I have Jay-Z concert tickets for November! Thanks to a friend’s timely Facebook status last night, I was alerted to the upcoming musical event and started my Internet research (aka Google). A few minutes later I discovered that there was a pre-sale for American Express card holders before the public could get tickets (which will be tomorrow) and promptly called upon my father who has such an AMEX card. A few minutes later and I was staring at the glorious confirmation screen indicating that I was the proud owner of 4 floor seat tickets, 12 rows back from the stage. Hell, I might even get Hova (aka Jay-Z for the hip-hop illiterate) spittle on me from that close! I was hoping to catch his show in Glasgow and was a little disappointed that changes in my situation prevented me from doing so, however, it looks like Jigga Man (aka Jay-Z) understood my plight and has graced Ottawa with a concert just for me.

I have to admit, though, I haven’t had a chance to listen to his new album (The Blueprint 3) yet. I know! I do have a good reason, though. I have two concerts coming up next week that I have focused my music-listening time on in order to be prepared. First up is K’Naan on Tuesday at Ritual Nightclub. Most people probably haven’t heard of him but you should look him up if you get a chance – he has a nice vibe to his music. He was in town for Bluesfest a couple of months back and apparently he put on quite the show. I then get Wednesday and Thursday to recover before heading back to Ritual Nightclub for the Classified concert on Friday night. This one I am really looking forward to attending! I remember listening to him back when he first started and I was in high school and he is just now getting radio airtime as a result of his latest album. I have his discography in rotation in the car currently and damn the guy is good – and not just for Canadian hip-hop but in hip-hop period. For both shows I will be meeting up with Ollie and Kat, and even more will be joining us for Friday night to see Classified. I am going to be in hip-hop overload by the time November rolls around, and it is going to be soooo sweet!

Last night we made it to Ludacris speed thanks to the Ottawa Bluesfest. I dragged my sick ass downtown to catch at least one show at the festival and it was a good one! We anxiously watched the skies while having dinner downtown before the show as it was quite dark and raining. However, just as we finished our meals, the skies cleared again and it remained a gorgeous evening. We made our way to Lebreton Flats, got our ID bracelets for beer, followed by beer of course (hey I was sick, not dead!). With a beer in each hand we headed to the stage to get a good spot for the show, which we managed to do – about 30-50 people back from the stage maybe. It was hard to tell as we were crammed in pretty tight by the time the show started. Sadly, our initial supply of ale was not sufficient as Luda was twenty minutes late in starting the show and we were already dry by the time he started, but there was no way we would be able to make it out of the crowd to get more. There were enough clouds of pot hovering around us that we didn’t really need anymore mind altering substances anyways.

Twenty minutes late, but well worth it. Ludacris put on an excellent show and the crowd was really into it. We had a great view and really enjoyed the show, despite the occasional group of punks, mostly girls, trying to push their way to the front. They usually got stopped once they got to us, since we would not let them through, and so they would carry on trying to find the path of least resistance. Luda was loud and on his game, sounding excellent live, and letting the crowd get into it a lot – hell, the crowd sang the entire MJ tribute interlude as well. It didn’t seem like he wanted to get off the stage as they pretty much had to tell him to shut it down since Lynyrd Skynyrd was taking to the main stage. I don’t think there were too many people rushing from the Ludacris concert to catch the Lynyrd Skynyrd one, but you never know! Between the Q-Tip, Jurassic 5, Talib Kweli and this Ludacris concerts I have attended in the last couple of years, it is hard to pick a favorite as they have all been excellent. One thing I have to say is, if I am in Ottawa next year then I am definitely going to make more of an effort to catch more shows at Bluesfest, rain or shine, as the atmosphere is simply awesome.

I do not have my compact camera anymore and so I was unable to get any pictures or images like I have before. I thought about bringing my SLR with me and am glad I didn’t as we stayed downtown afterward and it would have been a pain to bring to the bar. However, I did find a quite a few videos on Youtube and so here are some that others took at the show. We were probably about twice as far back from the stage as this person’s vantage point, and we were a bit more towards the center of the stage, but it will give you a feel for the concert we experienced.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Nevertheless, we celebrated the holiday over the 4-day weekend like everyone else – and we celebrated it real good! Cindy’s friend, Kat, and her boyfriend, Ollie, arrived in town from London on Thursday night to visit family (and us!) That night we headed into town for (quite) a few pints and managed to close down the bars. Granted, it was a Thursday and they closed down earlier than we are used to, but it was probably a blessing in disguise since I was still feeling the after effects the next day. I spent Friday resting up as I knew I had busy day coming on Saturday since everyone was coming for a BBQ (known as a “braai” in South Africa I learned). In addition to Kat and Ollie, Nicole and Dave (Ollie’s sister and her boyfriend) and Erica and Ray (friends) were on the guest list at Chez Chris’ Grill. This meant getting up somewhat early and heading to the grocery store to get some supplies. On the way back home, Cindy dropped me off at the butcher where I watched them cut eight beautiful sirloin steaks for me. Once home they marinated in the fridge for eight hours while I made some apple crisp and prepared the potato wedges.

