Clazz + Toady's Great Adventure

Home at last

Mon, 07 Aug 2006 01:57:30 GMT

Well, I'm back home. I'm slightly annoyed at not updating before now. I didn't have time at Clare's, and the Aberdeen youth hostel wouldn't let me update.

So anyway, yes. The past couple of days have been rather hectic, and a bit depressing. Very depressing, actually. On Friday morning, Toady and I went into London so I could get a bus to Manchester. It was the hardest thing ever, getting on a bus and knowing it was the last time I'd see Toady for two months. I couldn't stop crying for hours, and every time I managed to stop, I'd just have to think about him and I'd be off again. I seriously can't stand being without him, especially knowing that it's for so long.

I got into Manchester at about 3.30pm, then spent ages finding the train station because I set off down the wrong road lol. I finally made it and got a ticket to Chester. Then I almost missed the train, which wouldn't have mattered since I could get any, but it would have been annoying. I got on it anyway, and found there was nowhere to put my suitcase, so I had to put it, like, inside one of the doors, which annoyed people. There wasn't much I could do about it, though. =/

Clare met me at the station in Chester and her friend Sam drove us back to Clare's so I could rid myself of the damn suitcase lol. Sam went back to her own place for a bit while we sorted ourselves out and had a bit of a chat, then we went out for a meal at Frankie & Bennie's, which was cool heh. Too many people go there for birthdays, though lol.

Pretty much as soon as we got back to Clare's, at about midnight, I just fell asleep on the sofa. I woke up the next morning in Clare's bed with just a pair of pants on. Apparently I sleepwalked up to bed HAHAH, I've never sleepwalked before so I found that quite funny.

Anyway, Clare's mum drove us to the station so I could get back to Manchester to get the bus all the way up to Aberdeen. Suddenly, it was about a minute before my train was due to arrive and I had to get over to another platform with a great big suitcase. So I went up in the lift, ran across to the other lift and... it wasn't coming. The lift, that is. I kept pressing it, but it was taking AGES and I could see the train. So I was like fuck it and just ran down the stairs with my suitcase. Just as I landed at the bottom, the train pulled away. And I cried.

A woman asked what the situation was and helped me to find out when the next train was, so we looked at the departures list, but despite there (supposed to) being an 11.24 train, it wasn't showing up. The next one was at 11.54, getting me in too late for the bus (which was at 12.50). So I was like SHIT and jumped on the next train to Crewe (some trains from Chester to Manchester change there). I asked the woman working in the doorway what time the next train from Crewe was, and she said it would get into Manchester at 12.52. So I was like 'ARGH, can I get off the train?!' and she said no...

So I was standing there totally panicking, crying my eyes out trying to sort things out. I phoned Mum, I phoned Toady, and eventually I phoned megabus to beg them to delay the bus by 10 minutes. They said they'd see what they could do. Anyway, I FINALLY got into Manchester at 12.51, and just RAN. The bus station is about a 5 minute walk from the train station, but longer when you're lugging a bloody great suitcase with you that keeps flipping over if you go over a bump too fast. I just went for it lol, I was determined to get there in time. As it turned out, the bus was HALF AN HOUR LATE ANYWAY. So I was completely exhausted, panic-stricken and on the verge of dying for nothing.

But hey, at least I got it. Thank God it WAS late, but I wish I'd known in advance lol. Several hours later, around 9pm, we pulled into Aberdeen bus station at last. I couldn't work out when the next bus going past the youth hostel was, but eventually I found a bus that possibly did, so I asked the driver and he said yes. So that was that.

Oh wait. Where's the youth hostel? I got off at a random stop that I thought was about the right area and looked around. Err. Yes. Where do I go now? lol I asked two random women if they knew which direction it was. They were Canadian tourists, but as it happened, they had passed it earlier and knew the rough direction. So as it was in the direction they were heading, I walked with them to the hostel. So phew, I finally got there.

Oh no. The drama's not fucking over yet. 'Hi, I've made a booking for Linnitt'. A few clicks on the computer. 'Did you pay for it?' 'Err... no, I don't think so.' 'Well there's no booking here, and I'm afraid we're full.' OH well that's fucking great then, isn't it! I finally get to the damn hostel to find I don't have a bed! Luckily though, the guy was really nice and obviously felt really bad about not being able to do anything about it, so he basically said there was no point even trying to find accommodation anywhere else that late, so the best thing he could offer was for me to sleep in the TV lounge. Which was fine by me - it was somewhere to sleep, and the best thing - he didn't charge me anything for it.

SO YAY! It all got sorted. I fell asleep at around 1am after watching Jackass: The Movie and Muse's new video on channel 4, and woke up at about 8.30am... fell asleep again and woke up properly at 10.30am lol. I walked into town (which was quite a way, but ah well) and looked around briefly. The only thing I did was buy a pair of jeans for Mum from Primark and a Rolo milkshake from McDonalds. And then I got lost. The end of the high street splits into two roads. Of course, I went down the wrong one, and it took me quite a while (about a 10-15 minute walk) to realise that. lol I got back eventually, though, read a book, watched Friends, went on the internet and failed to do ANYTHING remotely useful in the 10 minute limit I had (waste of 50p that was), and at about 3pm, caught a bus to the high street.

Not much could go wrong from there, and for once, nothing DID go wrong. I just walked down to the ferry terminal, phoned Mum, got on the ferry and that was that. Six hour journey was rather boring, but probably not as boring (or depressing) as the bus journeys. Oh, and it left at 5pm and got in at 11pm, so Toady got a little bit wrong about that.

