A letter from Fiji...: Music

So three weeks ago I decided to add some music to my blog. Well the frustration started there. I am not one of the world's biggest experts in html and of course it wouldn't work. Luckily typepad has "help tickets" and prompt responses, or it may have taken me a lot longer than three weeks! But finally yesterday we won, and I now have one (yes sorry, only one so far) track on the sidebar of my blog from one of my favourite bands, Black Rose or to use their Fijian name" Rosiloa (which means literally Rose-black of course). Have a listen. If you're on a slow connection wait patiently until the whole page loads... So suffice to say this is a band I really like. They have successfully made the transition from pub band (or covers band) to using local sounds to write really great songs. So imagine my horror when I realised I had missed seeing them in concert- well sort of.

Last week was BFTE- the Bula Fiji Tourism Exchange, so GB was in town for work all week, and we went out to join him. We stayed at one of our favourite places in Nadi, the Nadi Bay Hotel. We love this place. Yes its a backpacker. More than that- its a collection of old buildings in a cane field. But it has such a cool fijian feel, several restaurants, 2 pools, its laid back and fun, and yet the rooms are always spotlessly clean, and the reception quick and efficient (sometimes a rarity in Fiji!). We are usually quite happy in the small apartments (no we haven't tried the dorms), but this time we were in the bigger unit- the vale levu. Wow! This was three bedrooms- and bigger than our house! A fact that caused much hilarity amongst our friends. Anyway if you're coming to Nadi with a big or extended family this is definitely the spot. The only thing about our room was no internet connection- but it didn't hurt me to take a week off trying get my Rosiloa track to play...

It was hot in town and tiring, and GB was working really hard, so I can't really blame him, but we went to the last function of the week- the carnival- had dinner, then he was tired...so we went home. There had been a whisper Black Rose would play, but when we left at 10:30 the second band had been on, and it was definitely (as I was told) the band from Cardo's. The next day I was still getting mixed reports- Karen said the band "seemed to get better later on, in fact they were quite good", Paul said he didn't notice any different band, but Rick said (OH NO!) that not long after we left Black Rose came on! Aaaargh!!!! Now I have seen Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Ray Vaughn (the late great), Jackson Browne, Bic Runga, U2, Dire Straits and many other greats in concert- I really wanted to add Black Rose to that list! So I was mad with GB for rushing us home when I was just relaxing, then I was mad with the state of our relationship that we go out together for the first time in ages and don't even stay up late! Now I am furious with the organisers (as I go through the grieving process here). If you have a band the calibre of Black Rose and an international audience you shout it to the heavens. Not "carnival night", "carnival night with BLACK ROSE"!!! One of the Pacific's finest! There is no excuse for people thinking the band from Cardo's got a bit better later on... right. vent over. sorry.

PS if you love that track the album "Rosiloa" by Black Rose is a really good buy. Just Google "Black Rose" + Rosiloa and a list of places you can purchase it will come up. Choose the most convenient. It has a dvd with it too. Or if you live in Christchurch like Mandi Haynes then I see you can actually get it out of the library! Being off island meant I was off line for all except 10 minutes of last week. I'll catch up with some more posts soon... and they won't be angry ones like this, I promise!