Skiing Vs Snowboarding

Now i am just going to start off by saying, that as a skier this post will probably be a little biased.

Before coming to NZ i had only ever gone Skiing twice, both on school trips to the Italian Alps, and as these were both Ski trips Snowboarding was never an option so no one ever thought twice about it, and such was my attitude toward the whole situation... that all changed when winter was thrust upon us here in QT.

Suddenly i noticed a stigma toward Skiing, which was obviously there the whole time i had just been choosing to ignore it, which made it seem that skiing was the 'uncool' option and if you ever told anyone you were a skier and they were a boarder you would get many strange looks.  Obviously, yes, you look much cooler on a snowboard than you do on skis with poles flailing about in all sorts of directions, also i think people mentally associate it with skateboarding or really any type of boarding, which are all pretty cool things to do.

Let me tell you, have you ever seen a class skier make a huge jump or do downhill slalom? because those guys look fucking cool, way cooler than when any boarder makes the same jumps. The shapes they make with their skis in the air can be awe inspiring, well i know that when ever i see them do it i have a moment of complete jealousy and feel inspired all at the same time, secretly (or not so) wishing i could be that good one day.

<-- Try doing that on a snowboard...

I know skiers and boarders will always have rivalry and secretly on purpose hack each other up on the mountain but claim it was an accident, heck i have even been cut up by like a six year old on the slopes, they get them started young these days, but it frustrates me when novices who have the choice to do either will 8 times out of 10 go for boarding because of this silly stigma. SKIING IS COOL TOO PEOPLE! Give it a chance :) you might do better at it then you ever will at Snowboarding!

Anyways just a short post about something i needed to express ....

Peace out. X

Coming soon.... 'The truth about Cats and Dogs'

The thing about traveling is...

There are many different things about traveling and not all of them positive. For sure the positive far outweigh the negative, nonetheless, these negative things will most definitely have a substantial impact on the rest of your life.

The same thing happens to many people in many places every year, they decide to quit their lives for a little while and go find adventure in a different place, indeed it happened to me. Although leaving England and settling in New Zealand for around about 8 months now, has been the best thing i have ever done i have also shot myself in the foot for doing just this. Now i never want to go home! everywhere else is just so much better! Yes, i will keep traveling for as long as is humanly possible but there is only so many places you can go and for a certain amount of time and i know that one day (perish the thought) i might actually have to settle down somewhere, i just hope this place is a beautiful vista and a far cry from the town i grew up in.

Some travelers i know have talked about how we might be selfish in doing what we are doing, and yes to some extent we are being completely selfish as we are only doing this for personal gain and a sense of escapism and freedom, but on the other hand its not really like we are stopping the rest of you back home from doing the same thing. People go on and on about how they wish they could see the world but due to lack of funds they simply cant, well let me tell you this, money never has to be an issue, yes for sure if you want to travel the world staying in five star hotels and eating out every night you will obviously need a shit ton of money but who really wants to see the world this way? For me staying in budget accommodation, eating pasta every night of my life and working any job i can get has been all apart of the amazing experience, its all so character building and this way you can experience different cultures more easily, albeit New Zealand isn't much of a culture shock but Fiji was certainly an experience. So don't let money stand in your way.

Anyways this is just a short post as i don't want to go into too much detail about my traveling experiences as thats what i have my travel blog for:  http://stranger-inastrange-land.blogspot.co.nz/

I will try to keep more up to date on this blog from now on.

*Amy PunkRocker Ward*

Music is my inspiration.

I feel sorry for those people who don't have a passion for music or those who say 'i don't really like music'.

To me, and i am sure to many other people, music is a form of expression, celebration and even comfort, even though you are the one listening to the song it sometimes feels like the song is listening to you, like it is understanding you and comforting you at the same time.

It doesn't matter what type of music it is, as long as you feel you can turn to it in times of need, sadness and happiness i can guarantee it will always make you feel just that little bit better or just that little bit  more excited. I don't understand what those of you do without music, perhaps you just say music isn't an interest but subconsciously when you hear a song on the radio it does make you feel. A world without music would be a very sad world indeed, a world without fashion, a world without passion and a world without culture.

Music inspires so many of the things around us. It is a major influence on the clothes we wear, depending on the type of music you like, you wear the clothes to suit that style whether you think it or not. Wherever you go in the world, which ever culture you are witness to, from Africa to America, from Europe to New Zealand, each one has their own song that they sing to.

These days people are selfish when it comes to music, and im not going to lie i am guilty in this too, as many of you will be too, people get a lot of stick when they like music which is not considered 'Mainstream'. The word is a horrid word, since when did we live in a dictatorship? where you are told which music you should like, and when you don't comply you get punished for it.. it's not right, people should have the right to listen to what they want as long as nothing bad comes of it. One of the many many reasons i love punk rock is because of the fact that these people, my idols, were sick of the same old 'Mainstream' pop songs being shoved in their faces day in and day out that they decided to take a stand and do something about it regardless of it's outcome. The Punk movement was the best thing to happen to music, without it many of the bands we know and love today would cease to exist.

