Your chauffeur awaits m'lady

Your chauffeur awaits m'lady
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise

Last summer I went with my sister and family to Hever Castle in Kent.. there was a wedding on there and I was lucky with this shot when the Rolls Royce arrived it parked plumb in front of me. Luckily there was nobody around to erase from the shot and I got a clean image.. The castle frankly dominates the shot for me and the car just an interesting feature. I used a sepia tone to bring out the contrast better however, the colour version works well too.

Movies seen lately

For full reviews go to my Flixter page.. However, all the films i've seen lately tend to be on a par with each other as ratings go.. My opinion may not count for much but i like to let you know what i think and who knows, it may save you some money :)
My favourite of the bunch was It's Complicated - a romantic comedy with a twist - or two... or three. Meryl Streep stars along side some great acting from co star Alec Balwin. Steve Martin also plays an important role however, i did find his work a little dull and doesn't really add to the comedy value.

(Matt Damon)

The Informant was a great suprise - starring Matt Damon this is a true story about a business man who turns informer on his company.. Damon plays a great part and really shows us his true acting colours which is nice to see... I hear also he is making another Bourne film - could this be a step in the wrong direction? We'll have to wait and see..
The other two are fairly run of the mill action thrillers which are a good ride but nothing much to write home about.. Watching out for Fish Tank and 44 Inch Chest - two British films which are receiving some great reviews - hope to bring you these real soon...x

Photo Mettups - Battersea

Every month or so I attend a photo group meetup organised through Facebook. They also have their own site : http://www.photographymeetups.com/ . We go to various places al over London - this time we went to Battersea Park and surrounding areas. Its always a nice day out and a great chance to meet other people interested in photography also.

Well the weather was very grey and cold - it wasn't long before the gloves came out. But the worse thing was that the light was poor. Grey cloud covered the sky for most of the time we were out and this made getting some good shots difficult. I had to bump up my ISO to get as much light in as possible.. Still, there were plenty of people out and children on scooters - all making great subjects :)


Top shot is from a rose garden which had some interesting features including this item.. I used bleaching techniques to get the effect. Above a shot across one of the small lakes - the building is a pump station which looked nice in the frame.. Processed in HDR. Below, is a simple effect gained from opening up the aperture and using the curve of the fence to take you to the people - a bit of abstract fun.


All the photos from the day are in my Facebook Album if you have access.

http://raywise.co.uk/

New Website - Ray Wise Photography

I've finally gone ahead and bought my own domain and set up a photography portfolio. Here's the link http://raywise.co.uk . The site is broken down into a few categories and will show my style of photography across these ranges. Users can add comments without logging in and add links to their own sites or others.
I have to say thanks to my many Flickr friends who have given me the encouragement to pursue this idea. Their comments have given me belief in myself to go forward and take a chance in the professional world. Thanks also to Getty Images for giving me the chance to share my work in their database - some of which have been licensed already.
Have a look at the new site - please let me know what you think of the design and any problems you might find.. cheers.

a little love goes a long way....x

a little love goes a long way....x
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise

I've been looking at this image for a while wondering weather to upload it or not.. However, blending it with the Haiti disaster made a lot of sense because a picture paints a thousand words and what I had to say went with the photo..
I think too many of us take our lives for granted - going about our daily habits, regardless of others less fortunate. Even walking down the road for others is either impossible or fearful. There's a well know saying that goes - there is always someone worse off than you.. this is true to a point - but someone is always on the bottom of that list.. think for a minute about that..
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brings it home doesn't it? I find that bringing myself back down to earth is a good thing and I try to do this often. Events like the Haiti Earthquake hits everyone in such a shocking way that we all feel this. However, if we all remembered this at least once a day throughout our lives, I'm sure that the world would be a happier and peaceful place. x

40 mile week

Another Sunday gone and this is the stage I tot up my weeks running miles... So this week, I ran every other day starting Monday -11 miles, Wednesday - 8 miles, Friday - 7 miles and today - 15 miles. This makes this week a 41 mile week.. great news as I thought it was going to be tough to achieve this through the winter - without the use of a dreadmill... but lets face it, anything longer than 30 minutes on one of those things and you are just sooo bored.
It's always nicer to get out on the street and run there. So I have been increasing the length of my runs from 7 miles and over. The shortest used to be 5 miles which I'm glad to put behind me. This coming week I may cut back to around 30 miles again but I will see how it goes.
The best news is I am feeling very fit without many aches and pains (there are always a few). I've probably put the mockers on it by saying that but hey ho.. The only thing I think will happen soon is me buying new trainers... the present ones are still ok - but the mileage is up and heels are starting to wear down.. must buy some new ones at the end of the month..
Happy Travels..x

