7 Kick the Can

Back in the 80s when she was a young pup, J attended university in Berlin, graduating with a degree in Computer Science.

To make ends meet, she utilised her talents as a musician to earn money. Finally, the bullying and cajoling from her father to attend endless brass band practises was paying off!

She and our good friend from Sharron de Mol's blog were part of a seven piece group called 7 Kick the Can. The band played original songs composed by the group members, and at times they were also coerced into playing covers. 7 Kick the Can was popular in Germany in their time, playing concerts and festivals around Germany and Europe. They even made a record called Fame, Fun, Fortune & Fate. (No, CDs weren’t around in those days!)

J has some great stories of her band days, including memories such as border crossings between East and West Germany; the night that her dress split open as she blew a high note; the TV cameraman aiming his camera up her very short skirt. Her mother dines out on the latter story quite a lot and apparently there’s video evidence of this event, but I’ve yet to see it!

On December 1st, (this Saturday), 7 Kick the Can is holding a reunion concert in Hamburg, Germany. J has been madly practising to get her lip in, as she hasn’t played in quite some time.

If you’re in Hamburg this weekend, make sure that you attend – tickets can be bought here!


Look out for J – she’ll be playing trumpet.

Here are some of their songs recorded in the 80s by analogue methods and now digitised. If you can’t see the player in Internet Explorer, try switching to Firefox, or click on the links to access the songs in a browser player and push the Play button to commence the download.

7 Sinners


Link to 7 Sinners


Time


Link to Time


Missing U at Midnight


Link to Missing U at Midnight


Terrible


Link to Terrible


Good luck with the concert, honey, and I wish that I could be there.

Cruise Ship Season

November through to April sees the cruise ships head down to the Pacific for the Southern Hemisphere summer cruise programme.

Melbourne has quite a few visits lined up this season and you can see the full list of ships due to dock on the Port of Melbourne website.

First in was Royal Caribbean's Rhapsody of the Seas - the best looking and most modern ship so far.


Over the long holiday weekend, 2 ships visited on Emirates Melbourne Cup Day, to allow the passengers to experience the excitement of one of the most famous horse races in the world, billed as "The Celebration that stops a Nation". Unlike the Dubai races, official betting is allowed!

Holland America Line's Statendam berthed on one side...


... and P&O's Pacific Sun was stationed on the other, behind 2 Australian Navy vessels.


Last Thursday, Regent's Seven Seas Mariner graced the cruise ship terminal.


The red hulled ship that you can just see in the above image is the Spirit of Tasmania I. She and her sister ship Spirit of Tasmania II (funnily enough), ferry back and forwards over Bass Strait, delivering freight, vehicles and passengers to and from Tasmania. Depending on the weather, the trip is often very rough and takes 9 hours.


On Saturday, P&O's Pacific Star was in town.


The P&O vessels look old and somewhat dilapidated, and judging from comments that I've overheard from some of the passengers, they are less than impressed with the onboard facilities.

I often find myself playing tour guide when some of the passengers and I share the tram on the way into the city. I tell them where to get off for the main shopping area, as well as which trams will take them to the zoo and the Queen Victoria Markets. It's fun!

For me, highlights of the season will be the visit of Cunard's new Queen Victoria on February 21st, and a nostalgic goodbye to Queen Elizabeth 2 on February 29th. Most people mistakenly think that she was named for the current Queen of England, but the human queen is actually known as Elizabeth II, whereas the ship is QE2 as she is the second of Cunard's vessels to bear the Queen Elizabeth name.

This cruise is her last Southern Hemisphere cruise as she ends her service next year to be retired and sailed into Dubai, to become a floating hotel.

Because Dubai doesn't have enough hotels and the Dubai Government had a spare $100 million to buy her.

Moon over Melbourne

The moon rose over a nation with a new government as Australians voted Labor into power, ending the 11 year long John Howard Coalition rule.

As I write, Kevin Rudd is making his inaugural speech as Prime Minister, and it appears that Labor won a 5+% increase in margin.

One thing's for sure.

For the ordinary people, life goes on - no matter who's in charge.