3am In Leicester

Oh....Yeah..

2007-01-19T14:25:00.000Z

Oh look first post of the new year in this place. Well its been a pretty dormant blog all along. It'll become even more dormant over the next year because for the time being, i'm all about the travelling. So I'll be posting on this blog
So click the link, bookmark it. Read it, comment, send us money.

Once again thats www.wrongturntravels.blogspot.com.

Go there. Now.

All the Gods

2006-12-22T02:18:00.001Z

A list of everygod currently known in history or presently worshipped

Not one of them any more believable than the last

Dead. But for the Grace of Punk

2006-12-21T18:07:00.000Z

Hey. i'm back again. To bring you good news. On the second of february 2007. I will be having lunch in New York. Followed by two months of travelling round the USA, (maybe vancouver as well, if i can get a greyhound there) followed by three months of travelling round Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil plus more. Its gonna be a long, exciting, and penniless trip. As i have not nearly enough money to survive, but hopefully i will manage it. I will be setting up a blog for me and my travelling partner Dejan to send regular updates, or more likely plea's for cash.

"I Have Got Some Really Big Plans."

2006-10-25T14:12:00.000+01:00

"And todays the day I'm putting them into action."

For a successful Gap year I Must...

Apply and be accepted for a University for September 2007, preferably in Leeds or in a nearby major city. I must do a useful course for my interests, without having to resit any A-levels.

Learn Spanish. To an Acceptable degree. Before February. But then learn South American variations, so as not to be kidnapped.

Lay Up the Fucking Zine I said I was gonna do since last summer. Then do another issue to prove its not just a one off. Flog it like its illegal.

Raise at least £3000. Before February. Don't spend on cider.

Book Airline tickets to the USA. ASAP. OK?

Book Airline tickets from the USA to South America. ASAP. MTHRFCKR

Oh Yeah, Work out where I fucking want to actually visit. Find out if i'll die there. If not try and find accommadation.

Sort out getting my fucking tax back from the bastard arms dealers that took it.

Take my vitamins.

Go to bed before midnight. Except If I'm working. In which case get to bed when I get home.

Stop buying mail order punk records.

Stop talking to random old men about politics. They'll only turn out to be racists. Every socialist died with thatcher.

Stop craving Curb your enthusiasm DVD's. You gotta focus on saving not spending. Larry David will always be there.

Don't buy subways on whims. Only when you have vouchers or someone who will give you a free one.

Cycle More. You supposed to be a bike punk. Or a Bus Punk. I forget. Either way, stop being so sweaty and tired after just one hill.

Practice hitch-hiking. Try it to get home from work. Make it trendy again like only I could.

Buy a proper old-style razor. Or just a razor in general. Stop using those women's ones, they are meant for legs not faces.

Get the fuck out of bed by 9am. Unless for a valid reason I haven't had the full 8 hours.

To Be Continued.

Ooo.. So tempting

2006-10-21T16:36:00.000+01:00

I am i sick enough to buy this. Do i have a sense of decency. or even dignity. Do i fuck?

Its t-shirt that looks like dynamite.

Hooray

2006-10-20T16:27:00.000+01:00

I'm back. Don't think i tired to leave you. I've been trying to do this everyday for the past two weeks. For some reason my blog was lost. But its back now. hooray. More later. Unless i get locked out again.

Video of the day

2006-10-02T01:22:00.000+01:00

The funniest thing i've seen all week.

Gah

2006-10-01T13:23:00.000+01:00

Finally worked out how to log in. Blogger Beta seems to befucked at least for me. I can't get in through the frontdoor. I have to climb up the drainpipe of google, before trying to squeeze through the batroom window and hitting my head on the sink. But i'm in.

All i wanted to tell you was that i have serious writers block. I've done nothing of interest lately, and can't remember anything interesting.

I planned this though. I chose to cut off my social life in the hope of raising money for my travelling next year. I don't spend any money because i don't go out or buy anything and i don't have time because i work most nights. It's Hell. I find myself cycling home on deserted streets at 2am. Singing as loud as i can and cycling on the wrong side of the dual carriageway, just because i can. I sleep in til about 12. And start the whole thing again. Theres nothing of interest to note at work. The only things which strike me as out of the ordinary, are ordinarily so. I wouldn't wanna bore you with tales of "This guy shouted at me because i gave him slim-line tonic insated of regular tonic." It's dull. And somehow, three weeks in, i've only saved £100. I need £3000. Fuck. Why don't i just rob banks. I don't know anyone called banks thats why.

I am heading to manchester for a couple of days this week, hopefully something interesting will occur then.

Ok, so i lied, i sorta wrote quite a bit there. And i have got some photos to show you. And some other stuff. I'm afriad to log out, for fear of getting locked back out again. So i might just have to stay logfged in and write for the sake of it.

Don't Phuck With Physics

2006-09-17T21:24:00.000+01:00

This article has some of the funniest and scariest lines in equal measure.

Baby Bang Could Open Door to New Dimesions.

Reassuringly, the scientists seem to know what they are doing.

"We don't know what 95 per cent of the universe is made of - which is a bit embarrassing for a subject that claims to be fundamental," Dr Cox said.

"It will go into an area that we don't really understand," he [scientist] added.

Oh good, thats reassuring. They don't actually know what the hell is going to happen.

This however, is the scariest and most bizarre line i have ever read in a piece of Journalism.

"* They estimate the possibility of accidentally destroying the planet as extremely low."

ACCIDENTLY DESTROYING THE PLANET. WTF! Oh good, they could destroy the planet, but not to worry, because they guess they probably won't. They also estimate they might find alternate universes. TEH FUCK??!?!?!!?

Videos of The Day 17/09/06

2006-09-17T00:51:00.000+01:00

We Will Win

2006-09-16T02:17:00.000+01:00

Just Finished work, a hugely busy friday night. Pouring alcohol down the necks of all the clients. All the discerning drinkers who demand VodkaRedbulls and whatever the fuck else will get em drunk as fuck. At around 1.30 as we were turfing the last old men out, who had fallen asleep over their lukewarm yeasty drinks. A fight broke out at kebab shop next door. I guess some of the dumbfuck punters we had just been drugging senseless were angry that the takeaway was closing before they had a chance to wolf down slices of donkey lips in a pitta bread. They started fighting with the staff. and shouting BNP, BNP, BNP! The staff, who were of some minority ethnicity or another had to run away as they were locking up. As the facist crowd was gonna fuck them up, just because they wanted some piece of shit meat to shove in their fat nazi fucking faces. I watched as an asian lad, about 20, had to run away, because they turned on him, even though like them he was wanting food. When will all the facists die. Why can't they all just trip up and kill themselves on particularly sharp kerbs. They will never win. Becuase we are too stong.

Famous Again!

2006-09-13T23:16:00.000+01:00

First it was the heady heights of stardom, in which i was captured in the background of a photo on the BBC Leicester website. Now i've hit the big time, i'm in background of a photo, with my friends. We're signing an oxfam petition at Leeds Festival. What they didn't know is that we all wrote fake addresses, so jokes on them. You can also sorta see that i'm wearing an operation ivy T-shirt. Lauras backside is also on display. Haha.

Heres The Link

Video Of The Day

2006-09-12T00:21:00.000+01:00

Todays Video, was too cheesy a Video to put up on September 11th, but nowi ts gone midnight, its September 12th, and the cheesyness has slightly subsided. This was origanally posted on the excellent One Good Move It's an old clip on The Daily Show With John Stewart. This one in particular, the frist episode after 9/11, is probably the most honest portrayal of what in its context captures the shock and immediacy of the event. I contains minimal Flag-Waving Bullshit, and about the right amount of "God Bless America" you could have without getting annoyed.

Wedding Stories

2006-09-12T00:01:00.000+01:00

My friend was asked to do some wedding photography, the first time he had done any. So he asked me to help him out, just to make sure we didn't fuck up. Obviously he didn't realise i'm not good with formal occasions. It went pretty well, i hope. I got quite a few 'great' shots, and a few good ones. But loads of badly lit, shit ones. I was using a Nikon digital Slr. It's not mine, and i wasn't used to it. I was dying to use my trusty Canon film camera, loaded with some nice high grain black and white film. But ah well. I had that two, and hopefully i took a few good informal candid shots with that. According to my friend, i caught the best shot of the day, and he kept threatening to punch me. I don't think its an amazing shot, It would be with a better background.

Its ok though, i guess. Anyway, I dunno if i'm getting paid for it yet, it depends on whether the couple are pleased with their finished product. I got a free meal out of it, and lot of fun and loads of great experience.

These are in no way the best photos of the day, just the only ones i've managed to get so far. Wanna see me in all my professionality?

C'mon, you know you want to hire me for your wedding. Or funeral.

Sunday Night Gig

2006-09-11T23:25:00.000+01:00

I was supposed to finish work at 9pm last night. 8.58pm, i'll take one more customer. Cue a really drunk man stumbling up to the bar.

"What can i Get you?"
[BLANK STARE]"Can i have a black and tan"
[I go to make the drink, register it on the till] That's £1.99 please.
"and..another black and tan"
[Makes Drink]
"and a guiness"
[Makes Drink]
"and a bottle of pils"
etc etc etc

The guy would order only one drink at a time, despite me asking, quite clearly "ANYTHING ELSE?", consquently, he bought about 10 drinks, one at a time, taking each drink back to the table, leaving me waiting for him. By the time I finished his order it was 9.10pm. Bastard. I ran into the staff room to throw on my normal clothes. Shocking the other staff who had only seen me in uniform. I tried to explain i had a gig to get to, throwing on my operation ivy hoodie.

"Who you going to see?"
"Just a punk band from Leeds"
That was met with sorta half sniggers which seem to accompany a lot of the average person response to punk, i never get why, actually i can talk. If someone ever tells me their favourite band is Nickelback or Creed or summat, I just can't help but snigger.

Anyway, got to The Shed, and got rinsed of £3, my last £3. Bollocks, i hadn't anticipated having to pay. Actually, the door charge was £4, but they let me off. Walking in the door, a pretty thrashy rock band was on called "To The Bones", looking around, an empty mosh pit, an empty bar, an empty seating area. Just two people at the back. Both were in bands. The band i had come to see, Nana's Revenge, had been delayed in a massive pile-up on the M1. I sat down, tapping my hands along to the pretty manic drum beat. Realising my friend wasn't here, I had a walk around the deserted venue, its small, but a really nice place. Just the right measures of all the different substances that make up a venue. Equal parts dingy, smelly and dangerous, but also small cosy and friendly.

I looked at the bar, i hadn't had a drink since Wednesday. Quite a long time in my world, i had more alcohol on my shoes than on my tongue this weekend, ah well. My friend turned up with the band, and I was introduced. I then realized i was the only paying customer of the night. No wonder, there was no local band on the bill. "To the Bones" were from bolton. "Nanas revenge from Leeds". So that meant no one had bothered flyering or anything. Ah well. The band on at the time, still played like there was a sizable crowd, even if the crowd was attending a band practice.

We pulled up two chairs and lined them up where the mosh pit would be, and sat down, embracing the emptiness of the place. Nana's revenge also gave it their all, they sorta thrived and adapted to the fact there was no crowd, thanking the audience by name. Also the fairly amusing..."We have a MySpace if anyone wants to check us out", "Yeah, i already did".
At one point the singer went off to buy some drinks at the bar, whilst the band played the song intro, he brought the round back just in time to start the vocals. Pretty stylish, at least i thought. They had some good banter. "This songs about Necrophilia", "This songs about Child Necrophilia". I dunno, i laughed. It was worth three quid i guess. We all helped load out.