in the deep mid winter

in the deep mid winter
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
When I arrived at this point it was actually quite dark although the snow helped reflect the light. Processing a shot that is a little under exposed is tough, so over exposing a little can be a good thing.. I shot a single exposure which came out very well - however had to use adjustments in Photoshop to bring out the best in the photo.
I changed the colour balance away from blue to yellow slightly and used exposure and gamma to enhance the light patches. I've added a fog gradient layer and erased nearer details like the bush and trees on the right and close trees on the left.. Sometimes photos don't need sharpened but i find shots with branches and twigs usually benifit so i added this also.. hope you like.

http://raywise.co.uk/

Winter running

Some people might say that running round London in the winter is beyond crazy.. However, if you think that running in temperatures of around -4C is bad... think again, the competitors running the North Pole Marathon face temperatures of around -30C... Think again?
However, it's still bloody cold out there and above is the kit I where when I go out and its below 2C. It's all about layers and avoiding spongy materials like wool, cotton should also be avoided.. Clothing has to breath but still stop wind and stretch when you run. Material to look out for is Gortex ,Lycra and many other similar longer names of fabric.
Base layers should be tight fitting and that which wick sweat from your body.. I use Nike Pro Fit compression shorts and top - these also help prevent chaffing. Amazingly enough your legs - once warmed up - stay very warm in cold conditions - you'll get used to what you can bare, for me, anything lower than 2 degrees C and the tights come out - but i will still where the compression pants under them ;0)
Again with tops - avoid cotton and try to keep layers lightweight and wickable material. Gortex jackets can be heavy and uncomfortable but are very good keeping out the wind. The days are shorter in the winter and weekday runs are usually in the dark.. I bought a cheap (£10) fluorescent bib to wear so that traffic and pedestrians can spot me a little easier.. this is well worth the money!
On top I wear a lightweight hat which is good up to about -4C... Anything more and you might find this uncomfortable on longer runs. Bio-ear is like plasticine and moulds into your ear nicely - they stop the cold draft from getting in completely. Moisturiser for face and lots of Vaseline for lips and we are ready to go.
Getting too warm whilst running? On longer runs I personally thing you should keep clothing on all the time... I seem to go through a warm stage after a few miles but this passes and if i have removed clothing it needs to go back on - this throws my body temperature again and i'm in a constant battle.. best to keep clothing on unless you are running under 5 miles or so.. again, you will know what is or is not best for you... Remember, these points are from my own experience so they may not work for you at all. Thanks for reading.

ice cream sky

ice cream sky
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
I think that with landscape photography you have to allow an element of luck when it comes to the nature side of things.. take this shot for instance - in a different time and space it may not look as effective.. The snow on the ground and the soft ripples in the sky work really well together.. Very helpful :)
I also moved the camera to the right of the gate to make the angle go with the cloud formation... Its a funny thingbut something as simple as moving the camera placement can change the outcome of a photo dramatically.

http://raywise.co.uk/

the country lane

the country lane
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
I am jealous of anyone who lives in a rural area.. I love these old country lanes and the stone walls that surround them. This shot was taken first thing in the morning and had to be a fairly long exposure.. however, i think , in fact almost regret not going back in the middle of the day to get a brighter shot.. C'est le vie as they say.. still, you can see what i was trying to produce here and the dark edge gives it a twilight feel- and with the purple tone of the early morning light - almost surreal.

http://raywise.co.uk/

Oxford - Thames photo walk

Map details

So last week it snowed a lot! Even in the centre of London we had a few inches last a couple of days.. however, outside the capital was hit really bad and I thought it was an opportunity not to be missed with the camera. Travel surprisingly was not a problem and I actually got to Oxford earlier than I planned.. so I started walking from the train station in the dark at 07.22 .. the sun was due up at 08.10...
There was a LOT of snow, even the main roads had tracks of a few inches.. not good for cars - great for me.. it was still dark but by the time I'd got to my starting point the light was picking up and the sky was changing colour... It was really cold - I'd say about -5 or so and as there wasn't much wind, this was bearable.
Taking shots in such conditions is hard going - tip is to leave the lens cap off or it will keep misting up. I'd got so many layers of clothes on I felt warm anyway - and two pairs of gloves was a good idea.. under pair were my thin running gloves so I could still operate the camera with them on.
Soon the sun came up though and things felt a bit warmer.. Its was handy I was walking towards it as it was a nice feeling on my face.. and still no wind.. nice! A little indecision at the Abingdon bypass roundabout (where i took the next shot) and then I got on the Thames Path from the A4074.

