I bought this album by Wild Cub the other day. I wasn't sure I was going to, but then I realized that I'd listened to it like 5 times in 3 days on Spotify, so I figured that meant I liked it enough to buy it. And there are some great tracks on there. I'd only been listening to it on my computer at work, which didn't stop me from loving the song Thunder Clatter. But then this morning I listened to it on my iPod for the first time with my headphones, and I liked it even more. I love that. I love listening to a song I love with great headphones and hearing all these details I never noticed before and loving it even more. Same thing happened with Alt-J. Anyway here's the track. Listen on your computer, listen on headphones, listen wherever you want. It's a great track all around.
Ok, now that my random thought of the morning is out of the way, I can actually write the blog I intended to. Chinese New Year starts tonight, which means I get to go home early. Which is great, cause I haven't packed yet and I leave tonight for Australia! First time going. Well, technically I've been before. I have the stamp in my passport. But it's only because I missed a connecting flight in Sydney a couple years ago and had to clear customs to buy a new one, so I actually only stayed in the airport for like 3 hours. But I digress. I'm going to Australia tonight, and I'm really excited. Like, really fucking excited. I haven't been this excited to go somewhere in a while.
I've been traveling a lot for work over the last few years, but it was really only when I moved to Africa that it really got crazy. I spent 200 days out of South Africa in 2012. And with about 250 work days in a year, that is a significant amount of time. But the problem with traveling in Africa was that I was always going to capital cities, and an African city is an African city. It generally doesn't matter which one you're in, they're all more or less the same. And there generally isn't that much to do in African cities. Most of the good stuff is out in the bush, which I generally didn't have time for. Add to this the fact that a lot of these cities are not exactly safe to be walking around alone, and the fact that I was generally outside the city center since construction machinery requires a lot of space which is hard to come by and expensive inside a city.
That's not to say that all African capitals are no fun, I do enjoy some. Maputo, Kigali, Addis Ababa, Antananarivo, Bamako - there are some good cities. But generally, I knew that traveling in Africa meant lots of time to sit alone in my hotel room. I could've gone to hotel bars, but most of the other business travelers, which is what my hotels were generally filled with, were guys in their 50s and 60s and they came in groups. I did not.
It got to a point where I was traveling so much with nothing to do, that I was no longer excited about traveling. I even had a couple friends come visit and we went to Madagascar for like 10 days, which was one of my top countries in the world to visit. And I wasn't excited. It was like I'd become trained to not get excited about travel, even though it wasn't for work. We had a great trip, but going into it I felt nothing. I made it to over 25 countries in Africa, and most of them I didn't really care about being in. Luckily that is no longer the case, I'm starting to realize. I think a lot of it has to do with being back in Asia and traveling to places where I don't have to sit alone in a hotel room. There are actually things to do, and I can get out and walk around. And I have friends in a lot of the places I'm visiting, which was not generally the case in Africa.
With Australia, I'm definitely excited about the people I'll be seeing. A couple Japan friends, a couple China friends. And my friend Rei is coming down from Tokyo to spend the week, since she's currently funemployed. This will actually make 4 continents that we've been on together, which means she now needs to come visit me in Europe, too. In fact, she's probably sitting at the airport in Kuala Lumpur right now on her way. I'm sitting at the office, bored. Thank God for that early finish.
I'm also very excited about activities. I generally don't really look into what to do in a place until I'm on the way there, but since I'm not so busy I've been trying to figure stuff out. Which means we've already got plenty of stuff planned. Laneway Music Festival (again) this Saturday, wine tour on Monday, performance at the Sydney Opera House next week, mini road trip to the 12 Apostles... It's gonna be good times.
Since I'm headed to Australia, I might as well share some Australian music. I've heard a fair bit, in no small part thanks to one of the blogs I like having a section dedicated to Australian music. I found this band MTNS a couple weeks ago. It was actually not through the aforementioned Australian music section of that blog, but through another site I check. Anyway, the first song I heard was Lost Track of Time, which is a fantastic song.
I've been listening to a lot of this kind of chilled-out music lately. Artists in the vein of James Blake, mixing pop and electronics and other weird sounds. Think Banks (who is probably my favourite new artist of the year so far. In addition to the amazing track in my blog, you should definitely also listen to Change. I'm a bit obsessed. And buy her debut London EP.). I actually was unsure at first if it was a male or female vocalist. Well, that's not completely true. When I first heard Lost Track of Time, I was sure it was a woman. Then I heard this next song, Crave, and started to have my doubts.
