Paris Birthday

We woke up back in London and went to our local to have a catch up with James and Miriam, relaying the tales of our last week and a bit. We returned to the flat where we repacked our bags and I finished some pressing work.

Nadia and I walked up to Angel to get something to eat before returning to the local to have a coffee with Nadia’s friend Finn Andrew (of a band called the Veils) to discuss a series of shows that He and Nadia are doing together back in NZ in October.

A pleasant hour passed and we returned to the flat for final prep for our next jaunt. We walked to Angel station with our bags and rode to London Victoria and boarded the Gatwick Express. After some hours milling around, we were on our way to Paris. It’s funny with European international flights that you often spend more time waiting at the airport than you do in the air, as you are required to be at the airport 2 hours before, but the flight time, in this case, was just 45 minutes.

We landed just after 8pm local time and got in a cab to our Airbnb. We are staying in 2nd arr, very close to Notre Dame and The Louve. The place is on the first floor of a narrow and tall lane and is bare essentials. One room, with a kitchen, a little living area, and a loft bed. We were let in by the owner Ludo who gave us the rundown of what was around.

Once our bags were down we went for a little walk to get our bearings and find something to eat. Our place is very close to a large number of eateries that seemed to be frequented mostly by locals. We found a creperie and had a glass of wine before heading back to our place and snoozing.

The next morning I left the apartment to seek a boulangerie for an assortment of morning pastries. We had coffee and croissant in our room and read our books for a while before seizing the day and seeing some sights.

It is properly summer in Paris, none of this overcast and vaguely warm that London had been offering. We walked down to the river and around Notre Dame cathedral, which was, of course, all blocked off from the fire, including the whole square in front.

We followed the barricade around and behind it and headed over the other side, stopping at a supermarket for some bits and went to have a picnic in Luxembourg Park.

We headed down the sneaky streets toward the Eiffel Tower. It was busy and the sun was hot at this stage so we didn’t hang around but did get the obligatory photo. I didn’t recall the tower being walled off last time, but it now sports a containing wall around the perimeter, so if you want to walk under if you must go through security.

We got the metro back to the room and got some bits for an easy apartment dinner. Nadia napped and I went for a walk before going for one final stroll together then going to bed.

On Thursday we walked the Coulée Verte René-Dumont, a raised garden path on an old railway line. We walked halfway down it, stopped to have lunch in the shade and continued down. We stopped when we arrived at Jardin de Reuilly, a great little park with lots of shade. The days are super hot at the moment, especially between 11 and 3. It’s not possible to be in it directly for very long. So we took shelter in the park with some cold drinks and read for a few hours before we found out way back.

Friday was Nadia’s Birthday. I snuck out early to get breakfast, croissants and cheeses and cherry tomatoes and came home, sneakily arranging everything with a few gifts I’d bought over with me. She awoke, we ate and read.

We leave the house and walk up to Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, where we sit surrounded by greenery and drink some bubbly. After an hour and a half, we made our way back to retreat from the sun for a few hours. Come evening we took the train up to 18 arr. to a vegetarian restaurant that Nadia had found. We ate and strolled through the hot evening streets.

We trained back to our neighborhood for another wee rest before one final walk down to Pont Neuf to watch the Eiffel Tower lighten up and twinkling, via a crepe. A lovely birthday day.

Birthday breakfast

Bubbly in the Park

A Shepard Fairey (I think)

Saturday, our travel day. We took breakfast down at a lovely little cafe down the road, with bags in hand. We made our way to a park near Gard du Nord and had a lie in the grass before walking to the station and catching the train to the airport. The flight was smooth and we were back in the UK just after 5pm, where it was also very hot.

James and Miriam had invited us for a birthday dinner at a lovely Italian place just up the road from their house, so after we dropped off our bags and cleaned ourselves up we went for a lovely meal, outside in the balmy London evening, followed by a swift pint and one of the last remaining, proper old British pubs in the neighborhood. Then, bed.

 

The First Jaunt

On Friday we packed our bags and left Linton Street for now. We got on the tube and headed to Heathrow, from where we were picking up our rental car.

