And So Begins My Wedded Bliss
by matt @ 7:07 pm. Blogged under Music, Living and Dying, Eating and Drinking
As I type this evening there’s a new addition to my left hand - a wedding ring blessed by god and placed there by my new wife Suellen. Yesterday’s church ceremony went perfectly, the reception was great, hundreds of friends and family showed up, my speech seemed to be well received… and my usual rendition of Engelbert Humperdinck went down a storm. It’s true what they say about your wedding day being the best of your life - it exceeded both of our expectations by a mile. (more…)
Last Thursday evening it was time to see if my party planning skills matched up to the task of organising the company Christmas do at Guanabara in London (Holborn). With over 300 attendees eating one of six different set menus over two sittings, plus multiple pre-paid drink vouchers to use for the rest of the evening, the administration alone was a major headache! However, the management at Guanabara were exceptionally efficient which made all the difference. I admit to being slightly concerned regarding the unquestioning attitude of the Guanabara staff during the preparations, but as my Brazilian colleague explained “only you British panic over small details�… and I think we were pretty well prepared ourselves anyway. 
Somehow I managed to reach the ripe old age of 29 without ever having seen Bladerunner before now – a film based on a screen play by 
As bizarre as it may seem, Sony Bravia’s wonderful advert with exploding multi-coloured paint effects on a housing estate could be subject to an Advertising Standards Authority investigation. This is not because the Rossini theme reminds viewers of Malcolm McDowell in ‘A Clockwork Orange’ beating people up… According to Marketing Week magazine, two people out there think the advert is reminiscent of the September 11th attack in New York and is upsetting. I’ve never heard such a load of old nonsense, surely it’s far more upsetting to watch Friends on C4 and keep seeing the Twin Towers in the background. I would imagine it’s more like the Canary Wharf bomb than the Twin Towers if people want to draw terrorism comparisons, but such a thing would seem ridiculous. 
Last night Suzie_Q and I had free tickets to see the new Boney M musical ‘Daddy Cool’ at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London. The downside to free show tickets (which we often obtain) is that you invariably find yourself seated in the upper circle with no leg room and a view not suited for sufferers of vertigo. Free tickets are not to be sniffed at though - there’s little room to complain when you’re saving £50! The major downside to the upper circle at the Shaftesbury Theatre was the stifling heat - it was like a sauna; as hot as the tube in summer time and I needed two bottles of water just to stay hydrated. Thankfully Daddy Cool was well worth the trip even if a little slow to get going. 
Last Thursday saw my colleagues and I take a trip to Karaoke Box ‘Dai Chan’ in Soho. Based in Frith Street, just off Old Compton Street, Karaoke Box is a 5-minute walk from Leicester Square tube station. I’ve been there for a sing-along a few times in the past year and had some good fun. I was therefore quite surprised when I looked up the phone number on a directory website and found a reviewer complaining about the staff. I’ve never had occasion to take a dislike to them and indeed, when I called to make this reservation two weeks ago, I received the best telephone customer service that I can remember. 
Suzie_Q had plans of her own on Friday evening so I was at a bit of a loose end after work. Whilst drinking at the Lincoln Lounge I was offered the opportunity to attend a birthday party with a colleague for a gentleman called ‘Phil’. I was promised belly dancers and funky DJs, so it seemed an opportunity too good to turn down. We took the tube over to Brook’s Music Bar on Shepherd’s Bush Road in discovered it only a few minutes walk from Hammersmith tube station, beneath the 
With the clubbing bug still with us post-Ibiza, Suzie_Q and I decided to pop down to Brighton on Saturday night to see Italy’s DJ Benny Benassi at the Honey Club. The official promotional night was called ’sevensins’ and Benny Benassi (real name Marco Benassi) played a great set - he really seemed to be enjoying himself. Sometimes DJs can be far to sour faced but this guy was really smiling, at one point he was doing a lot of smiling at Suzie_Q - probably the Italian look that caught his eye so we moved… His final track of the night, a hard house remix of The Automatic’s ‘what’s that coming over the hill is it a monster?’, was fabulous. Unfortunately the Honey Club itself seemed to have gone down hill for anybody who wants to dance in a great atmosphere. 
So in the early hours of Friday morning it was time to visit Cream at Amnesia in what we hoped would be a much better clubbing experience than the disappointing Gatecrasher @ Eden, and oh how much better it was! Amnesia is a massive nightclub that manages to pull off two large rooms with a great atmosphere, so many people just enjoying their music and not simply ‘on the pull’. It was pretty packed, getting space to dance in the main room to see Ferry Corsten or Paul Van Dyk was a bit tricky; Suzie_Q and I managed to perch ourselves on the corner of a stage beside a Spanish girl sat dealing her wares without so much as a care in the world… quite inconsiderate as she was taking up vital dancing space.
The nightlife in Ibiza takes a bit of getting used to, clubbing doesn’t start properly until around 2am and it finishes well after 6am. Due to the shift in the hours we’re keeping I’ve felt a bit jet-lagged all week, and for the most part seem to require twelve hours sleep each day. We shouldn’t really have bothered to get breakfast included in the accommodation package as we’ve only been up early enough for that once - and even on that occasion we went back to sleep again afterwards. On Tuesday evening we went to the Gatecrasher night at Eden nightclub in San Antonio; a very different clubbing experience to 
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