The Nanas guys had to drive home. But the other band's driver was wrecked and so he was sent to sleep and sober up in the car, and we invited the other two out to drink with us. I became painfully aware that i had only had breakfast that day. The remains of a box of cereal. I needed some food, with no money, luckily outside the attik, i found an unopened muller yoghurt by the dumpsters, so i couldn't resist. We showed the bolton guys the delights of cheap Maryland Chicken meals, and they were impressed, and gave me a copy of all thier two cd's. They had played a few shows over the past few days including one on the dance floor of a bikers den in Coalville.

I was scheming to get a lift home off them having just missed the last bus. Hoping they wouldn't have a clue how to get out of leicester to the motorway, i would hop in with them and their drunk driver and direct them via my house to bolton. Unfortuantly they were sussed and knew the proper way. Ah well.

Fucking Idiots

2006-09-11T14:20:00.000+01:00

Green Day is a very special band to me. Their music and their influences have introduced me to some amazing and lifechanging bands, writers, and just people in general. Being even bigger superstars now than when they sold-out the first time round, they are about to appear with U2 on a charity single. Yep, thats right U2, a band that spews such rubbish that they begin to sound like the Uncle you thought was cool, but you realize that he was just a right-wing shitbag. So i'm pretty pissed at the news. Fuck U2.

No Rock N' Roll Fun Sums it up best

ARGGH

2006-09-10T03:00:00.000+01:00

MY EYES ARE BURNING. It's Like 3am. WAHEY! It's 3am In Leicester.

I'm F.U.C.K.I.N.G Hilarious.

Anyway, I done loads today. Wedding photography. I'll tell you about that tommorrow.

Meanwhile heres a photo I took in Italy. I think it captures a moment. My friends being Stupid basically.

What I've done since you

2006-09-10T00:10:00.000+01:00

I had my first day of work yesterday. Working at a wetherspoons. (a Chain Pub for non-uk readers). I was thrown in at the deep end, two minutes of training, as in, press this button, press that, voila! Apprently it was surpisingly busy for a friday night. Thats how fucking busy it was. Felt like being back at Leeds festival, at the bar between the Artic "SHITCOCKSUKINGIOFUCKINGHATEINDIEMUSIC" Monkeys and whoever played before them. I fucked up tons but whatever, it was fine. I just did a lot of staring at buttons, and trying to remember what the customer just ordered when they asked for an obscure speciality beer, "bzwekasy" or summat.

The worst part of the night, slash sorta best part, was when an old girlfriend of mine came up to the bar to talk to another worker (or Bar Assocociate, in wetherspeak). When we saw each other we just stood their staring at each other shouting "OH MY GOD". "OH MY GOD", OH MY GOD". I was already sorta shakey from first day nerves, but my heart just kinda stopped for a bit, to ponder the reality of the situation before bursting back into action with an "OH MY GOD" of its own.

Let me explain, i haven't seen her since a few weeks after we broke up. That relationship was the best thing that ever happened to me. I still don't know why she stopped talking to me. About 7 months after we split she sent a message saying "i'm soo sorry, I just thought that if i spoke to you again i would fall in love all over again". Yeah, what of it, was my thought at the time. So i had been pondering the fact we might bump into each other with mixture of dread and well several other bad feelings, even though i really wanted to meet her again. Its the equivelent of giving blood. You really want to, but you can't ever imagine why, because you know however macho you try and be, the needle is always a bit scary.

The weirdest thing was, i had a dream involving her about a week ago, and i told my friend, I have the feeling i'm gonna see her soon. I don't belive in much, so i don't think its just coincidence. It was just bizarre. I don't know what she was thinking, but she quickly explianed her Boyfriend was with her, I didn't really care. I am over the relationship, despite the abover paragraphs seeming to the contrary. But there was an element of lack of closure, and i still have a desire to find out what the hell actually went wrong. Anyway, yeah, we chatted for a bit, but i didn't want to hold her up.

As i was leaving to wait for the Night Bus home, Her boyfreind and her came out,and him seeing me, grabbed her and made sure i saw their kiss. It was kinda funny. Ah well. Even though I have her new number and everything, I bet it'll be another 2 years before i see her again. Its a shame, cos she was a fantastic friend.

Bill Hicks Last Interview

2006-09-06T17:59:00.000+01:00

Thought this was interesting. Bill Hicks last interview before his untimely death.

Now Playing

2006-09-06T16:44:00.000+01:00

I'm currently listening to what i belive is the best manifesto ever. In song form. Better than the communist manifesto, obviously better than the Labour manifesto. You ain't a punk unless you agree with what is said in this song. Its not an obscurely unknown song in the punk world. But some of you might not have heard it.

Reinventing Axl Rose - Against Me!
We want a band that plays loud and hard every night
That doesn't care how many people are counted at the door
That would travel one million miles
and ask for nothing more than a plate of food and a place to rest
They'd strike chords that cut like a knife
It would mean so much more than t-shirts or a ticket stub
They'd stop at nothing short of a massacre
Everyone would leave with the memory that there was no place else in the world
And this was where they always belonged
We would dance like no one was watching
With one fist in the air
Our arena just basements
and bookstores across an underground America
With this fire we could light
Just gimme a scene where the music is free
And the beer is not the life of the party
There's no need to shit talk or impress
'Cause honesty and emotion are not looked down upon
And every promise that's made and bragged
is meant if not kept
We'd do it all because we have to, not because we know why
Beyond a gender, race, and class,
we could find what really holds us back
Let's make everybody sing
That they are the beginning and ending of everything
That we all are stronger than everything they taught us that we should fear.

If i could work out where i could store mp3's (someone help me) i would post one, but you all know how to illegally download songs anyway. So do it.

This song just makes you wanna run around manically. Espiecally the line "We would dance like no one was watching, with one fist in the air", everytime i've heard that line sung to me, i feel like punching the air and falling backwards hoping to be caught by the crowd. Sometimes works. Not if i'm just listening to it in my room.

Unfortuantly, the Against Me who wrote this song, seemed to have moved away from thsi particular manifesto. They are still a great band though.

Teh Fuck?

2006-09-05T01:28:00.000+01:00

I 'upgraded' in the loosest sense of the word to "Blogger In Beta". Hence why every has suddenly flipped reversed it around here. There only advantage thus far that I can see, if the ability to Categorize posts. Now i have the task of trying to work my old template into the new style thingy. I wish i knew what i was talking about.

In other news, i fucking got a job. Yes, finally. My Long summer of doing fuck all due to no money is over. Unfortuanatly, so is the long summer. So i missed out. Ah well. From this friday night I will be working at a wetherspoons. yeah its a shit Pub Chain, but it'll have to do. Plus the local one is mostly quiet. I also have another little job, I'm doing some wedding photography. I'm a little nervous, even though i'm not the main photographer. But i get a free meal. BUT i have to wear a suit. Where the fuck am i gonna get a suit from, one that isn't my dinner dance suit. Which will upstage the Groom, and the bride.

The Damn Bible

2006-09-05T00:17:00.000+01:00

Fantastic program dissecting biblical myths. Hosted by that weird american magician duo, which is a weird combination of presenter and program. However, if you have a spare 29.15 minutes then i would give it a spin.

Sad, So Sad

2006-09-04T21:58:00.000+01:00

In an interview last week Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter was asked what his favourite childrens television show was. After some thought and consideration, Irwin replied, "Thunderbirds....But i'll always have a place in my heart for Stingray".

Thank You, i'm here all week.

Dreams

2006-09-03T12:04:00.000+01:00

How come dreams are so much more interesting than real life. Last night i dreamed i had been roped in as the guitarist for a christian rock band, yeah exactly. We were to perform at my old school. When our set started one of them introduced the next song as a Placebo song, which i didn't know. So i ruined the whole concert by not knowing shit. I then offended the band by saying i didn't believe in god.

I guess this dream came about because I did Kareoke yesterday, poorly. it was pretty funny though. I did "drop it like its hot" by Snoop Dogg, which i think went down well, espescially as i only know one line, "I Wear a Blue Flag hanging out my backside but only on the left side, yeah thats the crip side". I think it was the only kareoke song with the word Motherfucker in, which went down well with the dining audience. A bunch of us did, which from my drunken perspective was a fun rendition of Rock the Casbah. Although, most people had left, or were waiting for us to finish to leave. Ah well. At least it wasn't a christian kareoke session.

Another Job Interview today, which i seriously need, except i feel like shit. But thats ok, Stza from Leftover Crack is playing the shed tonight, which should be fun.

Faster Than Me Thats for Sure

2006-09-02T17:50:00.000+01:00

I recommend you guy check out Faster Than The World, they just got about a million contributers, and now update like every six minutes, which is a good thing i guess. So check it out.

Leeds Festival

2006-09-02T14:38:00.000+01:00

It's a week late, but i've finally got round to getting this up, its my review of leeds festival. Inevitably with my writing it will turn out to be far from a review but ah well.

Thursday.

My alarm was set for 6.30am, an unheard of hour, and definitly the earliest I had woken this summer of unemployment. But hopefully, that was about to end, as i had a job interview to get on with, followed by motherfucking leeds shitting fucking festival up against da wall motherfucker! Which would be nice. The interview was ok, the interviewer's daughter was apparently going to Leeds fest, and i almost accidently said, "Oh, i'll make sure to pry her with lots of free booze", not realizing how badly that would come across, so lucky i didn't say it. The interviewer seemed to be a fan of Real Ale, i dunno how i picked up on this, but i played into it, "so what kind of beer's do they sell at leeds festival", "oh just that DAMN Carling", "Ah, pisswater". Just so you know, i didn't spend the whole interview talking about leeds fest, it just came up, and was infintely more interesting than him talking about stock returns, blah blah.

I got home after the interview at 10am, which felt seriously weird, after manically packing and changing out of interview clothes I made my way to the station. The journey up there consisted of mostly talking to other festival go-ers, who all wanted to see the artic monkeys or some shit. fuck em. I'm there for da punk (and to work the bar, fuck i forgot about that bit). the next bit is boring, so i'll sum it up in a sentance. Station>Bus>Festival.

WE'RE HERE!!! As me and Dejan (oh yeah, he came with me), were staff, we walked past the queues into our own bit, got our passes, Tent>Up>Beer>You get the picture. The rest of the day was spent trying to find all the people who i only vaguely knew from the internet or from last years festival. It got boring, but I met up with Chel, and we eate her bread and frubes. Fuck knows what happened the rest of that night.

FRIDAY.

I love camping, i have no idea why, theres no redeeming features about it, except for the feeling of being lost in time. Traditionally, you wake up as soon as the sun rises, thinking its 12noon, only to find its 5am, and you've only been asleep half and hour. Everyone else seems to think so too, you can tell, because you can hear everyones converstations within a 500 metre radius, for some reason everyone belives a small sheet of canvas equals a double insulated brick wall. You nod in and out of sleep listening to people gossip about other people until you realize your on fire, the air is burning you insides, and its too hot to stay in the tent, so you walk for a mile to stand under a cold tap. Camping=Fucking Great.

Standing on our executive staff hill, we could see all the plebs queuing, now it was time to take advantage of our arena passes, walking straight past the queues, we made the trek to the Main Stage, to do the traditional thinking, of being bored out of your mind for an hour, whilsy the first band sets up, only to realize you hate the band and leave mid-way through the first song. This years band was Mastodon, apprently they are big news, i thought the first few bars of their song was shit. So we went in search of better things. The first decent act I saw was Sway, a fairly political, but annoyingly patriotic british rapper. I didn't realize but i knew a few of his songs, but i have no idea where or what from. Yeah, he was ok, 6/10. or whatever. It was less than jake next, who were predictably bland, so perfect for the main stage. The only cool thing they did, was to have the entire crowd sit down, which looked cool, but then they followed that up with their retarded commercial ska-pop-psuedo-punk. Fuck knows, what happened next, i had consumed about four free red bulls, so everything became kinda shakey and fun. I remember Slayer, but i don't think we stayed. Before we started our shift, Dejan and I, watched some shit as hell hyponist, it was interesting, but he wasted an opputuanity. Instead of ordering his hypnotised subjects to kill indie kids, he just told to forget numbers or their names or some shit. Poor form. Could have created an army, but went for the cheap laughs instead. Its always the way.

