To: sdgdg.sdf@sdg.sg.sdf
Subject: never on a sunday
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 1998 19:02:52 PDT

oh yes !

that 1960s soundtrack has just been rereleased on cd !!!

If you like I can tell you about the movie, it will titilate you for 
sure !!

It is of not now as the title track ('never on a sunday') was used as a 
basis of 'No Tengo Dinero' by 'Los Umbrellos' !


Okay what have I done ?
well I've manned the reception here for a few days and made a 'few bob'. 
This week I aim to be proactive again in looking for a job, though I 
seem to have forgotten a lot about computers already.

  On Saturday I went to Notting Hill Market at 6pm to grab some cheap 
veges and fruit etc. Then wandered downtown to try to meet up with some 
flowersellers, but it's been pretty wet and windy now so no one is out. 
I never made it to Sash, it looked too packed ! 


ON Sunday it was planned to be a MARKET DAY !!
I wanted to go to Wembley but TOO FAR !

So I got on the tube outside the hostel and travelled for 20-25 mins to 
Liverpool Station and there I crossed the road to Petticoat Market.

 I'd say it's the most wellknown market worldwide, I knew about it 
before I even came here !  Despite it not being the most popular market. 
This area is/was a clothes orientated region so there's lots of 
warehouse shops here. Well anyway it was WELL COOL here, lots of new 
clothes at good prices.

 There is a fashion here for PLATFORM everythings, sneakers etc
Are they coming into vogue back in NZ ?

  I took about an hour here, a guy was selling some trick cards and 
rings etc so I may get a pack soon cos it looked fun.
I then TADAH attempted to head to Bricklane Market.  5 Mins west is 
spitalfields market which I went to last week so this time I headed east 
or north.
  
  Bricklane is definitely gonna be one of my faves for hanging around 
in.  The road is pretty much cobblestoned is most parts. This is a heavy 
heavy indian place  !  I am searching for an album for hindi group DCS 
so call into some music stores.  I picked up a cheap bhangra mix tape 
which is well catchy with wonderful indian female vocals of it.  A lot 
of indian dancemusic I've heard is basically taking english songs and 
either singing inbetween the choruses or singing over the instrumental 
version of it.
Thus far I've heard good versions of 'Gypsy Woman' 'Free' and 'Turn it 
up' (that Busta Rhymes song).

  I tracked down a copy of DCS but was just a bit short on cash for it.

BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT  !!

Today I picked up a copy of SNOOP !!  It is a free fortnightly indian 
music/culture magazine and it is the BEST thing I have read since coming 
here.  It deals with mostly indian youth culture and it is so well 
written and funny and crude I (no joking) laughed at every article in it 
!  It puts paid to an ideas that indians are conservative quiet demure 
people ;-)


they have : http://www.snoop.co.uk but it ain't up yet methinks.

for DCS :
http://www.kamlee-records.co.uk  but it ain't up either !

When I got back home I raved to everyone about the magazine !!

  I continued down the depressingly dirty and brickish road and after 
about 8 mins I reached the main market.......it is spread over a block 
and the neighbourhood is a little grotty and the roads are strewn with 
litter.  Some shops are basically old garages with literally heaps of 
junk for sale tossed casually together for presentation and pitch (?)  
Many people I know probably wouldn't enjoy this, but I liked the goldarn 
feel of it.

  That is, a lot of character !

 Just like in Portobello there is a guy selling boxes of (almost) 
expired food and drink which is tempting. Mainly just softdrink plis 
chips etc. But the best thing for me was a guy selling stuff out of the 
back of a lorry.  The stuff was so amazingly cheap I almost walked away 
with a 37 piece bone china set for $20 NZ, an electric toothbrush for $3 
NZ, a german 7 knife set for $15 NZ.but I didn't ;-)

  The market goes from 10-2pm so it finished soon after I got there (I 
got up a bit late today).

  On Brick Lane there is an art gallery called Designers Block.
On one side of the road are a block of shop fronts - no signs and 
wonders. Basically you walk along the path and in each 'store' there is 
an art installation.

  On the other side there is an art shop whose name escapes me but I 
gotta find you the website as it is an amazing shop selling nice arty 
farty products. BUT the real fun for me was sneaking to the top floor of 
the building and finding myself in the studio/warehouse which was strewn 
with rubbish etc etc. For some reason I did not take a photo of myself 
here so I will have to do so next week as for me it was an amazing 
feeling, climbing up some darkly lit litter strewn stairs up 2 floors 
and finding a large room here !

  After this I headed off to Camden Markets to look for a record for a 
friend but no luck !

  I went to Chinatown as it was the midautumn festival with mooncakes 
etc.  I wanted some desperately, but they cost $30 NZ for a tin of 4 !  
It is a chinese bun/cake about 10cm x 5cm x 10cm and has a sort of sweet 
paste in the middle.....  
Earlier in the day I had tried to phone Liz and Kim to go but couldn't 
catch them.   