Once on the Thames Path I followed it down towards Lower Radley.. trust me, if you ever want a beautiful river walk - this one is well worth a visit. Of coarse, it looked even better in the snow so the camera was snapping away like there was no tomorrow.. These shots are from my smaller point and shoot Lumix - the Canon 50D shots will be uploaded to my Flickr account.


After a bit of walking I realised that it was going to take longer to get to my target, which was Appleford. However, when I got to Culham bridge I made a stupid mistake a carried on rather than crossing over the river .. lol.. well, I thought the river walk was so pretty I didn't want to break off to early and go by road... There were NO river crossings until i got to Clifton Hamden - and then I had to walk back - this put another 6 miles onto the hike.. phew! Big mistake! Lucky thing is when I got to the train station I only had to wait 20 minutes.. it turns out the trains are about every 2 hours on a Saturday.. so phew again!


Last shot about reminds me of walking down the final couple of miles and a few cars not giving way to me - making me leap in to the bushes.. it seems funny now but this is the reason you wear bright coloured clothing and walk toward oncoming vehicles.. maybe some people who driving need to take a long walk sometimes ;0)

http://raywise.co.uk/

we begin here..

START: Well thanks to a few friends I am now blogging again.. So I thought I'd start fresh one. So what's it all about - basically an online diary of my events etc - mainly this will cover my training for the Marathon De Sables 2011, plus my general fitness activities, it'll also cover my photography - how that's going, the place I visit etc...and the odd movie review.

Raymondo interview by Adam Symbiosis

A wise old man once told me the secret to being a good DJ is to enjoy yourself. If that holds true then there’s one wise guy that’s had all the success in the world. Entertaining the masses for longer (and better) than some of today’s know-nothing upstarts have been eating solid food, Ray Wise, better known as Raymondo, has consistently provided great music at parties across the world in a career that’s seen him turn his skilled hand not just to DJing, but running a successful party, a fantastic website and also documenting the scene through his photographs and summarising it all into the famous club laws. To be honest if he hasn’t done it, it’s not worth doing.




But earlier this year he made the decision to abandon it all and spend some quality time on himself for a change. Deciding to retire from the full time rigours of DJing and running the website, the last few months has seen him take stock of his life and get back to the finer things. Raymondo’s Last Stand was a line in the sand, “It was a finishing point, I’d had enough and I wanted to take it easy. It was a great celebration of what I had and hadn’t achieved. Just like Mr Ben coming out of that little shop, don’t expect me to be away for too long. Just to prove that the old boys can do it.” I wondered nonchalantly if we might see him wearing a bowler hat for his return to the decks on October 7th, though you might be lucky to see him in his slippers and carrying a pipe. If however you’d like to be the one to help him in with his bag, then please send your details on the back of a postcard to the usual address. “I don’t want to be perceived to be coming back. I’ve got nothing to gain and really I’ve always had my full time job. Even when I was playing 6 or 7 gigs a weekend, I still went to work on Monday. Personally I don’t think you should lose track on that sort of thing, cause when it all falls down, where does it leave you? I’ve come back because I still have some love for it, I just don’t want to be doing it all the time. You’ve got to be something special to make a go of it as a full time DJ and you’ve got to have you’re head screwed on.” I wondered if it might also have something to do with the way some promoters paid their DJs. “I think the perception of our scene is a little higher than it should be. Our scene isn’t as serious as it should be and therefore perhaps the promoters don’t pay as much as we used to get but they shouldn’t take the piss. The larger events bring in more money, so they should pay the DJs more. I’ve been paid more money for playing in a small club then playing in a big club. DJs do get a raw deal at the end of the day. You could blame the promoter but then you could also blame the DJs, not to individually pick someone out but there are too many DJs who will play for free.” Maybe there should be a DJ union? Could DJs club together, with the shop floor stewards having it on the dance floor? There’s a thought to ponder. “If you pay good money for DJs, you tend to get good music because people are more bothered.”