So people do yourselves a favour and be passionate about music... it's has the potential to be the most powerful force on earth.. it has the power to bring people together, change the way people think, change the way they act and it should be the greatest thing man kind ever made. Music is power.

PeAcE oUt!!! xxx

A day trip to Stamford Bridge.

This is just going to be a short entry about a day trip to see the mighty blues play Portsmouth in the F.A Cup.
The reason for it being a short one?... i need something to fill the time whilst i wait for my lamp to get lighter...Damn energy saving light bulbs!

So on Sunday the 8th of Jan 2012 me and my father took a little trip to london. We used to go see the Blues play allllll the time when i was a bit younger, but tickets just got so damn expensive that we now only go every once in a blue moon. Who seriously wants to pay over 100 pound weekly to see grown men kick a ball about whilst getting ridiculously over paid in the process, not me thats for sure, anyways going every once in a while makes it more exciting.

so back on track, we brought tickets for the F.A. Cup game because they were relatively cheaper than standard matches, but 30 quid a ticket is still extortion. Also i thought it would be great to get to be able to see my team play once more before i went away around the other side of the world. I am so glad we went as the mighty blues managed a fantastic 4-0 win and the second half the game was an excellent one, the first... not so much.

I always love going to Stamford bridge, its my favourite past time, there is just such a great atmosphere and although there isn't as much singing as i remember from being a kid everyone still gets behind the team, which is awesome :) i would be quite sad if they were to knock the bridge down as i hold some fond memories there and even though its not the biggest or the newest stadium it will always be a great one to me.

P.S there was a drunk guy in front of us with some awesome dancing... Check it out!

TTFN!

The Mighty Tones!

Well, what can i say about The Undertones?... Maybe that they are THE GREATEST BAND THAT EVER LIVED! I simply will not be able to put into words how much i love these guys!

Yes, they are an older generation band but to me that only makes them that much better. I hate saying that our generation has no hope when it comes to music, people now days think that the likes of N-Dubz and Jessie J and Maroon 5 are the way forward, and if thats true, then please i wish to die NOW.

What happened to the people who could actually play instruments and write their own songs that were actually decent. Yes there are those that are still great today and i can only hope that they will prevail over all this 'POP' shizz cause it really is just dire, but anyway i must stop this rant now or i will ramble on for 10 pages about how shit the music is today.

Back to The Undertones, My all time Favourite band, EVER! So far i have seen them 9 times and i do hope to see them many more, however, now that im off to NZ it wont be an easy task, unless they come to me (i can only hope).

1. Shepherds Bush Empire - 13 October 2007 (London - UK)
2. Dingwalls - 22 September 2008 (London - UK)
3. Nerve Centre - 14 September 2009 (Derry - N.I)
4. King Tuts Wah Wah Hut - 27 February 2010 (Glasgow - Scotland)
5. 229 Club - 2 April 2010 (London - UK)
6. King Tuts Wah Wah Hut - 31 March 2011 (Glasgow - Scotland)
7. o2 Academy - 1 April 2011 (Birmingham - UK)
8. Powers Bar - 17 June 2011 (London - UK)
9. The Cockpit - 9th December (Leeds - UK)

All 9 of these gigs have been absolutely EPIC, but now, im going to Rank them in order of EPICNESS!

1. - 4
2. - 9
3. - 6
4. - 2
5. - 8
6. - 3
7. - 1
8. - 7
9. - 5

Not to say that 9 wasn't great, because it was, they all were.

I will post you a link to my YouTube page where i have posted Many a video from Undertones Gigs :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/amycfc1991?feature=mhee

So, im going to go ahead and guess that not many of you will know who the undertones are, but you should cause they are amazing. Anyway The Undertones formed back in 1975 with the members including;

Feargal Sharkey - Lead Vocals

John O'Neill - Guitar

Damian O'Neill - Guitar and Vocals

Michael Bradley - Bass and Vocals

Billy Doherty - Drums

From there they played up until 1983 where the band separated and went their separate ways. Then in 1999 the best thing to ever happen in music happened, The Undertones Reformed with only one difference Feargal Sharkey was no longer with the band as he had different ideas about what direction he wanted his music to take. Instead Paul Macloon joined the band as Lead Singer, and this is the man who i have seen at the front of the stage every time i have been to see them. I would have liked to have seen the undertones perform with Feargal Sharkey just because he was an original but im perfectly happy with the way they are :).

So that was a brief history of the undertones, one of the best punk bands ever:)

i literally cant find any words to describe how great they are so im going to stop and let you discover them for yourself, otherwise i will just ramble on and on and that wont be interesting to anyone, if anyone does in fact read this thing....

BYE BYE :) xx

SetList

Here is the setlist from, Saturday's gig :)


Blow It Up
Wreckin' Bar
Tiger Blood
A Lack of Understanding
Wetsuit
Teenage Icon (New song)
Under Your Thumb
Post Break-Up Sex
All In White
Wolf Pack
No Hope (New Song)
If You Wanna
Family Friend

Encore:
We're Happening
Norgaard

Here are a few photos from the evening :)

The vaccines you shouldn't be afraid of...