After an hour or so we arrived at the pick-up and, long story short, due to a pedantic clerical error the company wouldn’t allow us the car. Thanks very much. Given that the price of booking the same car there and then was exponentially more, we decided to go a different way.

We found another place and trudged over to it and, after a more accommodating experience, drove off in a nice wee car.

We headed onto the ring road, anti-clockwise around London before heading south to Brighton. We were staying with friends of Nadia, Lucy and Will. Lucy is a musician who performs as Lucy Rose and Will is her manager husband. From the moment we entered the house I felt an instant rapport with Will – he had similar traits of my dear friend Stefan in Liverpool. Needless to say, we were off to a good start.

Lucy and Will live in a fantastic house, about 10 minutes walk from central Brighton. We, very optimistically sat in the back yard under apple trees drinking beer while a dark sky loomed and spat drops of rain on us.

We talked shop for a while before heading into the village for a bit of a tour of the lanes, a swift pint at a local and dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant.

We trudged back up the hill and had a nightcap before headed to bed after a long day.

The next day we woke to 60 mile/hr winds, which had been blowing all through the night. I had suggested last night that I would do breaky, so I walked down the hill and picked up some eggs, bagels and sparkling water from the co-op.

Everyone was up when I got back and we settled into a slow morning sipping coffee, eating breakfast and sheltering from the weather. Lucy and Will were beavering away on their laptops as on Monday they were releasing a single for their first management project – a band called Chartreuse.

We left them to their work and went out to have an explore. It was a tough day to be a tourist, being nearly knocked off our feet a few time. We further explored the lanes and had a look at the pier and lay in the yard of the Royal Pavilion for a moment.

We headed back to the house for a little lie-down, Lucy and Will still working hard. I had suggested that we make dinner for them, so we popped down to the super again and pick up some bits and I made an epic vege lasagne which went down a treat.

We spend the evening together chatting and giggling together. Lucy and Will are such a delight and a great example of really driven music professionals.

The next morning we were off to Cardiff. We said our goodbyes to Lucy and Will the night before as they were off to London before we were up.

I thought it would be nicer to drive the slightly longer way along the coast, rather than head back toward London. However, after a very pointless and uninspiring stop in Portsmouth, we decided that the fastest route was the best route. I did, however, pick up a book there that would spark my love for reading. ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’ by Jon Ronson. (As I edit this, 2 weeks have past and I am on to my fourth Jon Ronson book)

We were staying with Nadia’s long-time friend (also a musician), Hannah Harding, who was currently staying in Bristol for a few days with her producer. We swung by Bristol and had a cup of tea with her hosts before whisking her away back to Cardiff.

We arrived at her lovely top floor apartment in Rothe, which she shares with her boyfriend Hew, who was currently away on tour.

That evening we ordered some food in and had a good catch up on everything. Hannah had kindly offered us her bed and opted for the couch, which she insisted was where she had mostly been sleeping while Hew was away. It was a very comfortable couch mind you.

The next day Hannah took us into the city. It was a gentle 20-minute walk into town where the girls mostly looked in shops and giggled. They even rode the carousel which was a thrill, I’m sure. We stopped for lunch before walking back to the house, where I made nachos and the girls request and we hunkered down.

The next few days continued in this fashion, lots of silliness and giggling, walks and food. We did go for a lovely walk along a disused canal. On our second last day, Nadia and I met up with a studio engineer called Greg, who is Welsh but lives in NZ for a coffee. We had met him last at the premiere of The Chill’s film in Dunedin

On our final night we took Hannah out for dinner to thank her for her grand hospitality. Nadia and I had such a beautiful few nights with her, and while we hadn’t been blown away by Cardiff itself, it is great to relax with old friends.

On Friday, after breakfast, Nadia and I bid farewell to Hannah and drove an hour north to a little village called Sennybridge, where we were staying for the next few nights. The purpose of this was that we were attending Green Man music festival for the next few days, but we weren’t that keen to do the whole camping thing, due to lack of gear and the unpredictable UK summer.

We dropped our things at the flat and made our way to the fest. And of course, it pissed with rain that day. The atmosphere was still jovial however and we spent a few hours getting our bearings and trudging through mud in our Tesco gum boots before deciding to pack it in and go to our dry room.