And now I'm back. It feels really weird to be home. It feels weirder to be watching Toady on webcam and knowing I was in that room just two days ago (technically three now, I suppose). I feel really sad without him. I can't believe I won't see him again until October, but at least then we'll be together for a long time. I love him so much, more than anything. Thanks to him, I've just had the most amazing and unforgettable two months of my life.

Clazz

PS. There are still some pictures to come, from when we were in London. Also possibly one from Clare - it's annoying that we didn't have time to take any other than one Sam took of us.

sigh

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 13:05:34 GMT

Right well, we all knew this day was coming. Clazz left for Manchester today, without me. It feels so very strange, not having her around. I miss her like crazy.

She's staying with a friend named Clare there tonight and heading up to Aberdeen tomorrow, where she'll get the overnight ferry to Orkney, and be home on Sunday.

At least, I think that's right.

*sigh*

A few more pictures/videos will be coming soon.

I'm gonna go flounce around a bit.

Laters.

Toady

VIDEOS?!?! REALLY??!

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 22:19:49 GMT

Why yes. Videos come at last!

Only the interviews, though. We (or rather, Toady, since I don't know how to use the software) still need to rotate the random ones because they are SIDEWAYS. We also still need to scan the awesome picture of us, har.

So yes. Please right click and choose "Save as" rather than just clicking the links:

Matt Willis
Rob Solly [word of warning - beware of a 3 and a half minute ramble about religion ;-)]

Hurrah!

So anyway, on Saturday, we went to Tunbridge Wells to see a band called Dry Rise play at a charity gig. They were pretty cool, and Toady hung out with the singer afterwards. One of the other bands was really good as well, called Intraverse. Anyway, after they played, Gazz (the Dry Rise singer) gave us a lift back to Uckfield... we have a habit of hitching lifts with bands, don't we? lol

SUNDAY WAS A LAZY DAY!!! YAYYSDOZDKSO"¬

On Mooooonday... we went to Lewes in the afternoon to look around a bit. I took Toady out to ASK A BLIND MAN FOR SEALS! I also took him to ASK, as in the restaurant. To look for seals. ^_^.

TUESDAY WAS ANOTHER LAZY DAY! We are fun. Toady played PS2 all day, and I actually left the house for about half an hour (SURELY NOT?!) to look at a shop that had a closing down sale. I also went inside (GASP!). And didn't buy anything. So that was boring.

Today, we went to Brighton. We went to Burger King. We went to New Look. I BOUGHT SOME SHOES! Then we went to Ben & Jerry's. Then we went to a shop to buy some drinks. Then we came back. EXCITING, ISN'T IT?! Let's make a movie about it! Yayyyyyz0r*pop*!

And now you're officially up-to-date :-P

I'm going up to Manchester on Friday (Toady-less), then to Aberdeen and then hooome on Sunday night. And I don't want to leave. :-(

Clazz + Toady

REVENGE OF THE PICTURES! (this time they're pissed off!)

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:41:28 GMT

Right, as mentioned in the previous post, this batch will have pics from Stratford, my place here in Uckfield and the Johnny Panic gig in Camden Town.

Stratford...

look. i didn't realise i looked like a dork. i was just sitting there. and clazz took a picture. i didn't know she wanted to take a picture because i looked like a complete idiot. she's just evil. leave me alone.

and this would be my revenge, but she just looks cute instead of stupid. BAH.

Clazz and her Great Aunt Joyce

Clazz with Carrie, one of Joyce's carers

My place, Uckfield...

don't even ask. just don't.

Clazz and Laura, who came and stayed for the night. She's a super nice girl.

it's annoying that i look like a dork in this picture.

CAMDEN.

look, it's Matt Willis and some random teenie!

and another teenie with him! (that's Tom by the way)

ok, pics from the actual gig...

yes, i realise that pretty much all of them are ones of Matt (lead guitarist, backing vocals), but I couldn't get a good angle of anyone else. almost all my pictures of Rob, Sean or Johnny from the night are just rubbish...

Clazz and Tom

Some good pictures there, huh?

Oh, some extra info for you about that gig, seeing as Clazz completely neglected to mention it ( =P just kidding babe I know you didn't mean to forget ), it was a pretty cool night for me as well.

First off: I may not be huge on Willis but it's still cool to be able to say I got him to sign my bus ticket and filmed the interview and so on and just generally chatted with him.

Secondly, even though there was a HUGE palava with the free drinks (turned out that only people on the guest list would get them), I asked Sean (bassist) if he could run upstairs and get free drinks for me (jokingly), and he said yeah and immediately went off and got me a bottle. And every time I ran out he went and got me another one. Which was really cool of him.

And finally, after they played their set, they all walked right past me as they came off the stage, and as Sean came off (he was the last), I noticed he had his plectrum in his mouth so I asked if I could have it and he gave it to me. So I thought "Yay I'm cool, I have the bassist's plectrum". But then I decided, damn, it's a BASS plectrum, I don't even PLAY bass. So when I saw Matt I asked if I could have his as well. And he gave it to me. So then it was "Yay, I have the bassist's plectrum, and the lead guitarists plectrum". Even cooler. But then I thought, "Hang on, I only have 2 out of 3, I need the other plectrum!". So I found Rob and got HIS as well. But that STILL wasn't enough. I didn't have the drumsticks! So I spent the next 10 minutes trying to find Johnny only to find he was actually on stage rather than in the crowd, and got a stick off him. So I'm like, yay, I got the whole set!

So, to recap, I met and filmed an interview with Matt Willis, got free drinks all night thanks to Sean, and got all the bands' plectrums and drumsticks, which is just a really cool thing for me.

So yay, it was fun for me too, not JUST my teenie girlfriend :P

ANYWAY I've rambled enough for one morning. Hope you guys liked the pictures.

Laters,
Toady

PS: Don't forget to check out the 2 posts below this one for more pics!

MORE pictures...

