Well, it could only be Canadian delights such as:
* 1234 - Feist
* The Con - Tegan & Sara
* Still In Love Song - The Stills

I'M DOWN WITH THAT: Things I Love About Toronto:
* Corn mazes as a form of entertainment - the Canadians really get behind Halloween and running around a Corn Maze armed with a map and quiz questions is actually more fun for adults than you might think, particularly when armed with a camera, and many stupid poses!
* Tim Hortons - actually, I love this about Canada in general. I love Tim Bits the most - essentially, the round bit the cut out of doughnuts. It has to go somewhere I guess?!

WHAT'S WITH THAT: Things I Loathe About Toronto:
* Niagara Falls is much less impressive than you would expect - yep, its a big waterfall, but it lacks the air of grandeur that the photos imply it has.

THINGS I'VE LEARNT:
* When they say you'll get wet at Niagara Falls, they actually mean you'll get soaked! Particularly important if its windy, and the wind suddenly changes direction!
* If there's a flavour combination, the Canadians have put it into a bagel, popcorn, crisp. Mmmmm, salty junkfood goodness!

Well, Richie, you weren't the only one disappointed. Oddly enough, one day after the All Blacks shock quarter final depature from the Rugby World Cup, I too am still really disappointed. And I know disappointment - how could this be worse than the 95 heartbreaking loss to South Africa in extra time? Ultimately, the excuses are futile - France played a great game, and we didn't perform when we needed to.

That said, it was an amazing atmosphere in Cardiff, and despite the horror, I'm glad I went. Its obviously much worse to experience a defeat firsthand as it were, but it was truly something to be a part of it.

I'M DOWN WITH THAT: Things I Love About Stockholm:
* They show movies in English - so on a WET evening in Stockholm, we went to see 'The Simpsons - The Movie'. Which was much funnier than I was expected, and gave the world the amazing "Spiderpig" song
* The cool animals at Skansen - Margot loved the crazy bear that nearly attacked us, and I was really impressed by the Moose. And we saw reindeer too ... I guess they have to live somewhere when they're not with Santa!
* You can buy 'V' - fresh outta South Auckland, via some Swedish labelling!
* Balls, balls & more balls - of the food varieties of course! Loved the swedish meatballs I had, and the whole idea you can get balls of mashed potato with your hotdog is fantastic (although somewhat difficult to eat!)
* Chokladbollar (Chocolate balls) - these are amazing! Coconut chocolate balls, that you are meant to eat with coffee. Although we ate them with everything, and for almost every meal ... so so good!

WHAT'S WITH THAT: Things I Loathe About Stockholm:
* Swedish for Hello - is "Hey" ... so its perfectly natural for someone to say "Hey" and then you say "Hey" back, and then you are in all sorts of trouble because they think you speak Swedish. Which I of course don't!
* Plastic macs - are not a good look. Unfortunately, the became a necessary evil for our day spent around Skansen, and didn't Margot & I look like a couple of prize idiots (more than normal!)

THINGS I'VE LEARNT:
* Rihanna controls the weather - after single handedly ruining the UK summer (don't believe me? They proved it HERE) she turned her attention towards Stockholm, where that damn song was playing EVERYWHERE and down came the rain!
* There are over 70 Museums in Stockholm - I think we went to 3. And one of those was only to use the bathroom!
* Random foods do not make interesting foods - just because a food is shaped like a chocolate cone, or a lime green log, does not make it tasty.
* In northern Sweden, they use bark to make bread - yes, actual bark from trees. And its actually not that bad - tastes a bit like Riveta!

I know some people don't understand who I can laugh about the fact that I am blind in one eye, but the truth is, you have to laugh. Especially in a week when you visit the hospital and start discussing transplant options. Yikes!

You spend approximately NZ$10 on a box of Shapes from the New Zealand shop in Covent Garden (that would cost about NZ$2 in New Zealand!) and get ridiculously excited about eating them all in one go for dinner!

