Two months?! Fuck me!

Okay, what's been happening...first off, I went to visit a friend in Toronto, and it was fucking awesome. I feel sad for saying this but it was my first experience in a 'new' city and whilst it was initially intimidating, I settled in pretty quickly. The people there are ridiculously friendly and even the ones who aren't are still quite polite. Also, the fact that a coffee culture, and not a drinking one, is dominant suits me right down to a T. And there's so many beautiful girls (and guys)! It's criminal. To be honest, I'm strongly considering moving there after the PhD, I loved it that much. Have any of you ever had that feeling where you just fit in somewhere? That's what I had.

On sad news, my Kiev trip has been cancelled thanks to Ryanair and Wizzair completely fucking me over to a horrible extent. Moving a flight back 3 days does not qualify as a time change, you bastards! Still, what's done is done.

Had a little trip down to Oxford last month for a UK-China millimetre wave conference, which was pretty fun. I met some really cool people from, of all places, St Andrew's, one of whom is apparently friends with Angelina Jolie's uncle. They're both vulcanoligists, which is kinda funky. Anyhoo, Oxford's a beautiful city, ruined only by extortionate drinks prices. If you haven't been, you should go.

On the music front, I've had a few gigs. The Tori Amos one was stunning and made my night due to a girl giving me a ticket for a 4th row seat. Unexpected charity's always pleasant. Caught Tegan and Sara in Edinburgh last night, and they were...well, Tegan and Sara. Tegan even took a well-meaning heckler with good humour. What else...Jonathan Coulton (fun and geeky), the Pixies (wooooo!), Yo La Tengo (unexpectedly good) and Paradise Lost with Katatonia (fucking awesome). Finally, I caught Kylesa and Clutch and from that I have my first gig review! It's gonna be appearing in Rock-a-rolla magazine this month, which I urge people to check out as it's the only music mag worth shit nowadays. I've been asked to do some CD reviews and possibly further gigs in the future so I now have a cool second job.

Enough warbling, how are you all?
&

Jesus, another belated update. Someone give me a kick up the arse. Anyways, things are so-so at the moment. Had my presentation for the uni at Loch Lomond which went well, yet the day still left me wanting to drop out due to incidents with colleagues, one of whom used to be a very close friend of mine. Still, I've decided to stick it out for the moment so we'll see how it all works out. Apart from that, I'm presenting at another conference tomorrow, this time near Warrington. Dammit.

On a lighter note, I've started attending gigs again. Woo! Caught Bill Bailey a little while back, as well as Nadja (I'll chuck the pics for that one up soon), and I'm off to see the beautiful, wonderful, spec-fucking-tacular Tori Amos tonight. I'm actually so stoked that I was having nightmares where I missed the gig.

Oh yeah, and my iPod died. And the music wasn't backed up cos I didn't have enough room for it and I'm a fuckwit. Still, I have a new hard drive ordered so hopefully that'll get here soon.

Finally, Toronto on Saturday! Hells yeah.

Love & smooches

Ah, again with the belated update. Once again, I haven't really been up to much apart from uni. Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I am now a published scientist, which is kinda fun. I feel slightly guilty as I didn't really contribute to the paper that much but it's tied in to my work so they put my name on there. Yes, my supervisors rock. I also have a shitload of conferences coming up, namely the one I mentioned last time but also one in Oxford and one in Glasgow that I may be helping to organise. Phew!

I also booked up another holiday, this time with Emma. So I'm now going to Kiev in December! This may sound sad, but I'm primarily going to visit Chernobyl and Pripyat, which has been a goal of mine for a few years now. Yes, I'm pretty chuffed.

I've also been on a bit of a horror movie trip at the moment, having watched the Phantasm collection (awesome), Hellraiser III (shite), Madhouse (not enough Lance Henriksen) and Tokyo Zombie (pretty fun). Anyone have any recommendations for me?

Love & hugs
Dave

Yay for long overdue blogs! Woo!

I'd like to say something interesting has been happening but it's really more of the same shit. Gonna have to take the landlord to court for one. Not too happy about it but I'll hopefully get to see him squirm so maybe it'll all be worth it. Thank you all for your good wishes on that particular subject, by the way. On the Emma front, she went to see about getting back to her PhD earlier today but to no avail. We have a new dean and it seems he is somewhat financially driven to the point where he is trying to close the Royal College building. For those unaware of Strathclyde Uni, the Royal College was the first and central building of the campus. Rather sadly, no-one seemed perturbed by this but when he tried to sell off the union recently everyone was up in arms. Fucking students Anyhow, Emma's gonna need to put in an appeal to see if she can get back. Not good, but it could be worse.

On my PhD front, things are the same. Still running simulations but I'm working on a new device now. However, if we go with this device it'll be nice as I designed it. Still need to tweak the simulations though. Oh, and I'm giving an oral presentation at a conference in September. Won't that be fun, interesting and not at all nerve-wracking?

Entertainment-wise, I saw the new Transformers movie, which was fun but overly long, and Drag Me To Hell, which was fantastic. Yeah, I know the scares were cheap (Something's happening! It's loud! And sudden!) but it was still fun and took me back to my Evil Dead days. Apart from that, there's new Burn Notice, Adventures of Pete & Pete and Strawberry Panic to keep me amused. Oh, and I saw Static-X! It's about fucking time....

Love & smooches, people

Okay, so I have now settled in to the new flat and it is awesome! Seriously, this may not seem like much but having a flat with adequate heating and good lighting is just the ticket. Even Emma's seeming a lot happier here, so hopefully this'll help her towards recovery. Only downside is that my former landlord is being a slippery fucker again and ignoring all our attempts to contact him. Given that he still has our deposit and we have his keys, this is not a good situation.