It’s interesting, I thought as we joked about record trolleys with wheels and zimmer frames and the like. Is there an upper age for DJs? Should they be made to retire when they become older than the average clubbers parent? While this in no way affects Ray yet, there are plenty of other ageing DJs and rockers (think The Rolling Stones) still growing old disgracefully. “I’m not that old anyway,” he countered with a wry smile. I wanted to drill down into his reasons for coming out of his self imposed exile and playing for Chemical Reaction (CR) at Twisted this October. Of course if you haven’t heard of Chemical Reaction, you’ve been missing out. Constantly surprising the most jaded of clubbers with the depth in their DJ selections his reply wasn’t that much of a surprise to me. “I’m playing for Annetta (of CR), she asked me to play a classics set and would I mind coming back, as it were. It’s just what I wanted to do.”



Ray had a great understanding of the highlights of his career and as he recounted the challenges and successes of his career, you could see the excitement and the memories flash brightly in his eyes, “Personally I set out to achieve one thing and that was to have a fucking good time and I did that without a doubt. I just set myself one goal after next. The first goal was a warm up set, the next was after 12, then it was last set, then something in the middle. Then it was I want to play at Camden, The Fridge, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to go abroad. There was always some new goal to reach and some goals I didn’t get.” He never played at Camden in the main room for example; refreshingly there wasn’t any bitterness, just a tacit understanding that there are always some things that you might miss out on.

His early years playing in London started in 1995 for Sunnyside up at SW1 Club, better known as Pacha now. This led to more gigs around the capital and Raymondo became a well-known name on flyers and at parties like Sunflowers and Pickle. “My set for Pickle in the main room of Brixton Academy had to be my best ever set. I think it was their birthday party and it was a big honour.” Playing after a Dutch DJ hitting the crowd with some German trance, he recounted how the crowd just needed something different to pick them up. “Everyone was having a good stomp but I changed the beat a little bit and it went down really well. I finished up playing Underworld – Born Slippy and well…” You could say the rest is history. Resident at Pickle from more or less the start, he met both the Pickle and the Fever promoters in a black room with splatters of fluro paint thrown around the walls. “I got to know the both at the same time and luckily they both took me on! Pickle was a great party to play for. The way they did things were out on a limb, word of mouth type parties. We started off doing squat parties then moved up to bigger clubs; Stratford Rex is one I remember well. Then we went to Imperial Gardens where it really took off. There was a real good vibe.” Confirming just why they were the good vibe tribe and making me reminisce about some fantastic Pickle parties I went to.



Parties were always on Ray’s mind and he was putting on Overdrive down Croydon way long before he was playing in London. “Starting parties gave me some leverage in getting gigs in London. I’ve got some friends to thank for helping me with the parties. Me and a guy called Michael put this party on and the plan was to get one known DJ down from London every time to play at the party, which only ran till 2am. We’d put the DJ on last, I’d play before him and maybe another mate Ian before me and that worked well for me because even though the party wasn’t that packed I’d end up getting a set in return at the guests party or they’d put in a good word for me.” As his bookings grew the party had to be dropped, though the seeds for what was to become CiL / HDL were sown. “I was so busy and a lot of people wanted to know what I was doing so I made up a site just about me. Unfortunately I got a bit too involved in it and it started to take over. I think I forgot about DJing for a bit and cracked on with the website.” Changing the site from Webmondo to Clubbing In London (CiL), forums were added, DJ pages were inserted and pictures posted up. The fledgling site was born.



“Between all that came the record label. I had my own label, Transation, which had five releases. My first release came out on Tongue In Check, a record label in Oxford.” Another bug had bit Ray and he sat and learnt as much as he could during a series of visits to a studio. “I blagged it with Sid, who owned the studio, to make a track and he said, ‘Yeah, but the rights are mine.’ I though yeah fuck it, I want to get a track out so we went and cut a track. It was called Vanguard, the B side was something else to be believed in, but it was my track and it was out there.” I had to laugh when he told me the tune was released on a 10” vinyl but the pride in his voice was flowing over and I nearly spilt my drink as we talked about having a 10” record box. “Every time Adam from Lab4 sees me he always asks when I’m going to give him a copy of the track. They made a record and dedicated it to my track. It wasn’t even till later on in my career that he said it to me and I was quite astounded! I got very embarrassed about my tracks. When somebody played my records I used to run out of the room.” I wondered if his spare time might lend itself to producing again and floating around by the masses of records he stores away I was issued with a super secret copy of a never before released track, which has now been spirited away in my CD box. “Well if anyone wants to take it on, then let me know.”