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:14:47 GMT

This time we have pictures from Didcot (where we stayed with Clazz's Aunt Jill and met Jen), Collision Course in Yeovil (but only of Johnny Panic), and Bristol (where we stayed with Fiona). Enjoy.

it's weird knowing that 12 hours after the beautiful scenery of Canada, we now had THIS for a backdrop.

we went round Jen's house and decided that this random beanbag pillow should EAT Clazz's face. and then we decided she looked like a goofy power ranger! GO GO STUPID CLAZZHEAD!

that's Jen

Clazz's Aunt Jill and her dog, Robin

And now onto Collision Course!

clazz decided to be a teenie and get pictures taken with them... nice picture though.

the reason it's suddenly a lot darker in this one and a different place is 'cause this is Rob, who gave us a lift from Collision Course, lead singer of Johnny Panic. Nice guy. So this is in Bristol now, rather than Yeovil.

Clazz and her sister Fiona. she's really nice and a good laugh too.

The next batch will have pictures from Stratford, my place and the Johnny Panic gig in Camden Town, London.

Toady

PICTURES!

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 05:01:28 GMT

Right, FINALLY I have decided to get off my bum and do these pics. And sometime soon I will do the videos as well. Maybe with a snippet of the Rob Solly and Matt Willis interviews.

Right okay. THIS FIRST BATCH is the last ones that were taken in Canada.

LOOK IT'S A LOT OF ROCKS!

i love this picture. i'm such a good photographer.

clazz on the other hand knows the exact moment to take a picture that makes me look stupid =/

yes, that is a lot of dead trees. there are thousands and thousands of them along the road we were driving to get to Banff. there was this huge fire there a few years ago, and because they normally stop fires in the forests, the trees became really really dense, so they were literally an inch apart, making it hell to stop a fire of enormous magnitude, which this was, so they thought "sod it, let's let nature take it's course". and the fire burnt strong for 2 years.

from left to right, background to foreground: Clazz's cousin Mike, his wife Natasha, Clazz's Aunt Penny, Mike and Natasha's son Liam, Clazz's Uncle Tom and finally Tom and Penny's dog, Sam.

Toady

HEEEEE!!

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 10:39:41 GMT

We suck. We don't update nearly enough any more.

We were going to go to London on Sunday, but we ended up going on Monday instead. I can't even remember what happened on Sunday, so it was probably a lazy day.

Anyway, we got to London at about midday some time, I can't remember exactly. We didn't actually pay to go IN anywhere, but we went to Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Tower Of London, Westminster Abbey/Houses Of Parliament... and we went to Garfunkel's for lunch, which was really nice.

And that was that, really. Laura came over on Tuesday from Bishop's Stortford (Herts), which was fun. She's really nice, she stayed the night and went home the next day.

And then yesterday... well, wow. We left about midday and got to Camden at about two, then walked around the market for a few hours. I spent £35 on a jacket, skirt (short but punky style, with pinstripes, zips and mini handcuffs heh) and belt (black + white checked), which took me a long time to decide whether to do (the skirt, anyway). The jacket's lovely, though - I have no regrets about that one anyway. Toady also spent £30 on some spiky shoes lol. Tom got there about 5 and we went to a pub for a couple of hours until it was time to head down to the Johnny Panic launch party gig.

Matt came over before we went in for a quick chat, which was nice. We went in after that and spoke to him, Rob and Sean quite a bit, we tried to get on the guestlist for free alcohol but failed, so Sean kept getting us (or Toady, at least) free beers haha.

Then about an hour before Johnny Panic were due on stage, I turned round and noticed MATT WILLIS STANDING NEXT TO THE BAR! I think I actually screamed. :-/ So we went over and said hey, got pictures + autographs etc... I mentioned that I run bustedonline.org and he was like, 'OH, really?!' and I said 'do you know the site, then?!' and he said yes. SDFJELELW HOW cool is that. After a bit, I went over again (Toady had to do a lot of convincing every time I went over there :-/ lol) and asked if it would be alright to interview him for my magazine, and he was like 'yeah, sure, I'll come and find you just before Johnny Panic come on if you like'. So I was like '.......holy fuck heeeeeee' for the next 15 minutes while I was quickly compiling questions for him lol.

The interview was pretty cool, we just talked about the album, what it was like writing with Jason Perry from A, the differences between being in a band and being solo... and favourite sex positions. Well, almost. He refused to answer that one HAHAHAH.

It was just really cool because he's one of my idols, I've been wanting to meet him for nearly 4 years now, so to finally actually meet him and even INTERVIEW him was just like a wow moment for me.

It was just generally a great day. The only downer was when our train back got delayed by half an hour and we ended up getting back at almost 2am. But aside from that, Camden market is brilliant, there are so many bargains everywhere... although some guy was badgering Toady for a good 15 minutes to buy some big gothic boots for £130, which was slightly out of the question lmao. Then the Johnny Panic gig was great, they're absolutely lovely guys and they put on a great show. I managed to meet one of my absolute idols as well as interview him, Tom is a really cool guy so it was lovely meeting up with him, and to top it off, I spent the whole day with the person I love more than anyone.

Clazz

Ho hum

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 14:00:47 GMT

So we didn't update. I LIED. I betrayed you all. *evil laugh*

I'm sorry. What happened was, on Wednesday Toady's best friend, Steve, came over and ended up staying the night. And so we couldn't be bothered to update.

The next day, Steve went home about 9.30pm, and... we still couldn't be bothered to update.

And then yesterday, we were just being fucking lazy.

So yes... Steve came over on Wednesday, we went to the pub for a bit, we watched Sin City, Toady played guitar, Steve played PS2, I... read... and most excitingly, we went to a chippy and almost managed to get lost. Hoorah! Yesterday, Toady and I went into Brighton. I went on a rollercoaster. Toady didn't. He DDR'd instead.

