Friday, April 30, 2004

Read the post below this one first!

Well I could also tell you what the track listing was for the third CD too, seeing as I've finished them both at the same time. This one has been much longer in production, as it's an 80's mix and therefore not too concerned with being out whilst the tracks are still fresh. Mixing 80's music is tricky - particularly when opting for the non-dancey stuff. Tracks have very short intros and generally fade very very quickly. Hence no really long mixes whilst the tracks mash together - more short, sharp changeovers. Fun to do, and I'm very happy with the end result.

Intro - Wonder Woman theme
Duran Duran - View to a kill
Fine Young Cannibals - She drives me crazy
Jacksons ft. Mick Jagger - State of shock
Wham! - Young guns go for it
Human League - Keep feeling fascination
Madonna - Vogue
Pet Shop Boys - West End girls
Swing Out Sister - Breakout
Queen - Radio Gaga
Animotion - Obsession
Wham! - Everything she wants
Cameo - Word up
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean
Janet Jackson - When I think of you
Outro - Knight Rider theme

Fantastic! Again, as soon as I work out how, the mix'll be up here to listen to.
Madison Avenue saved my life!

An unlikely concept I know. But in a roundabout way it's the truth. They saved me from mixer's block - if there should be such a recognised condition. Trying (in vain) to complete my fourth mix CD I'd reached the pulling out of hair stage. Several times. And not just my hair either. And so it was, in a state of almost blind panic, that I began looking through my catalogue of tracks, hoping for inspiration. I was having trouble getting anything to mix out of the Boogie Pimps, and I'd got a few tracks lined up ready to complete the CD, but nothing was working. Yet suddenly I had a Madison Avenue epiphany. Everything else fell into place from there, and the mix itself is up there with the best ones. Let's hope I don't get stuck on the next CD, or you may be subject to a Vengaboys* bridge or find yourself getting down to Aqua*.

Full track listing as follows - now all I have to work out is how to get the whole thing onto here so you guys out there can have a listen and see how I've done! Oh, and I can't be bothered to list all the exact mixes of the track as they're all at home and I'm at work and...

Air - Don't be light
Playgroup - Make it happen
Scissor Sisters - Filthy/Gorgeous
Sylvester - Do you wanna funk
Dutch ft. Crystal Waters - My time
Hakan Lidbo ft. 2KHz - Bad Girls
Avenue D - Do I look like a slut?
No Doubt - Platinum blonde life
Kylie Minogue - Come into my world
Garbage - Cherry lips
Goldfrapp - Twist
Boogie Pimps - Somebody to love
Madison Avenue - Don't call me baby
Junior Jack ft. Robert Smith - Da Hype
Britney Spears - Toxic
Ferry Corsten - Rock your body rock


*Not that I actually own tracks by these people, obviously.

Thursday, April 29, 2004

Thursday. Again. Tired today. Another week goes by... and in fact we're almost a third of the way through the year already. Time. Fun. Etc.