  By now it was pouring down and it was 5pm. The childrens tent was 
still going. When I heard the compere I almost cried as I'd not heard 
cantonese spoken so eloquently since I've been here. I walked down the 
road past shivering chinese girls in skimpy attire (common with all 
girls in London in fact whatever the weather) and caught the end of a 
liondance demonstration. Then they packed up the stage. I picked up some 
chinese noodles and groceries.

  Pretty much sapped now I headed back home.  Darren had gone to the 
festival, (in fact quite a few people from the hostel went because I had 
told them about it), and had bought boxes of POPPOPS or THROWNDOWNS, 
little paper balls that BANG on contact. SO he got us good with them.  

  Musically we were on a classical music tip so we played Ravel's 8min 
Bolero and Morning from Pier Gynt by Greig (oh yes we blasted this one!)  
And Darren remarked that inbetween him throwing poppops at pretty girls 
passing his way at the festival there were some chinese acrobatics 
performing to this piece of music !!

Then I went to bed.......satisfied with another hectic weekend.


To: sdtillsdg.dfg@sdgf.g
Subject: still alive
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 20:30:20 PDT
Reply Reply All Forward  Delete  Previous Next  Close 

hi all !
a short note.

it's 4:30am and I've just cleared my inbox.
I had a stomach cramp last week so I wasn't able to log on.

I'm still ok, the weather's looking better.

I just developed anothr roll of film of the notting hill carnival, which 
I still have to tell you about etc etc etc

oh yes I'm so behind !

last weekend I helped jackie (who is she you ask?) move to windsor so 
she called me along to help navigate and it was a fun experience !

last night roger taylor played here so I got some great pics but was too 
polite to ask for an autograph doh !

there are some gary numan and depeche mode tribute bands playing this 
week so I'm there !

allan told me of a secret gig by the cure I missed it cos it was in 
windsor ! doh !

later
darryl

p.s. we have lots of guns now...


To: welcome.to.mailing.list@uk.com
Subject: HAPPY DIWALI !!
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 19:24:15 PST

hi all !

well it's been a bit quiet here on my front.
The hostel has been busy so haven't had a chance to log on for more than 
a few minutes.

thanks to all who have emailed me in the past two weeks or so it's been 
cool !

ell I can't remember much happening this week.
It was Andrew's birthay on Sunday so on Friday night we had a party down 
here and it was a great atmosphere as all the different factions bonded 
rather nicely.  We have two japanese guys at the hostel at the moment 
and they are great fun !
One of them is into philosophy does not know how to use computers and 
was literally rolling around on the floor a lot !

Today (Sunday) I took Jackie out to the markets to look for accessories 
for her new flat.  We got home and John had nicely cooked dinner for us 
all.

  At night not wanting to waste a travel card I went into town to walk 
around. I caught up with Hema again and caught up after a long drought 
of 4-6 weeks. She has been unemployed for 8 months now and seems to been 
in a bit of a lull now.  She is on the dole and gets 50 UKP a week and I 
learnt today that they also get their board paid for.

  Using my skills from selling/pulling rickshaws (incidentally she told 
me of how another rickshaw driver had got attacked in Leicester Square 
which is not something Darren had told me about), I in turn told her of 
the pedicab driver we drew who was set upon in Soho 3 weeks ago, and we 
ain't seen him since.

  Anyway, at one point as we chatted and tried to uplift each other a 
guy bumped into me and apologised, I accepted it an threw in a line 
about helping us out and buying a rose so with a big grin he says yes as 
it's his boyfriend's birthday today so with a big sloppy kiss he handed 
over the rose to his asian boyfriend.  Another incident is a typical one 
for rosesellers around here and that is that groups of guys (young or 
youngish) try to grab the roses from their bucket. So at one point I 
have to tell some guys to fuck off in the nicest possible way ;-)

  As a break from the din of the square I walk about Soho and check into 
Namcoworld which as you can guess is a video game parlour inhabited by 
japanese younglings !!

  At 11pm I check out with Hema and walk up Charing Cross Road to 
Tottenham Court Tube Station. Along the way past "Club 79" I feel a tap 
on my shoulder and as I twirl around I catch a man carrying sleeping bag 
behind me.  We start talking and walking past the Limelight Nightclub I 
spot something on the ground that I dive for and he does so as well. 

  I come up with a flyer for G.A.Y. proclaiming Marc Almond will be 
performing on Helloween and the flyer will get me in for 10 UKP !
He comes up with a ten pound note he found and then obviously elated he 
dashes off past the theatre showing Les Mis and onwards.

  I head back home and log on.........


To: my.list@ha.ha
Subject: welcome home.....please stay !
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 18:52:13 PST

Hi all !

welcome back to Vicki who seems to have been off the list for a while.
[VJ pls tell me what the last mailing list email you got from me was.]

[to those of you who put money into my trustbank acct for me to pick up 
stuff for you here. my family just got the latest statement which says I 
am $20 OD !! And basically is is because of the 50cent bank charges I've 
been incurring by trying to access my account here in London, so sorry 
for the lag in purchases. The main problem is now working out where is 
that money that was put into my account ?  It may have been something 
that has happened with the merger between Westpac and Trustbank]

Today I was woken by the bright sunlight through the window.
I got up expecting it to be 11am or so but found it was 9:30am.