Then we looked round some shops, went to an arcade and that was about it.

Today, we're gonna be looking around in Uckfield and so on. We were gonna go to Norwich tomorrow, but if you've read the comments on the last entry, you'll know that that's all been cancelled. So we're going to London instead, and I'm not sure what we're doing. Dun dun duuun.

So that's about it. Tally ho folks.

Clazz + Toady

Last stop... sort of

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 21:43:36 GMT

Well, it's the final leg of the trip. We arrived at Toady's yesterday, finally - after a few delays. We got a bus from Stratford to Leamington Spa, which was fine, then a train to Reading... which was fine as far as I can remember. Then the train from Reading was delayed, and we thought we were going to have to wait ages for a tube from Paddington. Anyway, we got to London Victoria, had some lunch, had to move fast to get the bus, and then half way to Uckfield, the bus overheated and we had to stop, when we were already late. So we got to Uckfield about half an hour after we were supposed to, which was a bit unfair on Toady's mum who had been waiting at the bus station since 15 minutes BEFORE we were supposed to be there.

BUT WE MADE IT. ALIVE! YAY! And now we're here. Yaaaay.

Today, we walked to the lake in Uckfield in the late afternoon and then went out for a meal with Toady's parents, which was nice. Apart from that, there's not much to say, really. We haven't done anything apart from that (and lazing, and in Toady's case, playing quite a bit of guitar lol).

So I guess I ought to say more about what we did in Stratford. Hahaha, I just typed Stration. Yes. ANYWAY... We got there on Monday evening, after having to wait about an hour in Chipping Norton for a connecting bus. Which was annoying, considering the previous one had left about 5 minutes before we'd got there. Hmph. And the day had been slightly confusing anyway, because first, we missed our train to Leamington from Bristol by about a minute. So we got one to Oxford instead (costing us an extra £13 each =/), then a bus to Stratford via Chipping Norton. Fun stuff. Bah.

Tuesday was a lazy day. I can't remember what days we did stuff, I just remember we went into town two consecutive days (Wednesday + Thursday, I think), then again briefly on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday. We bought CDs, DVDs and PS2 games. Toady also bought a portable DVD player, so we ended up spending a bit of time watching Friends DVDs lol. Oh oh, and we went to see Pirates Of The Caribbean 2, which is COOL. I wanna see the third one now. Toady doesn't. lol anyway... I can't remember what else we did. Not much, really.

So that's that. That's what we've been up to. Thrilling. In other news, we were going to go to Norwich with Sam, but now he's pulled out because he managed to break his ankle. *hugsies* WHICH SUCKS because we haven't seen each other for three years, and considering we're pretty much best friends without being best... friends... (shut up, it DOES make sense) then it's about damn time we saw each other again. Hopefully we'll be able to arrange something else, but it's just sucky that he can't come with us. We're still coming to Norwich though, Myah, so don't worry. :-p

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I leave you.

No tears. Please. I'll be back tomorrow. Or Toady. One or the other. Maybe even both if you're lucky.

It's okay. *hugs*

Clazz

(PS. Should I be worried that Toady went downstairs to get me some apple juice about 45 minutes ago and still hasn't returned? ...Maybe I should go and check he hasn't, like, drowned himself in it or... something...)

(PPS. Shit. Pictures soon.)

Returneth

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 11:11:54 GMT

We didn't die. We forgot to tell you that we wouldn't have internet access for a week... even though now it's only a day until we're at Toady's anyway.

Right now, we're in the public library in Stratford-upon-Avon, so we thought we'd do an update. We got here on Monday night after complications due to missing our train. GO US.

But we finally got here. Alive. Go us. Tuesday was a lazy day, we went into town on Wednesday and Thursday... I think Friday was a lazy day, and we went into town yesterday afternoon, too. We're exhausted cause we've stayed up all night (yay...) and now we're back in town agaaain. Probably going to go on the river in a bit. I'm not sure what else to say.

We'll probably do a better update tomorrow when we have unlimited time. Expect a few pictures as well, hooraaah. Cheerio!

Clazz + Toady

Johnny Panic are the best band ever

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 01:13:11 GMT

So today (or yesterday, rather) was supposed to be shit. Well, sort of.

We got the 11.45am bus to Yeovil, which got in at about 2.15pm. We went for a Burger King, then set off to find the Ski Lodge. Which took a while, but we got there eventually. It turned out there were no cloakrooms, and we were carrying a great heefing sleeping bag, because we would spend the night wandering around the streets of Yeovil.

The good news is, we didn't. The bad news is, we had to miss My Awesome Compilation and Reuben (I'm more annoyed about MAC, to be honest). The best news... well, we'll leave that till later.

So anyway, we were like shit, but the security guard said he'd get the staff to keep it behind the bar for us, so all was good. The first thing I saw when we got there was someone who looked distinctively like Rob, the singer from Johnny Panic. As soon as I saw Matt (the guitarist) get out of the van, I realised I was right. So, naturally, one of the first things we did was go over and say hi.

Rob gave us free badges, complimented Toady on his scout jacket, and we went our separate ways. During the... second band, I think it was, we were sitting outside when Matt walked past, saw us and came over for a bit of a chat, which was cool. He went off to string his guitar, and we found Rob. Here comes that best news... Toady asked him if, since they're playing in Wales tomorrow, they'd be going through Bristol tonight, and it turned out they pretty much were, so Rob offered us a lift back to Bristol, which was absolutely lovely of him.

They left about half an hour after they packed away their equipment though, so we left around 8.30, missing MAC and Reuben completely, plus half of Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly. Who I wasn't bothered about. I'm still annoyed about MAC, though.