We moved back onto the site and the change from CiL to Hard Dance London. “Looking back on it I should have just changed the site and not the name, it should have been made more versatile. At the time CiL was all about hard dance, though I had many people checking it out looking for other types of music. Still nothing ventured, nothing gained.” On the back of both the sites were some legendary Thursday and Sunday parties. CiL parties were being attended by all walks of people long before many of our junior wannabe promoters were even out of school. “I owe that all to Blair and Brendan who used to run Charged and they started Sids and made me monthly resident. Believe it or not it used to get packed there on Sundays. We sort of took over from them and took it to the next level, Thursdays was just an extension. Blair gave it a good crack, but had an argument with Victor (of Sids) and gave it up. One or two years later I thought I’d give it a go as Victor was begging me to go down there, I did it for a bit, gave it up and then started again. I’d been advertising it quite blatantly on HF so decided to be a bit more discrete and called it CiL and things just went from there.” In fact most people will tell you that it was the unofficial HF meet up for so long, it was by default the official HF meet up, with nearly everyone from back in the day attending at some point. “It was all a matter about getting the right DJs in. We weren’t charging on the door, there were some deals at the bar and we had Superbok by the tank. We were also quite lucky to have a pole in the middle as well. It was tiresome to run it ever week but I was helped out by Adam, my Australian friend who assisted on the party and the site. I was trawling through CD after CD though I always thought if someone went to the trouble of handing in a set then I thought well why not. It was all about giving people a chance. Even in the early days we had people who are now very famous, people like James Lawson and Tania Mann. Unfortunately Victor got a bit aggressive sometimes with the customers so in the end we had to pull it.” Still it’s not as if the party didn’t do the Mondo any favours in the many years it was running and he continued on to recount stories of Dean Peters, Phil Reynolds, Matt Clark and of course Ray himself taking turns to go on the decks on a messy Sunday afternoon. “One person would put a record on, then someone else would fall over and the next person would have to have a go. People just loved it.”



In the background we had an old mix tape playing with some acid 303’s buzzing up and down and as the track developed it Ray pointed out it was one of his first mixes. I was suitably impressed by the skill shown so early on but it did bring me back to his semi-retirement. Taking it easy was a theme he couldn’t ignore but I wasn’t surprised after his many years of being an integral part of the clubbing scene. “I’m still coming down,” he told me with a laugh. “I’m doing all the things that you give up when you go clubbing. Simple things like going for a drink and a meal on Sunday afternoon, I was never interested before or was too busy playing or being asleep.” You might find him sitting next to your local pond fishing, or by some well-known attraction taking a photo from an unusual angle for his new site www.photolondon.net



I was interested in some final words from the Great Raymondo (as I was first introduced to him by a certain number plate), some thoughts on the club scene. Quite frankly no interview would have been complete without mention of the club laws. Brought into the scene primarily as a marketing tool (and quickly copyrighted) they soon took on a life of their own with clubbers collecting them like addicts looking for their next hit. “There were 63 club laws, there could be more, I’ve got them written down somewhere. We were running a party called Choon Town and it was all part of the promotion for that. We’d booked out Imperial Gardens before any other trance or hard house party had, it was a garage location before and the first time I’d heard about the venue I’d heard that someone had been shot outside, so I thought that was worth checking out,” he said with a laugh. “Instead of doing flyers, I decided to make a little booklet with each of the laws printed so that page one had laws 1 to 4, page two had laws 5 to 8 and so on. Then we shuffled the lot, got them photocopied, then gave them out randomly at clubs and people just started collecting them like mad. People would come up and say ‘Have you got page 9 as that’s the only one I’m missing!’” As a parting shot I challenged him on law 14. “Jesus!! I think that’s Rizla, but I’m not sure. You know when you get these annoying people come up to you and they don’t even speak, they just roll their fingers together expecting you to do something and you’re like what?? If you’re going to fucking smoke, bring your own fucking gear!! I always thought to carry some toilet tissue to hand out to these people, lets see you roll with that.”

Adam Symbiosis

Photos courtesy of Raymondo and Adam Symbiosis. Not to be reproduced without permission.

http://raywise.co.uk/

Trip to Oz...

Sat 23. Nov.

Strange entering Australia - usually its the flight that plays with my head but this time it was my stomach that was feeling like it was washed out, and it was. On the first plane from London to Singapore I got some food poisoning, went to get on the next flight and my guts got the better of me... oh dear. So I got seen by the doctor and she advised catching the next flight (12 hrs later) so that's what I did. Luckily I slept through most of the second flight to Melbourne - shame really because it's the first time I'd flown with Singapore Air and I was otherwise impressed...

