This is the story of how I managed to, despite being millions of miles away, get a ticket to see my favourite band of the hour, in a foreign land, with one of the coolest people I know.
Back in November, The Excellent Dave (henceforth TED) and I were having a hypothetical conversation concerning the fact that, considering I was going to be on the same continent as him in a few weeks time, I should probably plan to see TDCC at some point. As it so happened, tickets for a TDCC show were going on sale the very next day, and because Ted is awesome, he bought one for me. All I had to do was, once in Paris, organise getting myself from one whole country to the one neighbouring it.
It was time for an adventure.
Thankfully, and despite the fact that I was going to literally flee the country on a weekend my dad was planning to visit me in Paris, I made it all the way to London on an EasyJet flight that was, surpringly, very easy. I took a bus to Baker St in London (yeah, that Baker Street), and was reunited with Ted on a pavement in drizzly England. After mulling around London (which included Pret a Manger, the Tate Modern, and this bridge from that Harry Potter movie), we took a bus allllll the way back to Oxford, where a cricket feild and familiar couches awaited me in the House of Dad.
The next day, after some much-needed book shopping in Oxford, we took the train to Birmingham: city of Oli, and city of Gig Venues. Birmingham is really pretty, and walking through the Mailbox (their Sandton City... kinda) with Ted was pretty cool. There's a canal, and a giant statue of a bull (that seriously looks as though it is about to charge you - no really, even when it's made out of jelly beans). Plus, Birminghma has one Mr Oli Parsons (cousin to Ted), and his German flatmate Stephan. We played Xbox Kinect, which is basically a way to look stupid in front of people you've just met while pretending you're trying to beat their highscore in Kinect River Raft Racing. We ordered dirty pizzas, I was high-fived for suggesting dirty pizzas, and we made our way to the O2 Academy, where the illustrious band awaited us.
The place was packed. Ted managed to get Oli, himself and me to a decent spot on the crowded floor (refer to previous comment about his awesomeness), and we watched, in wonder, as Sam, Alex, and Kevin (sans hipster glasses... how are we supposed to distinguish him now? he's just a bass player!) took to the Academy Stage. Ladies and gents - the Two Door Cinema Club.
The lights. The sounds. The crowd. It was a gig experience I'll never forget. There's something about hearing - live, loud, and impecabbly performed - music that's been playing on your iPod since 2010. I had such a good time. I've added some photos here (they're not all that great), but I sincerely had a phenomenal evening. I'm super stoked my SA friends get to see them too. Yay for you people. Yay for music. Yay for great music.
And that was Birmingham. Oli took us for a stroll the next day, then to his mom's house for lunch/supper, which included an epic game of Trivial Pursuit (which Ted & I won, yes sir), a bizarre game that had something to do with chasing and aces (which I won, despite my clear ignorance, and probably because I was sitting next to Ted and I kept switching our cards when he wasn't looking), and a super-delicious meal. The train back, falling into bed, and seeing my lovely Granny the next day: all was nice, all was good, all was well. I even made it back to my own country (which is now France).
Success. I posted a great memory, got to delete some photos off my phone, and made a dint in the long list of blog posts I have to write before I explode from under-sharing this great life that I get to lead. Stay tuned.
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