Actually, I should talk a bit about the bands we DID see. We got there in the middle of Frank Turner's set, and he was boring, like I thought he would be. Apart from the 'WHOOO THE FUCKING HELL ARE SLIIIIIPKNOT?!' song lol. The second band (Second Smile) were very average. Dopamine were really, really good (apart from their insane guitarist...), and they were giving away free album samplers, so Toady and I both picked one up. The Maple State were alright, nothing special and to be honest, a bit boring in places. I thought I'd like them more, but ah well.

And Johnny Panic were, of course, fucking amazing. ROB FELL OVER hahahaha, bravo. *applaud* They were great, though, they were really energetic. There's not much to say about them... they were on for half an hour, and they played Minority Of One, Warn You, Shut Up With Your Silence, Live For, You're A Fool, Burn Your Youth, and a brand new song I don't think I've heard before, 3rd Degree. And they played a short thing at the end, which may or may not be the track Rob mentioned that he wrote for the new album.

Oh, and we also saw the next band, Adequate Seven, who if I remember rightly I wasn't impressed by when I heard them on MySpace. I thought they were pretty cool live, though. Toady didn't, so we didn't actually see much of them; heard more than saw.

Anyway, the journey back was cool - Rob in the front, me and Toady in the back, and Rob named it Wally's Taxis and took off his hat to everyone in the car park of the Ski Lodge hahaha. We managed to do an interview with him, which was actually intended for Reuben, but we didn't know what they looked like and were too scared to find out lmao. It featured THE most ridiculous questions. Like 'Fish or eggs?' Rob: '.........*blink*.....Fish or eggs...?'

And the best one: 'If a monkey runs up a hill at 20mph, and China is where Australians come from, what colour socks are you wearing?' Rob just went, 'Right. I'm dropping you off right here, because I swear you're doing drugs in the back of my fucking car.' HAHAHAHA excellent. The best thing is, Toady recorded it all on his phone (including a huge rant about religion lol) so you'll be able to see/hear it all. Yayyyz.

Oh, it was fun. That took over an hour, we got back to Fiona's and then Toady went pretty much straight to bed. And for some reason, I'm not even tired. Even though I haven't had much sleep for a few days. It's a bit worrying. I'll go to bed in a minute. Hmm.

PICTURES TOMORROW! From Oxford and Collision Course, although I believe we only got pictures of Johnny Panic lol. I'll update about what happened on Friday as well - I can't be bothered now.

Anyhoo. It's been a good day. YAY FOR JOHNNY PANIC!

Clazz

HELLO DUBLIN! HELLO SPAIN! HELLO REIGATE!

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 08:53:51 GMT

...And hello England.

What a fucking journey.

The bus picked us up from Banff on Wednesday to take us to Calgary, and that was a bit of a bumpy ride. But it was manageable.

So we got to the airport at about 3.30pm... first problem: they almost couldn't get us seated together. That all got sorted, because the only 2 seats together were by the toilets, which we were fine with. Problem one solved.

Then, we went through customs and Toady's bag got searched and... stuff was confiscated. YAY.

So we got through that palava, and went to our gate. Half an hour later we were starting to wonder why our gate looked empty seeing as it should have been boarding already. Suddenly, we heard our names being called to a different gate, final call. Whoops.

So... we finally got on the plane, got directed to our seats... only someone was already in them. It turned out we were double booked, but instead of being bumped up into first class (bah), we got allocated other seats, which were together anyway, so all was good. Or... as good as it could be, you know.

We got no sleep. When we got to Gatwick, baggage reclaim took forever and we almost missed our bus to London. Which was shit anyway, because it turned out kids had puked all over it. Finally, we were in London, waiting for our bus to Oxford. AND WE MISSED IT. By a SECOND. Literally. Instead of being in the station where we were told it would be, it was round the corner at a bus stop we didn't know even existed, and as we went round there, it was literally just pulling out of the fucking road. Typicaaaaaaaal.

After a big panic, we managed to get tickets on another bus for a tenner each. Ah well. We got there, at least, and there were no problems from then on - we just got a train from Oxford to Didcot and... oh yeah, Aunty Jill twisted her ankle so she couldn't meet us, so we had to wait ages for a taxi.

Other than that, we had a wonderful time. >.>

But ah well, at least we've had SLEEP now. We went over to Jen's last night, bought some chips, played guitar and watched TV. Oh, and Toady did a bit (okay, a lot) of chav-impersonating. Which was funny (...up to a point lol). That's about it, really. I (Clazz) fell asleep on Jen's couch for like, an hour though, because of the major jetlag. And I don't remember how I got back here, hmmm.

Aunty Jill's out at work this morning, and we'll probably be going round to Jen's again later. We're going to Bristol tonight and staying with Fiona (my sister). AND IT WEILL BE FUIN FUNB. (yes.)

And apart from that, there's not much to say. Except we're fucked for Collision Course, because our last resort was camping, and we have no way of getting tents. We'll sort something out... or not, as I just realised it's TOMORROW. Fucking hell. Guess we'd better go sort something out then, shouldn't we? :-p

Later!

Clazz and Toady

We're leaving today

Wed, 05 Jul 2006 18:12:51 GMT

That's right, we're off to sunny England later.

It's 12.07am right now, meaning we leave here (here as in Banff) in... an hour and 23 minutes. Then we spend a couple of hours at Calgary airport before flying back home, which will take about 8 hours or something. Joy. We get into England at 9:20am tomorrow.

We realised we forgot to take pictures of Ian and Jill, which is bad of us. But we will take pictures of Mike, Natasha and Liam before we leave heh.

We're going straight to Clazz's Aunty Jill's in Oxford when we're back in England, hopefully we'll be seeing Jen as well.