It was really cool to have Nadene and Hamish meet me at the airport and drive me back to their house (where I'm based for the whole trip). There house is beautiful, 10 mins from the airport and 10 mins from the city, I'm in the spare room with the computer and the decks - a situation which I'm sure they are both gutted about :-) . It was 8.30 on a Friday morning - they had to work (they work together) and I had to sleep... So, after a nice bath, settled down to some zzz's. Last night we went out to Brunswick St in Melbourne, a road which looks like a shanty town in any western. It's full of shops and other places, but mainly restaurants and bars... great! Although my tummy was not 100% so I had to take it easy. We met Coco, Cat and Nadine which was great.

Not surprisingly I woke at the crack of dawn this morning, so here I am chatting away to myself. 08.00 Ray x

Sun 24. Nov.

Yesterday was a cool day. We met Coco and a few of his pals at golf course on the outskirts of Melbourne. The weather started off good and just got better - the scores didn't really matter and it was really just as well we only played 9 holes... Shattered? You bet, in fact we all were. Coming back to Nadene's briefly (to change) we saw the temperature was around 35 degrees and you can't really grumble with that. After changing we grabbed some beers and food and went to a park for a bar-b-q, this was very weird for me as I never realised you get barbies already setup in parks for you to use - apparently they usually cost money to use ( as you would expect) but this one was free.. Sorted. So we all sat around and chatted until about 10pm and by then as you can image, the drink had taken effect. One the way back we called in at Belinda’s and it was great to see her after all this time - when she left England we had a party at Sid's and Graham videoed it for my... Her going away present was the video and we watched it last night - for Hamish and Nadene it was the first time - we had such a laugh seeing all the old faces and even a few tears from the girls.

Nadene says she wants a party like that when they come over... Well, it's got to be done! 08.45 Ray x

Tuesday 26:

Sunday was overcast in Melbourne and we went to the beach area ---- St something or other. Had a snack then checked out all the market stalls which overlook the area, I suppose you could call it a prom. Pom on the prom, whatever! It was a surprise bumping into Craig Jon there and then Jane and their new baby.. ?? We'd already planned to go to the house later for a barbie so after we'd chatted for a while we said bye... On the way to Craig and Janes we stopped in Melbourne city and looked at a new building 'Federation Square' which is mainly a museum or gallery of the 'moving image' call it what you will but it's weird, my photos try to explain but there is not much hope - you have to go. Melbourne is full of art and design of future standard bringing the word contemporary into a whole new meaning, it's certainly cool, but I'm not sure if it always works. After losing ourselves for about an hour we boarded the car for Craig and Janes. Craig’s mother and her mother are both over here for the first time - to see the baby, which is only 7 months) and Holly and Fez were also there so plenty of talking and catching up was done... What a lovely way to spend an evening.

Monday (yesterday), I got up early and Nadene took me to the airport where at 11.00 boarded my flight to Sydney. Melbourne was again overcast when I left but that wasn't the case 1 hour later... Sydney was hot, 38 degrees and pure sunshine. I stepped in a cab and told him to take me to Kings Cross (bar and club area in Sydney) and away we went. It didn't take long to find a hotel, which is called the Crest. At $110 a night, it's not bad, and compared to a lot of the condition of many around here, it's a bit of a palace. So I dropped my things and walked down to the harbour. Some things you never forget and this was one of those times.. The gardens I was standing in over looked the bay, the bridge and 'that' opera house - all bouncing light around on the water from the sun... Not to be outshone the city also looked fabulous - towering up to the sky surrounded by greenery, all round a absolute stunning view - this was truly awesome.

Bob and Juanita arrived in town in the evening and we had some good food on the harbour then crashed some Irish bar until I had to leave - just too much for my little head to bear! 11.20 Ray x

Wednesday 27.

Yesterday was another look around Sydney - we started of at the Botanical Gardens seeing a sky full of fruit bats and weird and wonderful plants along the way. Bob and Juan then walked me around to Opera House and we walked all around it - unfortunately not going inside. Next we decided to get on a ferry. There are many of these, which act like buses taking passengers to various places around, we took tourist route to Darling Harbour, which isn't far, but obviously takes in more along the way. Darling Harbour is wicked, placed on the other side of the city, therefore it views the buildings from behind. It has all the museums and other places plus the Home nightclub and Imax cinema. After some food and drink we walked through the city and arrived back at the hotel. Bob and Juan were going to stay at friends for the rest of the week so after eating lunch they left. I was pretty tired so after a couple of drinks, opted for the TV and the room and that, was that. 10.12 Ray x

Thursday 28.

