The turn of the New Year also brought the arrival of Becky to Sydney from Melbourne reuniting at least two of the Full Moon familia. Melbourne hadn't quite worked out as she hoped so she came to give Sydney a go as well as get back on the travelers lifestyle having been a bit out of the city there. It was a delight (or "rare treat" if you prefer Leona) to see her but also brought home how much things had changed in the two months since i'd left Thailand never mind Angleterre. As she was running out of dollar quicklty she wanted to do as much as the city as possible at great haste, hitting all the usual sights like the Opera House, Harbours, Bridge, Botanical gardens etc but also wanted to go to the zoo so i got swindled into it. I'm not sure where i stand on Zoo's, the last time i went to one was Barcelona back in 98 and that was just to see some albino silverback gorilla called Snowflake, plus me Da has a weird comedic obsession with primeapes so i got swindled into that one too. Orangutan being his favourite by the way. Anyhow my trip to tarragonna left me as conflicted as ever on the subject.
The day started with me grossly underestimating the time it would take to reach the harbour from the cross in the soaring heat. Matters certainly weren't helped by bumping into Iwan on the way leaving me completely confused, startled for five minutes and having just one of the surrealist conversations of all time. I told him i was on the way to the zoo and he responded by informing me that coles have a boy one get one free offer on cereal and he had bought one there so i should have a look. Baffled already. I then came to the understanding that he's bought one and wanted me to go look to see if he could get another one since there was a promotion on now, then i though he was just telling me that i could a good cereal deal there. We went round in circles like this for five minutes with both of us looking at each other is if the other one was the stupidest person of all time and massive fucking weirdos. I just kept thinking " why is he going on about cereal when i'm off to the zoo in a clear hurry?". Finally i managed to get out of him that the cereal boxes had a ticket promotion on them so i should check there and i may save some cash, why he couldn't have just said that at the start i don't know. Stupid Welsh, nothings ever simple with them countryside folk.
That weird altercation set me back from my original twenty minute journey estimation, to make matters worse i'd confidently informed Becky to buy tickets for the ferry so i really had to get a move on to get there in time. The only way i could do this is to run from Hyde Park to the harbour in the sweltering sun...... in flip flops.....I don't run. I could only imagine what a sight to see i was gliding through the central business district in the most awkward fashion of all time. I made it to the harbour with minutes to spare luckily entering at the ferry that was labelled the zoo, no Becky though and the ferry was just about to leave. After many frantic phone calls it turned out i was as per usual in the wrong place but thankfully she'd paid for a later ferry, leaving me being out of breath, soaked in sweat and generally all over the shop for no reason. Good times.
When i got my working visa I obtained a travelers card with the promise of lots of offers, discounts and free stays at hostels, so far after three months i had the opportunity to use this an amazing grand total of zero times, therefore it was pretty good to actually finally pull it out of the wallet and get some dollar off. 3o bucks still seemed a bit steep though. The zoo was situated on the otherside of the harbour so the short trip provided a nice view of the city even if the weather was not the best for it, it was also on the top of a steep hill so a sky bus took you up showing even better views of the Landscape. As for the zoo there's nothing much to say about it, it just like every other zoo. Full of animals looking depressed in small enclosures as everyone else gawks at them. They try to promote the conversation efforts, mating schemes and the general opportunity to raise awareness for endangered speeches but there's just something inherently wrong with seeing a Tiger pace back and forth in a small area with a complete look of fear and mania in their eyes. Same goes for Elephants and Giraffes being in a ridiculously small area given the same area. I did enjoy watching the mearcats though, it was like watching some mad psychedelic cartoon and the Koalas just appear to be massive stoners which is always good. After spending a few hours trawling around we decided to call it a day and head back home, i'll probably do Australia Zoo as its a more natural Habitat and it's meant to be a must. Zoos are no Sea World though, you can't beat a bit of Shamu.
The first thing i saw on my taxi ride from the airport when i arrived in Sydney was a poster for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs playing a gig here so i snapped a ticket up straight away and after two months the date finally arrived and another great venue in the form of the Hordern Pavillion. I had zero clue as to where it was so used the good old google maps on my iPhone for navigation to Moore Park, except it ran out of battery 33 seconds after leaving the Hostel. Great. Somehow i managed to head in the general direction, basically stalking a group of people who looked like they'd be going to a gig and it proved to be a rather successful tactic. Australia isn't like England, Moore Park has a cinema, football stadium, cricket ground, bars and music venue all pretty much on the same street. It would be chaos if we tried to pull that one off.
The venue was again great at about 3000 people with amazing sound. I was expecting good things from the gig but they still managed to blow me away and was an easy top 5 entry into the best gigs i've been too. Perfect setlist, you can tell the loved every minute of it (the drummer had a constant beam on his face) and well Karen O is just a one off. She has more charisma in her little finger then the lead singers of most other bands and is exactly what a proper rock star should be, unbelievable voice Jeff too.
- Zero
- Phenomena
- Heads Will Roll
- Black Tongue
- 10 x 10
- Dull Life
- Gold Lion
- Y Control
- Skeletons
- Soft Shock
- Pin
- Zero
- Cheated Hearts
- Encore:
- Maps (Acoustic)
- Art Star
- Date With The Night
Maps was probably the highlight along with Skeletons, Y Control, Zero, Cheated Harts....well it was all just fucking brilliant really.
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