Down Under - Bill Bryson

I just finished reading this bookand even though it's incredibly interesting and well written it's also 400 pages of pure torture!
I'm now 18 days away from my very first visit to Australia and let me tell you, reading this book only makes the waiting worse. It describes Australia's beauty in such a way that you almost feel obliged to go there. The problem is that I already wanted to go, badly, so now I just want to go even more...
It's a great book though, very interesting and full of things you'd otherwise never know. An example? Well the Australians love big things, there's a big banana, giant koala, big pineapple (spongebob anyone?) but also a big lobster named Larry. How cool is that. Now I really can't wait to go there!

My dad's birthday present

Some people have been asking for a pic of that and seeing as I have a new camera I decided I should make and post one. His birthday was well over a month ago but that's beside the point. What I did was make a collage with pictures of my dad and I all through the years (you'd be surprise how hard it was to find these, usually he takes the pictures or I do) and then had that print on a 50cm x 50cm canvas and voilà. One awesome birthday present for the most awesome dad ever ^^

Bagels

Some well-known facts about me:

• I'm in the middle of my exams
• Exams tend to get me stressed
• I bake when I get stressed

And the result of that baking: BAGELS
The dark ones are walnut bagels and the lighter ones are with cheese. Both are absolutely delicious but the cheese ones are my favourite.
Anyway, 5 exams done, 6 to go...

Epica's Classical Conspiracy

I've doubted for quite some time about writing this review but I think I should. If you're expecting a technical review you better go read another one because this will be my opinion and nothing else.
Epica is my favourite band and it has been for quite some time now so I was really looking forward to this album. Unfortunately it's not what it could have been.

The Classical part

I have no idea whether the songs are well chosen or not, I hadn't heard of most of them but that's because I'm not much of a classical music fan. It was very nice to hear the well-known film music (Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars and Spiderman) played in a different way and as usual Ariën's drumming adds a whole new dimension. The songs from the Score sound awesome live and it's a shame that they can'tp play them more often. It's a shame that they chose to play 'In The Hall Of The Mountain King' because it's sooooo well known and I instantly compared it to Apocalyptica's version (which I prefer to be honest). That said, the rest of the set was well played (obviously I have not a single remark for the choir or orchestra as they simply did an awesome job) and Simone sang the classical songs surprisingly well.

The Epica part

Here's where they could have done better, I don't think the songs were very well-picked but I guess that's a matter of taste. I found it a shame that they didn't play Fools of Damnation which would have done the orchestra and choit much more right than Blank Infinity. The Last Crusade however was a nice opening song and I think a very good atmosphere creator. Sensorium and Quietus, again good songs to play in the beginning of a set but then...
Without a doubt the worst part of the entire album are the talks in between songs. Please Epica, work on your English. Organisator is not a word in English! Someone who organizes an event is called an organizer. Everyone who knows me is aware of my annoyances when it comes down to language, it's my (and not only mine) opinion that as a band they have a bit of a role model function. Is it too much to ask to properly learn the language you sing in? I could post a whole list of errors here (which I won't because that would be mean) but a little bit of attentiont to your language wouldn't hurt.
Right, back to the music. Chasing the Dragon and Feint were very nice to hear with a full orchestra and I don't have any major remarks about those, Never Enough however is ALWAYS a bad choice. Although Simone hit the end note (which was the first time I've heard) she couldn't hold it long enough which is truly a shame. Beyond Belief was, again, nice to hear with full orchestra but then they play Cry for the Moon. This is absolutely my favourite song and it's also the first Epica song I ever heard so as you can imagine I looked forward to hearing this. But they just don't seem to get it right. I hate to say this but Simone's pronunciation isvery bad on this album, particularly during this song. She needs to pay more attention to correctly pronouncing her vowels, especially the O. I realise I'm being kind of harsh here but it's really annoying to hear a beautiful song being ruined by Simone not paying attention to pronunciation.
Safeguard to Paradise, Not one of my favourite songs but a good one to play on a classical festival and her pronunciation seems to have improved a bit. As I said before I wouldn't have played Blank Infinity but one of the more epic songs, that's a matter of taste I guess. Living a Lie however is my favourite track of the album. I absolutely love how they altered it to contain less grunting. To be honest this is how I always imagined the song should sound (well not quite but when I play the album version I usually sing along to the grunted part).
The last four tracks (The Phantom Agony, Sancta Terra, Illusive Consensus and Consign to Oblivion) are predictable but good nevertheless (Sancta Terra as usual being one of my favourite songs to hear live), all are often played as final songs or encores on gigs and this was obviously no exception.


That concludes my review of the Classical Conspiracy. In all it was a bit of a disappointing album. I'm usually a real sucker for live albums but this one just doesn't have the X-factor other do seem to have.


I really do realise I've been quite harsh towards Simone 're a well-but proper English is in my opinion something quite essential if you're a relatively well-known band with English lyrics. Their lack of attention for language is the one thing that almost constantly annoys me about Epica. Neither their site nor their Royal Artist Club profile seem to ever get checked for grammatical or orthographical mistakes (or even typing errors) which doesn't come across very professional if you ask me.
Then again, apart from language geeks like myself no one probably ever notices...

A puzzle, a piece.

A puzzle.
Complete?
Missing one little piece.

A piece of a puzzle, unaware that it's lost.
A piece of a puzzle, a puzzle long forgot.
A piece so worn down that it no longer fits.
A piece without meaning, without purpose or aim.
A puzzle, incomplete, complete in its own way.
Accustomed to the little hole of a piece that ran away.

A puzzle, complete, no longer missing a piece.
A piece. puzzled, feeling incomplete.

More preparations

My flight is now officially booked :D In 41 days I'll be leaving for Sydney ^^ It's a 24 hour flight plus an 8 hour time difference which means it'll be the 15th of July (and really early) when I arrive there. It's a long time travelling but it's definitely worth it because after this I'll be spending almost 6 weeks with my boyfriend ^^
Now I have to go on study some more -_- exams are coming up and I'm not looking forward to that...