This is what happens when you have on your 5th consecutive week off work, and someone gives you a pack of plasticine as a gift. And the sad thing is, you actually enjoy yourself!

I'm Down With That: Things I Love About Egypt
* Our tour guide Yuki was so gosh darn cute - between the adorable GAP polo shorts he always sported, plus the fab sayings "vamoose", and his brilliant take on Egyptian culture "we Egyptians are the best at everything", he really made the trip!
* Margot and I deciding to give everyone nicknames - well, it was one way to kill time on the long overnight train, so in the style of Grey's Anatomy, we came up with "McMonkey", "McGrath", "McHappy", "McWhipped", "McWog" (ironically, for someone who turned out NOT to be Greek!) and even "McDude"!
* Our personal driver in Cairo - when we ordered a taxi to take us to the centre of Cairo on our free day, we actually ended up with a personal shopper (he was able to haggle for us!), a cultural advisor (telling us what local delicacies we should try) and even comedian (whilst driving, he would remark ... Do you want to drive? I'm tired!)

What's With That: Things I Loathe About Egypt
* Over-endowed Belly Dancers - we saw one lady who clearly was more of a booby dancer ... man those puppies were MASSIVE! Needless to say, the boys all loved it
* Getting harrassed by school kids - being chased by a pack of 8-10 year olds at the Pyramids while all your friends stand by and laugh at you ... so NOT cool!
* Overzealous salesman - although there were many, a special shout out goes to our man Fahty "that's Fahty NOT Fatty" whos attempts to get us to buy perfume were just crazy ... go on smell my knee!
* The toilets in the overnight train from Cairo to Aswan - oh sweet mother of god, standing outside them made you want to dry wretch, if you dared to open the door, then you did so at your own peril!! The smell was so disgusting, I think I tried to 'not go' for the entire 13 hour journey!

What can I say? The song of the same name by The Fray seems to be summing up my job at the moment. Quite simply, it feels like I am drowning in work and no one either notices or particularly cares. I'm part of this team that no one wants to acknowledge me as part of (ironically half the team I work with work with went out last Friday for a team lunch to an uber-posh restaurant and talked about how they could involve me more!?! Thats how stupid this is!) My boss told me to leave, there's a better life out there for me apparently. Now if only I wasn't a "flight risk" and maybe I could follow his advice.

Check the song out HERE

If there is one thing I live for, its the next concert ... when you have it pinned on your board, months in advance, and there is so much build up and excitment ... HURRAH!

18 September 2007 - JOHN MAYER @ Royal Albert Hall

5 September 2007 - BEASTIE BOYS @ Brixton Academy
But don't just take my word for it, check out THIS

24 August 2007 - ANGELS & AIRWAVES @ The Astoria

22 August 2007 - DECAYDANCE FESTIVAL - Feat. The Academy Is, Cobra Starship, Gym Class Heroes, Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy @ Hammersmith Apollo
With a surprise guest appearance by Tom Higgenson, the lead singer of Plain White T's (who looks a lot like Alex from the Arctic Monkeys) who armed with only his guitar played hit song "Hey There Delilah", that had everyone singing along. Don't know the song? Check out THIS

But maybe it was just me who didn't rate the gig, check out THIS

20 August 2007 - +44 @ The Astoria

16 August 2007 - TEGAN & SARA @ Bush Hall

29 July 2007 - ME FIRST & THE GIMME GIMMES @ The Forum

27 July 2007 - BASEMENT JAXX @ Brixton Academy

22 July 2007 - LOVEBOX WEEKENDER @ Victoria Park

17 June 2007 - KAISER CHIEFS, EDITORS, THE RAKES @ O2 Festival, Hyde Park
* Worst part - how about not being able to go because you are laid up in a hospital bed, only days away from eye surgery! GUTTED! At least the weather was shite, or I would have been even more pissed off!