Shift began, and we were given this years T-shirts to wear. Hilariously (i.e. not at all) Carling had decided to slogan would be DAMN YOU WARM BEER. DAMN YOU WARM BEER, DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMNNN YOU! GOD DAMN IT, OH MY GOD DAMN, FUCKING WARM BEER!, or summat to that tone. The shift was tiring, and as it was my third year, (only my first legally), there was nothing new about it to get excited about. Carling, the only choice of beer, Albeit not warm beer, damn you, was three quid. Cider was £3.20, no way was I going to charge that extra 20p to my cider drinking bredrin, so £3 it was, only from me though. During my break, I saw 2 many dj's for the millionth time, they are a brilliant party band. We closed an hour early because for some reason no one was partying or drinking, i didn't mind as it meant i could sit down. We made a lot in tips, which was good, cos i was not in the mood for expensive food. However, a big plate of delicious cajun chips tempted me, I ordered and paid for a portion, but for some reason they made two, which they gave the other one to Dejan, i was annoyed that he had got free food, that he didn;t even want, espeically as i had paid £6 for the pleasure. Everybody knows Free Food tastes infinitly better. This was the main argueing point of the night, that he should pay me £3, espeically to my credit, that i saw that they had made the mistake, and had played along to ensure there would be a free meal. Which was ungratefully scoffed by him. I'm just bitter, i'm sure he'll tell you another story.

We blagged our way past the massive queues to the Aftershock tent, and i danced in a drunken way, as i had drunk lots of the leftover beer at the bar, plus scammed a triple vodka with a dash of coke, (which i had to take bag so they could put more coke in it, i got more coke but with four more vodkas, seven shots and coke in a pint glass). So yeah, I danced like a loon, we found Chel, but then lost them as soon as we left, pity i wanted more free bread. I'm not sure what happened the rest of the night.

Saturday

Oh, i'm in pain, the sun is burning through the tent, and making me feel like egg. My voice has gone, I don't what from. It could have been the screaming DAMN YOU WARM BEER! all night, fuck this, i'm gonna go have a shower. The staff showers were actually very good, warm as shit, painfully warm, i guess its one extreme or the other. When you squinted it was actually better than my bathroom at home, which has no real shower, just a bath and a bit of metal with a shower head stuck to, but you can't really stand up in it unless you've had reconstructive surgery, which on my last look in the mirror, i hadn't had. The week before i had been attending my Grandmas funeral in Brighton, I popped into my favourite shop The Punker Bunker and picked up a cheap MAXIMUM ROCKNROLL T-shirt, trying to force it on my damp body, i realized it was a Size S, not the at least M i need. I looked like i was a Punk Elitist Scuba Diver when i left the shower.

We had the early shift today, so there was only time to catch one band, who i had heard on some punk radio station, they were The King Blues, they were fucking excellent, if you haven't heard them, they are acoustic ska/reggae punk goodness. Some amazing vocals, percussion and mandolin. They came to the crowd to flog CD's, i had the ten quid out to buy it, but thay ran out of cd's. So now i have an excuse for downloading it.

Time for the shift, which was pretty piss easy, as there was no one at the bar most of the time. We took an extended break to see Lightyears last show, i had missed them when they played Leicester, but apparently, despite them always saying this, Leeds was their last show. They were a amazing highlight of the weekend, getting naked, talking shit about Ice T, who would be playing later, then threatening to piss on the stage, cos it wouldn't matter, cos they would be split up. Anyway, they were great. And until they reform again, which they will no doubt, it will be a legandary show. Lightyear were one of the talking points of the festival, even being talked about by Radio 1, who usually give them no attention. During Ice T's set, they invaded the stage with a Pantomime horse. Ending up pissing the shit out of Ice T, who threatened them heavily. Apparently the naked guitarist was kicked out of the festival altogether. Ice T was the joke of the festival, no one really being sure why he was there. People came to see him as a curiosity more than of love of Bodycount or him. I didn't hear this quote, but announcing one song he shouted, "FUCK THE POLICE, even though i play one on TV". Knobhead.

I was looking forward to seeing Bedouin Soundclash, who's short set provided probably the most magical moment of the weekend. Jay, the singer/guitarist was incredibly ill, audibly and visibly, and croakily explained why they couldn't play a full set, but they refused to cancel. he croaked his way through two songs. Sounding like a geriatric, he justified why the band decided to let their song "When the night feels my song" in a an advert for T-Mobile. Unfortuantly, you could actually hear what the reason was, but i remember hearing "its all fucked up, you local record shop is as corrupt as T-Mobile". So whatever. For the last song, the audience sung a million times loud, knowing every word, the band seemed sorta emotional at the response. Apologising millions, they left. But the audience stayed behind, singing the entire song again, and in perfect timing, a million million times loud. It was hugely emotional, and the band came out again, almost crying, but apologising. looking very humbled. I guess you had to be there. But you can hear the singalong during the song on this videohere. It was truly magical, and incredibly hard to explain. As they ended early, i went to go and see Reel Big Fish, only to find Sick of it All instead, it didn;t click for ages, as to why Reel Big Fish were no longer playing ska, but then i remembered they were on the next day. I think i got really drunk that night.

Sunday

The last day already, yeah, unfourtuantly, but lucky, cos i'm getting tired of typing. Today was the day i was most looking forward to. Well the afternoon anyway, we watched Sonic Boom Six sound check. And we met our friends from leicester who were just daytripping, Dan and Emma. I spoke to Emma about america, and my travelling plans, got some fairly good greyhound advice, but the warnings about crazy bus people were pretty much what i was looking forward to.

Sonic Boom Six, were good rap-punk fun, and not in a cheesy way, i love laila's squeaky vocals, people say they are too squeaky and nice for the music they play, i like suprises like that, not every punk band needs growling vocals, although the best ones do. The King Blues were still hanging around, and Itch the lead vocalist came on to help them for their most famous song "All In".

Next up, 178.5mph Pop-Punk from Captain Everything, they were good festival fun, I got a few suspicious looks from them for knowing the words to songs of their album that wasn't out yet, hey, whats wrong with illegal advance copies. Andrew Seward from Against Me! watched their whole set, he seems to be the bands official "other band watcher", while Warren seems to be their official "meeter-greeter".

Welsh band, Adequate 7 cames on next all dressed in white, i thought they looked like a ska version of The Killers or some shit band. But as always they were good, but timid seeming though, with the lead singer seemingly scared to swear, "After our set, we're gonna go to the bar an get absolutly....drunk".

Lunchtime, followed by Festival Legends, Capdown who despite the rumours didn't slow their stuff down. Which would have pissed me off. As usual they played a fantastic set, check this video here, i'm in there somewhere jumping, yeah, the jumping one, in the sea of jumping people.

Then, what i had been waiting the whole weekend for, AGAINST ME!, oh yes, it was good fun, there seemed to be noone in the crowd for them though, with hardly any moshing, but there were few die-hards, my voice kept cutting out i was screaming along to the songs so loud. Luckily they played three news songs that I could rest it during, the songs sounded good, a lot different from what i expected, although Its hard to tell in a live setting. As usual most people only starting singing during Pints of Guiness Make You Strong, which it think they ended on, annoyinly, i really wanted them to play We laugh at danger and break all the rules, i can see why they didn't, cos it requires the auduince to sing loads, and it wopuld have only been me and about 10 other people.

After they finished, a horde of emo kids turned up to see alexisonfire or hawthorne heights, some popular shit. So me and dejan casually strolled backstage and found Warren chatting to people from The Bled, I chatted to him for a while, asked a few questions, annoyingly i should have asked for a Zine Interview, but i got enough stuff from him to put in the zine. We figured we must have been allowed backstage with our passes as no one stopped us or batted an eyelid. Walking around all the vans trying to find Tom Gabel we overheard Boob from Capdown apprently argueing with a roadie. Dunno what it was about though. Realising that we had nothing to do backstage we got food, and prepared for our shift.

Back at the campsite, Laura had just woken up at 5pm, so we spent an hour in the tent, in which i covered her face in the entire contents of her tent. And we talked for a while, about the postcards we would always send each other, i though she had forgotten, but she had apparently sent one from bradford, but she has forgotten to post. (I got it today), so now i need to visit a shit town to send her a new one.

I was beginning to feel really ill, really ill. I couldn't hear for shit, and i wanted to die. So to help me recover, i had to stand at the bar for six hours whilst it pissed it down and there was a windchill. I got incredibly ill, misreably ill. Laura kept giving me warm hugs, which was great. But I didn't have enough money to hire here as a living coat. The last few hours were misrable, with customers being knobs etc. One person even got stabbed next to the bar. They are ok though. After the shift, i went to bed, there was a free bar at our campsite but i just couldn't. My coughs were sounded like mouse squeaks, and everything i owned was soaked. I just curled up in my sleeping bag, feeling utterly misrble despite the great afternoon i had.

Monday

I felt better, well warmer in the morning, but i had a coldsore, and still couldn't speak properly. I had missed out on all my last night traditions, like watching the riots, and being the last one up, etc. Bastard. Moan moan moan. After packing away my tent, Laura came running, she was hammered, still, demanding hugs, and other things. She was funny, but like all drunk people when your sober, annoying as shit. It pissed me off cos i wanted to spend the day in Leeds with her and other leeds people. Ah well. She made me laugh, at breakfast i bought her a sausage and egg roll, which in her state she screamed "AH CHICKEN PERIOD and PIG ARSE" really loud, and repeatedly so that the other people on my table were disgusted, and looked at me like i shouldn;t let her out. Kinda proud of her then. We made our excuses and left. Joining the bus queue, some guy tried to have a go at us for queue jumping, we had accidently stepped in front of about 4 people, i didn;t give a shit. the fucking english and their queuing. Thats the reason why they don;t have the running of the bull here, cos the english would just get slaughtered whilst wiating politely to run in turn. No spaniaird ever did that, its run or get trampled motherfucker.

Anyway, the rest of the story is shit, but when i got home, depsite being ill, i still went out and got lashed that night. Brap. Theres your story. I know you didn;t ask for it. Sorry about the length, but it makes up for my neglect of this place. This took me two hours and was fuelled by first coffee in a week. So leave me some commenty love.

gizzajob

2006-08-13T15:05:00.000+01:00

I’ve completly run out of money, i’m down £36 quid in the bank, and i’m not entirely sure whether i’m gonna be charged for being overdrawn. Since I didn’t think about it at the time. My last job, lifeguarding for childrens swimming, ended because my license ran out, and i can not be arsed to re do the whole thing. Plus sitting down and staring at things for many hours in temperatures of over 30 degrees (celsius) has lost its appeal.

Even without money i still manage to get by, i’ve borrowed way to much off my mum, and my Dad is shit, so doesn’t give me anything. I managed to wrangle £20 off a friend by giving him £23 worth of euros. I still have a £5 book voucher that no one will exchange for hard cash. So i had to get a job.

I put togther my first ever CV, which looked kinda silly with stuff like Newspaper Boy on it, but it’ll have to do. I even did one of those little profile things, where you basically have to lie about yourself in the third person, writing stuff like, “A dedicated and good humoured individual”, i wish i could just tell the truth, “A deciveing individual, who will probably steal the office supplies, be rude to customers with money to spend, but will spend hours talking to customers who are broke”. Anyway, so far i’ve appllied to a bunch of shitty shops, such as Virgin Megastores. Working there would be hell on earth, as i hate pretty much all the music they sell there. I applied to waterstones, they have a little section with a few essay questions, asking you why you think waterstones is great. I basically said I admired their dedication to literature, and bookselling. Again, if i was being honest i would rant about how they put every decent bookshop out of business, and are probably partly responsible for the fact that the only books most people have read are harry potter and the Da Vinci Code.

