TO THE END OF THE WORLD....(or at least the UK)

We were graced with the presence of father Strickland (my Dad) for a week a couple of weeks ago, when he came over for a flying visit to check we were alive and ok and to experience some of the delights that Scotland can offer. He really got us up and moving and on a 2 day road trip to John O'Groats at the very top of Scotland. The town's (I use the term town very loosely) claim to fame is:
Not the most northern village...
but the northerly end of the longest distance between two points on the British mainland. Land's End being the other.
(Does that sentence need some punctuation? I don't think grammar is a big deal in this part of the world)
After about 6 hours solid driving from Edinburgh we finally arrived at JOHN O'GROATS to find this:
That strange box that Dad and Andrew are standing next to is where you would usually find the sign that looks kinda like this:
It seems that vandals continuously pinching the sign have lead to it being locked up. There was a notice on the sign suggesting you could give Pete a call and he would come down and unlock the sign and let you take your picture with it. We decided not to disturb Pete's Sunday night.
Apart from one of the most overloaded crappy tourist souvenir shops there was not a lot to this end of the land. It did have a kind of bleak beauty about it all. See for yourself:



There is something quiet Dickensian about this Manor house, that stood empty and dark, not far from our accommodation:
We stayed up to 12am just to see how dark (or light) it gets in this northerly place.
On the way home we came across this delightful castle. It looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.



All is all we had a fantastic road trip and a brilliant week with my Dad. Thanks for visiting Dad! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Scotland - Spring Holiday Part 5 of 5

After touching down in Edinburgh late one Sunday night we woke up to the brightest, warmest, sunniest day of the trip! And the good weather continued for the remaining 8 days Jess and Andrew spent in the UK. They seemed to have accidentally packed up the warm weather and taken it home with them too. I think it may be still lost somewhere in Beijing Airport.
But back to Scotland... So we hired a car and spent a glorious three days driving around the strangely sunny Scottish countryside. We made our leisurely way across to the west coast via Stirling and a night in Culcreuch Castle. This was part of Andrews birthday present from me. I was hoping for something for a bit more grand and incredible, but it seemed a bit more run down and in need of a "Gordon Ramsey Kitchen Nightmare" make over. All the same it was lovely and I think Andrew enjoyed it too. We then had a night in the pretty "Scottish resort" town of Oban. I'm not too sure what Scottish people do on holiday but I am pretty sure it does not include immersing themselves in the sea water. My pushy big sister got me to dip my feet in and see how long I could hold them in. After my feet turned blue and the onset of frost bite kicked in I pulled them out. There is not a chance in all hell I would get in that water. Next day we headed east back towards Edinburgh through the pretty tourist town of Falkirk where we finally got our fix of scones. After dropping off the car in Edinburgh the next day we headed back to London where we spent the next few days showing Jess and Andrew our favourite bits, sweating (not just on the tube) and cooling off with a Pimms. It was very sad to say goodbye to Jess and Andrew but we had such a great time. Thanks heaps for sharing and making our adventure so much fun guys!!

Stirling Castle, notice the chavs in the corners.

Beautiful hand painted wall paper from our room in Culreuch Castle

The castle grounds

On the shores of Loch Lomand

Oban

I think Andrew was more excited about this castle. It was pretty cool.

*

10 million Londoners trying to keep cool in the "Heatwave" of 27 degrees!!

Farewells

*Photo taken by Ms Jessica Strickland

ATP Roundup

You lucky buggers get two posts in one weekend! How about that!

Last weekend Sarah, Corey and I made our way to ATP (All Tomorrows Parties) music festival. A different band each year curates the line-up. This year was curated by Explosions in the Sky, instrumental post-rockers from Austin, Texas. They did a swell job.

But first: the venue. Butlins family resort. It's like a giant caravan park and theme park mixed together, but instead of caravans they have 'Chalets'. Butlins features a waterpark, miniture golf, Ten pin bowling, cafes, a burger king, fish and chip shop, a pizza hut, three bars and a supermarket, among other things.

The line up: Animal Collective, Polvo, Broken Social Scene, Iron and Wine, Dinosaur Jr., Eluvium, Ola Podrida Lazarus, A Hawk and A Hacksaw, The Paper Chase, Four Tet, Ghostface Killah, Western Keys, Adem, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, The Silver Jews, Mono, Jens Lekman, Tony Teardrop, The Drift, The National, Sunset Rubdown, Lichens, Stars of the Lid, Saul Williams, Battles, De La Soul, The Field , Okkervil River, Pale Gallery, Raekwon, The Octopus Project, Atlas Sound, Constantines, World's End Girlfriend, Beach House, Phosphorescent, Le Papier Tigre, Envy and, of course, Explosions in the Sky.
Wowsers.