And... there's not much else to say. So, erm, bye for now, I guess.

Clazz + Toady

Why hello there

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 23:52:47 GMT

So we do have internet here after all.

AND GUITARS. Hoorah!

We leave tomorrow for England, which means I CAN USE MY PHONE AGAIN. Yay.

There are lots of mosquitos here. It's horrible.

Apart from that, it's great.

And Josh, if your brother didn't tell you, WE GOT YOUR BUTTERFINGERS for substantially cheaper than they were in the very over-expensive shop (well it's Banff, what can you expect?).

There's not much to say, really. We... ate pizza last night. Er... that's about it. And we biked into town earlier. That really is about it.

Harrrr.

Clazz

STUFF HAPPENED

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 10:10:09 GMT

Yes, it did. Really! LIKE, WOAH!

Anyway yeah. Today (well yesterday now), we rode the train that goes by the house and up the ski hill (which is pretty much round the corner from here) in one of those ski lift things. At the top we met up with Penny and Tom (who had hiked up), took in the view and ate lunch. Then we all decided to hike back down, which took around an hour, an hour and a half, I dunno. When we all got back, we all took showers and then Clazz and I took Penny and Tom out for a meal. It was rather nice, and I totally pigged out: we asked about desserts and the waitress said there was this one that was brownies wrapped in ice cream and some weird wrap thing with more ice cream on the side, that it was hugely filling, that she'd never seen anyone eat one by themselves and that it's definitely a sharing kind of thing. So naturally, I stepped up to the challenge and had one to myself. And I finished it all I did. Whilst Clazz and Penny couldn't finish one between them ^_^. HAH I am a pig.

ANYWAY then we came back and that was that, really. Tomorrow we're heading off to Banff to hang out with Clazz's cousin Mike for a couple days. I'm not sure if we'll have the net or anything, so this may be our last post for a while. On the bright side - for us at least - Mike plays guitar and owns three, so yay we finally get to practice a bit! Yayyyy!

Oh, if you're wondering why there's been no pics for a while, it's 'cause the software on my phone is a little glitchy at best and so sometimes when you hook it up to PCs with just plug and play - rather than full software install from CD - it decides not to work, and that's exactly what it's been doing these past few days. BUT today it miraculously worked again. However there aren't that many pics to show. Oh and those videos we took that Clazz mentioned in an earlier post, you'll have to wait 'til we're at mine to get those up as I need to get them in wmv format to rotate them (they're all sideways 'cause of the way I recorded them, duh me). I'm sure you can wait a couple weeks for a few stupid 10 second videos :P

ANYWAY, PICS!

A deer decided to hang out in our back yard...

Okay, from the top of the ski hill...

look at that. the rocky's in the background there, just like woah. and hah, you can actually see the house we're staying at in this pic, but i'm damned if i can describe where it is in a few short lines... it's too small in this pic anyway

that plain area, under that is the old gold mines

^_^

pretty much the first time i have worn a cap since i was 12. but it was a really sunny day and at a high altitude, didn't wanna catch sunstroke... shame i had to look like a dork though =/

Right well that's pretty much everything for now. Like I said before, it could be a while before we post again due to lack of internet etc. My phone has net on it and I get free service for a bit, however for some reason it doesn't work well with livejournal.com. I guess they don't have a decent wap server up yet.

Anyway guys, see y'all later, and don't forget to check back soon!

Love and kisses,
Toady

Hmmz

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 12:07:36 GMT

I'm bored, I can't get to sleep for some reason, so I decided to come on here for a bit.

On Thursday, we spent the entire day watching crappy TV. YAY.

Yesterday, we watched more crappy TV (and some good TV). We also made our day more exciting by cycling into town, where we... ate hotdogs. And rented a coupla movies, Little Nicky and Formula 51, both of which were pretty good. And then we watched more TV, ha.

On another note: awwwww! There are a couple of deer outside, and one of 'em looks rather young. Heeee, how cute.

Clazz

(PS. I love Toady more than aaaanything. I just had to say that...)

Flumpley bits

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 19:41:43 GMT

HELLO THERE. Dun dun duuuuuuuuun!! I thought I should post a proper update about what we got up to at the lake, as Toady couldn't be bothered. But then he took the pictures and sorted all those out for the LJ, so he's forgiven. ;-)

So yes, we are BACK. And unsmelly, finally. There was no shower at the cabin, so naturally, one of the first things we did when we got back to Kimberley was jump in the shower. The cabin also had a lack of electricity, yay. And there were bugs everywhere, Toady and I have an UNFAIR share of bites.

Despite that, it was an enjoyable little break. Believe it or not, it wasn't all bad - but there you go, those are the bad bits out of the way. Now onto the good bits.

We left here last Tuesday, around lunchtime I think, and stayed in a hotel that night. I can't even remember where it was, but it was near a lake a couple of hours away from the one we stayed at for the week. It was a golf club lodge, with a free mini-golf session with the room (and we got a free room as well - some buy one get one free kinda deal), so Toady and I had a shot. And we watched The Terminal. Which is alright. And some of Toady's Metal=Life DVD. That was about it, really lol.

We left the next morning, after a visit to the Hot Springs in Ainsworth (basically a swimming pool where the water is naturally heated), and went to a town called Nelson for lunch. We ended up spending a bit longer there than expected, really, because Toady and I found a music shop and played guitar for a while lol. And we bought a few things, Toady bought a hemp shirt and a whiskey flask, and I won't say what I bought because they're presents lol.

So we did another couple of hours drive to Rossland, where we stayed with my cousin Ian, and his wife, Jill. Apparently their kids (Andrew, 2 years old, and Claire, almost 4 years old) were really looking forward to seeing us, especially Claire, but when we got there (and in fact, the entire duration we spent with them), she was too shy to speak to us lol. Bless her. It was good to see Ian and Jill again, anyway. I hadn't seen them for six years, erp.

