12 days later

So it has been enough time for us to write another blog about how things are going here in London. Some cool stuff has been happening since the last time we wrote. Shows are continually going really well, we've got a small but steadily growing fan base here in London. We've been playing at some rad venues lately and have met a lot of cool people. Some really good contacts have developed in the last few weeks in particular. We've learned a lot about the local music scene and where the better spots are, in terms of where to play and the people that hang out there. We mentioned last time that we had finally been able to sit down and start writing again. We finished up a new song since then and have posted a rough recording on our myspace (www.myspace.com/theperennials).
Last week someone from Canada got in contact with us about doing a photo shoot while we are here. It was a little difficult to make it happen because the first date we set up we ended up getting terribly lost, and were 2 hours late and missed it! Sunday we finally met up at Richmond park and spent a couple hours with the photographer. It was a lot of fun and we think we got a lot of good shots. We should be getting them in the next week or so and we will post them for you guys.
As we keep writing we are getting continually more excited about our next record (which we hope to be recording this summer). Currently we are looking to recruit a fourth band member, ideally someone who plays piano and sings (another female voice would be nice) but we are open to anything at this point.
Well that is all we have for you at this point, we look forward to writing again as more happens in the next few weeks!

Pete and Amanda
(the perennials)

London, England

Where to begin, where to begin.
We've survived our first week in London (actually it's ten days now). We're sorry it's taken so long for us to write, but we've had a difficult situation as far as internet goes. We left New York on the 4th of January. When we got to the check in at the airport, they informed us that even though we had tickets returning to the states from Venice, we would not be allowed to enter the U.K. without a proof of tickets showing when we left London. It was a bit of a scare, but everyone was extremely helpful, and it ended up being a quick fix (as we promptly bought two tickets from London to Brussels by train, leaving England on the 5th of February). They even let us skip the long line to go through security at J.F.K. and sent us straight through!
The first flight was about five hours, and went off without a hitch. We got to Iceland around 7am local time. We had a ten hour layover, and had planned to leave the airport and go look around, but it seems it doesn't get light there until around 12pm, and gets dark by 5. Plus we were exhausted, and opted to sleep most of the time.
The next flight was 3.5 hours and we rolled in London (heathrow) at 8pm. They gave us a bit of a hard time at customs. We're still not sure why, but we eventually made it past. We made our way to our hostel (which was in Hyde park), had dinner at a delicious Thai noodle bar, and went to sleep.
The hostel was good as far as hostels go. There was free internet, the location was good, and the beds even had curtains for maximum privacy (Unfortunately, no amount of fancy curtains can shield you from the awkwardness of sharing a room with ten other people). It was a good spot to get our feet on the ground, get our sense of direction for the city, and figure out public transportation, but a week was more than plenty of time to be there.
Two days ago we made the long awaited trip to our next hostel in Streatham. It's about five miles out from the very center of the city, and we're excited to be staying here for the remainder of our stay in London. The place is a charity run music venue/pub/hostel, although it's quite a step up from an average hostel in that we get our own room, a double bed, our own sink and fridge in the room, and 20% off everything in the bar during our stay. Now that we have our own space, we've finally had a chance to sit down and start writing again. I can't say how long it'll be until we have anything to show you guys, but rest assured, some really good sounds are in the works.
We've played four shows so far, and will be playing more frequently from now on (starting tonight). We've been very well received, and even booked a few more shows from the shows we already played. It's pretty inspiring know that we are performing on some of the same stages that Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, the Who, and the Rolling Stones played on back in the day.
We've also had the opportunity to meet a few music producers and other people in the Business around the city. Nothing happening yet, but we're optimistic about the next three weeks. We've found that if you carry a guitar around long enough, eventually someone starts talking to you about it.
All in all, we couldn't be happier with how the trip is going. We're having a wonderful time being here, just the two of us (although we do have an extra set of bunk beds in our room until February, if anyone wants to come visit :) ). Please continue to pray that everything will continue to go well for us on our trip, and that God will use us for His glory along the way.

Pete and Amanda
(The Perennials)

P.S. we posted some pictures on facebook and there are more to come.