I’m on to my tenth day in a row of sunshine. TENTH PEOPLE! This, being summer, may not seem like
a bizarre and special find to
you. But it is. It is rare. I feel like I’ve won lotto and
slash or found out I have superpowers, it’s that exciting for me.
Obviously I’m not exaggerating at all. See this is the longest streak of
sunlight I have had since I can remember sunlight. Ok that’s a lie.
But definitely true when I think of my summers here in the capital. I
think January is finally showing off and I like it. Hopefully February
will feel competitive and try and outdo him.
Not only have I had
a 10 day run of sun,
but just a kind of general awesomeness as well. And I use awesomeness not
lightly. Ok let’s be honest, I use it all the time. Willy nilly
some might say. BUT I mean it. I have had a great couple of weeks.
Perhaps it’s
because January didn’t start so well for me, as in I was unwell. As in
hospitalised. As in sick. So a lot of January for me was just
feeling like I was dying, lying in bed, watching Downton Abbey and missing the
sunlight. In fact, when I finally was well enough and started back at
work it was the 17th already. And I was like, oh hells no! That be
the date? Sheet. The year had well and truly begun without me.
Starting back at
work was a painful excursion. In fact, I still feel like I’m ‘play
working’ a little. As in, I’m just here, hanging with my peeps, typing
some stuff, but really I’m still on holiday, like, I only have to do this for a
day right? But no. Its real. I guess that feeling of play
working was only heightened by the fact that after two days back we had a
public holiday and then I had to only work three days before I was off on
holiday again. It’s always weird taking annual leave after you’ve just
taken so much time off even though you booked it ages ago. But there was
no way I wasn’t going away. Why you ask? Oh yeah, cause I be playing my
first music festival. Oh hells yeah I did. And yep, I will say it
unashamedly, it was Parachute Music Festival. Or as a friend calls it,
the chute.
I didn’t have too
many expectations from the weekend actually, just that it was a great
opportunity to play for people who wouldn’t normally hear my music, and
hopefully more than that it would be a fun time away with the strangers aka my
band. And indeed it was. Like so fun. I’d forgotten how much
I love road trips and sleeping in dorm rooms with five other people. In
fact I think I probably had the most fun with the sharing room scenario.
I have issues sleeping so its delightful for me to have people around to annoy
and talk to while waiting for sleep to come (plus I take sleeping medication so
I get super loopy at night). I think the person who least enjoyed it was
Matt Potts aka the log (seriously, he’s a log, like once he’s in bed he’s just
there and still and doesn’t move. It’s pretty hilarious). But like
all roadies we had our hilarious moments and our lulls and that’s what I enjoy; how the journey
develops. The hilarity and the seriousness. The silence and the
noise. The nicknames. The new perspective of people. The zone
of comfy-ness with each other you don’t tend to find in day to day life.
I mean we all loved loved playing at Parachute, it was a blast, but possibly my
fav part of the weekend was just the hanging out part.
It was strange
being a the chute, strange but fun. I hadn’t been since I was 17, so as
scary as this sounds it has been over (just) a decade since I was last
there. Yes I am that old. I think most of us were in the same boat
actually. But it was cool. There were still a lot of the old time
bands that I remember from back in the day, but there was also quite a surge of
rad under the radar bands from Australia or the US and even here in little New
Zealand. In fact, a gorgeous band called Paper Cranes stole two of our
members, the tater-tots (Andy & Nina) for an evening and had them play
their set with them. It was stunning. The last song in their set,
All My Life, is such a lush deliciousness and the tater-tots guest starred on
their EP (which can be found here: http://lovepapercranes.bandcamp.com/album/oh-love)
so I’m thankful they were able to play it with them live, cause the cello and
mandolin sound freaking sweet. I love having band friendships. It’s
the best. And Paper Cranes were certainly a highlight from the chute
venture.
Another one
actually is this Auckland band called Great North. Seriously, out of all
the bands I saw at the chute, they were one of my favs. I think they just
have that something you know. Awkward in-between song banter and
all. I seriously like them.
