Hello and other festive greetings, I trust this blog finds everyone eating mince pies or at least contemplating the eating of mince pies. We managed to witness the xmas build up in Canada, North America and Japan so my brain is now riddled with carols and Cliff Richard songs.

The last two and a half weeks was a lovely finale to a extremely surreal year, we witnessed sunshine, frost bite inducing snow [has anyone else heard that apparently when you get frostbite your fingers feel like warmed marshmallows, ie, crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside??? Ellen informed me of this a

couple of days into our trip and I think that lovely image is definitely worth sharing with as many people as possible] and Gareth wearing little blue pants and a knitted gimp mask at dinner. ( He had clothes on under the pants, which in a way makes him a bit like a fetishized superman) (Pictures to follow)

The plane ride to LA was rather touching for us all as we were able to watch the masterpiece that is Ratatouille, which made some of our more sensitive members nearly cry, perhaps because of the parallels between the morals in the story and our own lives. The take home message is that "Anyone can cook," and I like to apply this to myself as "anyone can make music." Apart from that awful brother/sister duo on The X Factor.

They really should be stopped. Or maimed.

We started out our adventure in LA which was a sprawling hubbub of confusing juxtaposition. There was poverty combined with the promotion of celebrity glamour (e.g people begging outside the kodak theatre where the Oscars take place) and a lot of Scientology related buildings. It's WEIRD how seriously they all take it - there was the L Ron Hubbard Celebrity Community Centre (which we were assured did a lovely brunch), the L Ron Hubbard Christmas display, the L Ron Hubbard life exhibition and the various L Ron Hubbard workers trying to convince you to do "personality tests." It apparently is the religion of now and in

La would go perfectly with your Hermes bag and small obligatory dog.

But LA did contain Ameoba records, which has everything. No, honestly, everything.

We also made a video out there, which sounds far more glamourous than it

actually was because it was filmed in a recording studio so it could have

been anywhere. But it was nice to sit around in the sunshine. I can't say

too much about the video before it is aired to the five people who will

watch it, but it does involve small furry things which meow. I may have

said too much. There is also a starring role from our lovely sound technician/

tour manager Todge, which is maybe not Oscar worthy but should be

given a nod from the Baftas. [Actually it's up on youtube now so CHECK IT.

And don't worry, although it's hard to believe given the skill of our acting,

we are all alive and well. Although I have pulled a tendon in my knee.

But that has nothing to do with the video.

There was also an afternoon spent in Melrose in the hopes of celebrity

spotting (unsuccessful) which saw us discovering some 'interesting'

Necromance shops featuring human bones, posters of how to perform

surgery, books with titles like "the most fashionable clothes for

mourning", and my personal favourite- black toilet paper.]

We did some shows also in LA, San Fran, New York, Boston, Ottowa,

Toronoto and Montreal. San Francisco seemed to be where the

crazies liked to hang out and generally talk to themselves, while we

were having cocktails I witnessed a man continuously lifting a plastic

bag up and down for an hour at what we thought was a bus stop. It

turned out to a lamp post. He wasn't waiting for a bus.

He was just slightly eccentric.

New York was particularly fun as we got to play with our friends

Johnny Foreigner again who were there recording their debut

album, it also meant we got to go to Whole foods again which is perhaps

the most magical food store in New York. [or the world] There was also

a good two hours where is seemed Bright Eyes might come to our show,

which where perhaps the most nervous of my life, I turned down cake

because I was so nervous. He couldn't make it, my dreams were dashed.

[and you missed out on cake]

Boston was where we first witnessed lots of snow leading to cold feet

and constant giddy excitement from Neil, who really likes snow.

[aaaaaaand they gave us freshly baked WARM cookies when we arrived

at the hotel. Pretty sweet.] In Ottowa we got apples in the hotel and

some people received free champagne on their arrival. It was also

where we got our bags throughly searched at the airport, with Gareth

getting his toothbrush and ipod (!) swabbed for drugs. How cliched

do they really think we are, we are strickly a heroin injected into the

eyeball sort of band.

It was also where seven shots of a mysterious substance turned up

on the right hand side of the stage [the crowd did try to help us solve

the mystery by calling out that the drinks were called 'Tracksuits'

...which didn't really help]. We all accepted it politely and drank some

(apart from Neil because he just isn't cool) and luckily it wasn't

Rohypnol. It was alcoholic Irun Bru.

Toronto was where we were reunited with one of our favourite

places, and caught up with some lovely people from Arts and Crafts

including our favorite driver Aaron, who we convinced to come to

Montreal with us the next day and miss work. His constant farting

in the car made this journey rather difficult. [The drive was so

loooooooooooong- why can't they just build cities closer together???

It's just open space in between...it SO wouldn't make a difference.

But luckily we were entertained on the way by our new driver

Sam and his stories of how as a wee lad he excitedly volunteered to do a

presentation on Toxic Shock Syndrome thinking it sounded really cool...

until he realised it was to do with tampons. Gutted.]

We had heard so much about Montreal and were all rather excited

about getting to see this lovely European style town where the fact

they spoke French and they weren't IN FRANCE was a huge novelty.

I attribute that statement to myself, novelty for me is of course

normal life for the Montrealians.

The thing about being in a band and that is places you want

to see...you wont, you will see the street you are on between

sound check and performance, which means you will see the

restaurant/ Tim Hortons you eat in.

We supported Broken Social Scene, and the venue was rather

beautiful but the fact wehad to get up at half five in the

morning really really sucked...

...to be continued...

As this blog has turned super long we thought we'd give you

lovely readers a break. That is if anyone persevered to get to this

bit. Also it gives us something to do when we inevitably get bored next week.

So stay tuned - Part 2 to come. Lots of love, Ellen and Aleks x