Saturday and Sunday, however, were mostly dry, and eventually, the mud dried up. We saw kiwis Tiny Ruins play and I saw Jarvis Cocker do a keynote on creativity. On Sunday we saw Hannah do her thing on the main stage with her 8 piece band which was very cool.

After a few more hours on Sunday we decided we had had enough and went back to the house, opting to leave early to beat the traffic.

We got up at 5.30am the next morning and were on the road by 6am, which was great because we were back at Heathrow by 9.30 and back at Linton Street before lunchtime.

Jarvis’ Keynote

Tiny Ruins

Holly & Joe (Tiny Ruins) with Nadia

This gave us enough time to decompress, for me to have a haircut and to clean up.

That evening we were having dinner with Nadia’s publisher Jeremy, who coincidentally lives about 3 minutes walk from our front door. He is a groovy music lover, probably in his late 60s. We were also in the company of his girlfriend and her sister and eventually Laura, who is a music writer and curated the speaker’s stage and Green man.

We sat around their very lush apartment, talking festivals of music. The house was a relatively new purchase, with a lovely open plan living area and kitchen with exposed steel beams. We were given the tour before we left for dinner, the highlight of which was a music room, which contained a beautiful sound system and all of Jeremy’s CDs and Vinyl (all arranged alphabetically, and chronologically within the artist) and a framed letter from Leonard Cohen to his muse, Marianne Ihlen, sent from Cuba the day after the bay of pigs.

We stepped out for dinner, up to a lovely pub that served very excellent food. Jeremy ordered a few bottles of wine, which we tasted before accepting. We talked shop a lot, pep talked about Nadia’s upcoming release. I’m still not really sure what the difference between a label and a publisher is, and where their roles cross over.

After a very pleasant meal, we walked back down the road where we were left at our front door. We said goodnight and climbed into bed.

The Queen’s England

We checked into our Philippines Airlines flight at Auckland Airport and made our way through security. Once on the other side and with great distress I realised that I didn’t have my headphones. While I sulked, Nadia got on the phone to the rental car company and they were indeed in the back seat. I went back to security and arranged to cross back into the country and grab them from the shuttle driver and head back through. What a rigmarole – but easily solved.

After a little wait, we were boarding our first 10-hour flight to Manila. The plane was very new and quite empty, which meant that as soon as we took off Nadia moved to a full empty row and fell quickly to sleep. She remained this way for most of the flight. I, however, decided that the best way to adjust to UK time is to sleep deprive myself so much that by the time we get to the UK I have no idea what time is it anywhere.

We landed in Manila at 6.30am local time and had a 6-hour wait. Manila international is nothing to write home about. We walked to the transfer desk where we had to hand over our passports and next boarding pass for around 40 minutes, which was a little bit alarming. All while being sat with a lot of confused travelers who were coming and going to completely different destinations.

After the aforementioned wait, we were taken on a wild goose chase through the back of the airport, through security and put on a bus to another terminal. When we popped out we had to go through security again and go identify our checked luggage to be moved to the next flight. We then arrived in our terminal where we were able to relax for a while.

The terminal is a long, hot room with windows on one side and food stalls on the other. The lack of vegetarian options left Nadia with not much available, which was especially annoying after our flight had no vegetarian options either. We made due and hunkered down for a few hours. I had a little nap on a windowsill and eventually, we boarded our 13-hour flight to Heathrow. The flight took us over China, Mongolia and right across Russia to Europe.

We arrived at Heathrow at around 7.30pm Saturday evening and, with an unanticipated amount of ease, entered the UK. We collected our bags and got on the Piccadilly Line to Holloway Road where we got in an Uber to James and Miriam’s house.

James and Miriam are kiwis who have lived in and raise their family in London for 25 years. James is a partnered lawyer here but his passion is music. He made contact with Nadia years ago after first seeing her perform with Sam in the UK and he and Miriam have become great friends and kind of patrons to Nadia and her career – helping out where ever they can.

We arrived at James on the doorstep, who had just confronted a man breaking into his car. Adrenaline was high so had a nice cup of tea and caught up.