Our guests arrived shortly after 4pm and the beer started flowing, pints of gin & tonic for the ladies. Well, to be honest, for some the beer was flowing earlier at the pub since Liverpool was playing the early game, but I won’t name names. Erica and Ray made a trip to the American PX for us and came baring gifts – ranch dressing, Doritos and maple syrup! The sun was shining and we enjoyed it while relaxing on the patio, although some people found the balmy weather cold still, but it wasn’t any of the Canadians! In between beverages we managed to get the steaks grilled and dinner on the table, and I will toot my own horn and say that everything turned out pretty damn good. I made two apple crisps thinking that we would have some leftovers, but that plan failed as it went quickly. No complaints at all though, as an evening of merriment with friends and foliage-paying-it-forward was enjoyed by all (see the photos for more details).

We didn’t have much turn around time before our next scheduled eating event. Ollie and Nicole’s family was kind enough to invite us to Easter lunch/dinner – I don’t know what to call it since we started eating early in the afternoon and finished in the evening. It was simply fantastic food – and by that I mean meat, meat and more meat. There was even meat wrapped in other meat, and the stuffing was meat! There was only one green dish on the table and I think that was just to contrast the color of meat. It was all so delicious and I made sure I helped myself to seconds, although there was enough food for everyone to have fourths, and that was before the desserts were even brought out after a much needed break. Cindy even got her Easter egg hunt, although it did get a little rough with the eight or nine of us running around the house like kids. We had a great time with our substitute British family while away from home for the holidays and couldn’t thank them enough for taking us in.

So, you see. The Easter Bunny really is a whore! Ya, I don’t think I argued my point very well either.

The weather today, and the last couple for that matter, was absolutely fabulous – 17 degrees and sunny. I took the opportunity to take a hike through the Nidd Gorge that is about a 15 to 20 minute walk from our front door. It was so nice out that I had to lose my long sleeve shirt and was still sweating with just my t-shirt on. It didn’t help that the hike was far from flat I suppose, but it was a fantastic walk through the woods. Along the four hour walk I ran into a pheasant, some sheep and some ducks, as well as some pretty scenery. We really do live in a beautiful part of the world. Anyways, here are the pictures from the walk which will give you a better idea of the walk then I could put into words.

Oh! And when I got home I had two messages from employment agencies about some jobs I applied for earlier this week. I got home too late to return the calls and so I will be doing that tomorrow morning. Hopefully it is good news that they are picking up the phone to call me!

We had our car pick us up to bring us to the airport, which is where the insanity began. After getting through security, we came to the airport bar which was filled with green-clad partiers downing drinks like they were Irishmen. What were the chances they were on another flight other than ours? Pretty much nil. Sure enough, our flight ended up being a scene from some college road trip movie with large groups of drunk people encouraging each other to be louder. I have never been on such an insane flight and the only thing to compare it to is the buses in Ottawa on Canada Day. We wouldn’t have minded it so much since it was only a 40 minute flight, but I was on the verge of getting up and going a few rows forward to shove the loud, high-pitched whistle that one bitch insisted blowing the entire time down her throat.

After landing and biding our time in the non-EU customs lines, we grabbed a taxi to get us to the Hilton. The driver was a very nice bloke who had quite a few ties to Canada – even though it seemed that everyone he knew that went there died young. His chattiness made the ride go quickly and next thing we knew we were at our hotel. We checked in and simply dropped off our bags as we had a concert to get to and still needed to grab a bite to eat. Food being the first priority, we made the 15 minute walk to the city center and found a lovely Japanese restaurant, thinking it was a sushi place but it having only a sushi sampler on the menu. Nevertheless it was very good even if it was expensive, just like everything else in Dublin, and I got the chance to taste a delicious green tea beer. It is very light and summery and I will be keeping my eye out for it locally if I can find it. Next stop – The Button Factory to see the Q-Tip concert.