So the chute was
ace. But the ace-ness of life didn’t stop there. Oh no no no. Think
again my pretties. I then ditched my band leaving them to drive the 7 or
so hours back to Wellywood whilst and I bussed up to Auckland to see some
friends and go to Laneway where I gorged myself on music glory and friend
loving. Yeah it was pretty sweet. Two of my best friends as well as
my sister all live in Auckland so it’s kind of a place for me with a lot of
love. My two friends I’ve known since I was well young (one since 10, the
other 12) so their souls are a sort of home to me. I get to spend far few
minutes with them so I enjoyed more than anything staring into their beautiful
faces and talking their mouths off. Not to mention grooving our sticky
beer laden feet off come the end of the night to Tame Impala. My
highlight of Laneway however was Bat for Lashes. Oh god she was amazing.
I was in awe. I may even be in love. From the second she walked on stage
she owned it. Clothed in a metallic red wonder of a dress I was giddy and
faint hearted from the first glimpse of her. She was amazing. She
may have changed my life a little. She hells as inspired me. Other
great sets of the day were Alt-J and Polica.
Still with one day
of holiday left and sunshine to spare I spent the next day catching up with
people and just being generally happy. Now whilst back in Wellington (and
back at work which is entirely lame), the sunshine seems to be prolonging the happy
feeling as evenings feel early
and extended and therefore are being utilised and well spent and enjoyed. Not to mention the weekend seemed to quickly
approach which was good because my lovely friend and keyboardist/backing
vocalist, Sarah Colman, (an amazing solo artist in her own right not to
mention) held a house gig party last night which was the best of fun. There was a diverse and interesting line up
with solo artists, spoken word poets, and Rhiain and the Utter Strangers on the
bill. Perhaps inspired by my new love,
Bat for Lashes, I actually feel like I owned the stage a little more than I usually
do. So that was fun. But let’s be honest the highlight of the
evening was at the end of the night when we tried to light a flying
lantern. You know, those massive paper
lanterns that you light the bottom of and they fill up like a hot air balloon and
float dreamily into the air. Yes, well,
this lantern lighting exercise became the most hilarious slash dangerous thing
in the world. Someone almost died and
slash or we almost burnt down Petone. If
only I was kidding. All was going well;
the lantern was lit and we were just waiting for it to fill up enough to take
off, but we live in Wellington
people. Windy Wellington. So it was
a pretty rocky take off. Sarah kept trying to grab it to straighten it
up and I am surprised her hands are now not cinders. Eventually she thought it was safe and let it
go. It wasn’t safe, it didn’t float up
into the air just over and down towards a bunch of my friends sitting on the
lawn. My other friend, B-Ho, stepped in
now, thankfully saving the onlookers and the grass from destruction and again
we waited for the lantern to fill up a bit more so to achieve lift off. And then once again we let it go, hoping to
stare with magical feelings in our hearts as it floated away. We didn’t.
Take two of too much wind and desperately trying to steady it and then
trying to get it away from the grass and the shrubs so we didn’t burn
everything down was more like how it went.
I had thought then we were going to give up on it. Too many almost burns had occurred. I thought we were dragging the fireball, I mean
lantern, over to the concrete in order to stamp the shit out of it. When all of a sudden it is back in the air
and is actually floating up up and away, albeit at not a very steep climb. A friend who was not paying attention
literally, literally, almost got the
fireball in his face. He thankfully ducked
last moment due to excessive yelling of his name by his lady and I tell you it
missed him by millimetres. But then,
this tricky fireball lantern actually began its climb to greatness. Soaring into the sky. We all ooooooo’d and aahhhh’d and every now
and then panicked when the wind picked up and it rocked around. I am sure my words have not even begun to articulately
describe how awesome and dangerous and fucking hilarious that was but honestly I
am not sure I have laughed so hard in a while.
Anyway, I guess
this is just an update on life, a “what’s new with me” sort of blog
entry. One which I’ve rambled on a bit for! Sorry. I guess right
now I just feel excited about things (even taking into account the rose tinted
glow everything has due to the thrill of a budding romance), but yes, I feel quite
excited about things. Everything. Life, friends, music, all of
it. Like I said, I may just be a bit gushy these days, but hells, if I’m
feeling happy, and enjoying things, and excited about life why try and diminish
that? Sometimes I feel I don’t acknowledge the good as often, so here it
is. An acknowledgement. So I don’t forget the goodness there is.
Cause there is. There is goodness.
