On Aussie day the West London revelers headed down to the local high road for a bite to eat at a burger bar. On the way we came across an incident that left me feeling a little ill.

Chiswick High Rd. is rather busy and we have one little street that runs perpendicular that is always being crossed by pedestrians making it very hard for cars to turn out of it onto the High Rd.

One driver got a little fed up with all the people crossing and decided to nudge one of them who walked in front of his car. Upset – as most people would be – the pedestrian kick the guys front side bumper. The driver wasn’t happy. He gets out of his car, strides up to the pedestrian and gives him one good whack to the front of the head.

I saw two teeth and a pair of glasses go flying up into the air onto the busy road. Blood was rushing from this guys head like a dam had been let loose.

Thankfully, there were two brave gentleman who brought the driver down to the ground and held him there while the ambulance and police were called to the scene.

Crazy people I tell ya!

What do you do when you need sunshine after months of cold grey? You head off to Malta for 3 days of glorious blue skies with 2 of your best mates.

John and Gerrod were lucky enough to snag me for a long weekend to enjoy a relaxing weekend in a resort on the coast of Malta where we drank, we ate, and slept.

Malta is beautiful but the area we stayed in suffered from a serious case of “catering to the English” and you couldn’t tell whether you were in an English restaurant/pub or not.

We also picked the “retirement village” area too. I don’t think we saw a single person under 70 years old until we made our way to Paceville (pronounced, partyville) on the cool looking 50s style communist buses for some serious fun on Saturday night.

All in all a great short break away with the boys.

Other things of note:

• John managed to update his facebook profile about 73 times in 3 days without landline internet. How much is that gonna cost?
• We had the best meals at this restaurant near our hotel. The steak was great, but the grilled calamari was the best.
• A 1 hour bus ride costs about 50 euro cents
• No one walks from the ferry into the main town on the island of Gozo. No one!
• Our flight in was 4 hours late. We arrived at our hotel around 4am on Saturday morning :(

Another year and another season of American Idol. Despite however many seasons we’ve enjoyed endured, there seems to be an endless supply of tragically deluded people. Part of me feels uncomfortable with the concept of exploiting people who are either a bit simple or who lack self-awareness. But don’t these people and their families see others being ridiculed and think twice about it? And another, more baffling question: Why can’t I stop watching this rubbish?!

We all listen to the radio and enjoy listening to the airwave fed songs of the moment but I want to present to you 5 albums that I was introduced to last year that you may not have heard of.

Paramore – these little upstarts come at you like a freight train, in front of a space ship which is then backed up by another space ship. Their second album – Riot – is full of pumping tunes that no one could dislike. You’ll find yourself dancing, singing and playing air guitar while you walk down the street listening to them on your ipod. Their 19 year old lead singer Hayley Williams represents pure energy and shows a maturity way beyond her years.

Billy Talent – can be described as an all-male version of Paramore. There’s not enough atoms in the universe to be split that could produce the energy that these guys throw at you. I listened to Billy Talent’s second album – II – at least 5 times a day for 3 months at the beginning of last year. You can’t put it down.

Chris Cornell – of Soundgarden and Audioslave fame took some timeout to record this beautiful solo album – Carry On. It’s a mixed bag of punchy, melancholy and folksy songs that find his voice haunting your thoughts for days. The song – No Such Thing – was the theme to the latest James Bond film.

Mark Ronson – an English music producer pushed out his “Version” record which is a collection of mash-ups focusing on the English music scene. It’s great to hear some classic songs being hacked up, rearranged and performed by current pop artists like Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse. The cover of Britney Spear’s Toxic is fantastic. You’ll be thinking you’re a rapper in no time.

Coheed and Cambria – their album Good Apollo: I’m burning star IV: Vol.2: No world for tomorrow – is a bit of a weird choice for me. It’s taken me about 12 months of randomly re-trying these guys out as I just didn’t get them at first. But old mate Gerrod loves them so much I had to persevere. Their albums are heavily themed, usually progressing a story from one song to the next. If you’re a lyrics man and love some progressive rock and some weird sounds then you’ll really enjoy these guys.

Last night, Gerrod, Kristy, Michelle and I managed to score 4 tickets to see the London premier of Will Smith’s latest movie – I Am Legend. And while I’ve been keen to see this movie I was definitely more excited about mingling in and around all the A-list stars that were going to be there.

We couldn’t believe our eyes when we got there. Right in front of us we saw not only stars from the entertainment industry but world leaders and royalty. What a night! We’ll never forget it.

Can you believe it? I see now where Justin stole his good looks and style from.

We have so many photos from the evening, if you continue reading on you’ll see many more of them.

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