Riddle me this

How come I seem to be segueing directly from adolescence to mid-life crisis without any of the intervening responsible adulthood?

Adolescence:
- An obsession with absurdly attractive French actresses
- A pervasive sense of social inferiority
- Excessive binge drinking

Adulthood:
- DIY
- An understanding of tax, mortgages, pensions etc.
- An appreciation of fine wine, classical music and cars

Mid-life crisis:
- An obsession with death
- Desperate attempts to recapture the good old days of the Palais by listening to Indie music
- Excessive binge drinking

I'm spot on for phases one and three, but the middle one seems to have bypassed me completely. Am I the only one?

T&M, friends to the stars

On Wednesday M & I found ourselves in the Cricketer's Arms with the following people:

1) Michael Parker, brother of Brentwood's very own Dave Parker, and professional sound engineer/knob-twiddler
2) Bob, bass player of the zeitgeist-surfing indie heroes Franz Ferdinand
3) Matt, fraternal half of NYC pop eccentrics The Fiery Furnaces, and
4) Andy, drummer for the Furnaces and all-round cool guy

Mike had got us on the guest list for a Franz promo show, so we also got to hang around backstage, meet various other band members, help drink the rider etc. What larks! Everyone involved was very friendly and welcoming, despite my increasing drunkenness. Designated driver M had to remind of certain conversations the next day - oh dear, there's went our chance of hanging with the cool crowd. We went to 2 more shows later in the week FF/TFF double bills, and saw more of Mike and Matt (officially the Nicest Man In Pop).

It was all great fun, and there's no denying a kind of adolescent thrill of being introduced to people when you have watched them on stage and telly, bought the album etc. On the other hand, it feels a bit silly to find it all so much fun.

The best thing about it is that they're all due back soon, possibly in the New year for the Big Day Out. Woohoo!

What else? Quiet times, involving a couple of movies, and continuing my slow progress through another novel (The Tin Drum). A big fillip for M was her uni results; 2 distinctions and a high distinction - you go girl!

Biggest downer was missing another wedding - hope it was fun, guys.

Take care, love youse all, xx

It's always better on holiday

According to current multiplex lore, I believe, any road trip worthy of the title should incorporate elements of the following:
 
- Sneaking a look in the girls dorm at the hostel
- An amusingly ultraviolent encounter with some wildlife
- Bizarre drinking games, and
- A Deliverance style encounter with sinister, comically disfigured yokels
 
Sadly, the trip that M, dan and I recently underwent didn't quite reach that level, including more whale-watching and Uno marathons than any of the above activities. Still you take your pleasures where you find them, and we were able to make do with a record year for humpbacks, more rainforests than we could count and a luxurious flat on the Gold Coast at the end of it all.
 
It was a great pleasure to have Dan, and it seems he enjoyed himself. Hopefully he can go back and evangelise about the joys of godzone to others, thus producing a virtuous circle of visitors for the forseeable. having said that, M & I are enjoying a quiet spell for now.
 
The signature CD of our trip was the Franz Ferdinand LP ("It's so much better on holiday..."), which provides a happy link to this week's activities, which involve seeing Franz Ferdinand tonight and, on Friday, seeing...er....Franz Ferdinand. Well, they are pretty good, aren't they?
 
Yesterday we saw the King Arthur film, which was tosh but fun, and I'm back on film course duty as of tomorrow. Recently saw an amazing dvd, if anyone cares - The 400 Blows, it's astonishing, go see.
 
Love youse all, xx