I eventually had to look it up. It's a man. I do really like his voice, though, especially on the chorus of Crave. These guys currently have one EP out, Salvage. Careful not to listen to the other MTNS you might find, because it's horrible punk rock and will leave you very disappointed if these guys are who you're looking for.
Ok, now that my random thought of the morning is out of the way, I can actually write the blog I intended to. Chinese New Year starts tonight, which means I get to go home early. Which is great, cause I haven't packed yet and I leave tonight for Australia! First time going. Well, technically I've been before. I have the stamp in my passport. But it's only because I missed a connecting flight in Sydney a couple years ago and had to clear customs to buy a new one, so I actually only stayed in the airport for like 3 hours. But I digress. I'm going to Australia tonight, and I'm really excited. Like, really fucking excited. I haven't been this excited to go somewhere in a while.
I've been traveling a lot for work over the last few years, but it was really only when I moved to Africa that it really got crazy. I spent 200 days out of South Africa in 2012. And with about 250 work days in a year, that is a significant amount of time. But the problem with traveling in Africa was that I was always going to capital cities, and an African city is an African city. It generally doesn't matter which one you're in, they're all more or less the same. And there generally isn't that much to do in African cities. Most of the good stuff is out in the bush, which I generally didn't have time for. Add to this the fact that a lot of these cities are not exactly safe to be walking around alone, and the fact that I was generally outside the city center since construction machinery requires a lot of space which is hard to come by and expensive inside a city.
That's not to say that all African capitals are no fun, I do enjoy some. Maputo, Kigali, Addis Ababa, Antananarivo, Bamako - there are some good cities. But generally, I knew that traveling in Africa meant lots of time to sit alone in my hotel room. I could've gone to hotel bars, but most of the other business travelers, which is what my hotels were generally filled with, were guys in their 50s and 60s and they came in groups. I did not.
It got to a point where I was traveling so much with nothing to do, that I was no longer excited about traveling. I even had a couple friends come visit and we went to Madagascar for like 10 days, which was one of my top countries in the world to visit. And I wasn't excited. It was like I'd become trained to not get excited about travel, even though it wasn't for work. We had a great trip, but going into it I felt nothing. I made it to over 25 countries in Africa, and most of them I didn't really care about being in. Luckily that is no longer the case, I'm starting to realize. I think a lot of it has to do with being back in Asia and traveling to places where I don't have to sit alone in a hotel room. There are actually things to do, and I can get out and walk around. And I have friends in a lot of the places I'm visiting, which was not generally the case in Africa.
With Australia, I'm definitely excited about the people I'll be seeing. A couple Japan friends, a couple China friends. And my friend Rei is coming down from Tokyo to spend the week, since she's currently funemployed. This will actually make 4 continents that we've been on together, which means she now needs to come visit me in Europe, too. In fact, she's probably sitting at the airport in Kuala Lumpur right now on her way. I'm sitting at the office, bored. Thank God for that early finish.
I'm also very excited about activities. I generally don't really look into what to do in a place until I'm on the way there, but since I'm not so busy I've been trying to figure stuff out. Which means we've already got plenty of stuff planned. Laneway Music Festival (again) this Saturday, wine tour on Monday, performance at the Sydney Opera House next week, mini road trip to the 12 Apostles... It's gonna be good times.
Since I'm headed to Australia, I might as well share some Australian music. I've heard a fair bit, in no small part thanks to one of the blogs I like having a section dedicated to Australian music. I found this band MTNS a couple weeks ago. It was actually not through the aforementioned Australian music section of that blog, but through another site I check. Anyway, the first song I heard was Lost Track of Time, which is a fantastic song.
I've been listening to a lot of this kind of chilled-out music lately. Artists in the vein of James Blake, mixing pop and electronics and other weird sounds. Think Banks (who is probably my favourite new artist of the year so far. In addition to the amazing track in my blog, you should definitely also listen to Change. I'm a bit obsessed. And buy her debut London EP.). I actually was unsure at first if it was a male or female vocalist. Well, that's not completely true. When I first heard Lost Track of Time, I was sure it was a woman. Then I heard this next song, Crave, and started to have my doubts.
I eventually had to look it up. It's a man. I do really like his voice, though, especially on the chorus of Crave. These guys currently have one EP out, Salvage. Careful not to listen to the other MTNS you might find, because it's horrible punk rock and will leave you very disappointed if these guys are who you're looking for.
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