Dream Theater - Review

The hall lights go down, the strobe lights flash and there is a sound of rolling thunder. Everyone is in their seats. Yes. IN their seats. No one stands up. Dream Theater come out and start with 'A Nightmare To Remember' and gradually, people rise to watch the show. Very different to the UK where everyone would be up on their feet when the house lights go down. I did wonder if it was a New Zealand thing. New Zealanders are a tad more reserved than people in the UK. Yes, I know. Throughout the evening I noticed people were sitting down to rest their weary legs. Is this a sign of things to come? People are fat and lazy and can't stand for 2 hours at a time? My feet were killing me about three quarters of the way through but then I'm an old git so I've an excuse. Not that I sat down. I wasn't going to miss anything.
James LaBrie said that they had not been to New Zealand for 20 years, so unfortunately, this show wasn't a Black Clouds and Silver Linings show. The set was more a CV of Dream Theater's last 20 years, playing the likes of Pull Me Under, Constant Motion, As I Am, The Mirror...etc. I was pleased that they did play 'The Count of Tuscany'. For some reason, I expected this one to be played. There was the obligatory solo (keyboard) with an enjoyable 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' battle between Jordan Rudess and John Petrucci. John Myung was as he ever is. Moving about a bit with his fingers going mental on the bass. I don't know why but I got the impression that Mike Portnoy was a tad aggressive on his outlook that evening. He was great, as usual, but I felt that he didn't seem to be enjoying himself. James LaBrie kept disappearing behind the screen. I cannot remember if he did this at previous concerts. Perhaps he did this to let the other members of the band take centre stage but it was happening quite a lot and I believed he should have stayed to urge the crowd on. That's what a front man does right? He also seemed not to be enjoying his stay here. Looking at the back of my T-shirt I did notice it was at the end of a long tour. Perhaps it was just fatigue. Perhaps I misread it all.
The sound was excellent. The engineers did a great job and hopefully made easier by the fact that The Civic is a great auditorium. Lighting was great too. I could see and hear everyone in the band, individually and as a collective.
Dream Theater started just after 20:00 and played for 2 hours, finishing just after 22:00, which is good for a band. Well, it was in the old days.
Please don't get me wrong. It was a great show. An excellent show. I'm glad I went. I think at the end of the day I was hoping for a Black Clouds and Silver Linings show and was disappointed at Dream Theater for not playing more from the album. Seeing as they hadn't been in New Zealand for 20 years, I can understand them wanting to play more of a mix for the New Zealand audience. I guess, being English, I've been spoilt, when I lived close to London. Maybe I'm getting old and analysing things too much now and not enjoying the moment. Well, I am a business analyst after all. :-D
Man of the day? The 'Old Skool' fan with denim jacket complete with band patches a-plenty. Kudos to him. I am not worthy.

Trip to Auckland

On Tuesday morning, I drove to Deans' and he then took me onto that airport. It was cheaper leaving my car at Deans' than at the airport. A short wait and then off on the relatively smooth flight to Auckland for the Dream Theater concert that evening. I arrived in Auckland at 11:00 and took the bus into the city. It's probably the cheapest way to get there at $16.
When I checked into the hotel they could not find my reservation on their system. I finally had to log onto gmail and show them my receipt from their booking system. They were grateful and gave me a complimentary room upgrade. This was basically a queen sized bed into a king sized.
After dropping off my luggage - my karrimor handlebar bag from the '80's - I went to get some foils for my electric razor from the shaver shop. It's the only shop I know that WOULD have spare parts for electric razors actually in stock. They did not disappoint. I bought 2. The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the shops looking for Christmas presents.
Wednesday morning was a nice lie in. Mmmmm. That's the great thing about going away and no kids. So when I did get up I phoned Nicola and arranged for a time when she'd pick me up. For those that don't know, I used to flat with Nicola when I was working in Auckland for Unitec. So I had time to pop down to Starbucks and get a White Chocolate Mocha, more Mmmmmm, and whilst I was there, I jotted down some notes for my Dream Theater Review. Nicola picked me up from the hotel and we went back to her lovely house for lunch and a chat. It was great to catch up and see how little Carter was doing. Nicola then took me to the airport where I flew home. My arms are very tired now.

Angry

I've been in an angry mood for the past few days. Last night I found it difficult to get to sleep. The reason? I could post a picture but I won't as looking at it will just keep me angry. After constant telling that they are not allowed felt tip pens without asking us and they're not allowed to use them except on paper, guess what Bees did? Drew all over a chest of drawers. The nice ones. Not the rubbish ones that they use. and I've noticed blue on the carpet and the bedside table and a small table next to a living room chair.
Note to self. Only shop at Briscoes, the Warehouse and the $2 shop. There's no point in having anything nice anymore. Cheap crap will do.

My next brew

Friends in the UK will know about Parma Violets. Although it says they're a violet flavour, I've always though of them as more lavender. But what do I know. So on that thought, my next brew will be lavender flavoured wine. I watched "River Cottage - Summer's Here" last night and they talked about gorse flower wine. I have gorse bushes so one day I might give that a try but for now, lavender. So what will it taste like? Perfume. Still it's better than rose flavoured wine. That would taste like soap!