So I'm here today to tell you of a recent experience of mine, and yes, it does involve seeing another band live.

To me their is no greater feeling on earth than the one I get whilst watching a great band play great music live.

3/12/2011 Marks the date of the day I was getting to see one of my favourite bands play live, not for rather first time but for the third, but this time was different, as the previous two times I have witnessed their magic were both at music festivals, so although both shows we're amazing experiences for me, they obviously weren't quite as intimate as I would like. Not intimate in the sense of the size of the venue, although I do tend to prefer a smaller place, but more so in the sense that everyone is there for the same reason as you and everyone is able to feed off of each others excitement because you all feel the same and you are aware of what's to come.

so after spending some of the afternoon walking around Cambridge city centre, waiting for the time when we could check in our hotel, two o'clock finally came around and we headed to our room for some last minuets of RnR, and unbeknown to us we would come to appreciate this much needed rest.

So along came 4 o'clock and we decided to head off into the town centre as it was quite a walk. it took us maybe just over an hour to get into town and by this time we were starting to get a bit peckish so we went into pizza hut to enjoy a nice filling pizza.
After leaving Pizza Hut we felt we deserved a nice alcoholic beverage so we went to the local weatherspoons, where I had the best drink ever, Jeremiah Weed, or Jezza Wezza as I like to call it, and my father indulged in a nice refreshing beer. As it started to get more busy in the pub, being a Saturday night, we headed of towards the venue,nowhere before making our way in we stopped at other pub just round the corner where we were charged extortionate amounts for two drinks so we promptly decided one round was enough.

They were letting people in! so we headed into the venue, handing our tickets over to the inspector to be checked they were quickly handed back to us and put in a safe place to be pinned up on the wall at home with the rest of my music memories. After waiting and waiting and more waiting the first support band finally came on and they were ok but everyone knows, including they band themselves who were joking about like as if anyone would be interested in actually buying their E.P, are just there to warm the crowd up a little bit and get the adrenaline pumping. They were a decent band but as the night goes on you soon realise they have a lot of learning to do before they are headlining their own gig. The second support band, Frankie and the Heartstrings were a much more experienced band than the first as one could tell in they way they connected with the crowd and the general presence about them. Before these guys came on to play, we were a little confused as to whether their actually was two support bands or not due to the fact that there was a half an hour gap in between the two bands, which to us, seemed like too long a gap, but it makes perfect sense because The Vaccines themselves only have one album out and so have to fill the time before they play.

As Frankie and the Heartstrings left the stage after a pretty decent performance the anticipation and excitement swirling the room reached an all time high as everyone on the room couldn't wait much longer. Heckles were being thrown at the empty stage left right and centre, albeit a pointless activity as the band will come on at the scheduled time and not at the request of the fans, but people just couldn't hold it in any more. The songs the were playing to the crowd got louder as the time drew closer and the song the played before the came out happened to be a song by my favourite band The Undertones, with a classic everyone has heard, teenage kicks. So after singling along to that they played the intro to The Ramones ( another classic band) rock and roll high school, which only happened to be The intro they used to come on stage to, so as the stage flashed a brilliant blue reaching across the whole of the backdrop the screams started and the cheering and clapping was deafening as after a looooooong wait The Vaccines FINALLY walked on stage.

Song after song, even the new ones not many people had heard before, was welcomed by every person in the Cambridge corn exchange with smiles n thief faces and words pouring from their hearts. The most popular songs, If you wanna,most break up sex and Noorgard proved to be the most energetic as mostly everyone in the room goes absolutely fucking mental, and its absolutely fantastic to be able to be involved in something as simple as that. The thing I love about The Vaccines is that they all seem to be down to earth guys who do realise how lucky they are to have been able to get to where they are so quickly, I mean who knows, maybe if they left a week later things would be completely different. Arni (bass player) amazes me whenever I see him play life because he always just stands quite still looking out at the crowd in what comes across to me as amazement and awe, which pleases me some because he may be realising how lucky he is to ne apart of something so unique. I love watching the chemistry between Freddie and Justin when they are on stage together, they completely gel and seem to bounce off of each others energies, and when they aren't embracing in a hug or playing closely together, Freddie is seen to be bounding about the stage playing his guitar flawlessly and Justin is leading the pack with his amazing voice and amazing lyrics. Pete, like any drummer, doesn't have to chance to jump around the stage like everyone else in the band, and so he has to prove how well he can play from that spot at the back, ad he sure does this, his drumming complements off the other threes guitars and vies versa. The sound they create together is such a unique sound that when people ask me to put them into a genre I really really struggle because it's just a complete mixture of different styles and not everyone could pull that off as well as they do, they range from 50's style rock and roll to 70's punk and everything in between. at the end of the gig and the encore they all bowed graciously at the front edge of the stage and exit stage left to an array of cheers, claps and whistles.

So to sum it all up it was an amazing night and an experience I will always remember.