There are some slacker looking jobs as well, including one at a guiatr job that i have never seen anyone buy anything in, and also at the university bookshop, which looks empty most of the time. I would love either one, but i reckon i’d be perfect for the univeristy one.

Anyway, i haven’t heard anything yet, which isn’t good. But the search continues. Of course if some rich benefactor wants to hire me to do very little work, such as blogging or just sleeping. Then i’m the perfect candidate.

This thing has been cross posted at 43things.com and 3am in Leicester

See more progress on: get a job

Festivals

2006-08-12T23:44:00.000+01:00

Haven't updated in ages, i haven't been in the mood. But heres a quick update.

Yesterday, snuck into summer sundae festival, watched the blockheads, met phill jupitus. got my leftover crack ticket signed by some band that were shit, but the lead singer looks like an alcholic in a suit. Some guy tried to mug me on the bus, by saying he had a knife in his pocket. Which blatantly was juts his fingers, so i kinda cracked up, and he had to back track.

Today, went to some indian workers things, got free food, but had to listen to boring speeches.

Blah Blah. tis pretty boring. All the writng is pretty much finished for the zine, but i just haven't had yhe motivation to lay it up.

Timdfndjfhjdf

Haha

2006-07-18T23:30:00.000+01:00

I'm on the BBC Leicester Website looking really bored at gay pride a few weeks ago

Click here

Forza Azzurri VIII

2006-07-18T14:12:00.000+01:00

Forza Azzurri VIII
Originally uploaded by refusejesus.

Last week i was in italy on the performing arts trip. As you know italy were in the world cup final with france, and won. Earlier in the day a bunch of us had been around lake garda buying cheap fake kits or in my case, not even trying to be fake. But yeah this is the resulting picture. If i can get my friend (whos camera this photo was tkane on) to upload his videos on his phone, i could show you the celebrations we had in a pizzeria with some very drunk staff, who fed us free cocktails and jugs of beer after the penalties had started. Anyway, it was a fantastic night, one of the best i've ever had. And its shame about the recent news concerning match fixing.

England World Cup Champions?

2006-07-01T19:22:00.000+01:00

Bollocks. Bollocks. Bollocks.

Books

2006-06-28T13:39:00.000+01:00

I always get the urge to ‘Rip it up and Start Again’, i suppose i just always need a million projects to work on. So pretty much the day after my exams finished, i decided to create some new stress. I dismantled all the furniture in my room and made plans to build loads of shelves in my room. I’ve ammassed loads of books recently, i seem to buy/find/steal about 20 a month, I read loads, i love it. Just the other week i got a parcel from Little Type containing Dr Franks new book “King Dork”. And the new Aaron Cometbus mini-novel “I wish there was something to quit”. Anyway, thats just an example, they are both great books. Buy em.

So anyway, my room, so far my progress is slow, i get distracted easily. I have cleaned the mould off most of the walls. My house has a damp problem, so i kinda just have to live with it, not having enough money to fix it all up and everything. Now i just need to fins some wood to make the bookshelves out of. I’m hoping i’ll just run into about eight 2 metre lengths of decent wood to use. but i suppose i’ll just have to buy some. Anyway, its kinda fun work, because i keep unearthing things I had forgotten about, like train tickets to weird places, or signs stolen off posh golf courses.

But yeah, i’ll hopefully have it all finished before i go to south africa in a few weeks (more on that later). Then i can sit in my newly furnished and uncluttered room (yeah right) reading books in the wicker chair that i swear is about 50 years old.

cross posted to 43thing.com and http://3amleicester.blogspot.com (delete as applicable)

See more progress on: finish my room

All the continents

2006-06-27T20:08:00.000+01:00

It Should be everyones dream to Travel the world, I’ve already been to four of them.

I’ve been to Europe, obviously, because i live there, but i have visitited practically every central european country with the exception of Holland, and probably just one or two others.

I’ve been to North America, I did that when i was five. I went to Canada, i would love to go again, and i plan to Greyhound it across the US next year.

I’ve been to Asia. When i was two i went to Thailand and Singapore. But Now i’m older, I would love to do it for myself, rather than as a dribbling crying baby.

I’ve been to Australisia, by going to australia, again this was when i was two. New Zealand would be an ideal destination for me.

So that just leaves South America and Africa. And By this time next year i will have done them both. This time next month i’ll be in south africa.

Bring on Gap Year.

See more progress on: visit every continent

Chumbawumba

2006-06-18T18:00:00.000+01:00

I just got back from the big session festival at de monfort hall. It was the final day and all i wanted to see was chumbawumba so i wasn' gonna pay the twenty so quid or whatever it was to gte in. So why not just try walking in for nothing, it worked, partly cos i looked like a festival goer at the time. But yeah, they were pretty good, it was acoustic, and they didn't have the 'heavyness' (i feel like the daily telegraph describing anything slightly "rock") of the old Chumbawumba, but they sung all the good songs, about topics such as the 1932 Tresspass movement. Also Joe Hill, the infamous labour movement hero of the IWW, and no they didn't play that song. Before i left, i checked out what was going on inside, it turned out to be a ceilidh, a country dance thingy, although it reminded me of a circle pit at a dropkick murphies gig. But i had an arguement with a burnt out ex-punk, who tried to explain that punk is dead, i had to tell him that it more relevant than ever, and in many cases more real then it was in the late seventies. What with the DIY spirit as alive as ever (unfortuanatly not so much in leicester), and a million more zines for every Sniffing Glue (not to say thats the only example).

Anyway, i rambled. One exam left, and soon i'll talk about how i had a panic attack in my exam last week.
Anyway, this song below was the highlight of the set.

Does God Exist? Answer Below

2006-06-08T17:14:00.000+01:00

From Popbitch

>> God is dead <<
Ukrainian man is no Daniel

The centuries old question of whether God exists
has been answered for us once and for all by a
brave Ukrainian man. This unnamed 45 year-old
philosopher took a rope to Kiev Zoo last Sunday
and used it to lower himself into the lions
den, where he proclaimed "God will save me,
if he exists."

Then one of the lions reached over and grabbed
him by the throat, instantly killing him.

HAHA! Fucking Fantastic. Very soon i will update properly, got exams on currently, so its kinda stressful, all over by the 20th. and then i will be out of education until at least september 2007. Can't fucking wait.

Fashion Show

2006-05-19T21:08:00.000+01:00

Some how i got roped into doing the lighting for the St Pauls fashion show yesterday. I think it's because i'm pretty much the person who taught the teahcers how to use it. Ok thats big headed, but i'm a fucking expert. Haha. Anyway yeah, it was easy all i did was dance around and press buttons on the beat. That is because it is an ancient lighting board, on which all the advanced features are broken.

Also our school might as well have gas lamps compared to the actual lights we have. So yeah, to create some sort of visual excitement and movement i had to dance around pressing buttons. I must have looked like a right weirdo, ah well. Anyway, yeah, fashion photography is not my thing, but when i had a chance i took some photos of it as well. I was using a really old 2 megapixel digital camera, which is useless for creating really big photos, and is shocking in fairly low light, which is what the fashion show was. However, it is fully manual, so i can mess around with it and stuff. I don't think i did too bad considering. Some of them are very unsharp, thats because of the aforementioned dancing around and also the crappy flash on it.

Oh yeah, and i finished School today. I'm a free man. Tommorrow. Well Sunday probably you'll get to see me wearing a suit, for the first time ever.

BEST.GIG.EVER

2006-05-14T23:45:00.000+01:00

2.0

2006-05-13T14:47:00.000+01:00

Oh God, i've got fuck all to do today, due to complete lack of money and people flaking on me. So i've been going a bit web2.0 crazy for no reason. You might have noticed this recently with several badges appaearing on this Blog's sidebar. Today for no real reason i signed up to Chain Reading, It's just a site which give you recommendations based on your reading tastes. I can't tell if its any good yet, it doesn't look very popular currently, and its a bit slow, but with more users it could be pretty good. And anything that gives you a pretty little blog badge has gotta be good right. No.

Last.fm is pretty much the same deal, its more famous, and a lot more usable, i love it, it's like having your own little top of the pops but without the crap. The one drawback is that you have to be listening to the music on your computer, whcih is fine for people who do their listening then, but mine is done on the move or on a stereo, so i don't get the most accuarate charts. But i seriously recommend it, becuase i have discovered so many great artists from it. The 'World Inferno Friendship Society' being one of them.

I signed up for del.icio.us as well, but i haven't really had a use for it, as i only really use my computer so don't need to access my bookmarks from anywhere else.

Now, heres one that needs a lot more love, despite it being yahoo owned, Upcoming.org it's a calender sites, which i use mostly for reminding me to go to gigs, but if more people, venues and bands used it, i reckon it would be good for local music. I am currently about the only person adding stuff for the Leicester section, But hopefully that will change.

Today, i also pointlessly signed up for Wishlistr, which is pretty pointless, cos i've never known anyone buy anything off a wishlist, i know i wouldn't. I think it only works for aspiring porn stars who get old men to buy stuff for them in exchange for pictures. So if anyone like that is reading, i'll send you some pictures in exchange for some expensive purchases. (note to perverts: not really). Yeah, but i don't recommedn it for anything other than reminding yourself what you want to splash out on next.

So far i've stayed away from flickr, i dunno why, i'm so bored i'll probably try it. But yeah, i urge you for the sake of Music, Community and Intelligence, to sign up to Last.fm, Upcoming.org and Chain Reading. Ignore the rest.

Less pointless posts coming soon.

Summer

2006-05-07T16:14:00.000+01:00

The first few days of summery t-shirt weather happened this week. It was bloody brilliant. The one time of year when i am just happy to sit around in peace without trying to find somewhere sheltered to sit, or rushing to get places. I even stopped listening to my mp3 player when out and about, just so i could open my ears and listen to the sounds, even the cars sounded good. Every traffic light gave you a sample of peoples music tastes as people rolled down their windows and cranked the bass up to eleven.

The coming of summer was cheering me up no end. I figured I must have S.A.D. or summat, i don't, but my mood just brightened, even when i was stuck indoors I was content to stare out of the window and take in the sights.

I watched pupils and their carers from the special school do a conga on the playground. It looked hella fun on a wheelchair. I picked up a cheap lunch and eate it in the beer garden of The Dove. I wished i hadn't considered quitting drinking so I wouldn't feel guilty about having a cool beer in the sun. Being there in the sun, reminded me of how we celebrated summer last year. Just slowly drinking in the beer garden of the dove. Some things never change. Although last year the celebration ended in twelve hours worth of sunburn which lasted a painful week. Even the smallest things like walking across grass brought some joy. Mud was nowhere to be seen, and i had the incredible urge to walk barefooted.

The sunny weather made me get my hair cut. SHORT. I haven't had short hair in 4 years. So yesterday i went to get it cut. I hate hairdressers and having my hair cut, but it was the best hair cut i've had. Except for the fact that the barber cut everything short, but decided to leave the back til last, so i looked like Chris Waddle. I can never tell if i like a haircut until the shock subsides, which it finally did today. Anyway, back on the subject, It was boiling hot as i was getting my haircut. But no less than 5 mins after leaving the barbers, it poured it down with rain, and it's been fucking muggy ever since. Absolute Bastards.

I got two exciting thinsg i want to write about. One of which makes me want to make a film or write a novel about because it was that epic. That may be an overstatement. The other ne i need to go take some photos for first. Anyway two entries in two days ain't bad.

Searches

2006-05-07T15:34:00.000+01:00

Heres a selection of searches that have bought people to this blog.

3.70% pubs to buy weed in leicester
3.70% cartoons racism irish
3.70% granby halls skating leicester
3.70% weed dealers leicester
3.70% anti-irish cartoon
3.70% cartoons of irish racism
3.70% felt her pvc trousers

It seems demand for racism against the irish is high. Fuck knows why.