A week ago tonight I met up with Gary and Marcus and we did Max's citizenship thing. Good to hear it all again, bearing in mind it's almost 18 months now since I became an ocker Aussie. Interestingly, although the ceremonies were pretty much the same, there was a much more political slant to the speeches around this one. It may be as it's only just past recent elections, or just that it's more out in the suburbs. Either way, a bit weird.
Friday was work and then in a fit of something, Al and I did indeed hit yoga. Bikram yoga - in a heated room - was what we decided to do. And boy was it heated! I don't think I've ever sweated quite as much in my life. It was good though, and I'm planning on going again tomorrow and Sunday. I would have gone on Sunday last, but decided to save my energy for ToyBox - more of which in a minute. So all stretched and sweated I returned home to veg out. And that was what I did. Saturday was a leisurely morning with brekky etc, followed by a 10K-ish run (not exactly sure but I ran for the best part of an hour) and then another hour at the gym. Home and headed out for coffee with lovely Mark, having shaved my head again. As you do. The evening ended up at the Newtown with Pete and Johnno, playing pool. Aaron and Bobby arrived later, but I decided not to go down to the Imperial with them...
One 'six-degrees' moment over coffee with Mark - I turned down a dinner invite for Saturday night as I didn't want to have a late night or get drunk... and it turned out in the conversation that Mark was going to the same dinner party! Weird.
Sunday. Toybox. We headed down around 1pm. Already going off! I spent the first hour or two in the small room trying to settle in and find some good music. The main room was very trancey, and in fact stayed that way for the entire party. Hey ho. Lots of people there, though we suffered a bit by not being the whole going out gang. We lacked that central place/group to come back to and it made the whole thing a bit disjointed. Aaron and I spent more time apart at this party, which I think was a good thing for both of us. It was still fun though, and before we knew it it was 8pm and it was all over. Had a few dances with sexy Paul and a good chat to him. He's a sweetie! In fact there were a lot of very sexy men there. As usual. Where are they the rest of the time??
Anyway, down to the Shift. Johnno decided that we didn't need to leave early in case there was a queue. Wrong! We ended up waiting for 2 hours to get in. But once in more of the same. Music didn't work for me all night though. Hey ho. Anyway, ended up back at Dentist Wayne and his partner Julian's place for a bit of a chill. Very nice time there, and good to hang with a few different people. Finally home around 4.30pm Monday afternoon... Chat to the boys and a bit of food. Tried to sleep to no avail... and ended up only getting 3 hours all night. I wonder why??
Tuesday was a shocker. Realised I'd arranged for the house to be surveyed and so had to trot over there first thing. Took way longer than expected and I was meant to be boss at work. As it turned out we had boss on training, someone sick, someone on compassionate leave and we're one down at the moment anyway. Leaving one poor girl to cope with everything until I got there just before 12pm! Oops. Tuesday night was slobbing. Yesterday was work and gym, though I was very tired. Today is work and sleep I hope. I know Aaron wants to have a bit of a talk so I may end up catching up with him. Otherwise quiet is the way forward.
The weekend holds exercise again - yoga Fri, run/gym Sat, yoga Sun. Hoping to catch up with Mark again, and the only other thing on the cards is Kill Bill Vol 2. Yay. More news as it happens... if I don't fall asleep that is!

Thursday, April 22, 2004

Oh my god. Two blog postings in the same week? What's that about? Actually I'm a bit bored at work and so I thought I'd give it a whirl for a few minutes. It's either this or coffee. Or both probably.

Monday night was indeed a beer or 4 with Gary. His Peter joined us and we grabbed some pizza and wine after that. Got a cab home rather than the train and so it wasn't too late a night. Until I stayed up messing around on the computer til god knows when! Tuesday lunch ran for 40mins with Allan at work - over 7K, so that's getting better at least. In a shock move I hit the gym on Tuesday night before heading home, to the shops, and creating a warm lamb salady thing. Chats to the boys. Bed. Yesterday was gym after work with Peter the trainer. A good session. Home and dinner with the boys. Chats. Tried some more mixing. I've reached a block point at the moment with the Bad Dog style CD. I've got about 50mins done, but I really want it to be longer but can't seem to work in the songs I wanted to. Hmmm. Might have to be back to the drawing board. Or mixing desk. Tuesday/Wednesday I was filling in for my boss, so that was good in terms of career stuff I suppose! Been for a run at lunch today, though not as succesfully as Tuesday. Mind you, considering I was full of cold and flu stuff only 3 weeks ago and I've not done any exercise for ages, I can't really complain about how the exercise rehabilitation is going. Woohoo!

Another Brit is being Austra-cised tonight - congratulations to Max who becomes the latest Pom now able to vote and be conscripted should there be a war. Er...

Not much else to report. Considering trialling Yoga over the next week or so as an extra exercise. Hoping to catch up with lovely Mark in the next couple of days for coffee and a chat. I'm definitely hoping he joins my rank of friends. All lovely, lovely people. Oh. Seemingly everyone's having cake. Good old Marie Antoinette. It must be someone's birthday or something. I'm going to be good and avoid it. Go me!

Monday, April 19, 2004

OK. It’s exactly two weeks since the last blog entry and I’ve no idea what’s been going on. Well maybe a bit. One weekend of shenanigans, one of pottering. Here’s to some more of the latter…

It seems like so long ago that I’d forgotten that Nick was still here at that point! Oh dear…I think my marbles have finally gone. That Monday night we had dinner with Pete, Bobby and Aaron and then a couple of beers at the Newtown. Tuesday night was a quieter affair – dinner with Pete and Johnno at home I think. Finally on Wednesday us four were joined by Rich, Russ and Aaron and we hit the Warren View (local-ish pub to our place) for a final meal for Nick. Noice. It was great having Nick around. I’m glad him and Pete hit it off so well – I think they’ll have a blast at the Tavern and all other UK hostelries when they’re both finally there together.