At about midnight we were shown to our place. Around the corner, James and Miriam own two apartments. One is rented out and the other they like to keep empty for endless guest. James and Miriam are the definitions of generous.

We found our bed and had a much-needed shower before I fell immediately to sleep. We were both awake again by 6am, so we got up and dressed and went upstairs. The Islington flat is super central. You can see The Shard from the living room window, and is about 20 minutes walk to St. Paul’s. We went for a gentle 6.30am walk around the neighborhood, and at 8 we popped around the James and Miriams and went to for a walk around the corner to their local coffee shop and had some lovely pastries, where Nadia and they continued to catch up and I continued to get to know them.

We walked back to the flat, packed a wee bag and headed toward the city. Nadia could not recall whether she had ever been a tourist in London before, so we endeavored to have a day of it. Walking via the Barbican and St Paul’s on Sunday meant that the city was very quiet – until we got the Millenium Bridge. We went into the Tate for an hour or so and had a wander. I saw Lichtenstein’s “Whamm!” in the flesh for the first time which was a nice surprise.

We had a sit-down and something to eat before getting on the ferry along the Thames and Westminster. Unfortunately, Big Ben is totally wrapped up in scaffolding at the moment so not much to see other than hoards to tourists realizing the same thing. We walked alongside the houses of Parliament, following a bike race which was running through the center of town.

It was 3pm by now and we were starting to hit the wall. After an effort to get sim cards we hopped on the tube back to Angel and walked back to the house. Nadia had a nap and I changed my clothes and went for a little walk around Islington, wanting to push through a little more.

I touched base with Stefan on the phone and reaffirmed our plans to head up to the Pool in a few weeks. Having had him at our house for three weeks over summer, he and his girlfriend Sara are very excited to return the favor to us.

I went back to the apartment and ended up having a nap. We both woke up around 6.30pm, when we had been invited to dinner with Miriam and James, their two teenage children, Mila and Calder and their former Nanny, Isla. Nadia and I managed to be kept up until 9.30pm, after which we hit the hay.

We woke up at 4am, and Nadia went to make a cup of tea before falling promptly to sleep again. I, however, was up and took the opportunity to get up and organize a few things. Nadia eventually joined me in the kitchen. We had a slow morning of mapping out our next few weeks – which is all looking damn lovely. We had some breakfast in the flat before going on another daytime adventure.

We got the train the Leicester Square and had a walk around the West End, briefly having a look at what was on before recoiling from that average £95-150 pound ticket prices and headed to the National Portrait Gallery. Anything before the mid 20th century was a bit stuffy, but there was a fantastic exhibit of the 2019 British portrait contest, along which portraits of noteworthy people from the 1960’s to the present.

We walked down the Mall toward Buckingham palace and had a gander with all the tourists. We walked through Green Park to a Tesco where I introduced Nadia to the £3 meal deal, and we took our sandwiches back to Green Park where we lay in the shade, with the sun beaming above.

Once filled and somewhat recharged, we walked along to Hyde Park for a wee, and headed toward Marble Arch to catch the train back to Islington, where I had a £5 haircut and we went and had a nap.

Our evening was a repeat of the previous evening with the Douglas family, although this evening had the addition of an invitation from the kids to play video games with them. Smash Bros. and Mario Kart – I got my ass kicked.

The next day we went and met Nadia’s friend Liz, who we had last seen in Melbourne. She is over for a similar amount of time with similar intentions. Millenials of leisure, us. After a coffee, I split off and went for a day of solo walking. I walked for hours, getting on the Regent’s Canal and taking it all the way through Camden Town to Regent’s Park.

I looped back around and headed back the same way, with the addition of walking up the main drag of Camden Town, which was bustling with tourists. I got back to Angel and sat and had a half pint in the sun while I waited for Nadia to get back from her adventures with the house key.

We had dinner up at our apartment, eggplant parmesan and salad. It is so nice to be back in the land of 50p mozzarella, 70p cherry tomatoes, and aubergine. Makes for very cheap dining.