Yesterday I spent $30 on the Bondi Explorer, a bus service which takes you out of the centre and end up, yes you've guessed it, at Bondi Beach. The service is a tourist one and it stops to take in all the sights along the way... pretty cool - but expensive. Mind you, you can hop on or off wherever and although it finishes at about 16.30, you can use your ticket on the local blue buses.

I got to Bondi about 12.30 and about viewing the shops (about 2 minutes worth) I found myself walking down the golden sands. It was windy - very windy, and although this would be great news for surfers, it was great for me. Everyone was taking refuge on the grass bank which was shielded, somewhat, by a hill on the south side - so, I joined them. 2 hours later I left, opting for a quick burger at MacDonald’s (which have the most amazing Hawaiian shirts) and heading back to the bus stop. Bit of a chill at the hotel and I then walked to the harbour where I ate some veal at some self service restaurant... Nice. Got on the bus and ended up in Bondi again - this time to see Marty - who promotes Frantic in Sydney. He had a friend - Joe - who I also know from London, we all went for a few beers and once again, it was good to talk about the 'good ol days'. 10.00 Ray x

Friday 29.

Thursday was your typical tourist photo session for me. I walked all around the city and then some. Had some nice food along the way too. Later, after a rest I caught the ferry to Milsons Point and walked around a bit to find a good view of the harbour, city, opera house & bridge. After a bit of walking I found a good spot and darkness was falling - perfect photo oppertunity! Well, after that I went back to my room and met Bob & Juanita. With my bag of records, we walked up to the Icebox, a club I was to play at. Although my set time wasn't until 2am, we arrived about 11, after drinks in a nearby bar. The icebox is small and long, at the rear, the dance floor opens into a larger space with plenty of lights and a laser for extra effect. The slot went well and all seemed pleased, Marty (from Frantic) also attended and the crowd held well... I finished at 4am and got about 2 hours sleep before being taxied to the airport to catch my flight to Melbourne. And here I am. 11.50 Ray x

Saturday 30.

After a couple of hours sleep, Nadene and Hamish came home from work and it was cool to see them again. Last night we ate some food at the Blue Train in the city, which is right by the river. At 11 o'clock, they showed me these huge concrete pillars which line the river edge, on the hour they blow flames from the top up to about 20 or 30 feet - you can feel the heat from the ground. Madness! After we went to Katie & Katie’s for a party which basically lasted all night - so did we, in fact we only got back about 11 o'clock this morning - awh, I know - my head did take a hammering. Got some sleep this afternoon and now I preparing to go to the airport for Perth. 17.15 Ray x

Tuesday 3 Dec. I arrived in Perth on Saturday, about 8pm after taking 3 hours off my clock, from there it was all go. Kristy picked me up from the airport and on the way back to hers I grabbed some food. In Perth I am staying at Kristy’s house with Matt Clarke, who was there when I arrived. We chatted for a while but I didn't have long, my set time at the club was 11pm - 1am. After changing Kristy and I left for the club, which was in the city centre, we got there about 10.20pm. Blair and Rob were there, they are the promoters, and some other djs and friends etc - who I was quickly introduced to. The night - called Electrified, was great, the crowd, about 600-700, were great, they were friendly, up for it and danced all night. After me, Roosta played a great set and then Matt, who'd been playing at a local house party. Rob played for around 45 mins at the end, then Roosta, Matt and I stuck one final tune on each to finish the night. By now, I was feeling a bit tired. So after the party we went to someone’s house and sat out in the morning sun (it was around 6.30am) until about 9.00am when Blair decided to take some of us back to his place, which is on the other side of town. I lasted till about 11am when the tiredness became too much and I ducked out. Nas took me home and I fell straight asleep - no qualms. I woke about 7.30pm to find Kristy had just come back, so we chatted for a while as we waited for Matt. This house is amazing, many rooms and beautifully furnished throughout. Me and Matt stay in the main house, while Kristy has her own house in the garden... Amazing, but this is not uncommon over in Australia. Matt came back soon and we got some pizza before going back to sleep. Yesterday I woke at 6am and that was that. Unfortunately I had not been shown around the house too much so I was left to my own devices. The other two woke about 11am. Finally, we left the house about 12.15 and we went down to the beach from to get something to eat. It was pretty expensive, but really nicely down and it was good to sit out in the sun and eat. After we briefly visited Kings ?? Park which overlooks Perth and its city with some stunning views. After which we came back to the house for a quick refresh and went down to a reserve on the other side of town in Joondalup. There we fed the birds and some Kangaroos which was great and obviously time to click away with the old camera! Later we got a video out as we were all tired and had an early night. 08.30 Ray x

Thursday 5.

