Sydney re-cap continued.

So Saturday we went to 'Homebake'. It was a great day but long and exhausting. We got there at about 11am and left after 11pm. Here's a rundown of who I saw.

• 'Boy & Bear' - Amelia's friend's band. They were really good, one of the best bands I saw actually.
• 'The Middle East' - Excellent. Really getting into this band.
• 'The Bumblebeez' - Just nuts, dudes dancing around in rabbit/skull masks.
• 'Underground Lovers' - Vince's band, was cool to see them at Homebake, had a brief chat to Vince afterwards.
• 'Eskimo Joe' - Not bad, wasn't really into it though.
• 'Hilltop Hoods' - Awesome set, it seemed pretty stripped back though. Live hip-hop is a totally different experience compared with listening to an album. There just aren't those same production elements, rather it's all about the performance. Great stuff.
• 'Jet' - Good live band but I'm really not into Jet. It didn't help that there were all these asshole Jet fans behind us being asshole Jet fans.
• 'Powderfinger' - Great way to end the night, we were in a prime position less than a metre from the front. Would've been even better if they'd played some of their earlier slower stuff but still, I'm quite liking the stuff from the new album.

That was about it, not including brief fragments of sets that you catch as you take a break. If the schedule was different, I would have loved to have seen 'Tumbleweed', Paul Dempsey, Sia and Sarah Blasko but inevitably at festivals, there are time clashes. By the end of the day our legs were totally wrecked. Went back to the hotel, jumped into the sauna followed by a quick swim. (we did this every night - brilliant) Thoroughly exhausting day.

On the Sunday, Nathan and Amelia picked Rhys and I up (Eleonora met us later on) and we headed to Manly. It's a weird name for a place, Manly. Had a bit of a wander round, ate a pub lunch and ended up at this little beach with this man-made rock/sea water swimming pool that was part of the beach. Cool day. That night we ate lasagne at the apartment and watched 'The 40 Year Old Virgin' on TV. And of course, had a sauna and a swim.

Monday was a day of very little. We kinda just hung out, stayed close to the apartment and saw another movie (see below). That evening we headed out to a bar to meet up with Amelia, but the line was pretty huge (especially for a Monday) so instead we went to a nearby pub, had a beer and played some pool. Amelia crashed at the apartment later on too.

Tuesday we took the train and the bus to Bondi Beach. It was about 35 degrees and the beach was pretty packed with people. I pretty much just relaxed, read a book in the sun. After that we went to 'Hurricanes' and got these mad burgers and ate them at a picnic table as seagulls bickered over the last of the chips.

Wednesday we headed for home, back to Sydney airport, back on the plane and by the afternoon we were all back in Melbourne. The week was a bit of a blur. We managed to cram a lot in, I reckon. Top week.

Oh, and it would be remiss of me not to mention the discovery of 'Mad Mike and Mark', an unintentionally hilarious show on Animal Planet that we became a bit obsessed with. Mad Mike and Mark are a pair of South African (actually I think Mad Mike was Botswanan) guys who travel around Africa taking photos of wild animals. The photos are usually really appalling, totally out of focus and badly framed but the main appeal of the show is the duo's relationship. They're kind of like competitive brothers but they also have a bit of a bickering married couple vibe to them. Anyway, it had Rhys and I impersonating them all week. Check it out.

'Zombieland' (2009) directed by Ruben Fleischer

Pretty good fun overall but not at all scary. By the end I think I felt a bit underwhelmed, like it was more style over substance. Still, I enjoyed it, particularly the Bill Murray cameo which has to go down as one of the greatest cameos of all time. Somehow I didn't feel that the four main characters really gelled as a group though, perhaps there was too much of a contrast between Woody Harrelson's "tough-as-rusty-nails-dipped-in-poison" Tallahassee and Jesse Eisenberg's "Woody Allen-straight-outta-grade-school" Columbus. I'm a sucker for zombie films though, particularly comedy zombie films so this is well worth a looksee.

Wow. I haven't posted for quite some time. But there's a good reason for it. I've been in Sydney! Here's a bit of a re-cap.

Rhys, Eleonora and I flew up and stayed in an apartment in the south of Sydney. It was a pretty good location, close to Central station and a shopping centre. The apartment was cool too, plus the place had a sauna, swimming pool and spa.

We flew Tiger and despite hearing some dodgy stories, I found them to be totally fine. Everything was on time, no issues at all. The train in Sydney to get from the airport to the city (a 10 minute train ride) was a massive rip off though.

The first night, we did some food shopping and picked up some booze and then went and watched a movie (see below).

The following day we headed to the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, just wandering around, sightseeing. Sydney totally blows me away every time I go. After that we headed over to the 'Hamish and Andy BYO Pool Party' where the queue to get in was getting huge. Still, we joined the queue and after a little while we got in and secured an awesome spot pretty close to both stages. What followed was a fair amount of waiting around and chilling. At one point I ventured out on a food finding expedition as we were all starving and returned with bountiful provisions. We were set and eventually the show got underway. It was really cool to see Hamish and Andy doing a live show, having been a fan of theirs for ages. Plus we got to see Powderfinger and John Butler Trio perform and we had a great spot. Megan Gale was there too, just kind of hanging around. The crowd there was big and filled with heaps of screaming teens. It seemed that any time any one mentioned the word 'Hamish', the crowd went nuts.

We were pretty exhausted, but that night we met up with Nathan, Lisa and Amelia, my Sydney buddies that I met in Europe. It was rad seeing them again, it's been a while. We went to Newtown and had dinner at the impressively named 'Thai-tanic' (best pun of the week) and then went to a bar for a quick drink. Called it a night early cos the next day was pretty huge.

'Where The Wild Things Are' (2009) directed by Spike Jonze

I thought this was great. Visually amazing, I loved the way that the wild things looked and the locations too. You could really pick the Australian landscape. The story is quite simple, there's not a lot of action, but the themes are actually pretty dark with the film focusing on the relationships between the wild things and the central character Max. The actor who played Max is a little bit annoying but still suited the character quite well. I'd like to see this again, it's almost hypnotic to watch.

I'll continue this re-cap in my next post.