Fat Freddy's Drop

Here’s a few choice snaps from another superb music night out in New Zealand. Thanks to a dawn raid on Real Groovy in Wellington a couple of months ago we managed to grab our tickets to this exclusive event and it was well worth the effort! Once again we were rewarded with a very positive experience of a small venue, ample bar, friendly relaxed crowd and awesome sound system which was put to full use both by the warm up DJ and the band.

We discovered many of the New Zealand bands like to play a very different live set to their albums - and FFD is infamous amongst the NZ crowds for doing this. There was almost no silence over two and a half hours - you could tell that some of the musicians on stage came from a jazz background. At times the set went really psychedelic and improvisational and the energy was fantastic. It was lovely to see 7 musicians obviously enjoying themselves so much. The atmosphere was very infectious as the whole crowd were dancing the night away, it felt far more like a club night than a gig. It was really wonderful and for me unusual to see such an established band doing this - very refreshing. I enjoyed trying to spot the occasional tune from the albums - I reckon they played 3!

So all in all another excellent New Zealand gig - we'll definitely miss this place!

Brewery Tour

We've just reached the end of an awesome week on the west coast with Katie and Dom, it was so hectic and packed with fun experiences that it felt like we were on holiday all over again too!
While you wait for me to set up more photos and Amy to dream up the words here's a quick photo story showing what we got up to on our first evening together in Greymouth at the Monteith's Brewery.
Sadly I didn't get any photos of the dwarf night that was on at the first pub we went to after this, or of the singalonga oirish night at the last pub, so you'll just have to use your imagination there ;)

Knifemaking

Here's another quick entry from NZ! Yesterday we went and did a knife making course. It was fantastic and both me and Rob are really chuffed with our results. We started the day with no more than a long rectangular piece of carbon steel, a couple of small squares of brass, a few brass pins and a block of rimu (native hardwood tree) wood. Steve and Robyn were our hosts and instructors. They were very hospitable, and Steve also told a constant stream of bad jokes which kept us laughing throughout the day.

The first job was to transform the dull looking piece of steel into something resembling more of a blade shape. To do this we had to heat it in the fire and then on an anvil, using our best blacksmith skills and a large lumphammer to beat the end to form the point of the blade. We continually reheated the steel bar in the fire and gave it a good old beating to squash the side of the metal that would eventually become the blade. This was definitely the most fun of the day :)

Once we'd forged the blade, we cooled the metal quickly in a bucket full of a mixture of water and duck shit (apparently there are lots of nitrates in it that help with the strength of the steel). We then had to cut the unhammered end of the metal off so we had the correct length of knife.

Next we glued the brass pieces on - which were then drilled and riveted. After this we cut wooden handles and stuck them on too, again they were drilled and pinned. We then began the more tricky process of shaping the handle on a belt sander. Once roughly shaped we placed a polyester resin into the cracks of the knife between the blade and the brass and the wood and the steel.

The next process is the only one we weren't involved in. Once hardened the polyester had to be sanded - apparently this produces a rather toxic dust. So Steve did this part wearing a special mask. He also did some very useful corrections on our handles for us too!

Now we had back something that actually resembled a usable knife. The next stage was to polish the blade with a series of 5 or so different sandpapers. Thankfully all of this was also done on the belt sander so it was quite a speedy process. Once polished to almost a mirror finish, Steve went over the few bits we missed and the it was time to hand finish. Several wet and dry papers later and we had pretty much a mirror finish on our blades. Rob's knife not had only had sweat and tears poured into it as he managed to stab himself - so can proudly say it has been polished with his own blood! It was time to give the knife back to Steve who put the last finish to the handle before we stained the wood. Once this was done Steve stepped in again to give the knife the final sharpen, a quick polish of the handle with some shoe polish sealed the handle and made it waterproof. And we were done! It took us about 6 hours to complete the process and was a very enjoyable one indeed!

At lunch our group got to play on a really large swing in the garden combined with some very nice Venison Salami toasties made for a very wonderful, enjoyable and informative day which was topped off by some 'Barrypagne' (our course was held in a place called Barrytown) this was white wine that Robyn and Steve had placed in the Soda Stream to give it bubbles!!! Fabulous!!!

In case you are wondering when you look at the photos my knife is the shortest one of the group and Rob's is the long one next to it.

Sandflies - the new peril

Seems we'll never be safe from biting insects on this trip. After my four relatively itch-free months of gloating over the fact that northern hemisphere mosquitoes find Amy infinitely more tasty than myself (well who wouldn't?), I'm surprised and saddened to become the new dish of the day for all the carnivorous critters that buzz around these isles.
The plague of the west and south coasts of the south island here are the sandflies, who all regard my shiny bald head as a tasty meat flavour chupa-chup and every moment I am hoodless or without a hat it's DINNERTIME!. Even my trusty Cambodian insect repellent serves as a simple garnish to their ginger meal.
They have all the subtlety of a chainsaw juggling mosquito which is my one small consolation – their first mouthful is invariably their last as they feel a swift splattering retribution from the icy hand of death (in practice that's whichever of my hands is closer to the bite site).
So now it's Amy's turn to gloat as I zoom up our blog's biteometer league table, will I catch up her staggering high score before we move on to South America to face a whole new continent of antisocial insects?!

Gomez

Just had to tell you what an awesome time we had recently in Christchurch, the highlight of which was catching one of our favourite bands, Gomez, kicking off the world tour of their new album A New Tide.
This was also our first gig in New Zealand and a very different experience to the Manchester we're used to - no scumbag ticket touts or long cold queuing outside and inside the venue boasted an ample bar, relaxed security and many friendly music fans, both locals and expats. We positioned ourselves comfortably right at the front to see the support band The Chills and secure our front row spot for the main event.
So we all know that Gomez went off the boil after their first two LPs and there's always a risk when you go to see a band touring their new album that the new stuff is all you'll get, however they started in fine style with How We Operate and Hamoa Beach, the two best tunes from their last album. Warm memories came flooding back from seeing the group headlining the Summersundae festival in Leicester three years ago when this was their latest material, and from then on we were treated to a selection of great tracks from the last 11 years including standout performances of Tijuana Lady, Warm Trombone and Devil Will Ride. Loved the classic rock parcan lighting too which helped me grab a few great photos, although I felt like I was the only one snapping away in there, gone were the sea of mobiles and cameras you'll see back at home!

Salmon Farm - Golden Bay - South Island NZ

Just to confuse things we thought we would give you a really up to date blog entry as it is a really quick one. Apologies for being so far behind - but we are getting there slowly......

If you didn't know (which you won't by the state of the blog!!) We are in New Zealand now. While in the Abel Tasmin National Park we went to a place called Golden Bay and went to a Salmon Farm. I know that doesn't really sound altogether that interesting but the great thing was they supplied all the equipment (for free) and you could go and catch your own in the lake at the one end of the farm. You then paid for what you caught.

So rods in hand we wandered to the lake and as you can see from the photos below caught some beauties! Rob caught one in particular which was huge! We had them all filleted and smoked while we were at the farm, and for about a week afterwards pretty much every meal we had contained salmon. We managed to catch 6kg of Salmon in all!! As a result I have many recipe ideas for Salmon - all which can be cooked in a campervan!!!

The fish tasted delicious, not only because of how fresh (the first piece we ate had gone from lake to table in about 30 mins...) but because of the satisfaction of catching it yourself.

More news soon... we're nearly ready with the next Laos entry - just to keep you all on your toes!!