On the lighter side, I've been checking out the spring anime season and it is looking good. Notable mentions go to Basquash, for being the most beautifully animated show I have ever seen, and Eden of the East, just for being a really fucking classy show with two of the most interesting, likeable characters in anime. And if anyone's interested, check out Kuroshitsuji as it is a very interesting, if somewhat creepy show.

What else? Off to Unearthly Trance and Ramesses tonight, which has the potential to be awesome, and then off to Morocco on Tuesday (actually, off to Madrid on Tuesday, then off to Morocco on Wednesday but let's not quibble). How about you good people? Off anywhere nice this year?

Oh, and my gig photos are up if anyone's curious. Feedback is always welcome.

Love & hugs

Okay, it seems that somebody had my account reinstated which may well be the sweetest thing anyone's done for me in ages so, whoever you are, I love you. If you want to make yourself known, give me a shout and I'll buy you a pint or give you some loving. Or both!

Anyhow, it actually feels pretty good to be back, it's nice to know that some things remain the same. The site hasn't changed (that much), most of my friends still seem to be kicking about and everything is in its rightful place. All is good.

In case anyone's curious, here's a brief rundown of the past year:
* I'm doing a PhD now, plasma and RF physics to be precise
* I move into a new flat tomorrow (across the road from the old one)
* Took a trip to Poland and visited Auschwitz
* Off to Marrakech next month
* Went to lots of gigs and took loads of photos. Highlights were seeing At the Gates(!) and Carcass(!!!) with the awesome, awesome duder that is evapilotone

Apart from some current drama, things are going okay, I'm glad to say. How about you all? What gossip have I missed in my absence?

Right, as many of you may know I have decided to leave this site. I have many reasons for this, but the short version is that I have become disillusioned with what this site has become. I will, however, say that the people I have found on the site and taken the time to know have unanimously been wonderful people. I'm still paid up until May though, so chances are you'll still hear from me.

If anyone wants to keep in touch. I have a MySpace account now, or you can email me: davidabowes@gmail.com.

Anyways, you fine people have my love. Over'n out

The past week or two has been another period of doin' very little. However, there have been a few things of note. First up was the exam which I had about half an hour ago. Whilst I didn't completely smoke it like I did the last one, I still think it went relatively well i.e. I actually managed to answer most of the questions. So that was pretty nice.

The only other things were the three gigs which I had recently. First up was Behemoth, then Dark Tranquillity with Omnium Gatherum, and lastly Earth with Sir Richard Bishop. And yes, all three were fantastic in their own ways despite some awful support at the Behemoth gig. So, as per usual, here are some photos. Sorry again for the quality and lighting but I do what I can.

Behemoth

Sir Richard Bishop

Earth

And since I'm in a good mood, if anyone would like it here's the new Boris album, Smile:
1. Message
2. Buzz-in
3. Shoot!
4. Flower, Sun, Rain
5. Next Saturn
6. Dead Destination
7. You Put Up Your Umbrella pt. 1
8. You Put Up Your Umbrella pt. 2

It's absolutely stunning, and so much better than I could've hoped for.

Love and hugs to you all

Once again, I've been away for a while and, once again, I have not really done anything noteworthy. First up, I'd like to say thank you to all who sent kind words for Emma, they were much appreciated and if you weren't on my Christmas card list already, you sure as hell are now.

I've actually been up to very little outside of uni, although I did attend my first gig in around a month: Eluvium and Explosions in the Sky. Although I hadn't really listened to either of them much before attending, I actually had a really good time. The only problem was that the venue was a pretty poor choice (Glasgow Barrowlands) due to the slightly muddy sound. Eluvium also seemed lost on such a huge stage. No photos this time either, due to security apparently having problem with cameras with zoom lenses (no joke, that is the excuse they gave me).

Apart from that, I bought a bunch of Stephen King short story collections after watching 1408. I know this may seem strange, but there is some seriously good shit in there. For anyone interested in good horror, read "The Road Virus Heads North". It's a cliched story but it's executed so damn well!

One final thing: if anyone's heading to any of these gigs (all are in Glasgow) feel free to drop me a line and we can meet up. I'm starting to feel like I don't know anyone outside of uni anymore:
Feb 4: Behemoth / Kataklysm
Feb 6: Dark Tranquillity / Evile / Omnium Gatherum
Feb 9: Earth / Sir Richard Bishop
Feb 15-17: Instal 08
Feb 29: Tegan & Sara / Northern State
Mar 19: Enablers
May 8: Willie Nelson
Jul 3: My Bloody Valentine
I may head to Portishead and/or Kinky Friedman as well, but I'll need to see how money works out.

Hope you're all keeping well, I love every one of ya

Okay, it's been slightly longer than I thought since I last updated so apologies are due. Sorry. First thing's first though, a very belated merry Chrimbo and happy New Year to you all. Now, a follow-up to my last entry.

Basically, just before I wrote that Emma's doctor had told us that he thought she had ME, which would put her out of action, uni-wise, for at least a year. We have since found out that this doctor is a fuckwit who has a tendency to say that people have ME. Since then, Emma has started seeming a bit better. She's still really tired all the time but she's no longer in pain 24/7 and her muscles aren't quite as weak/twitchy, so that's good.

Christmas was...awkward, for want of a better word. I spent it with my family, and due to my aunt not turning up due to her having problems with other members of my family, I was left to cook Christmas dinner myself. Still, it turned out well so I can't complain too much.

What else...oh yeah, after stressing out last weekend over an exam on Monday, it turned out to be the best exam I'd ever sat. Huzzah! Think I'm gonna apply for my PhD soon now. Hope you all had a good holiday season. Love & hugs & to you all.