because of the lifestyle change and whatnot though! Have fun :)

Man that’s some seriously sloooow window guy. Unless it’s a ginormous job /sweat
but I mean, it’s just a few windows, eh.

Ho U, Friday was pretty nurg for me /um
and I didn’t Feel Too Good D:

I wish you werent going overseas. Tahui

(Y)

How does your new window open? The one in my apartment is so dumb and old; you have to turn two handles to unlock it and then pull it inward. The windows in my family’s old house were the kind you pull up (the house was built in 1995, so they weren’t old), and in my mom’s current apartment, they slide to the side!

I have no water in my glass. :(

I hope that guy who sent you the press release about the gig will appreciate your honesty in this review. Or maybe he won’t ever see it. xD

Your window situation isn’t too surprising to me. 1.5 years ago my family finally got a house and before we moved in there was a huge renovation. My dad estimated it to take a month which was so off that we were homeless for New Year’s. You wouldn’t believe how slow construction workers are, because they really just don’t care. They make a mess out of everything possible. It was to the point I used the c word to talk about them. I hope you are doing alright through this, I really do. To others it might sound minimal but it is a huge deal for me.

You always seem to write about gigs and it sort of makes me wish my favorite band (Red) would have one! A gig sounds so tolerable compared to a concert; it’s cheaper, there’s not a lot of screaming because people aren’t there for hardcore fandom! It sounds like a nice and easy social event. I’m still not getting the $20 for access to all, because it sounds so not Australian, haha. All I hear about is complaining about how expensive things are.

As for the Indonesia trip, I hear you. I hate it when I visit my dad’s family in some city in southern China. I never have a good time. The last time I went was 2006 and the next time will be 2106 before I’ll agree to go again. Next time I go to China, I’ll never, ever leave Beijing (my own “hometown”) because it’s literally, literally two different worlds from the rest of the country.

I was playing this geography game and there were several islands of Indonesia mentioned. So just curious, what part of Indonesia?

Hope your family is paying those workers by the job and not by the hour!

I didn’t know that it was so much work to replace the old windows! Is it a big house or? or it might seem easier to us… xD

I do hope you’ll enjoy your trip! And congrats on your cousin for getting married! I hope you’ll have lots of fun! :)

2012-06-27 23:02:57′, ‘Aw, sad to hear you didn’t really enjoy Art of Sleeping, I love their music. I know what you mean by people just using the band as some background music :/

Thanks for the comment!
XXASAB
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Urgh. I would be sooo shitty. I hate when workers take too long.
Awww, I hope you do end up liking your holiday /kiss It’s horrible when you are not looking forward to something …

Man, that sounds like a hassle to get your window replaced. I’ve never replaced a window before, but I’m surprised it’s taking them that long! I hope they finish up soon.

Ooh, $20 for access to that much is a really good deal. That sounds like a fun event :) It bothers me when people go to a music show and just talk through it. I go for the music too. I was at an expensive concert once (since it was a popular band), and there were 2 women near me who just talked the whole time. It made me wonder why they bothered to buy tickets.

Even though you’re not excited about the trip, I hope you still have a good time there!

Thank you so much for your tip on how to keep my camera straight! :D I tried it and it works so well!!! I would have never thought of it though! Hehe, how did you figure it out?? 👏
My friend had a similar situation with window-repairing. I think she had to get like her windows repaired because a few were so broken that spiders crawled in through the night and bit her whole back until there were swollen spots all over…. (kinda strange right?) /bash Anyway, the repairing process took like two weeks for her!! The workers sometimes ate meals at her house too. I really respect the workers and I know window-repairing must be tough, but they were being suspiciously slow! D:
Haha bakso actually sounds kinda Japanese to me for some reason…. >w<

That is annoying not to be sleeping on your own bed.

Hope you’ll be in a better mood in time for the wedding. I know that feeling – I get stare a lot from people when I go back to visit families in Malaysia. After living in the UK for so long and comfortably adjusted to the lifestyle here, it does seem hard to really enjoy the time spent there. People think it is alright to judge you because you’re a foreigner in their country.

I hate when there is some work to be done in the house… particularly my room… I’m not a person who has a particulaly clean room… there are a lot of notebooks, textbooks,novels scattered all over my table, and my window seat… So covering it all and then getting something done irritates me!

