Busted.

Brighton Centre - 14^th February 2017.

Last year saw the release of Busted's 3^rd album Night Driver, their first studio album since 2003. So now they are back on tour with this latest album and have landed at The Brighton Centre on Valentines day.

Night Driver is a major departure from the wannabe pop-punk of the early noughties, and to prove this Busted kick off tonight's show with Kids with Computers, an interesting choice to say the least. Is this Busted's way of proving to us that they are a changed band? One where there are no guitars in sight?

Has Charlie (Simpson, guitars, vocals and breaker-upper of Busted) decided that he's done pop-punk, done rock and acoustic and now wants to play at being an 80's popstar? It does look like it.

This is not to say that new Busted is not enjoyable, it is, and they are pretty good at this synth pop thing, the major problem seem to be that most of the crowd don't want 80's Busted, they want Air Hostess Busted, proven by the excited screams and continuous jumping around that occurs when said song is played.

The show continues bouncing to-and-frow between old and new songs, and there is nothing bad to be said about the performance tonight. It is full of energy, its slick, its sexy and it sounds good. When the band leave the stage after and encore of What I go to School for, Coming home and Those days are gone, the crowd still want more and a guarantee if Busted come back to Brighton they will be welcomed back with open arms, and intrigue as to what their next sound will be.

Deaf Havana are back!!

Their new, excellent album, All These Countless Nights is out and tonight is the album release show!

Opening with Ashes, Ashes they get a heroes welcome but it is not until single, Sing that things really get going.

Deaf Havana are on form, everything is sleek and fierce. Flowing effortlessly from older songs (that the crowd sings back in full voice) to new songs that will soon be ingrained in fans brains and hearts just the same. If tonight is a preview of what's to come then expect Deaf Havana to become everyone's new favourite band.


All These Countless Nights is out now,.

If you missed it, last year Disney unleashed a new princess on us, a fierce Polynesia princess that gives Beyonce a run for her money (who am I kidding, Moana beats Bey any day).

So here are four reasons why we should all be singing 'I am Moana!', or your own name, totally up to you.

Oh and be warned, potential spoilers ahead. 

Moana learns, and knows who she is, what she needs to do and owns it.

Despite being told many times that not to go out to sea beyond the reef she does. But not in an bratty Ariel kinda way. In a I need to do this to save us, heroic kinda way. She just needed a bit of encouragement from the island's crazy lady, her own curiosity and self belief and she was on her way.

Moana is fearless. If you were told that you had to go sail the ocean, find a Demi God on your own, without anything but the elements and stars to guide you. To go where no-one else had gone before, searching the unknown, for something that could just be a story would you? Most likely your saying 'yes of course', but really, think about that. Like really. I know I probably wouldn't. That doesn't top our princess though! She is Moanaaaaaa!!

Moana is resilient in the face of defeat, and coconut pirates. Even when Moana faces certain defeat, even when Maui deserts her, she picks herself up (sings a bit, obliviously) and then continues on.

When Moana grows up she will be chief of her island, and obviously will follower her calling to save the island. No prince charmings required here.

She is investing her time into knowing everything about the island, how it works and the people she will be in charge of. I guess we can assume she will be expected to marry, but the welfare of her island and her people is her priority.

Moana doesn't settle. Once she has saved her island and returned she doesn't just chill out. Nope, she goes back out there leading a fleet of ships out to explore further.

And now, because I'm sure you're inspired here it the song;

Moana is released on DVD on April 3^rd

I am forever making 'new day/week/month, new me' plans, pretty much almost every day. This is mainly because I'm not a massive believer in having major life plans. Yes I have goals, and ideas of how to make them happen and mini goals to get there, but I've learnt that you can have the best laid plans and life will come along and rip the ladder right out from under you.

So this year I've got some goals, most are part of bigger plans which I don't want to get into, some things need to be kept between a girl and her notebook.

So here are the smaller, things I'm going to so this year, to help me out in my bigger plans.

These are some of the smaller things that are going to help be get to the bigger things.

What are your little resolutions? Leave them, along with your music/podcast recommendations in the comments.

Day 5 of our Malaysian adventure and we were up and out early and on a plane to Terengganu for four days of paradise at Tanjong Jara Resort near Dungun, where my younger sister Emma is interning at Lang Tengah Turtle Watch.

I have never before (and may never again) stayed somewhere so beautiful and peaceful. From the moment we were met from our (almost dodgy) taxi right to the end of our stay we were properly looked after, and with in an hour of arriving I had seen (and held) a baby Turtle.

Basically days 5,6 and 7 looked like this;

But sometimes there was some added rain, (it is almost monsoon season).

At Tanjong Jara the Lang Tengah Turtle Watch team and rangers look after nest that are laid on the beach, they are put into the hatcheries and checked until the little baby turtles are ready to go off into the world. By doing this they prevent poachers from getting the eggs, and can make sure turtles head to the sea (instead of up towards the hotels, they are attached to lights), and they go in large numbers, giving them the best chance they have to survive. The project started on the Island of Lang Tengah and began it's first season on Tanjong Jara earlier this year. Check out their website or Facebook for more information on their fight to save the sea turtles.

Night 7 there was finally a massive storm, which was incredible/scary (massive lightening loud bang, floor shook kind of storm). The rain was epic.

Day 8 We woke up extra early to go snorkelling!!

we jumped on a bus, then a boat which took us to Tenngol Island just 45 minutes away.

Now, I'm a strong swimmer and swim in the sea a reasonable amount during the summer, but when it comes to floating I'm not a natural. Also when you wear a snorkelling tube you become very aware of your own breathing and for whatever reason I panicked a bit, over exaggerated my breathing and generally had a minor freak out. Once I'd calmed myself, I was off, and swam out pretty far to make sure I saw some clown fish and sharks!!! (Yes actual sharks, they might only be Reef Sharks that do not hurt humans, but a shark is still a shark right?)