I'm slightly worried about the "felt her PVC trousers". I don't think i've eve mentioned anything like that, it quite poetic for a porn search.

Grace Petrie World Tour

2006-05-06T18:50:00.000+01:00

Ok, so a lot of my entries recently have been about Grace, this is obivously due to the fact that i'm semi-handling stuff to do with her. But last weekend, 29th April-1st May, was the Grace Petrie World Tour 2006. Ok it's an exaggeration, as all the dates were with in three days and all within about 5 minutes walking distance of each other, but only the most pedantic would bring me up one that.

So anyway, all the gigs were linked by the theme of May, it just happened that way ok? Gig number one was at the Beltane May Fayre on saturday the 29th. I was there to do a stall but also to wander around. And wandering around sure was fun.

I watched musicians play in a tent powered by pedal power.
The pictures are off someone on pineapster, i was too hungover to remember to bring my camera, much to my own annoyance. It was an odd sight, a bunch of folk bands powered by sweating puffing men, providing just enough power to turn on the speakers. I wondered how well this would go down at a punk gig, judging by the lack of energy at most local shows currently, not very well at all.

The Fayre (i think its deliberate medieviel spelling, i always thought fayre was what you got at your local beefeater or harvester) was held in Castle Park. Which is a place full of weird ass childhood memories for me. For example when I was on school trip there, i found a mountain behind the park. But when i tried to find this mountain in recent years, it was nowhere to be found, and the idea of a mountain was a stupid one as the whole area is flat. But this year i found it again! Except it's not quite the mountain my childhood eyes remember (where everyday is sunny), it's more of a mound. However it was still quite odd for it to be there around such flat surroundings, especially when it was populated by hippies and druids. But anyway, it was a nice vantage point. Lets just hope i can find it again.

I wandered down the hill, and watched a viking fighting display. Two men with very heavy looking axes and very flimsy looking shields. One of the group told me that injuries were regular, which was probably why i stayed and watched. Gore.

Grace arrived ten minuted late and some other guy gave up the stage for her. Stage is an overstatement. What I mean is a stool inbetween a tent selling jasmine tea and a bench containing the local homeless (who didn't look out of place among all the vikings and druids.) Anyway Grace played a good set to a crowd of about twelve and a transient crowd of many more.

Actual May Day rolled around and instead of heading down to London for the traditional Trade Union march, I stayed in leicester for the second leg of the GPWT2006. The TU march has been more and more depressing the past few years. And it appeared to be just a few trade unionists and some stalinists left. No reason to abandon the days political and historical associations though, which i celebrated by recieving a free coffee and a free beer that someone had left undrunk behind the bar.

For the second time i ran out of all the CD's i had of Grace's and made a note to be overly optomistic with them next time. Yeah, she was that good. The next band, 'Los Banditos' played a souped of version of the home and away theme song, and despite the obvious cliche of 'punk covers', it was actually pretty good. However the rest of the set was pretty much in the same vein. With Tenacious D, Meatloaf and even queen covers being rolled out to the amused but unsure audience (i have no idea if this true or not, i just wanted to end the sentance). A Barbecue was fired up in the garden of firefly and I sampled bizarre BBQ foodm like cheese stuffed breadcrumbed green chilli's. Which were nice.

We split a bit to late, arriving at The Victory, the venue for the last gig, a bit too late. The PA was being controlled by someone who didn't seem to have a clue about the subtletys of live music, but it was decent enough. And everybody took in Grace's songs, and the silence and concentration were so evident, that people were shooting evil looks at the drunk local who was talking at the back. We were marked with an X at the door to prove we had payed, which pissed me off because of the straight edge connatations. The second band, 'The Bobby McGee's' were disturbingly good. A tweed jacketed, styled moustached scottish ukele player and a well spoken english woman who played the mouth organ. This band tested the PA guys understanding of levels, as ear splitting songs about relationships were played, "DON'T DUMP ME! DON'T DUMP ME!" and "I'LL GOUGE YER EYE'S OUT".

We headed back to firefly where i recieved some free staff drinks, and more food, despite not being staff. The night ended with the chef talking about the time his friends beat the shit out of Mark "Return of The Mac" Morrison, and also about how his whole family were gay except him. I spent my last coins on bus fair and headed home, quite pissed, but in a summery light headed way rather than the sunken winter bluesy feeling of late.

Additional

2006-04-26T22:44:00.000+01:00

I have just discovered that at least two people have visited this site using the search entry, "mistaken for a women". Wow, i'm intrigued as to why they were looking for that.

Oh yeah before i forget, the multi-talented Grace Petrie is playing two gigs this weekend. Count IT! TWO! Both are celebrating May Day, or May. Or Summat May Related. Details are on my upcoming.org badge on the side. And also Just a few words after this one HERE. Come along. Buy a CD.

4.29.06 Thats This Saturday, Grace Petrie Live in the acoustic tent at the hippy may day stuff in Castle Gardens, Leicester.
5.01.06 Wait! Thats Monday. Grace Petrie Live at The Victory Pub on Welford Road In Leicester.

Woop

2006-04-26T22:36:00.000+01:00

Felt really happy earlier, just a little happy spree which was cool. I text Nabila to tell her.

"I feel Drunk, Except I'm Completly Sober."
"Lol and you call me a freak! Where are you? Dont let any lads take advantage of you"
"Haha, i think i just did. Nah, i'm on a little Spree of happiness"
"omg im worried about u. R u ok? Do u want some1 to come pick you up? Have u been taking acid?"

Dear oh dear. When i feel happy for once, suddenly people thing i'm on drugs or at least drunk. Luckily i did go to the pub after that, and necked some cider. Before coming back here, Downloading some Jawbreaker and The Weakerthans, and writing this crappy entry.

Must Past Exams.
Must Past Exams.
Must Past Exams.
Must Past Exams.
Must Past Exams.
Must Past Exams.
Must Past Exams.
Must Past Exams.

Gig

2006-04-18T16:01:00.000+01:00

Graces gig was absolutly amazing. I completely ran out of CD's, which was a great indication of her talent. Despite having a sore throat she still gained an audible hush throughout her entire set, something which could not be said for the rest of the bands. Absolutely amazing. I think the set was being recorded so i'm gonna try and get some live mp3's up.

Label

2006-04-16T23:35:00.000+01:00

Haven't updated recently, well when have i ever, as i've been rushed off my feet trying to finish recording, mastering and basiclaly doing lots for my friends album.

It's a brilliant collection of acoustic songs and if you've got heart you will love it. I designed the album cover stuff as well, and the inside contains a very cometbus style layout. if you didn't go "huh" just then, you'll know what i'm talking about.

It's released on WHAT?! records, which is coincidently mine and graces records lable, with coincidently no one else on it. I wanna record and put out a bunch of punk stuff, but haven't really got round to doing any. Anyway, check out Graces Stuff it's fucking great www.myspace.com/gracepetrie contains previews. It'll cost about £3 which will go back into making better quality copies of it. I've got a matet hat is gonna do all the photocopying cheap, who i will also approach about the up and coming zine. Which i haven't forgotten about. And whilst i'm at it, Grace is playing tommorrow, at Firefly(firebug) so if you are from the Leicester area come along.

So yeah, theres a quick update for ya. I will try my hardest to update this place, but i got a lot on.

Discovery

2006-04-03T21:38:00.000+01:00

Fucking Hell, I just found an old song i wrote, i have no memory of actually writing it, but i know its mine because i know what i'm referring to. It's not as embarrasing as i thought, but its not very good. But it's a thing which i wrote when i was happy. Which is just lovely, i think you'll agree....

Forcing my self down the pea green linoleum stairs.
Saying good bye to the round faced man.
Posters Warning of STDs and Racism
Metal Wired Magnolia Windows
A view of the factories
A final voice of comfort before facing the street

Winter in Leicester City
Dark before I had a chance to get started
Leaving the ugly building that changed me
Hands in my pockets and head in the stars
the sky is endless, yet I can see it all clearly
grinning, a tearful smile, overwhelmed with newness

Taxi Rank humming with squeals and roars of engines
Dodging the bullets as I cross paths with metal
Substance mate? No, Mate, I'm absolutely Fine
I'm fine
First time I’ve ever said that
The suits, catching the last bus, me in jeans
Last Stop please, sit at the back
watch a man straining his neck as he nods forwards

Final Stretch, this is it, the new dawn
key in the door, hum of the screen
Jimmy Says:"Hi, How are you"
"I'm..................Good, now"

Zine

2006-03-22T20:33:00.000Z

One particularly annoying character trait of mine, is my ability to quickly lose my thread of thought, this also occurs with things i do. I often start projects and come up with exciting results only to forget about them ,and begin new projects soon after. I plan to do a piece based on all my abandoned schemes soon.

But meanwhile, my new idea is to do a print zine. on the same premise as this blog, but with more thought put into it, more drafts and a lot less angst. It would be all arty and layed up etc. I think it's a great idea, it'd have contributors as well. I'd love to hear your feedback on the idea. I.E. Would you buy it? (it'd be cheap, a quid or so). I've got tons of ideas, a lot which would never make it on here, because i hate staring at the lightbulb that is a computer screen whilst trying to be creative. So my best work is done on paper, and i often find the best reading is done on paper too.

The post below this, school, is part report, part recollection. It would be the style in which a number of the articles in the zine would be done. Anyways, i hope you like and will help me with the idea. So i'd love to hear your feedback.

School

2006-03-22T20:21:00.000Z

I

Coming to the end of your school life is a really odd feeling, a place where we have spent the majority of our lives, only to have it have it ripped out from under your feet, is a pretty big deal. It reminds me of the feeling you get when you leave a town or place that’s close to your heart, coming back later only to find that your favourite record shop or venue has closed down for example. You know it’s not going to affect you too much, but it changes your perception of the place, and only serves to heighten your nostalgia.

School, the best days of your life, the cliché that is so readily thrown at you by the ones that look back with rose tints, remembering only the best lessons, the great teachers and the endless mischief. They forget to add that school days are also the worst days, and also every mundane day in between. For every valuable thing you learn within its dirty walls, you could learn another ten by not being there.

Obviously there are the great times, no one could dispute that, I’ve had plenty of these times which have made me who I am. But my overbearing thoughts towards school always float towards to endless bureaucratic structures and frameworks. The lessons which serve only to teach us how to pass an exam, but offer no practical knowledge for application of the subject. I went to a political meeting recently, a slightly ageing and anarchist leaning teacher, told the small gathering, at unnecessarily great length about the “straight line model of learning, deliberately designed to resemble a factory assembly line.” It was an interesting point, the decade length conveyor belt, filling young peoples head like soup cans, with equal parts knowledge, rhetoric and bullshit.

II

I go to a Catholic comprehensive. A school run by an out of touch power hungry man, celibate for god knows how long. I’m unsure whether that’s because of his duty to ‘God’ or because he’s a fucking right wing religious nut who no women would touch with a radiation suit and a stun gun. His arrival, three years ago has forced the precious few good teachers the school had to seek new pastures. Those good teachers that remain, reluctantly, are forced into trying to inspire, with a rigid system of targets and lesson objectives.

There are ways to turn this to your advantage, especially with a few of the better teachers filling you in on behind the scenes gossip about the next crazy proposal from the management. One time, the head decided that it would be a great Idea, for one week only, to fill everyone’s head with his religious dogma, and call it “Mission Week”. Fan-fucking-tastic. A whole week of guilt induced learning, Catholic style. Each subject area was instructed to create “fun-filled” activities and relate it to the message of Jesus Christ, the lord and saviour, the Lamb of God, the king of kings, pinball wizard, counter-terrorist action hero, love machine and all other trademarks. I wondered how all the subject managed it, did maths do, “counting with Jesus” If I have five fish in one hand, and two loves in the other, how many people can I feed?