After dinner, we walked back to Angel to meet up with Steve, who I lived with during my time in Liverpool. Formally an itinerant human rights lawyer, Steve had now found his place at Garden Court Chambers, one of London’s leading human rights legal practices while living in a Guardianship in an abandoned hospital under the BT tower. Today was the first day that Nadia and I didn’t require a 5pm nap, so by the time we had had a couple of drinks with Steve we were getting pretty weary. It wouldn’t be the last time we would see him. We returned to the flat and turned in.

In the morning I went for another big walk along the canals, this time in the other direction. I walked until I reached London Fields and headed toward Hackey, where I looped back around to Islington and Angel.

In the afternoon, James took Nadia and me for a big walk from Finsbury Park, along Finsbury Walk – an uplifted railroad turned walking track, and over to Hampstead Heath. We finished off with a well-earned pint before taking the train back to Angel, where we were taken out for Mexican street food with James and Miriam.

A gentle day on Thursday with a walk in the morning along the canal and a cycle back. Nadia went to see a buddy in the afternoon and I went for a walk up to Highbury/Islington. Dinner again with the Douglas’s where we said thanks and goodbyes, as tomorrow we venture outside of London.

 

 

Tour Diary 3: South Island

After a swift recovery in Raglan, we drove back to Auckland and headed to the airport to fly down to Dunedin. We arrived in the knick of time and arrived promptly back home, being greeted by Dad. We went into Dunedin and dropped Dad at the office. I went to catch up with Mr. Alex D Wilson and Nadia went to do whatever she went to do.

Later in the afternoon we drove back to Blueskin Bay with Dad and settled in with some dinner. Later on I drove into North East Valley to rendezvous with the rest of the gang who had just arrived. I picked up Anita and Sam and drove them out to Blueskin, where they were staying with us. Mum and Dad had gone to bed by the time I got back with Sam and Anita, so the four of us sat around and had a quiet giggle and a cup of tea before Sam and Anita went off to their bedrooms and Nadia and I settled into our lovely lounge campsite in front of the fire.

On Thursday morning we arose slowly. We had breakfast and fresh eggs from the hens before the four of us went up to the Ecosanctuary for a walk – something I had never done before.

The walk around the grounds was beautiful. We enjoyed the flirtatious tuis and naughty Kaka and saw some really fat takahe and the native Otago skink.

By the time we had walked around for an hour Jo Barus arrived, who is the sound engineer for this leg. He is a man who embodies the enthusiasm of a dozen children at an amusement park – all the time. We unloaded the van of all his gear and the Orokanui Ecosanctuary started to take shape as the venue for the evening.

I drove into Dunedin to pick up Richie and Chris from North East Valley and took them to the venue to drop off their gear and start soundcheck. Once that was done I took the band back to McBryde HQ for a lovely dinner which mum had prepared. I gobbled and went back up to the venue, leaving the band to relax for a bit. I jumped on the door and began welcoming the evening’s guests – one of whom was Rachel Chin, who I hadn’t seen since I left New Zealand at the beginning of 2015. What a grand reunion.

The gig was nice, although I felt that the audience didn’t give much away. However, they did cheer with gusto at the end of the show so we knew that it was a success. The team all worked together to get Jo’s gear back into the van promptly and we all went to our separate accom.

I had set a pretty early rising time the next morning, so after only 5 hours sleep we were up and quietly getting our affairs in order. I had bought the van and trailer down from the venue last night and left it at Mum and Dad’s, giving Jo Nadia’s car to go to his little house in Port and saving him having to unload it for safety.

This meant that the task was mine and Sam’s to try and reverse it out of Mum and Dad’s driveway – a task which at first we thought would be simple, but in the end, required a little more thinking. With some careful manoeuvers and backing into the front paddock, we got free of the driveway and were on our way to Port to pick up Jo, followed by a bagel and Chris & Richie stop. By 9am we were on the road to Queenstown.

The four-hour journey seemed to just fly by, and we arrived at the Sherwood hotel in time to have a relaxed setup and soundcheck. A unique sort of space, performing in the Sherwood feels almost like playing in someone’s living room, only with a lively bar in the middle of the room. The hotel were notorious for crowds that were unattentive and tended to talk though sets. So we weren’t sure how this one was going to feel.