So I actually had a pretty amazing time, and we saw some pretty epic things, and maybe we spent a bit of time discussing why Ariel was a idiot for wanting to be part of our world (yep both Jenny and I were singing 'Part of Your World' in our heads).

So after this wonderful swim, we had to swim, back to beach, and that's when we realised how far out we went, so we headed back for some food and a rest feeling pretty proud of ourselves.

Later we headed back on our boat and out to Turtle Point for some more snorkelling fun times! To answer your question, no we did not see any turtles – blame Emma, she has previous for not seeing turtles. This time the water was deep, and once again I panicked and could not get my breathing right, and then began to worry that because the water was deep I would actually swim too far, get to tired and drown, even though there was plenty of other people around and a beautiful boy who had afloat in case anyone got in trouble I was still concerned, so I made one of the best decisions I made all holiday.... I wore a life-jacket!!!!! I could actually float! Hurrah! And it was incredible...

Later, after a shower and well deserved rest we joined Emma and her gang and headed to Dungun for the night market where we tried loads of different food, including some rice cooked in bamboo or some kind of leaf (which I am so desperate to find and make) as well as more Putu Bamboo and pancake type things with peanut butter, a sweet sauce and sweetcorn in, which my mouth enjoyed but my brain struggled with.

Then it was back to the resort for our final night, for a drink of two and to see some more tiny turtles being released.

Our last day was spent helping Emma with her turtle talk and colouring in some turtle pictures for the upcoming beach clean and lounging by the pool, before we sadly had to say our goodbyes and head back to KL that evening.

One final night in KL, and we headed back home, and yea, I cried.

I had such an awesome time and fell in love with Malaysia, and am already planning another trip!

I also need to send a lot of love to Jenny, Jo, Emma and Turtle crew for an awesome experience. I had the best trip, with the best people.

Picture by Jenny, make sure check out her blogs about Malaysia too!

Day 3 of Malaysia fun-times and I was up at 5am to meet Emma who had just got the overnight bus down to Kuala Lumpur from Dungun. So we tried to watch the sunrise, but there were buildings in the way, so we got coffee and croissants and sat/swam up on the roof for a few hours.

Later on we regrouped and headed off towards Dataran Merdeka to check out some of KL's sites, museums and visit the Petronas Towers.

We took a whistle-stop walking tour of KL, starting at the oldest Mosque in the city, Misjid Jamek (Jamek Mosque), unfortunately it was closed to visitors due to maintenance work, but looked beautiful from the outside so is definitely on my list of places to go next time. Then from the bridge heading towards the Dataran Merdeka (independence square) we got a brilliant view of the two rivers that give Kuala Lumpur its name.

Ready for the fun fact? Kuala Lumpur means “Muddy Confluence”. The confluence in question is of the meeting of rivers Klang and Gombak.

A little walk later and we found ourselves at the Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and the KL City Gallery. In the Gallery there is a wonderful display about the History of KL and Malaysia, from colonial times to when they received their independence on 1957 and the development of the city. Make sure you go upstairs to the model city presentation, it is incredible and keep in mind that this cost us just 5MRY (so about £1) it is totally worth that just for the model city lightshow presentation thing.

Once we had bought out postcards and fridge magnets from the gift shop we continued with our walking tour around Dataran Merdeka, and after a wonder found ourselves in at the Central Market and then Chinatown. It was hot sweaty and full of cheap/fake perfumes and designer handbags, but I did manage to find some pretty funky trousers and a fan (the best 12MRY I spent al holiday -seriously it's hot so get a fan!). You do have to haggle, which I found daunting but also really fun, and you should try some of the street food. We grabbed some Putu Bamboo (a cake like thing made from rice flour, sugar, pandan leaf and coconut) and Rambutans (a small fruit).

While that was great fun, the real treat of the day was heading up to the Petronas Twin Towers. Fun fact number two... Until 2004 they were to tallest buildings in the world and remain the tallest twin towers!

Once we (finally) found the entrance to head up to the towers, via a mall (hint hint KL.. so more signage would be super handy) we were soon up on the bridge, which is a mere 41 floors up, with some incredible views. Then we jumped back in the lift and headed up to the 86^th Floor for some evne better views and the beginning of sunset. This is when my camera began to run out of power and my spare batteries were in my bag, which you have to leave downstairs (boo), but its just another excuse to go back to KL again – more photos, haha!

Day 4 and our last day in KL (Big Sad face)

There was only three of us as Jo had to head back to Hanoi early morning, so we began the day, like proper grown ups, with cheesecake for breakfast before heading to The National Park. Our major challenge of the day was crossing 4 lanes of traffic to get to the park (as someone who hate crossing roads anyway, this was utterly terrifying, but we made it and we didn't die, whoop!)

We headed for the bird park but on route found an observatory.

The bird park was great and it was really awesome to get up close to the birds and not have them all in cages, it was less fun being pooed on by a bird! (yes that happened and yes it was gross, but you've got to get your good luck somehow right?) It was also a lot bigger than anticipated and took up most of our day! We saw Hornbills, Flamingos, Parrots, Pigeons with great feather styles, Storks and so pretty angry Milky Storks being fed, and plenty of others I don't know the names of. We also headed to the deer park, which in comparison was a total disappointment, all the deer we saw were in cages, with the only animal free to roam was a monkey.

With that we headed back, popped to the shops, a quick dip in the pool, ate a lot of Sushi and then took Emma back to the bus station for her overnight bus back to Dungun, I'm pretty sure you can guess where Jenny and I ended our last day in Kuala Lumpur.....