The next morning (Thursday), we all left for the cabin. It's near(ish) the north end of Lake Christina, about 45 minutes away from Rossland, quite isolated and very peaceful (apart from the bugs!). I can't remember what time we got there or anything, or... even what we did, actually lol. Ian + co (Jill had work) only stayed for the day, anyway.

The week was mostly spent kayaking, learning to drive the motor boat, swimming, rock climbing and TUBING. And generally sunbathing. Toady got really into kayaking, although he killed his arms in the process after doing it too much. =/ It was peaceful, though, and you can see the pictures he took in the last entry. Ian + Jill + co returned for the day again on Saturday, and they tried to introduce us to water skiing. Or Toady, anyway - I was too chicken. Shut up. Unfortunately, getting up is apparently impossible, and after three attempts, Toady gave up. Which is a shame because he really wanted to have a go at it. :-( But hey, at least he tried, which is better than what I can say.

So instead, we went tubing. Which was FUN, as you can probably see in the pictures. Don't you think the last picture looks like something you'd see on a website or in a brochure for a theme park? Hahaha, it so does. Anyway... yes, it was great fun. :-D I went out in it again with Aunty Penny, and she really enjoyed it lol, woop. I'd love to do that again heh.

Oh, and I LEARNED TO SWIM. How lame does that sound? I used to love swimming, but because I haven't done it for so long, my body just wouldn't let me. So in the lake, I realised the only way I could swim was with a life jacket haha. Near the end of the trip, I finally managed to swim without it, yaaay.

I'm not sure what else to say, really. We left yesterday just before lunch time, stopped in Castlegar for a Subway sandwich, and got back to Kimberley at roughly 7pm (Kimberley time anyway - where we had left, it was 6pm, but we went through a time zone change). And since then, not much has happened at all, apart from showers lol.

Toady and I took some random hilarious videos last night, so we're going to try to get them up some time. LOOK FORWARD TO THEM.

Clazz

Aaaand we're back

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 06:41:31 GMT

Well. We are. Obviously. I mean, we can't be posting from like, not being back. I think. Err. ANYWAY here are some pictures from the Lake expedition. LIKE THEM, DAMMIT!

On the way to the lake, we had an encounter with some vikings!

(that's clazz's uncle tom, by the way)

Ok. So we got to the Lake. But before we got there, we realised I didn't have my US/Canada -> UK plug socket adaptor with me (I left it at the hotel we stayed at overnight), so we called up the hotel and they mailed it to the house in Kimberley for us, but of course that still meant we won't have it at the Lake. This meant, no way to charge any of my stuff OR Clazz's stuff while at the Lake, so we took barely any pictures. And out of the few we did take, I've deleted tons (because there's a load of repetative ones). Sorry guys, but you'll have to make do with the pics we got. I think you can tell the Lake is GORGEOUS though.

this one was taken while I was off kayaking up the lake. i really like kayaking, it's just so peaceful. anyway yeah. poser or what?

to counter balance my posing.

looks close, huh? that's actually really far. the trees are just massive. around 30 - 40 ft.

i really like this shot

clazz on the dock by the cabin

ooo, artistic

the amazing climbing expert, clazzlebottom

she fell down like that. seriously. anyway that's the inside of the cabin. it's cosy.

shut up.

clazz seemed to think i looked good. don't ask me why.

random bit of smoke that just started out pretty small...

and ended up stretching across the whole damn lake!

My wonderful assistant Clazzmononnobon has just reminded me that her cousin's wife Jill took a load of pictures of us while we were tubing on the lake. Hee. We look stupid.

Great pictures, eh?

We also got that pic of us in funky clothes from Fort Steele in the mail when we got back and we took a picture of it to show it to you as a preview, but we decided it doesn't look that great quality and would rather just have you wait 'til we can scan it in (which we can do when we get to my house... which will be around the 17th, so you'll have to wait a couple weeks - I'm sure you'll survive).

LATERS ALL.

Toady

Hiking Trip!

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:13:28 GMT

Okay, so as promised here are ze pics from ze hiking expeditioné! Wee!

OKAY! So first off, here is a SQUIRREL!

heeeee

Okay, so we got to the mountain (Mt. Lakit) and started our ascent. It was a while before I decided the scenery was picture-worthy, but I think you'll agree that when I did, I was RIGHT!

CUTENESS.

Pictures from the Summit!

The tip of Mt. Lakit

^_^

O_o

MADNESS I TELL YE.

peace out ma homieeez.

from left to right: Clazz, Toady, Sam (the dog), Uncle Tom, Aunt Penny

On the way back down, Clazz had a nasty encounter with a snow patch...

Heeee! So, those are all the pics from the hiiiiiiiike. Hope you liiiiiiiike.

Anyways, we's gonna goes off to the lake cabin todayyy. Well, we're not gonna get there today but we're gonna start heading off there pretty soon. We'll probably be gone like, a week or so, and there's no electricity down there (OH NOEZ!) so we won't be able to update at allll 'til we're back. BUT, try not to miss us too much (one person)!

So, erm, err, BYEZ!

Toady

Fort Steele!

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:59:19 GMT

Okay, it's been a while since the last pic update, and I've got a load for ya. This first batch is from Fort Steele (just pronounced "Steel"), where we all went on Friday. It's now Tuesday, so yes, I've been a bit lazy with updating. OH WELLZ. You'll live ^_^

Okay, so first a few nice pics from the drive up to Fort Steele...