We had a meal in the bar before the rush and everyone separated for a few hours and I reported to my stations to take tickets and sell stuff. The show was really lovely and the audience were dead silent during the show. The show ended by 11 and we packed everything back into the van. There was a small party of people who had come from Dunedin, so we had a little post-match function in the larger of our rooms. I was peckish and offered to do a Ferg burger run for the gang. I took orders and drove into central Queenstown, ordering 11 burgers. I sat and tried to avoid eye contact with the drunkest tourists while having small talk with a sober ish Australian man.

I returned to the Sherwood with the goods, which was quickly consumed followed by the realisation that it was 2am. Everyone quickly retired.

The next morning we had a coffee at the hotel before getting in the van again and driving back the way we came as far as Cromwell. We headed north from here toward Omarama. Tonight we were headed for The Manor in Oamaru. The Manor was just that, a massive stately home built in the 1860’s with a large amount of land around it. The hostess and owner, Liz, had bought it some years ago to run as a B&B and music venue.

The music venue part was a charming hall with a lovely stage at the end of it. When we arrived we found Donna Demente and Oliver decoration the stage to their heart’s content. We got the rest of the gear in and found our rooms – Chris claimed that he had seen a ghost in the building within five minutes of getting there.

I went and had a nap while the band got ready. When all was set up we were treated to a fabulous home-cooked meal made by Liz, which after a few weeks of tour food was a very welcome change. Liz also had a very liberal attitude toward the bar she ran in the venue, insisting that we help ourselves to whatever we want.

The hall was packed and the show was great – apart from a few unpredictable, boozed “punishers” who tended to talk directly back to either Anita or Nadia when they were doing a bit of banter between songs.

After the show and a meet & greet we got everything ready to be packed into the van first thing in the morning and went to have some dessert and a port in Liz’s living room. Everyone sat around for a while, but I slipped away to bed, as we had a very early start in the morning.

I was up at 6am, as was Liz who had already laid the breakfast table for us. I gobbled some cereal and started packing the van while people ate. We were on the road by 7am as we needed to get to Christchurch for a soundcheck at 12.30pm. This was the last day of the tour.

We arrived in the knick of time and went into central Christchurch to The Piano, where the band was playing a sold-out show as a part of the Christchurch Arts Festival. The setup and soundcheck took as while, as The Piano’s main auditorium is built for self-amplification which is suitable for chamber music. This makes it harder to balance when trying to engineer an amplified show. But Jo nailed it.

We went and had something to eat and went to have a rest. We were staying in the lovely Crowne Plaza, which was just a minute walk from The Piano.

I changed and went down to the venue to attend to some business and make sure everyone was happy. The room filled and the show was possibly the best of the tour. The gang ended on a real high. I sold nearly all the remaining merch after the show and said hi to my uncle Andrew and grandmother who had come to the show.

We packed up and went around the corner to the square to get something to eat, and it was packed with other festival artists. After some food, Nadia and I went back to the hotel and went to bed – absolutely pooped.

And then the tour was over. We awoke to a message from Chris saying he had got an earlier flight and was already back in Auckland. Nadia and I went to the hotel restaurant to get breakfast (included) and Richie, Sam, and Anita eventually appeared too. Nadia and I went for a walk to the bank and to Ballentine’s where we bumped into my aunty Maureen which was a lovely surprise.

We walked back to the hotel and gathered our things, said our goodbyes to Anita (who was staying on for other festival gigs) and Nadia, Sam, Ritchie and I headed to the airport. I dropped the three of them off and drove the van back to Hirequip. When I arrived, I realised that I had gone to Hirequip Equipment, which is where you hire diggers and heavy machinery rather than vehicles. As I was under time pressure I insisted that they just take it, which they eventually agreed to and I got an uber to the airport.

We arrived in Auckland and picked up a hire car that Nadia and I would use during our time in Auckland, dropped Sam off at his place and went back to Craig O’Reilly’s house.

We spent the next few days decompressing, swanning around Auckland attending to different business. We went to a few Film Festival films and just generally unwinding.

On Friday we packed up our things and packed them in the car. We drove over to Piha for a walk where the weather was absolutely punishing. We headed back into Auckland and had something before heading to the airport and starting the next phase of our trip.