09.17.07
Posted in Family & Friends, London, Skating at 10.23 pm by Caitlin
The Sunday Stroll yesterday took us up to Russell Square. It was a short route but a fun one, especially on the way back when there were some lovely, smooth surfaces. I had plenty of company as Natalie came along and a few other familiar faces. I got to the park early and did a couple of laps up and down Serpentine Road and just generally chilled out beforehand. It was nice not to be in a rush and running late for a change.
In the evening, I hooked up with my boyfriend and we went down to watch the Embankment to see the Night Carnival parade at the Thames Festival. Apparently it had been quite packed on the Saturday but it wasn’t crowded at all on the Sunday. I wasn’t quite at the front of the barricade so my pics (yet to be uploaded) are not brilliant but I had a good view.
Some of the floats were very visually striking, such as the metal dragon made out of hub caps and the giant illuminated king on a throne. Others were just really cute, such as the pair of giant pigeons and the little kids in strawberry outfits. There were also some impressive dancers – one lot had little rattles in their costume and you could tell they were keeping the time because they made music as they danced. Many of the floats were recycled from the Notting Hill Carnival (some even still had the signs) but since I missed that, I didn’t mind at all.
One of the things that always amuses me with parades is how ordinary the people look, underneath all the costume finery, and I always wonder about the human story of why they are there.
I was hanging out to see the skaters and eventually was rewarded – they were almost at the back of the skate. The LFNS crew skated around with a blue cloth serpent making it dance, with a few individuals in costume, like Saffy who was all dolled up in white feathers. The very talented roller-dancers who normally hang out by the Beach in Hyde Park were wearing disco gear and following close behind with some amazing moves.
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Posted in Film at 10.05 pm by Caitlin
I hadn’t even heard of 3.10 to Yuma when we rocked up to the cinema on Saturday night. But we’d already missed the Bourne Ultimatum so we decided to give it a go.
It was fantastic! It was one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, for sure. It’s a Western but it had a lot of depth and intelligence to the characterisation and story, with many plots and sub-plots and strong motivations for the characters’ actions. The cinematography was great with stunning shots of the rocky canyons and dusty downs of the Wild West and the fringes of Navajo country. A rather chubby looking Russell Crowe (no Gladiator 2 in the works then) was excellent as the leader of the outlaw gang.
It’s based on a short story by Elmore Leonard, who also wrote the book Get Shorty.
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09.15.07
Posted in Family & Friends at 2.00 pm by Caitlin
It’s not every day that you get to dance along to Van Morrison singing Moondance in a private box at the Royal Albert Hall.
That was me and my mate Steven last night, thanks to PR firm Eulogy.
Van the Man is 62 now but he can still sing the blues with the best of them. He was so cool and laid back, he seemed he would be equally at ease busking down at South Bank as on stage in one of the world’s most famous concert halls. He sang and he played the sax, the harmonica and the guitar. His songs are absolute classics and he ended with the crowd pleaser Brown Eyed Girl, followed up by Gloria for an encore.
We caught half of the support act, Chris Farlowe, who was quite good and came back on stage to six a few duets with Van.
We had a sensational view of the stage from our box and plenty of drinks and nibbles. We continued on at the Electric Ballroom in Notting Hill for a few more bevvies afterwards. It was a great night!
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09.10.07
Posted in Family & Friends, Film at 4.07 pm by Caitlin
Before I went away, there were a few social events to keep me amused.
I went to see Prince at the O2 (formerly the Millennium Dome) with Yahoo!. They have a corporate box and they were hosting a number of journalists. Grant, their corporate PR, is a fellow Aussie and he made sure that there were several Aussie journos making up the numbers. Hopefully I wasn’t invited exclusively on the basis of nationality!
It was a great night (though I’m glad I ate beforehand as the drinks were flowing freely but the promised crisps and peanuts never appeared). Prince played some of his old classics like Purple Rain and a lot of funk covers. The support act was Beverley Knight, who was fantastic as well. The stage was in the shape of the Prince symbol and it amused me greatly that they replaced all the floorboards before Prince came on. I know he is meant to be a clean freak but c’mon, I’m sure Ms Knight didn’t do anything too awful during her set!
I also went to see Hairspray with Natalie and Tash and Matt. It’s a movie based on a musical based on a movie. When I tried to persuade my boyfriend to come I told him “it’s not the sort of musical where people sing randomly as they walk down the street”. So what happens in the first scene? The main character sings randomly as she walks down the street. Lucky I didn’t persuade him then – though he did join us afterwards for drinks.
I thought the movie was fab – it was warm-hearted and funny and the singing and dancing were great. I have never been a huge fan of musicals but I’m learning that it depends on the execution and sometimes I do like them after all.
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Posted in Travel at 3.37 pm by Caitlin
One of the best parts of my job is the chance to see some amazing places that I would not ordinarily go as a tourist. This time work took me almost home to Australia but not quite – the closest I got was Papua New Guinea, which is only 70km from Australia at the closest point, but several thousand kilometres from Sydney.
I’m back in London now, having flown in early yesterday morning on a very long flight from Singapore. It’s ordinarily 12 hours but it was closer to 18 from the time the plane left the ground in Singapore to the time I touched down at Heathrow since the Swiss Air flight went via Bangkok to Zürich and then I still had to transfer to a flight to London. Considering you can get to Australia in 21 hours, I wasn’t terribly amused!
I was working again with Peter, the Austrian photographer who I have previously worked with in Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The itinerary of the trip involved Singapore for several travel stories for Anyway and as a base to get to Padang in western Sumatra, where we were researching a story on the Minangkabau, the largest matrilineal tribe in the world and one that is also Islamic. We also went to the Highlands of Papua New Guinea for about six days for another coffee story for Nespresso, like we have previously done in Uganda and Tanzania.
It was an amazing trip but it was exhausting at times as well, especially trying to get to Padang and back before the twice-weekly flight to PNG. I’m glad to be home but also enjoying reliving the adventures as I write my stories and go through my photographs. In total, we did five stories so I have thousands of words to write – and thousands of Euros to bill once I’m done.
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