A few friends and I decided to do the English “mission”, which was to edit and fill a newspaper based on reports and interviews from other events on mission week. Brilliant. And we began to reel off pages of libellous stories about the management and ridicule the whole notion of it. A week later my English teachers spoke to me, telling me the deputy head had seen our paper and demanded an apology. We both laughed, knowing it was never going to happen. Teachers like him made the never ending weeks worth enduring. These sorts of teachers, when asked what they thought of the management would always reply with the line, “In my professional opinion, they are doing a great job”, followed by a cheeky smile or a wink. In other words, “My Boss Is a Tosser!”

III

With just a few weeks left, the mood of people is changing. People are beginning to get in the examination mindset. Starting to get the “Shit, I need to work or I’ll be spending another year here” panic mode switched on, no more nights out, bed early, blah blah blah. Also about this time, fresh batches of teachers have decided to give their notice, fed up with the shit, the low pay, the stress. They want out.

As well as watching us grow up over the years, I know I’ve been watching them grow, from the straight outta University fresh faced graduates that I met seven years ago to the greying, stressed, not young anymore burnouts that I recognise now. Some promoted as other left or died. Some still barely clinging on to their rapidly deteriorating enthusiasm. Most only just fulfilling their job requirements, until either they win big on the lotto or they die.

And me? Well, I’m looking forward to being free from it all, but I’ll really miss it. Where else in life can you go just to mess around and see all your closest friends in one place. It’s a safety zone alright, a false comfort, but a necessary and fantastic one. I remember walking back from the pub one day about a year ago with Grace, climbing over the fences of the botanical gardens so we could watch the fish swimming so peacefully in the near garden ponds. Remarking at how unfair it all was, being ripped out of your element. The realization that you have to create your own structure, fill your own time, sort out your own stupid mistakes. We climbed huge oaks like children, half drunk, half tired. Commenting on how we would do it if we had the power. Who really knows at that stage what will be become of us from one day to the next. As the street lights flickered on and off with the dusk approaching, the birds singing their final encore for the night. It was apparent that in all the uncertainty of our lives, school is one of the relative certainties. We know we’ll be filled with equal parts fun, fear and boredom. Like the parting of childhood friends at the end of all that was, we went on our separate ways, me catching the bus in the darkness and faced a long, dazed ride home.

The Epoxies

2006-03-20T20:03:00.000Z

The Epoxies, Touring the UK. GREAT i thought. Finally a chance to see what all the hype behind this band is all about. After a year of surving of a few sample downloads, i got both their albums. Absolutely amazing, They are on heavy rotation on my mp3 player, and you can often find me trying to force my friends, or just a random person to listen to them. So when i heard they were playing Northampton, just a few miles from me, I almost wet myself, thank buddha for incontinance pants.

So on thursday, me and a few other i had coaxed into coming with me, schemed to get to northampton, i found a lift to market harborough, and then Pauls dad gave us a lift to northapton because we missed the last bus, and realised we were trailing it the whole way.

The venue was the Northampton Racehorse, which if you've ever been there, you will see above the bar, a review presumebly from the local paper, proudly proclaiming that the staff were, "Snotty, Condescending and Rude", which was brilliant, because you can tell what kind of person the reviewer was. Probably some food critic, used to the finest AA rated restaurants and hotels, steamed salmon and mushroom little round shape things. You can tell this, because i found the staff to be incredibly friendly and chatty. But yeah, back to the story, the pub seemed incredibly quiet for a place where a band was about to played. Not to worry, they probably are just in the back. I asked the barman to confirm that they were playing. "Nah Mate, Nobodies Turned Up, They still gotta pay and everything".

BASTARDS, ABSOLUTE BASTARDS. You break my Heart Roxy.

Turns out The Epoxies had been told that the venue was closing down, bollocks was it. Ah well, it's not their fault. I think it was a useless promoter. Although the band could have made it clear on the website that they were not intending to play.
I felt proper dissipointed, I was really looking forward to it, hopefully i'll see them again soon, but probably not in a cool little pub with about seven people in, were there is likely to be more people in the band than in the audience.

More Posts Later.

Tagged

2006-03-20T17:06:00.000Z

Well, looks like i've been tagged by Four Dinners. Apparently I have to the following:

The rules: List seven songs you’re into right now. No matter the genre, whether [or not] they have words, or even if they’re any good, they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs, then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

So here we go:
1) The Clash - Straight To Hell. Fucking Great song, really tells a great story and has such a memorable tune.
2) Pinhead Gunpowder -Asheville. I always imagine this song is like a manifesto, its just so fast brilliant lyrics.
3) Crimpshrine - Safely Wasting Away. A brilliant band with a distinct and seminal sound, the beginnings of Aaron Cometbus
4) Against Me! - Those Anarcho Punx are Mysterious. Saw them last night, and they were fucking wicked, will write about it later.
5) Leftover Crack - Life is Pain. A great song that shifts from hardcore into ska, has a string interlude then goes back to hardcore and repeat. amazing.
6) Grace Petrie - Rebel Girl. A freind of mine, whose album i am producing, doing a cover of Joe Hill's homage to women in class struggle.
7) The Replacements - Bastards of Young. If you haven't heard this song then you haven't lived.

Now i gotta tag seven more bloggers, but theres a problem cos i hardly interact with any other bloggers, instead i'll tag but only to recommend two blogs.

1) Dr Franks What's It - Dr Frank of The Mr T Experience, lots of stuff about literature.
2) Larry Livermore - Founder of Lookout Records, interesting recollections of the Punk Scene
3) Oh Yeah and also check out, Four Dinners who i linked earlier, lots of good stuff there.
4) Mitch Clem

Yeah, i feel like an updating spree tonight. So looks forward to my rambling about, Trekking to see The Epoxies. Spending Too Much Money On Drinks Seeing Against Me! Zines, zines. And erm.......Probably more of me going, oh god i hate who i am, and everything in the world is crap.

Oh Yeah, and if your the person who saidthey wanted to analyse my blog (yeah i know, weird), then can you laev me your email, cos it sounds interesting.

An Army of One

2006-02-28T20:56:00.000Z

I have plenty of things to write about, but fuck all motivation. I’ve felt like shit for days now, week maybe. I have no idea what it’s about, I think it’s a mixture of the fact that I very rarely feel happy, and also the impending doom and stress of final exams. They are very close and I feel very under prepared, every time I think about them, my stomach sinks and I get scared, being like that also prevents me from doing anything constructive to prepare. I’m also aware that I want a complete change of lifestyle, Leicester seemingly has nothing to offer my tastes, except bars, and I’m fucking sick of drinking, yet I always do it often and a lot. I wouldn’t call it an addiction, but I am aware it is a problem. And it’s partly due to there being nothing to cater for me artistically, in terms of a local punk scene or political space or whatever.

I spent this weekend in London, in student hall and squats. The squat was fucking massive and in an old university building. The books I’ve been reading recently about the East Bay punk scene of the late eighties and early nighties, combined with the experience of squats in England. Have made me want to create an alternative, the one thing I wouldn’t want though, is the typical anarchist squat. If anyone has an idea of 924 Gilman Street in California, or other projects just like it, well that’s what I mean, a community space, democratically run (by voting not by consensus), for punk bands etc. I would love something like that here, but I hardly meet anyone into similar musical ideas as me. There’s just an influx of Indie and Emo, which I think has peaked, but either way, it’ll soon be replaced by a new trend.

I dunno, I just don’t know what I need to do to find happiness. I always thought it would be love, and in the past it has been, but every time I’m worried a relationship is not what I thin kits gonna be, I always end up pushing it away. Leaving me feeling more isolated, out of my own actions. I always have dreams that I’ll be waiting at a bus stop late at night and I’ll just meet a girl in a dillenger four t-shirt and that’ll be the start of something new. Silly really.

I can’t ever remember feeling so depressed; I just feel much pressure from everybody and most of all my self to do something with my self, and do something that will make a name of my self. I haven’t felt properly loved or in love for over two years, and I’ve lost so many good times and feelings, and more importantly people. I need something new, or some resolve with what I have FAST, cos I can’t keep bouncing along like this. After finally feeling comfortable with my politics, I feel like I’m not comfortable with my group anymore, and anything else that’s out there. After finally settling down with the music I like, the interests I have, I need to create these things myself. I’ve just realised that this whole last paragraph (and everything I ever write) is waffley unstructured bollocks.

“In spite of the things you've done, you're left with an army of one
In spite of the things you do, there'll be no one left there with you”
Dillenger Four – Noble Stabbings

HAHA

2006-02-26T21:31:00.000Z

I think this sums everything up.

Cartoon

2006-02-12T14:47:00.000Z

I suppose it is almost mandatory for every blog to run a piece on the ‘Cartoon Riots’, so why shouldn’t I follow the rest of the web like a sheep. The first mistake the media have made over this whole issue is dubbing the riots in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, the Cartoon Riots. It just conjures up images of Wild E Coyote trying to light a Danish flag with a packet of Acme Matches. But that aside it has been incredibly hard to forge an opinion, I have read so many supposed ‘punks’ coming out with blatant racist comments, buying into the media hysteria that Muslims are homogenous blob hell bent on destroying Jewish people, whilst beheading non-Muslims.

Now, I hate religion, I think that Islam, Christianity, Judaism are all equally fucked-up and need destroying. So I don’t see a negative portrayal of Mohammed as a bad thing, but the issue is the blatant vile stereotypes of Muslims as being terrorists and extremists. A post on Urban 75 About anti-Irish cartoons most closely sums up my feeling on this:

“In 1982, the London Evening Standard featured a cartoon of a man walking past a big poster of a cinema advertisement. The poster featured the slogan:

"EMERALD ISLE SNUFF MOVIES PRESENTS:
The ultimate in psychopathic horror . . . THE IRISH"

The poster was featured with grotesque figures wielding a variety of gruesome weapons and was part of a wider series of images and writings that have appeared in the UK for over 100 years that have portrayed the Irish as apelike, stupid, violent etc.

The cartoon led to protests by the British Irish community and resulted in the GLC led by Ken Livingstone banning advertising (worth some £100,000 per year) in the Standard.

Ken Livingstone stated:
"The clear message of the cartoon is that the Irish, as a race and as a community, are murderous, mindless thugs . . . I do not believe in free speech for racists . . . We will not put another penny into the Standard while they continue to vilify the Irish.".”

“Today, in the context of the West waging imperialist wars in the Middle East, a Danish right wing tabloid prints images of the Prophet of Islam wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, another cartoon of Mohammed shows him waving to a line of suicide bombers waiting to get into heaven saying, "Sorry, no virgins left".
Significantly, the same Danish tabloid has refused to publish a cartoon 2 years ago that might offend Christians and earlier was part of a campaign against a Danish artist who presented an offensive image of an "erotic Christ". So it seems clear that criticising religion is not their main objective.
The cartoons are clearly part of an ideological project that seeks to demonise Islam as a smokescreen to justify imperialist subjugation of "backward" peoples.
So it should be clear where the Left stands - against anti-Irish cartoons in 1982 and against Anti-Muslim cartoons in 2006
The subtext of the current cartoons is that Islam is a terrorist religion and they are clearly part of an ideological offensive whose main purpose is to prop up imperialism by denigrating Muslims.
The subtext of anti-Irish cartoons is that the Irish are backward, violence prone and uncivilised. The purpose of this depiction is to mask the real reason for the British occupation of the North of Ireland and the real background to IRA terrorism.

There is in fact little difference between the two sets of cartoons and they serve the same purpose - justifying imperialism.”

I believe in free speech to criticise religion, but we can see this argument does not stand as being ‘the’ reason to run these cartoons, the hypocrisy of the Danish newspaper in refusing to show Jesus in a negative light, it clearly underlined Racism as being the issue in this, and particularly to back up stereotypes of Muslims that would reinforce the need for ‘War on Terror’. The protests and riots following the re-publication of these cartoons have been clearly undertaken by a small minority of extremists. Of course this doesn’t stop the press claiming that Britain’s Muslims are out to behead us.