 An early start to the day normally denotes a busy day.  I ate breakfast 
and phoned up for two jobs - a bit too late I'm afraid.
 In The afternoon it was wet and windy so I decide to walk down to 
Serpetine Gallery to see the Chris Ofili exhibition. He is the black 
mancunian who specialises is using elephant dung in his paintings which 
are normally heavily on the resin. Then I went to Notting Hill Gate. I 
got back to the hostel at 6pm and sat on the bed reading and writing. At 
7:00pm I remembered that Bernard Butler (ex of Suede and McAlmont & 
Butler fame) was playing down the road at Shepherds Bush Empire so I 
head down there to try to get an autograph or photo.

[  You know what's going to happen don't you ?  ]


  The ticket touts aren't having a good time so the same one approaches 
me 3 times and finally I ask him how much he's selling them for.  The 
tickets sold for 10 UKp and he's willing to sell for 10 UKP. No go say I 
as I only have 5 UKp on me, so he takes it and 30 seconds later I'm 
inside the venue wondering what I've just done.  I'm tired from the 
day's walking my last meal was 12 midday and I'm wearing 3 shirts as I 
was rushed to head out here.

  Anyway I am on level 2 (there are 4 levels : ground, 1,2 & 3). I grab 
the seat on the left balcony and have a great view of the stage and 
downstairs. 8:00-8:30pm: The first support band M3 is a 5 piece with 3 
guitarists, one being a female bass player. Their sound is good, though 
my adage is that all live music is good. The sound is crisp and clear 
and find myself tapping the way through the 5 songs in 30 minutes.  

  8:50-9:20pm: Next up Sunhouse who play for 40 minutes and do about 8 
songs. They have a harmonica player in the mix as well and they look 
very much like Pearl Jam but luckily don't sound like them. It is at 
this point that the people behind me are irritating me, much like the 
screeds of people who surrounded me at the Depeche Mode concert (which 
I've still got to bitch to you guys about.) When this was happening I 
was envisaging myself writing up this email and using the word cunt cunt 
cunt cunt cunt cunt a lot, but a female friend told me off for using 
this 2 nights ago so now I've calmed down now so I won't grace you with 
the torture scenes I was playing in my head.  At this moment the venue 
is still only a quarter full.

  Because of some ticketing mistake the first level is basically half 
full whereas we have people standing and sitting on the stairs.  I see a 
couple look my way and I motion to them that the seats to the left and 
right of me are free. You know how at a concert or movie theatre single 
people put a distance between every other person, well I had a suitable 
buffer zone but as demonstrated by my actions I'm willing to share.  The 
guy looks a bit cautious as the view may not be good but his girl comes 
on over and JUMPS down beside me.  We get talking and she correctly 
identifies me as a NZer. What can I say about them ?  Well they are a 
very musically diverse couple and are major Marillion fans to boot and 
inadvertently I start up the old Marillion/Genesis soundalike discusion. 
Their names are Ian and I think Beth.

  Beth takes off after the second act and comes back with a pint of 
Guiness for me and salted (very) peanuts and I'm overwhelmed ! Actually 
earlier on she offered me and would not take no for answer a sit of her 
cider and it was a nice weak one (s I used to drink cider but then went 
off it etc etc etc).

9:45-11:00pm: with a big buildup and an enormous crowd roar the main act 
comes on stage with 2 guitarists, keyboard and stocky asian drummer.  
Well I was hoping for some surprises like some Suede or McAlmont & 
Butler songs but no luck - all these earlier collaborations ended 
acrimoniously actually so maybe my hopes weren't that high.  He did 8 
songs, the last being 'Stay' ("...don't go, stay....please stay") which 
I think got some airplay in NZ.  He is a well known and very gifted 
guitarist and I am impressed by his dedication as he thrashes and jumps 
about the stage with the guitar. The second to last song before 'Stay' 
was 'Book Of Autographs' (?) which is long and ends with him screeching 
the guitar sitting on the floor and it is this moment I capture on 
camera.

  He does two encores, first one is acoustic and the other is electric 
and ends with his putting his guitar up to the speaker and giving up 
feedback until the houselights came back on.

  We leave the venue and say our goodbyes. It is the last concert of the 
national tour so a lot of peddlers of posters and fake tshirts are 
selling it all off cheap. I look around the corner and see some people 
lining up for autographs so I join them.  There are 8 of us in total. 
There are some mature asian ladies from Vancouver and Northern 
California, three ladies from South London; and two friends, one from 
down the road and the other from near Windsor.

  Most of them are fretting about missing the tube so pretty soon it is 
just me and the last two girls left. The of them is tall and them and 
has a bindi in the middle of her forehead, the other is a shapely 
shortish redhead who during the course of our time together offers 'to 
get her tits out' in order to get Bernard out to sign something. All I 
can do is blush and try not to stare. Intermittantly we'd individually 
duck around the corner to relieve ourselves as well.......
okay I don't think you wanna know all these details.  Suffice to say we 
didn't wait around so headed back home. I came and to do my email and 
this letter and check some online recruitment agencies. the end.