Courtenay AandP Show

Audrey went to the Courtenay A and P show on Saturday whilst I was gardening and looking after the kids. She went there to show McLeod in the cob section. Audrey entered various classes and got first and second in those and then at the end of that she got the overall winner of her section (Champion). Click the picture for a slightly bigger one.

The Weekend

This weekend was nothing special. Friday was a day off from work. It was Show day in Canterbury and Christchurch was having it's annual A and P show. So I was out clearing grass from my gum trees to allow them to 'breathe', weeding the garden and general tidying up.
Rather interestingly, 4 people (2 couples separately) came around to talk to us about elderflower champagne and ask if they could have some elderflowers. One was going to make cordial and the other to make champagne.
We had a great southerly blowin' through (see picture). These things are amazing. You can see the trees blowing from a way away and then the fields blow and you can see it hit as it goes through.
On Sunday the kids and Audrey went into Christchurch to get McLeod to get is back looked at. I caught up on some videos and also weeded the garden a little and FINISHED (YAY!) the tree clearing.

Mixed Ramblings

This weekend started off very busy. I've been removing the grass surrounding the gum trees all week and did some more on the weekend. I also sprayed the remaining grass with weed killer. Mowing was a large part of Saturday, mowing a path to the gum trees by the side of the fence and mowing the grass around the house with the flymo. I still have 1 tree to chop up that came down in some high winds we had and a branch from an apple tree than came down a while ago.
Whilst relaxing in the bath after a long day outside, tending to the garden I had a few thoughts. What to so with the surplus vegetables that I'll get this year. I usually freeze the tomatoes. That, I shall do again, but I might try for a few more tomatoes this year and see what tomato beer/wine/cider tastes like. I'm not sure what you'd call it really. The garlic I might break up into cloves and submerge in oil to preserve them which means getting some oil and some jars. Maybe some of those flip top thingys. About a month ago, my yearly garlic supply dried up so I have to wait for a month and a half before my next years crop. Thankfully I have some spare garlic given to me. I then had a rather interesting thought and searching for it on the web found nothing. Alcoholic Cola. Cola has water, sugar and flavour. All I need add is yeast, surely? An interesting project which I'll have a go at when the really cheap cola is on sale. It'll cost about NZ$16 for the cola, NZ$5 for the yeast and I get all the bottles ready to bottle it too. Worth a try I reckon.

Why reinvent the wheel?

In my time at programming I created or used any number of routines over and over again that did a specific job, from just a small function like adding a number of days to a date to writing out an error report or selecting data from an SQL database. Now I'm a business analyst and there are many process modelling applications out there that follow a set standard (BPMN for example). I know there's more than one way to skin a cat, programming has taught me that, so what I'd like to know is why can't I find a library of process model routines that I can import into the BPMN application of choice and build up a simple library of my own to create processes faster?
So many different systems perhaps? Yeah right, like there's no HR or no Help Desk. OK, I'm working in the education sector, but receiving an application for study has similarities to receiving an application for insurance. I shall continue my quest for processes I can scavenge but it seems odd that there's nothing out there.

Wind

On Wednesday I got up at 04:00 to catch an early flight to Auckland for business. Networked, watched presentations and got some useful info to take back to work. My flight home was expected to be off at 18:30 but as I was at the airport earlier I managed to get onto an hour earlier flight... thankfully. I got back to my car and drove to Hell to get dinner and then drove home. as I was driving home the wind picked up a bit. Enough to push my car around more than normal. It was about the time I would have been coming into land at Christchurch Airport if I had not caught that earlier flight. The next day, after work Bees took me over to show me a tree. It had blown down in the wind. I'm glad I wasn't on my scheduled flight coming home. Scary. Still, on the bright side, more firewood.

Labour Day Weekend

Over Labour Day weekend we all took a trip up Marlborough way to Havelock where Jim, Gaby, Angel and Sapphire now live. On Friday afternoon at 14:00, we drove off north along SH1 towards Picton. We stopped for a couple of comfort stops and once for fish n chips at Kaikoura before arriving about 20:00 at Havelock, knackered and in need of a drink. Saturday and we were going to go to Picton but decided to go to the market at Nelson. Nelson is full of rich people or hippies (exaggeration here). We had a wander. Bees got a white hat. Jamie got a truck made out of coke cans. On the way back we stopped off at Pelorous Bridge for an ice cream and a wander around the river. That evening Gaby and Jim invited Rebecca and Chris, their neighbours around for a few drinks. It ended up many, many drinks.
The next day, Sunday, with some, a little worse for wear, we went off to Linkwater for the Linkwater School Fair where the kids went on the bouncy castle, bouncy titanic and had their faces painted. There was a band playing (teenagers) who seemed very good, especially the drummer. I watched him and after about 10 seconds I decided he was alot better than I, but then I haven't played for 15 years. Later that afternoon we went for a walk in Havelock and the kids played on the museum train. Monday afternoon we came home, all knackered. It was a great trip and apart from the driving, it was a relaxing break. I took a few photos.