And lo it was Easter. Thursday night was just beers I think. Newtown? Barnacle? Somewhere. Can’t remember where! Actually I’ve no recollection of what I did for most of the weekend. Oh dear. Think I hung out with Pete and Johnno on Good Friday as most stuff was closed. DVDs a go-go. Think I forced myself to the gym at some point over the weekend – think it was Saturday morning. Who knows? I remember the weekend being a mix of social and pottering. Not sure what or where any more. Ah, actually I do. Post gym we went harness shopping. Oh yes. I’m now the proud owner of my first proper leather gear. God only knows where that will all lead! Well it lead to me wet shaving my head on Sunday, which is a first. I’ve threatened to do it a number of times, and finally decided that if it were good enough for Pete (who did his Friday) then it was good enough for me. Sunday night we went to Tim and Ross’s for pre-Indulgence drinks which was fun. Biggest let down for me was that hardly anyone noticed I’d shaved my head! Coz I wear my hair short and it’s so dark, it actually didn’t look too much different. I’ll do it again though (probably for ToyBox on Sunday actually!). So down to Indulgence. What a fantastic party! It was almost like having a private party for all of our mates, with a sprinkling of new, sexy faces to keep things interesting! And the music was a revelation – almost more Bad Dog than Bad Dog. It kept us going until 6am when a few of us hit Arq. I’d been propositioned by my dentist at this point – which probably isn’t as surprising as it should be. The hardcore group stayed at Arq until they’d played ‘Toxic’ – that being me, Pete, Aaron, Adrian and Shane. We decided to kick on to the Colombian for more beer at this point. Ended up being fun there too. Highlights: Pete’s lesbian stand up comedian teacher mate; the 6’3 Dutchman; sexy Craig and the man with his underwear under his armpits. No, really. Hilarious. Eventually Pete and Johnno joined us after everyone had gone save me and Pete. Noodles, coffee and finally home. Bed for me at 11.15pm. Sheesh.

Last week was much quieter. The short week was much needed. All I can remember is dinner with Pete, Bobby and Aaron on Tuesday night (tacos!), gym Wednesday, a lunchtime run Thursday, gym Friday. Pete and I finally discussed the house stuff Friday and that was great to get that out of the way. I slobbed Friday night, slept late Saturday and pottered and cleaned. Pete snuck off without saying a proper goodbye but I know what that's like. Enjoy the UK mate. I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for.

Saturday night went with Pete and Johnno to the Newtown where we played pool all night. Fun. Also met Mark – a guy from Gaydar I’d been chatting to for almost a year. He’s a lovely guy and hopefully will get chance to get to know him better. Sexy too. All a bit drunk when I stumbled home around midnight. Sunday more sleep, more pottering. Coffee in Surry Hills with the boys and Darryl. Home. Ran round the park for 45 minutes. Fantastic views in Sydney Park of the city of an evening. The boys fed me and we all messed around on the PC. Bed. Eventually. Though little sleep for me until about 4am. Tired today consequently.

Heading off in a bit to meet Gary for a beer. Gymming most of the rest of the week. Max (Gary’s ex) has invited me to his citizenship ceremony on Thursday so that’ll be good. Then another long weekend. This time it's ToyBox on Sunday. The last one was fun and am looking forward to this for a number of reasons. Sexy Paul. Sexy Ro. It being the last designated party weekend for a long time. Bring on the staying in!

Monday, April 05, 2004

And suddenly it's almost a fortnight since the last entry which was 10 days after the one before that. Doh. Must try harder. All of that time has been dominated by feeling fluey, starting just after the last blog entry and pretty much lasting up until this weekend just gone. I'm on yet another course of antibiotics but this one seems to be finally sorting me out. I did indeed take that last day off, previously alluded to in the last post, and had a relaxing day involving food and a bit of shopping, DVDs and an early night. Thursday and Friday I worked but was feeling progressively worse. I seem to remember early nights and not much else. The boys arrived back on Saturday from the States and we were all very quiet and well behaved. Until Bad Dog on the Sunday that is...! It was great as ever. I can't work out how they manage to keep them so good - maybe it's the music, maybe it's the venue, maybe it's the fact that they're only every couple of months, maybe it's the people. Or maybe a combination of all of those - but either way it works. We got there at 3.30pm and had a few beers outside before heading in to the more dance orientated second half of the night around 6pm. For me the highlights musically were a very long mix of Kelis's Milkshake and Herbie Hancock's Rockit - fantastic. Also they played a great remix of No Doubt's cover of Talk Talk's It's my life and a great mix of Toxic by Britney. Excellent. Originally the intention was to go home after it finished, but I was feeling no pain by that stage and so decided to carry on. We hit the Mars Lounge which was dull, the Phoenix which was empty and the Shift before deciding the best move would be to hit Arq and be done with it. It was definitely better there and I decided to hang on in long after everyone else had gone. Oops. I kind of needed some time out and about with no one around. In the end I headed home around 7.30am! I bumped into Pete on the station platform which was a bit of a hoot. I got home and was feeling a bit listless but wide awake and so I took myself off for a bit of relaxation. Ahem. That's all you need to know! I got home later in the afternoon and then just had a quiet night with the boys - watching Tomb Raider 2 on DVD.

