Birthday Boy

I’ve known Simon for almost all my life. We first met at the old Victoria hospital in Fredericton on November 21st, 1974. Interestingly enough, I was three weeks late coming into the world and Simon was two weeks early. Had we been ones to conform to the status quo, I guess we wouldn’t have met till 1983 on the dodge ball court at St. Dunstan’s Elementary School. So I guess, whether I’m one day older than him or five weeks older, Simon has looked up to me all his life.

I have many stories I could tell about Si but since blog sites are relatively open to everyone on the planet, I will keep them to a minimum. The first one that comes to mind is Simon’s obsession with sticking his head into buckets of icy water. One night, in a dive hotel in Montreal he stuck his head into a bucket of ice for ten minutes. Why? I’m not sure. Though it was halfway impressive, I think a guy named Gabe won the contest.

Another one of my favourite’s is Simon in London. As we all know, Simon is an international athlete and a minor celebrity on the Fredericton athletic scene. He is without a doubt the Guy Lafleur of Maritime rugby. One time he was on the national team playing in Cardiff. Luckily, I was in Edinburgh, Scotland at the time, so I went down to check out his game. The story, however, takes place in London. We were out at a bar with a friend named Duncan and it was getting late and we had had too much to drink. So I bolted, as I do sometimes, without saying goodbye. Halfway to the hotel (was I even walking in the right direction?), I get a call from Duncan telling me to come back and get Si. Being the good friend I am, I go back and find Si passed out at a bus stop. I manage to get him into a cab and we take off. As we get to our destination in King’s Cross, Si throws up all over the back bumper of the cab in front of a crowd of junkies and prostitutes. We all had a good laugh.

Besides swimming, the thing that brings all of our good friends together is road trips. I forget which trip it was but we were crossing the border from Quebec into Vermont one summer day. As we were getting searched (it is the most difficult border to cross in the world), I remember looking over at Simon emptying out his pockets for the border guard. As he put the little pile on the counter, I see that the entire contents of Simon’s pockets consist of a bit of change (under fifty cents, mostly brown coins), two beer caps, and a condom. The border guard just looks at him strangely and tells him to go back outside.

It is always entertaining being around you, Si. Happy birthday, buddy. Sorry about the late greeting but I was three weeks late coming into the world and it still takes me a while to get things done.

Great Weekend

What a great weekend! I had spread the word a few weeks ago that Nicki and the boys should come down to Taichung for my birthday. Nicki said he would but I didn't think the others could make it. So it was awesome to get a call from Curnie Saturday afternoon, saying that him and Joe were going to pick up Nicki and come down (they took a cab from Taipei - what a bunch of big rich city folk).

Anyway, it turned out to be a great weekend. Faye and the Slacks had a gig Friday night, my friend Phil threw a big party on Saturday, and I got to hang out with Nicki (Joe and Curnie bolted early) all day Sunday. It was a lazy day. We just sat around, eating pizza and watched that Metallica documentary and some old Borat skits. But it was perfect.

Thanks for coming boys!
It might be hard to read these shirts but they have Chinglish on them. It was a Chinglish party. There are some very funny shirts over here with bad English translations on them.
Maritime kitchen party.

I had to throw this one in. Militant Hippi played a cool gig last weekend in a place called Longtan. We are playing lakefront to a bunch of Taiwanese people. Behind us, across the lake, is a huge red temple. It was a very cool show for charity. In this picture, we are playing with a band called the Anglers. There's like ten of us on stage.

Public Ass Grab

Well, Halloween has been and gone so if I'm going to do a Halloween post, I better do it now. As there isn't really Halloween here in Taiwan, we celebrated on Saturday the 28th. Faye and the Slacks had an outdoor gig at a bar called P.J.'s. The Slacks went disco (I wanted to go metal again, but people are starting to notice that I do that every year. True, perhaps. But it's so fun to throw on those leather pants - did I ever get my money's worth out of those things),Faye went eighties and Lindsay went all Bling Bling and stuffed her ass. It was a very good night.

Public Ass Grab
White jeans, big curly hair and a bass. Who am I? Mike Gordon?

Taipei Show

Hey everyone,

Si brought to my attention, that I haven't updated this blog for quite some time. He's correct but I have an excuse. We still don't have a camera. But tonight I got some photos and here's a little update.

A few weeks ago, we did a tour to the three major cities in Taiwan. We were the band for a literary magazine launch. It ended up being four gigs, and though none were paid gigs, transportation and hotels were covered. And it was good exposure. Out of the four gigs, the Saturday night show in Taipei was the most special. Nicki came up from Hualien and some friends, April and Lisa, came up from Taichung. Plus, I hadn't seen the Taipei boys in a long time (including Chucky who I hadn't seen at all). Thanks everyone, it was great.

Here's Fish and Chucky. It was Fish's birthday. I think we are drunk at this point in the night. Fish also came to our Friday night show.

Thanks a lot for coming. I apologize again for the other band sucking so bad. Here's a shot of Faye and the Slacks. Faye, Phil and I.
April, Nicki, Curnie, Lindsay and Lisa. It was a smaller pub but it was packed.

So great to play for so many friends.

So there's a bit of an update. To read even more, go to Si's blog and read Nicki's reply. The night went until morning. We had seven people in our luxury suite down by the train station and Nicki and I finished a bottle of wine on top of a greasy roof as the sun came up. Can't wait to do it again.

Slacker Geoff