My cousin is getting married in december and I’m her bridesmaid… I don’t know whether to be excited about it or not! /huh

I haven’t been out of country yet but over here if we ever see a foreigner (mostly blonde people) we do tend to be surprised but i hate it when people point them to other as if they are aliens or something…

Actually Georgie, this climate problem is way more in the South-East Asian countries… not the whole of Asia faces this problem… at least they didn’t… till Global warming :P :P

I can’t believe it took them that long to do your window! That’s maddness, I know there’s a lot of stuff to check but bloody hell….it’s a shame you had to move all your things too so they wouldn’t get dirty – the job shouldn’t be that messy!

Free gigs are the best! I always find they bump up the drinks prices though. If you’re not feeling the atmosphere though it is hard to do anything but want to go home.
I always got told off by photographers for using patterns in my lighting hahaha, they’re called gobos, I’ve stopped using them now. They’re just cheesey…

I hope you enjoy Indonesia! I’m sure it will be better than you are expecting, and if not, just think of the bakso.

The noodles in that picture look really really tasty. Nom nom nom!

One of my music teachers said that in the old days, people chatted and walked around during performances all the time! It’s like musicians got no respect in the days when Mozart was alive. Thus, old classical pieces have absurdly long repeats. Nowadays all of that behavior would be extremely rude, and I hate it when people do that.

And I hope that your trip to Indonesia will be better than before! Perhaps there will be less staring now that you’re older, and possibly better at blending in with other people. You certainly look Asian (as opposed to Dutch, as your name would imply).

So sucky about replacing your window taking so long! I hope they finished soon after you posted this and didn’t make TOO much of a mess :) family get togethers aren’t always fun but I’m sure traveling a little bit is at least a little fun :P I hope you have a better time than you planned :)

Ah, too bad about the window problem. Some workers are so slow it hurts. For example the workers at our school have decided that they can only work when we are in class, and that is the only time they can use their annoyingly loud drill. They had the whole summer last year to do a lot of work and they didn’t even start on the classrooms. So when the school year began they occupied a lot of the classrooms and we had to do a lot of changes and use rooms in the basement that are not meant for a class of 30 students… (Probably made for a group of 15 ppl)

The concerts sound nice. But I agree on the chatting part. People should come to shows to se the show, chat you can do anywhere. I love attendig shows, but there are so few where I live, even though it is the second largest city in Norway (Norway being the key word for why few atrist come her, few people.). Most venues have an 18+ rule though, and me not turning 18 until November sets a stopper to that :-(

Ah, hope you find something that is fun in Indonesia. Live for the meatballs! I just came home from Spain where we went to my uncles wedding (my dad is Spanish, so I have family there.) I love visiting my family in Spain, even though I am really bad at communicating with them. I’ve had Spanish at school and I understand everything they say, I just can’t make myself reply in Spanish, it’s really bad. hahah :-) But yeah, go meatballs and photos. Let’s hope they get you through your 3 weeks.

take care

A few years ago we had all our windows replaced, and it took two days – one day for the top floor (including cleaning up afterwards) and the second for the bottom. They were really good, it’s sucky to hear that these guys aren’t as up to scratch as they should be @_@ I hope it gets sorted out soon!

That gig place you went to reminds me of a venue near where i live – majority of people go there to socialise with friends rather than to watch the bands. If you’re an extremely good headline you will get people staying long enough to the end to watch you – but the best slots are the 2nd and 3rd ones which are the best if you want an audience. :P

As weird as it sounds, I feel that I’m a better person from all of it, I know myself much more than I did before, I know what I can handle and what I can’t. :) ♥

Aww, that’s frustrating. Idiotic window repair guys… that’s bad service. Don’t tip them… or something. lol

Huh, I’ve never been to gig performances by bands. Probably because where I live it’s a tiny village, and I can’t get out and around much. They sound awesome though, except for the rudeness of people. I’d feel bad for the band if I were there.

Hopefully you have fun this time in Indonesia, even if the conditions are bad! I’m going back to France this summer for 2 weeks, and the only reason I’m not too excited to see old family is because my language barrier. It’s embarressing. >.<

Anyways, I just wanted you to know that I've used one of your premade layouts, and I want to thank-you personally for them, they're amazing and they are beautiful!