Tuesday we woke to a beautiful day and decided it was best to go and play golf - so we did. We went for 9 holes - as in Melbourne and took off straight away for the course. We got there about midday and it was about 30-32 degrees - hot? You bet. But this was what we wanted - a bit of burn factor and some good fun at the same time. And we did have a laugh... after we grabbed some pies and sat down in from of the river which sits adjacent to the city of Perth, which held yet another nice view. We were getting weary as we left our picnic site so we headed back to Kristy’s for an hour or so before the evening began.

That night we all met up with the promoters and crew from Electrified and had a beer or two in a nice bar called Queens, not far from Kristy’s. It wasn't a late one and we were all back home by about 11.30. Wednesday was the day Matt and I were to leave for Melbourne so we were all up by about 10am. We drove to a cafe on a nearby beach and ate breakfast in the scorching sun - it was amazing - the weather was just perfect and after eating we sat on the beach before driving Matt to the airport. Just 2 hours later in was my turn to go and it only seemed like 5 mins since I had just arrived. Perth had been sun blessed for us - but it was time to pay Melbourne another visit. I got back at the airport at 11pm (you add 3 hours) after the 4 hour flight. Hamish and Nadene picked me up from the airport and like a child at school I let them have the full story.. :-) 01.25 Ray x

Sunday 8.

I'm still coming round after a big weekend but this is how I can remember it as it happened... When Thursday broke I realised that Melbourne, which can they say, have four seasons in one day, was not as blessed as Perth with it's weather. In other words, it was raining. Both Hamish and Nadene had taken Thursday and Friday off so that was cool. So we all hopped in the car, picked up Belinda and Matt and drove into town. We had some lunch while waiting for our time to come up on Ten Pin Bowling, another sporting moment for us. It was another great laugh and by the time it was all over, it was time to go back to Belinda’s to drop off Matt and go home. Friday was Hamish's birthday but we were having a get together on Thursday night. After packing some overnight stuff we got back in the car and went round Belinda’s again. Belinda had to go to work that night but would join us later, the rest of us got a tram down to the restaurant which was a Mexican place called Amigo's. Hamish had about 30 friends there and I was surprised how many I knew and by the end of the meal and a few Corona's later - I knew them all :-) It's a bit of a religion to go to a bar called Revolver the night before Frantic here in Melbourne, so we all wormed our way in and found some couches by the broken pool table. Kane was playing some funky house on the decks and the place had a really cool laid back atmosphere. Much later - we left. By the time we hit the sack at Belinda’s it was 3am. We rose about 9am the next morning with muddy heads and blurred vision - it soon passed and about an hour or so later - we left to find a breakfast bar. After dropping off Matt and Belinda we drove home - it was another cloudy day - but it was Friday - Frantic day - and Hamish's birthday - all good, as they say here.

Hamish and I played for most of the afternoon on his computer while Nadene tried to get some sleep. We left at 5.15pm and took all our things for the party etc. First stop was One Stop Records in town where I had been asked to play a few tunes, so I did for an hour or so - a good warm up for later. After changing at Belinda's we all went out to the Point, a restaurant which over looks a lake. The food, again, was lovely and we had another great chat and we sorted a Mud Pie for Hamish with a sparkler for his birthday. Next stop was Room, where Frantic was being held, it's a two room venue which is very well lit and ventilated - handy for tonight because the party was a sell out. Everything went really well and the sets did too, I was especially happy with mine and all my friends were there to see me as well... It was amazing. Matt also played and Nick Sentience and Paul Glazby as well. Frantic finished at 7.30am with Craig Jon playing the final set. After we went to BPM - the after-party. I played first and then it was Matt - we had a good laugh at each others expense and the party went off - and we.... had to join in. We decided to come back to Nadene’s to finish ourselves off, just to help, we stopped at a liquor store on the way so nothing was missed - what happened next?? Christ knows really but here I am on Sunday morning, the day I return to England, my hands are still shaking and I need some food. This is the end of my holiday here in Australia, it's been a great experience seeing things, meeting people, playing music and seeing old friends... It's going to be hard to say goodbye. 09.50 Sunday December 8th - Ray x