We arrived 15 minutes late for the Constantines who still managed an amazing kick-start to the festival. Here is a few photos:


Okkervil River.
Beach Houses had a great set. Good one, guys.
Battles had two sets over the weekend, we saw them the first night and they were good, but i'm told there second set on the last night was mind blowing. D'oh! We were too busy seeing Envy, japanese metal rockers who were great too.
Drinks on a pirate ship.
The second night ended with us hosting a chalet party which lasted till seven the next morning. The guest list was comprised of anyone who walked past. In the end we told the guys from next door we'd move the party to their place and shut the door behind them when they left!


Sarah woke up the next day to lovely Jens Lekman. But the rest of us didn't get up in time (2,30). So what do you do when your hungover at a music festival while bands are playing? Mini-golf!
Corey and i watch on as our chalet buddy, Rob putts away.
Sarah makes her shot and behind our other chalet buddies, Ryan and Mel.


Iron and Wine.

My highlight for the festival: Dinosaur Jnr! They went all out and put on one hell of a show.
My dream of seeing the Silver Jews play live was finally fulfilled! David Berman was great, he made me think of what a Johnny Cash concert may have been like if it was Earl Leonard instead of Johnny Cash. He really shared a lot of mannerisms with my good buddy Earl. The hot leggy base player is his wife. There where many shots taken of her by the crowd during her sound check.
Broken Social Scene were the last band on the main stage on Sunday night. They played all their big ones and for one track all of the Constantines, Explosions in the sky and J Mascus from Dino Jnr got up and sung with them. Sweet.

Some of the other bands we saw: Animal Collective were great. Big party. Trail of Dead rocked it much more than I thought they would. Sunset Rubdown were good, but not great, though their song 'the mending of the gown' blew the crowd away. Four Tet was a little boring in stages. The Octopus Project where great fun, both audio and visually. And Explosions laid down their usual epic rock.

Sarah's pics: 'Jens was good' and the Silver Jews.

The Spring holidays blog will soon resume as normal.

Exiting London

It's the eve of our trip to Spain, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria, so we thought we'd take this opportunity to reflect on the last few weeks in foggy London town. And what a few weeks it's been! Spring is on the way and the weather has gone troppo!

The first signs of spring sprang up a few weeks ago with the onset of hoards of daffodils.

This is Sarah outside the terrific War Museum. That's a big gun she's wielding.


This is Corey Mahar in our lounge room.
Clapham Common had it's annual fair a few weeks back so we went along for spot of fun.This picture portrays Corey and i screaming for our lives 100ft off the ground.
What makes this shot is not actually my face, but the face of the happy chap behind me.
Tea at a local french tea house.



It snowed at Easter, which was nice but it didn't last long, whereas last weekend it bucketed down till about 2 in the afternoon! It was great fun, hanging out in the park with the kids, building the lamest snowman there, snow fights and other assorted mayhem.




We finished work on friday. The window at the top was where i worked.
This was the view out the back window. I like the door off it's hinges.
This was some art we stumbled across in the park during lunch last week.


Some street art near Sarah's work in Camberwell.
Finally, this is the design team eating our regular sushi friday lunch. Alex left & Marrisa right. Thanks for everything guys!

Irish Road Adventure

Oversized novelty map, Check.
Sweet hire car, Check.
Full tank of petrol, Check.
Entire Neil Young back catalogue on ipod, Check!
We took off on our Irish road trip one wet and windy weekend late in February. It turns out wet and windy pretty much covered all the weather conditions in Ireland - windy rain and rainy wind.
We drove our brave Opel from Dublin to Galway, then down the west cost via a few unplanned backroads to the stunning Killarny, then across to grundgy but charismatic city of Cork and THEN back up to Dublin. About 700km's in four days! And we did it all unscathed and without causing any major road incidents.
Anyway here is the proof:

Argh the Irish! Maybe this kind of thing is a problem here. Could be because of the drink.

I'M HAVING A GREAT TIME!

It's all just so Irish.

Killarney National Park

Can you see the deer in the bushes? He was completely still and didn't take his eyes off us as we walked past.


Another blue door. See, it's not just me who thinks they're interesting!
Cork

As we left Cork for Dublin we came through snow flurries and snow covered fields. It was the first snow we'd seen all winter and at the beginning of Spring!