What a great concert it was! The doors opened at 19:30 and we got there about 20:30, stood in line to get our tickets that were waiting for us and made our way inside. First things first, we needed a drink! After having procured the necessary spirits, we proceeded to try to find a spot to settle in for the show. The opening act was wrapping up their set and the main floor was starting to fill up. With neither of us on the tall side, limiting our view at concerts, we headed up to the balcony to see what was there. What was there was a fantastic spot on a side balcony right over the stage. We had a great view for the whole show and Q-Tip rocked the joint, mixing it up quite well with his solo stuff and some old A Tribe Called Quest stuff. Here is one of the videos that I took during the show and more can be found here. Quality has suffered quite a bit in the conversion and upload to Youtube as the originals have a much better picture.

Click here to view the embedded video.

After the show we made our way back to the hotel to rest up for the next day and night, as we new they would be a long one. We woke up and had a very good buffet breakfast at the hotel and then started to make our way towards the city center. On the way into town was St. Stephen’s Green Park and so we made our way inside to enjoy the sunshine and green, and it was quite deserted at 9:00am-ish. Next, we wandered through the streets towards Trinity College, which was the meeting point for our tour. This time we decided that we would take a historical walking tour of the city to learn more about the history of where we were visiting, and it was a great tour. It was a large group due to the holiday celebrations, but our tour guide, a Trinity College phD student, did a great job of showing us around the city and giving a 2.5-hour history lesson at the same time. Well worth it and I think we will seek them out wherever we go.

After our walking tour we grabbed some lunch and then wandered around some more in the Temple Bar district before meeting up briefly with a friend of Cindy’s from Harrogate. They went their own way and we headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the evening festivities. We were supposed to meet Cindy’s friend Kat, who she went to high school with and now lives in London, but due to a passport issue (her not having it back from renewing it) she could not make it. Nevertheless, we met up with Kat’s boyfriend Ollie (the Englishmen), his sister Nicole (the Englishwoman), her boyfriend Dave (the South African) and Ollie’s friend Adam (another Englishman, a last minute substitute for Kat) at Busker’s Bar to watch the Ireland vs Scotland Six Nations Cup rugby match. Man, I have a new appreciate for rugby after that, watching it with knowledgeable people (Nicole plays) and getting a better understanding of the game – I really enjoyed it. The rest of the evening after the game was filled with Guinness flowing out of the tap and enjoying the spectacle of people making complete fools of themselves as the place transformed from a sports bar to a nightclub very quickly.

The next morning came a little too quickly, but a hearty breakfast filled the soul for some more sightseeing, the main focus being the Guinness Storehouse factory museum. It is seven floors about how Guinness is made and the history of it, with a small sampling on the third floor (shhhh, it was before noon). The seventh floor is the circular Gravity Bar with 360 degrees of windows giving you a panoramic view of the city, and a free pint of Guinness (this time it was 12:15), although I am quite sure the pint is worked into the price of admission. I really enjoyed the place and got myself a Dublin souvenir from the shop which has some exclusive items that can’t be found elsewhere. I really did grow a fondness for Guinness after the 7-8 pints the night before and then the tour. It is a mighty fine porter!

After the Guinness factory, we made our way back to the Temple Bar district for some lunch at Elephant & Castle where I had a tuna and avocado club sandwich and homemade ginger ale – oh so yum! We were both tired from our days of walking and partaking in the Irish spirit at the bars that we decided to head back to St. Stephen’s Green Park to relax on a bench and enjoy the weather before heading to the airport. I took the opportunity to pull out my telephoto lens and got some great shots of the ducks that seemed to be in a playful mood, one of which I have entered into a photo competition and it is getting a good response – see it here. With our relaxation mission accomplished, we headed to the airport and hopped on the short flight home, which was pretty uneventful except for the drunk woman behind us that proceeded to explain to the poor girl beside her about how she hates taking off (not the landing) and how when flying crashing is part of the risk – throughout the entire flight!

Another fantastic trip to add to the memory books, and maybe even a real book. I am not sure if I mentioned it, but I created a photo book with pictures from the Prague trip and I think I will do the same for this one. The quality is fantastic and it is a unique way of documenting our adventures. And now my short post is done haha. Here are some photos to chew on that show our trip – for night time pics look at Cindy’s as I left my camera in the hotel and we just took the compact with us.

And here is Cindy’s view and our night time shots….