24 May - GROOVE ARMADA @ Camden Roundhouse

15 May - TEITUR @ Bush Hall

27 March 2007 - DAMIEN RICE @ Hammersmith Apollo
* Best part - when Damien let loose with just his guitar & the mic, he was monumental. So powerful, so moving, such a fantastic ability to convey so much emotion with only his voice. The power to silence 10,000 fans cannot be underestimated. Even better, was the finale "Cannonball" which he sang with no amps or mics ... absolutely beautiful.
* Weird part - who let his cellist loose with her own song? That seriously could have been written by a five year old "how is your wife?/did she come at you with a knife?" except for the lines she managed to rhyme with heroin and pot!! Would have been funny, except it cut into our Damien-time.
* Worst part - he needs to learn when to end it. An overly indulgent 5 minute outro to every song is NOT required. Especially when you insist on not playing your "hits" in favour of some obscure song you wrote for your friend's film, the NO ONE has ever hear of ... don't turn it into a 20 minute epic.
* Lesson learnt the hard way - worst tickets ever. I mistook standing tickets for the general downstairs standing tickets ... little did I know there are also rear circle standing tickets ... ie. approx. 200 tickets they release to stand BEHIND all the people sitting, way WAAAAAAYYYYYYY at the back. I think my ears popped and my nose bled ... far too far back.

3 March 2007 - THE FEELING @ Hammersmith Apollo
* The Support - Now when do I ever knowingly go early to a gig to check out the support act? Pretty much never. But tonight's support act was The Fray - of mega-huge single "How To Save A Life" notoriety. And seeing my sister had just sent me the CD earlier this week, I wanted to hear 'em ... what can I say, "Over My Head" has been a VERY apt song for me this week. And they were pretty good, in the sounds-just-like-their-CD kinda way. Limited crowd interaction, or any real spark, but they sounded fine, so you couldn't really fault them.
* Best part - definitely the opening sequence. They had covered the stage with this huge sheet, which I assumed meant there was some cool set piece getting put up - but they used it to project onto. A brilliant YouTube montage - the band had obviously put their name into it, and had cobbled together all these funny videos of people singing along to their songs! They had even made their own spoof video.
* Weirdest part - the self-appointed "Wave Nazi" (I kid you not, that's what he called himself!) who was trying to get me to do this whole weird group wave thing with his friends. Damn, he was quite cute if he wasn't all weird!
* And the annoyance - I was texting Julia pre-show, saying how many loved up couples there were (cue vomitting). And at 1am, she finally text me back with this gem "Is there no one to fill your little world right up, pickle?" ... and the she thought she was funny!

25 February 2007 - THE SHINS @ Astoria
* Best part - the guys played a good mix of new & old material, and I loved the new material - it just seemed to blend in really nicely with the set. I love how they are still these 4 dorks, but they totally don't care. Very laidback crowd though, who only wanted the two songs from "Garden State", but what can you do?

3 February 2007 - +44 @ Brixton Academy
Well, the rumours were true - Travis didn't play tonight because he was sent back to LA to get his broken arm sorted out ... finally (having continued to drum with a broken arm for the best part of six months). So good for him I guess, but sucky for the fans. Never fear, the substitute drummer was apparently Gil from Zero Hours - or so my new found friends told me! Why is it that early 20's guys are always the chatty ones?! Still, they were excited - or so the Zero Hours merchandise they were wearing would lead you to believe!

29 January 2007 - FALL OUT BOY @ Hammersmith Palais
* Best part - nice to hear the new material "This Ain't A Scene" was epic.
* Weird part - well, what can I say? I felt unbelievably old, even more so than when I saw them last year. Which brings me around to where I was with my life last year .. but that's another story. I swear, I thought the gig must have been all ages, but alas, I am just that old that even 18 year olds look like school kids. Furthermore, when are the band going to get that making Pete Wentz the poster child for emo-rock maybe doing them more harm them good? I wish Patrick would bring some of that lead-singer bravado to the mic in between songs, as it doesn't need to all be angst & pain, nakedness and Pete's "fuck-establishment" lines.