The issue of racism is clear in the hypocrisy of the justice system, in sentencing Abu Hamza to seven years, whilst at the same time allowing two Nazi’s, Mark Collett and Nick Griffin (from the BNP) to walk free for similar reasons.

Another thing that I fail to understand this is the Boycott on the Boycott, i.e. the deliberate purchase of Danish products, why create deliberately try and make Danish companies richer. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are urging people to buy Danishes, now that’s pretty ignorant, its like thinking buying French Fries will show solidarity with the French, it raises another question, is selective eating a valid form of protest, It would certainly breed a craze of obese arm-chair activists, stuffing their faces with British beef and other reactionary food-stuffs. What the hell am I talking about.

Alone

2006-02-11T22:37:00.000Z

I'm pretty pissed off tonight, I wanted to see Freaks Union at the Attik tonight, but as usual everybody i asked to come with me flaked on me. I shouldn't really be suprised seeing I don't have many friends that share a similar music taste to me, they are all either Indie kids, or just unmusical weirdos. I think the real reason i'm pissed off is that i need to break this spell of Gig Absence i've been in for months now. The last show i went to was probably my friends band The Yarns which was more out of loyal duty than love of the music. Tonight was supposed to be the start of me being a gig-going freak, not to worry i still have The Epoxies and Against Me! to look forward to soon, but its not enough.

When i'm out at Gigs or Clubs there is always a few people who have come alone, I find this fascinating, i would be too scared to go to a gig on my own, not for any actual intimdating reason, but just the fact that you always have someone to bounce off. The only times i've been to things alone is stand-up comedy gigs, i always buy my tickets at the last minute, meaning at theatre setting gigs, i always have the last ticket, the one that can't be filled because everybody wants to bring freinds. I got to see Mark Thomas and Rich Hall this way. Last time i ended up sitting next to the most humorless couple in the world, and i was seriously ill, so i was constantly coughing and laughing, and all i could hear from this couple was 'tuts' and 'hmms'. Luckily I recogned a few lefties in the interval, but after one of them started up about his ex-girlfriend, "She should have told me she was coming here, fucking bitch", i just decided to run to my regular bar to have an interval drink. But yeah, it takes a lot of courage to do these things alone in my opinion.

It makes me think about travelling, I mean i'm quite happy to wonder around cities alone for a day, but when it comes to long stretches i don't think i could travel alone. I'm gonna try and get around this globe next year, i'm doing it with friends, but i'm wondering if i might see more and have more fun if i travelled alone and just used this forced isolation to meet people and make obscure friends in weird places. So if you travel, let me know whats best for you.

Axe

2006-01-16T22:06:00.000Z

I was never a fan of westerns, mainly because of the fact that everybody treated the Cowboys as the 'goodies' and the Native Americans as bad, even though the 'goodies' were responsible for the ethnic cleansing of the entire indigenous populous. But that’s alright, cos the cowboys have got guns, POW, POW, and cool hats and Johnny Cash writes song about them dieing on a railroad tracks, with just a few possessions and a message for Rose. The thing that pissed me off most about old spaghetti westerns was the constant bar brawls, I’m surprised they managed to exist, I’d have expected all the owners to be shot to pieces, and it certainly wasn't a money making venture, think of all the repairs. If you take there to be four westerns on TV a week (three on a day pretending to be off sick from school, and one on a Sunday when you wanted there to be something good on), then there was an average of three bar brawls a movie, that about 12 a week, and considering westerns only occupy a small percentage of fantasy land, that’s a very unsustainable bar economy.

Luckily in real life, this doesn’t happen with quite a worrying frequency, except on Friday and Saturday nights, when Leicester town centre becomes the setting for many modern westerns, with bottles of ‘wkd’ as weapons and a kebab grenade. I was actually loosely involved (i.e. watched and dodged) a full scale bar riot on Thursday, in which a Man produced an Axe and began to chase and hack at another guy, at the same time about another eight people began to throw chairs, pool balls and glasses at the bar, and at everybody else who was in bar. It was it this point where I thought. “Oh, I better move”, considering all of this action was happening less than a metre away from me, until that point I had been casually watching with about the same interest as I would give a TV in a pub showing darts results.

After about two minutes of madness, in which an attempted murder seemed to be taking place, they all seemed to disappear quickly, probably a good idea. But the thing that happened next made my whole night. Everyone stood in fairly stunned and still quite drunk confusion, the customers looking at the staff for guidance, and the staff looking at us for answers. A man casually stumbled out of the toilet, looking around he realized he had missed a riot. Not wanting to have missed out on the fun, he looked at a chair, picked it up and threw it across the room and started smashing glasses until he too got quickly bored and walked out the pub in the same nonchalant way you would do if you were step out of your grandma’s house. After that Bez and I decided to get out of there before we had to give the cops statements. I missed my last bus because of that, so I just had go out, and ended up staying in Birstall having run out of money. College was attended the next day smelling like spilt beer and shit, the new fragrance from Tommy Hilfiger.

Habit

2006-01-10T21:50:00.000Z

I think i need a new habit, i'm bored of my old ones, to be honets, i'm not one hundred percent sure what they. I thought hard drugs might be a good idea, but i'm too lazy to get into that, so i thought what habit goes best with sitting around on your ass, reading and talking complete shit. theres beer obviously, but thats nothing new. COFFEE! Fan-fucking-tastic, I can get addicted to that and be really grumpy until i drink some then i can be happy for a an hour or so. I've only really had coffee before about twice, I can't really remember the circumstances of one of them. But the other one I do remember.

I was in Ireland and as is stereotypical i was constantly offered tea, the first day i thought it would be rude to say no, so i ended up having about 20 cups a day. So i started saying no. You've all seen Father Ted, so you'll know the constant inquistition can send you up the wall. So i snapped and said YES, I'LL HAVE A FUCKING TEA! And after all that they fucking bought me coffee. It's really not a great story.

I don't know why i wanna drink coffee, I had two today though, 30p stuff, none of your fancy latte mocha nut crunch stuff. I don't know if that exists, if not, i'll sell out, and make money of it in my starbucks franchise whilst listening to pan pipe versions of soft rock hits. Arrggh....the bitter syrupy smell of exploitation. What the fuck was i talking about, i'm not sure, but what i do know is that i have an exam tommorrow and i'm gonna fail. AND WHATS MORE, there buzzing around being attaracted to the lightbulb i'm currently staring at to type properly.

Leave me comments, no? Fuck you then, fuck you.

2006

2006-01-01T23:59:00.000Z

[UPDATE: I have decided to edit this post as its pretty stupid frankly, i will leave the relevant points in. Tim, 10102006]
Well, its pretty much 24 hours into 2006. A new year, fantastic, a chance to have a better time than how shit 2005 was. If fucking only. 24 hours in and i'm feeling fucking depressed. Lets see my achievements so far.
1. Pissed off a really good friend of mine and couldn't find the words to explain.
2. Got kicked out of a party at about 4am when i had nowhere i felt comfortable to go (see above).
3. Cried.
4. Broke an earphone on my MP3 player (ok, not too big a deal).
5. Met someone incredibly cool but will never see them again.
6. Spent four hours trying to find food with a bunch of stoners who i call my friends because they couldn't organise fucking piss up in brewery.
7. Ran out of money. Completely.
8. Got really fucking mad at useless friends.
9. Pissed off my mum.
10. Mum started being selfish and treating me like a child.
11. Started moaning about it all constantly unable to deal with for my fucking self.

To be honest its not often you meet someone with who you click with, and when that person comes along it hard not be indulged in the fact that this person actually seems to symphathise with what you think, and the obscure and random music that only you like, and that although isn't obvious about, seems to care. It's a shame when you only 'know' those people for three days in your entire life. It feels like i'm exaggerating it, bit i don't think it is. It's shame that these people come at a cost to other people. That's why i'm fucking pissed off. It's also why it a stupidly mornic idea to fucking post about it on a blog. Why the fuck am i doing this.

the weight of everything, people, friends, society, exams, my family, my fucking future it's hurting my head, and i'm so scared. So scared about life. i don't remember how to fucking be happy. My face has a fixed smile but it doens;t mean anything, i'm not happy to see you, i'm not happy to be in this situation. I'm not really smiling. I try to find the only thing i can remember making happy in the past, but its never there, it never works out. and i'm just fucking people about, fucking myself about too. i'm sure you can tell this hasn't worked how i planned it to. i just need to make myself happy but i don't know how. Why the fuck am i doing this.

Sorry

Let me start a great new year a day late.
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

Fuck

2005-12-29T00:26:00.000Z

I think i'm hearing things. I can hear Born Slippy by Underworld coming from somewhere but no music is playing and veryone is asleep. Thats quite worrying. Maybe the neighbors are having an 'old skool' rave. I mean i always suspected they were pillheads, with their antique furniture and well-kept lawn, it was obvious really.

If you read this (cough cough) and your in Leicester come to The Charlotte tomorrow and support The Yarns at their battle of the bands slot. Proud to have met you are playing as well and i seem to remember them being quite good, i swear they gave me a free cd when i was hammered in Rockaboom one time.

Absinthe

2005-12-22T21:23:00.000Z

Oh dear. Drinking Absinthe in anywhere other than in early 20th century parisian set films should be banned. I refer to tuesday night, where it became my drink of choice. It was lit up on the shelf with a toxic glow. How could i not. But yeah after a lot of them i became a complete drunk wanker, the kind you see on booze britain or whatever, so not particularly impressive. Of what i can remember i was trying to shouting "I'M RODNEY KING, I'M RODNEY KING, KNOOOBHEAD!" at a riot van full of Cops. Not the best idea, as apparently they were debating whether to get out and arrest me. But i don;t think they could be arsed to deal with a drunk little shit on a tuesday night. But this wasn't it, according to my friends i also tried to break into a bakery because apparently i wanted CAKE. I probably wasn't dumb anogh to actually do it, although judging by the fact i was coaxing a load of pigs into beating the shit out of me, i wouldn't put it past me. I did several other stupid things that night, none of which i particularly want to talk about here because they are just stupid.

In other news, i got my haircut today, i didn't like what the barber did, so my friend Nabila cut it for me, considering we didn't have the right equipment and were cutting it with what bascially was scissors that had only ever cut paper and possibly bits of bacon and food , it doesn't look too bad. I really wanted a huge mohawk but everybody has said it'd look proper stupid. I've never had a haircut i'm happy with ever, so i don't particurlarly mind the fact that i look more like a serial killer then ever before. Oh yes and i spent about and hour and a half last night, trying to 'help' (loose use of the word) my friend who was having an asthma attack or summat. In the end someone called an ambulance because she had been hyperventilating for about an hour. About 4 in the morning the paramedics came and all the people that were round my house starting playing songs to this bemused looking medic who didn't know what was going on. After all the drama calmed down, everyone jsut seemed to fall asleep. I stayed with a few friends talking, until it was Jess and I, who i decided to keep company with until she was catching the first bus at about six in the morning. I warned her that the driver of that bus is always drunk in my experience. The whole night was pretty fun, there was a big rendition of christmas songs including a twenty minute long version of Fairytale of New York by The Pogues, which was basically me and Johnny repeating the violin outro for about 15 minutes until everyone lost interest. We had a countdown to the New Year and a big rendition of Old Lang Syne even though it was about 02:30.