And now, inside ye olde Forte Steeleeeee.

hah! i actually locked her in this prison cell. muwahahhaaa.

and here we see the prisoner's favourite pastime...

and the jailor looking like a dork =/

the people living in this fort had some nice views...

but i've got better =P

erm. shut up.

Okay, that's all the pics from that day, hah. If you're wondering about that last one, it was actually taken on Saturday, during my crazy hyper fit after having watched "The Butterfly Effect" (as mentioned by Clazz in the last post). Attractive, aren't I?

Anyways, more pics still to come (from Sunday's mountain hiking)!

Toady

RAAAAAAR

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 17:54:48 GMT

Clazz hereeee, Toady's downstairs eating breakfast.

We haven't updated for a couple of days, have we? On Friday, the plan was to go into Cranbrook to do a big food shop, and call in at Fort Steele, which is basically a replica of an old town - history there spanning to about 100 years ago. :-p

As it happened, we ended up spending most of the day there, and wound up coming straight home instead of doing the shopping lol. It was quite cool, Toady was - and still is - tempted to buy a snake made out of a blacksmith's rasp, which is pretty cool. It was $50 though, and because it was our first proper day here really, he didn't want to spend that straight away.

Instead, we spent some money on doing an old photoshoot where we discovered that I, perhaps disturbingly, look rather good as a slutty barmaid hahaha. It was fuuuun, it took us like an hour and a half to do the shoot, though lol. The chosen picture's being posted to us in the next couple of days, heee. Don't think we have a scanner though, so I'm afraid we won't be able to show you it just yet.

Yesterday, we went into Cranbrook to do the shopping - and made it this time lol. After we got back from the shop, we cycled into town and rented out 4 DVDs, two of which we've watched so far (The Butterfly Effect - which I LOVED - and Napoleon Dynamite, which is just stupid [IN A GOOD WAY - toady] lol). In between them, Toady got randomly - VERY - hyper for like, half an hour lmao. I was quite... scared, really, har.

I only woke up about 45 minutes ago lol, ate my breakfast and then came on here. We're going hiking up a mountain omgz. In the Rocky's. EEKZ0RZ. That shall be fun.

BYEEEEEEEZSKRWLK@!1

Clazz

Canada Piccies!

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:45:35 GMT

Omg, the view here, it's just amazing.

The Rocky Mountains

just LOOK at that...

simply breathtaking

Clazz and Morris the Moose

hee, Morris is our new friend. we met him on the flight in from Gatwick (that is to say, I bought him for Clazz then :P)

Back to the Rockies...

some view living there...

just... wow.

pretty breathtaking view right inside the car, if you ask me ^_^

The next batch are from the drive from Banff to Kimberley. Not all of it is the Rocky Mountains, but still some damned spectacular sights. Seriously.

first of all, what a cool view. secondly, hah, silly mountain goats!

this isn't foggy weather or anything, this is just the clouds. we're IN the damn CLOUDS here.

I love some of these next shots...

See what I mean about being level with the clouds?

random shot of Clazz's Aunt Penny

...and Clazz

couple more shots to show cloud level

looong view of the road

damn reflection...

clouds again...

SQUIRREL IN OUR YARD!

heheeee, cute little bugger

Aaaaand that's a wrap. That's all the pics taken thus far. And I think you'll agree, some of them are pretty damn nifty. Expect more to come soon! ^_^

Laters all,
Toady

Bristol + Daniel Powter Piccies

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:29:08 GMT

Ok, so time for the next batch of pics. This batch is pretty much just from the Daniel Powter gig (which I hated, but Clazz quite enjoyed, despite agreeing with me that his on-stage attitude was shit), because we didn't really take any in Bristol.

Random pic from Manchester train station en route to Bristol (and no, I don't know WHAT I was doing...)

Daniel Powter gig...

hahhh, he looks like a 'tard

yes, he DID change shirts (like, after the 3rd song)

finally back on the keyboard...

look at that, pretending that playing the keyboard is like so totally powerful an experience...

Yes, I did take an awful lot of pics. But, Clazz had asked me to take some, so I decided to try and get some decent ones. And since I wasn't even enjoying the music, I thought I might as well do SOMETHING to take my mind off of listening to it, lol. Anyway, the gig wasn't all bad, like, when he left it was pretty good. HAH no seriously, some bits were good. But just the whole show was a bit "Meh" for me. Anyway... one more pic was taken before we left Bristol...

Clazz and her Uncle Ron

That guy on the right, that's her Uncle Ron. He's a pretty cool bloke, considering his age he's still quite with it, and very athletic. Travels a lot, too.

Anyway, the NEXT batch of pics is from CANADA, so go go go!

Toady

The Feeling Gig Pics

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:11:56 GMT

As promised, here are the pics from The Feeling gig in Leeds. They're not all amazing quality, what with all the moving and shaking that goes down at any good gig, but, I think there are a few golden ones.

rawk that guitar, boy

yeehaw!

stunning picture...

sing bitch, sing!

Toady

Yayz!

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 04:06:15 GMT

So, we gots pictures! Seeing as there are a LOT of pictures up until this point I shall be posting them across more than one LJ entry, divided by event and so on. To start us of, here are the pictures from Leeds (where we met Heather and her boyfriend, and saw The Feeling - pictures from the gig will be in the next entry).

Toady on the bus up to Leeds...

A few shots from Subway (The fast food joint, not underground means of transportation)

Together in City Centre ^_^

At Heather's...

heeee ^_^

cutayyyy ^_^

Heather and her boyfriend, Cleveland

Heather and Clazzmuss

That's all for now! Pictures from The Feeling gig next!

Toady

[edit from Clazz] Hmph, he included the shitty ones of me. I've taken them out lmao. I've also got a few pics on my phone of Toady, I'll try and get 'em on the computer sometime soon.