Tuesday was work and feeling ill again. I was sent home around 3.30pm which was a bit of a result. Later the boys kindly drove me to the airport to collect old flatmate Nick, who's here for a holiday until 8 April. It's been great to see Nick again after almost 3 years and good we've kind of picked up friendship-wise where we left off. Yay! We had a brief dinner and then came home and I caught up with Nick until about 11.30pm. Wednesday was work again and this time I only made it until just after lunch. That gave me a bit of time to relax before we went to dinner with Adrian and Shane. It's been ages since I've caught up properly with them and long overdue. After that we had a couple of drinks in the Colombian before retiring back home. Thursday morning was my birthday! And a doctor's appointment. He signed me off until this week and gave me some more horse tablet sized antibiotics. Nick and I then headed off to Bondi and walked to Coogee, via milkshakes in Bronte. Had a lovely birthday lunch overlooking the beach at Coogee and then walked back again via coffees in Tamarama. Back to civilisation and the up to meet Aaron for dinner in Newtown followed by drinks at the Newtown pub. Pete joined us later and it was gone midnight by the time we got home. Nice day :o)

Friday I slept until gone 10am and the woke Nick up. We had brekky at home and then went into town for some shopping action. Initially we were looking for things for Nick, but it was me that bought stuff - shoes, shorts, t-shirt and new electronic toothbrush (after the last one went all 'Terminator' on me and turned itself on one night without me touching it!). We'd arranged to hook up with a couple of people on Friday night too, as it was Aaron's birthday. We ended up at the Oxford with Pete and Johnno, Pete and Bobby, Aaron and Costa and Michael. Suddenly it all went a bit mad and we were upstairs at the Shift having much more of a night than anticipated. So much so that we decided to stay when Pete and Johnno made their move at 5pm. The drag shows were surprisingly good and there was even a bit of flirting action with a very sexy sculptor called Jason. I'm very much hoping to run into him again... We finally made a move around 6am and went for coffee in Potts Point before Pete decided we should do a day trip to Bundeena National Park. So we hit home, showered, changed and packed some provisions before meeting back at Central. We trained, ferried and hiked - forcing brekky down somewhere in between until we finally got to the most fantastic secluded beach around midday. What a fantastic afternoon. We swam, lazed and drank and managed to run into someone Pete knew even that far away from home! We hiked, ferried and trained back and arrived home just after 6.30pm. What a day! We'd still not slept at that stage, but we decided to kick on regardless. Sleep is for girls and the fat lady hadn't even been warming up and it was birthday drinks celebration time at Pete and Johnno's. The gang finally all turned up - Pete and Bobby, Rich and Russ, Pete and Gary, Aaron, Tim and Ross (with visiting friend Maria in tow). It was great having everyone together and nice for Nick to meet them and vice versa. Of course we had to carry on and suddenly we were at the Phoenix. Well Aaron, Pete, Bobby, Nick and me at any rate. Adrian and Shane were there too. It was very quiet and so Pete and Bobby did a reccy of the Shift and back over there we went. Fun, fun, fun. We went a bit mad and suddenly we were minker la-la. Hilarious! Again we couldn't let it lie and finally ended up at Arq again. Like you do. Or like we do! It wasn't that great, but after about half an hour they closed upstairs and we shifted downstairs. Suddenly the music was great and we were off again! Aaron left and so eventually did Adrian and Shane. The remaining four of us finally went back to Rich and Russ's and polished off more vodka and coke than is probably good for us. Lots of funny singing and dancing and messing around. We changed Britney lyrics for Toxic to 'Don't you know that my dog's sick'. Kept us amused for ages! Pete finally crashed just as Johnno texted us to say they were at the Colombian. That kept us going and we had a couple of beers there before heading back to Newtown and picking up a takeaway. Home, eat, sleep. What a fantastic birthday weekend. And best of all I was feeling so much better by Saturday. Yay!

Today is back to the real world. Work - dull. Think this week might drag due to lack of sleep, but at least it's a short week leading up to Easter. Tonight is cheap and cheerful eats in Newtown with Pete and Bobby. That's about as far ahead as I can plan right now! More soon...