Ramblings

2005-12-18T16:31:00.000Z

I don’t know whats come over me; it wasn’t supposed to be this way. I thought it was one of those things that only self-help books could do. Men were never designed for this; maybe I’m just slightly crazy. I think… I think I have overcome my fear of shopping. Wait, wait, wait, I said fear not hate. I still hate it, so I’m still slightly normal. The thing that makes me believe I am over my fear of shopping was I was able to go into town on Saturday morning (after about two hours sleep) and get almost all my Christmas shopping done, without any major hassle, breakdown or excessive spending. I didn’t even complain once about the queues, the bollocks Bavarian market or the fucking Salvation Army. The few presents I still need to buy are pretty much all planned for, so that shouldn’t be a problem either. I withdrew £60 yesterday to pay for all my shopping, that bought me fuckloads, due my sudden ability to find cheap stuff, I even managed to buy myself a cheap breakfast, a Maryland bean burger meal and a £1 punkzine. I still have £20 left which should suffice for the rest.

Now this only surprises me because I usually almost have huge breakdowns when forced to buy clothes from the crappy selection of what I am being told is fashionable by shops, (overpriced scarf’s, fashionably dirty jeans and t-shirts celebrating the “Miami powerboat show 1989” or whatever”). But yesterday I even found myself trying on suit jackets in charity stores and even tight PVC trousers (as a joke, probably). I’m kind of glad; it probably means I won’t look like a homeless person, but having said that probably not. I was on a bus the other night, and a homeless guy got on wearing really similar clothes to me. Woollen knitted colourful coat (his was rainbow coloured, mine was red and black), Fingerless gloves (his plain black, mine white and black) and a Palestinian scarf. I don’t particularly mind wearing what is pretty much hobo fashion, but it was slightly odd, and probably explains why people seem to stare at me like I’m about to ask them for 48p to get a bus to Fleckney (bloody crack heads, don’t they know it £1.50 to catch a bus now, but that’s another story for the letters page of the Leicester Mercury).

Yes, the prices for buses in Leicester have risen to shockingly high prices, it does bother me, but if you’re actually from Leicester you will surrounded by this discussion for the next 3 months so I won’t bore you with it. Speaking of buses has just reminded me of another thing I saw on that bus with the tramp. A man got on carrying a little teddy bear by its paw, I couldn’t particularly see much, but I could hear him ushering his child to a seat next to a lady. He sat in the one opposite and began talking to the child, telling it to say thank you to “the nice lady”. At this point the lay began to get very scared and did that thing that most people do when confronted by strange people, they start staring out the window and crane their neck so far away from the person next to them that it is obvious they are trying to block any contact. That was when I started realizing something was up. I looked at the man, nothing odd about him, save for the fact he probably votes BNP. I looked at the child, where is it? I couldn’t see the child, fucking hell, there was no child. The man was leaning into the seemingly empty seat talking nicely to it. Now I could understand why half the bus had deeply immersed themselves in the jobs section of the Metro newspaper, trying to avoid a possible conversation with the man in which they would either have to tell the man “What Child?” or worse also pretend it is there. Now, I hate how most people respond to those people who a bit odd, but are talking to a person who thinks he has a child would be asking for trouble. That’s when eccentricity just needs help. I felt sorry for this man, and for the whole bus, because he needs help and everybody on this bus (including me) needs help with how to deal with mental illness in society. I don’t know how that can happen under capitalism and with a health service run for profit, but I hope things change.

So, yes, my weekend, it been quite enjoyable, spent the daytime down the pub on Friday, celebrating the end of term. Onto a party in the evening, someone had filled a huge bin with loads of different alcohol and mixers. It was the kind of drink that you would expect to see on the front page of The Sun, “How did this cocktail kill 14 underage drinkers!” So it was gonna be good. There was only one thing stopping it becoming fodder for Murdoch’s army, no one could arsed to drink much. I stopped drinking it as I realized I had drunk for every ‘I never’ question except the one about “I have never had an afro”, in the morning the leftovers filled about 8 bottles, almost biblical in a way. People kept coming into the room where I was sleeping at various points in the night, so I had lots of sleepy conversation about fuck knows what. At about eight in the morning everyone was up, and that when the aforementioned Christmas shopping began.

After the festive money wasting, me and a few friends went up to the New Walk Museum, for the first time since the school trips of old, we went because there was a photography exhibition on. Wildlife Photographer of the Year or summat, there were stunning photos which just made me and my other photographer friend jealous. I would never be able to take photos like some of them, cos I don’t have the money to go travelling to the deserts of Africa or the jungles of Peru or whatever. It pissed me off that literally all the photos were of things that wouldn’t been able to be taken here. There weren’t even photos of animals in urban settings. Having a category like that would have impressed me.

After the museum, we did another thing I haven’t done for years; we went into a church, purely out of curiosity. There were two people in there praying, so I thought I’d a least be a little respectful. I took a look at the book people wrote there prayers in. Apart from the obvious and meaningful ones, there were some ones which made me laugh, “Please pray for my son’s safety on his new quad bike”. If you’re that worried about his safety you shouldn’t have fucking bought him one. Also there was one praying for the conversion of non believers and protection from the devil. Jesus Christ, just leave us non-believers alone, there’s a reason we are called that, and by threatening us with a ridiculous concept (the devil) from your belief system isn’t gonna make us change our mind or make you seem any less crazy. Although having said that I’m happy for you to believe whatever you want, I won’t go threatening you with the fact that we are all just worm food.
Cheers for reading if you actually do, this whole entry probably looked depressingly long, I might try and spice it up with porn or something to actually make people read it. Otherwise Happy Christmas and may we all remember the true meaning of Christmas. Profit.

Drive By Sexism

2005-12-04T22:25:00.000Z

I have stupidly girly long hair; I have stupidly girly thin arms, consequently from behind I look fairly like a women. I would like to think it’s a different case for the front of me, but I’m probably wrong. Last night I was at a restaurant celebrating a friend’s birthday. There were about 30 people in the group, families, friends, kids etc. As a result of the huge crowd, ordering our food became a logistical nightmare for the staff, people shouting out orders and waving hands to signify their particular rice preference. 17 people for plain naan, 10 for garlic naan, just me and another bloke for chapattis. In this hectic frenzy, one waiter asked my friend next to me;
“Anything for you sir?”
“No, nothing thanks.”
Turning to me, the waiter asks.
“And for you madam?”
Even after turning around, he didn’t retract his mistake. Ah well, I’ll just have the plain rice.

I wish I could say this was the first time I have mistaken for a woman from behind, but its not. I won’t go into most of them, as I’d be here all night. However on a number of incidents just casually walking down the road, I have experienced what most women experience daily, and that most men, have absolutely no idea about. Bending over to tie up my shoelace, a car drives past from behind; all I hear is the sound of a gorilla with terrible piles.

“OOHHH, ERARRAGHH, OI OI, WHOO!”
*whistling sounds*

What? Turning around, expecting to find R2D2 covered in bullet wounds, I see a bloke leaning out of his car window shouting. As he scans my features, his face turns from one of mindless lust into one of complete horror as he realizes I’m not the female he was grunting at but actually an ugly hairy bloke.  I thought this was fairly amusing but thought nothing of it.  Until I was speaking to my ex-girlfriend, who lived on a busy main road, she told me she experienced the same several times a day. At the time I thought she must have been exaggerating it, or somehow trying to impress me with this figure.

More recently, there have been a number of times walking with girls, that there has been constant horn-beeping, wolf whistling and depraved sexually noises coming from everywhere. Asking each one of these women, and they tell me it always happens. It was only here I realized how common it was for women in this country.

Most men, I think, are not entirely aware of how common this is, unless;
A) They are one of the complete tossers who treat women like mindless objects to be shouted at like a blind referee.
B) They look feminine from a distance
C) They happen to be with a woman at the time when it happens.
In the case of C, most of the time, these bastards, won’t do it, as they see the threat of another man being there. So as consequences, a lot of men out there, are unaware of the frequency most women receive this unwanted attention.

My point is, Men NEED to be aware of the crap women receive just for being women. Cat-calling, wolf-whistling, having men stopping their cars, thinking you are kerb-crawling. It is all completely unnecessary. I have yet to speak to a woman who enjoys this kind of attention.

If you are one of the wankers who does this, I have a question to ask you.

When you have just shouted out of your window about a women, do you feel… happier? Manly? King of the jungle? Like a stud? Like James Bond?

Or do you feel… Empty? Insecure about your masculinity? Like an utter cock?

Well my hunk a hunk of burning beer belly, you are an utter cock.

PLEA

2005-12-01T23:10:00.000Z

I have a favour to ask any poor sod who actually read this. If you are a Punk music fan and you are from Leicester, or close to the scene here. Could you recommend an actual good Leicester Punk band? My trail has run dry. Everything I’ve seen recently has just been awful pop-punk or really terrible Emo. I’m sure there stuff out there, perhaps I’m not ‘punk’ enough to find it. The last good decent local band I saw was ‘Last Orders’, who were a pretty quality skacore band. I was at the show taking photographs for the support acts, The Yarns. I was really impressed by them, and I knew it wasn’t the alcohol talking, as I skint, I drunk the tap water from the bar, and the staff got suspicious about me being on pills. Anyway, yeah, Last Orders weren’t the ‘reel big fish’ crap I was expecting. I danced my heart out in the five person skank-pit, soaked in sweat. I was only dancing cos I was pissed off going to a ton of shows where the audience just gawp at the band. So yeah, I was going a bit crazy. I had also met two very nice looking girls, who I had spoken to at the clock tower, to save them from this random guy who tries to chat up every girl he sees. He’s not a bad bloke, just needs to be less of a chauvinist. After a few conversations at the gig, I realised I hated them and everyone else just standing gawping at what was fucking energetic music. When I left, walking back down past the town hall, three drunk bastards tried to start on me. Suddenly lines from a Kaiser Chiefs song came into my head, “Oh walking through town is quite scary...” I would have usually got out the way quickly, but still pumping with adrenaline I managed dodge a punch and avoid being nutted, Realizing they weren’t getting anywhere, one of them asked me to crash him a fag or some coins. I had neither.

So Yeah, my point is, I need a fix a local music. Currently I’m just going through American stuff such as stuff from the East Bay, Minneapolis and Chicago. At the moment I’m working my way through plan-it-x records, and before that it was No Idea records and so on, you get the picture. There must be a good scene somewhere in the UK. All I can see to find here is libertine influenced indie-britrock. It’s depressing having to listen to the same bands at Mosh every week. Mind you Mosh is depressing every week. WHO THE FUCK WEARS A SCARF TO A CLUB!!

Gigs

2005-12-01T23:07:00.000Z

There are three gigs this week, all of which are my three most favourite dance bands. And guess what i can't go to any of them. Faithless, Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers. God Damn.

On the plus side i'm gonna see The Pogues and Dropkick Murphies in a few weeks in birmingham.

Winter

2005-11-28T21:25:00.000Z

I’ve haven’t slept properly for a week. I’m hungover. It’s freezing outside with snow. I feel lonely and keep dreaming of old times. I’m not looking forward to the week. It could only be winter. People are gonna be feeling Christmassy, and will have their presents all bought soon. Only 27 shopping days left til Xmas. I only start feeling Christmassy when I go out on the street on the 25th and see all the kids with new bikes and gadgets. Reminds me of when I got a pogo stick one year, and mastered no handed pogo-ing in a day. Maybe if I listen to Fairy Tale of New York or the Johnny Cash Christmas album over and over again I might get in that state of mind before the shops shut.

I turned 18 a couple of weeks ago, had quite big celebrations, including burning a lot of stuff that I found at my dads house, including a wicker dog basket and a clock. The most important part of the whole celebration was making sure I had a decent last illegal pint, something you could never have again. It was a good last illegal pint (or more), and as the pub had a lock in, I promptly missed the last bus home, and left my bag with a bunch of money in the pub. My first legal pint was average. I have only been ID’d once since my birthday, and that was yesterday.

A gotta bunch of books to read, the only time I really get to read them is in the time I have free between work and a political meeting in town, its too bloody cold to be outside, and no where except dark pubs are open. So I go to the train station where the waiting room is slightly heated.

I might try and sleep.

I'm not one to post quizzes normally but....

2005-11-04T16:57:00.000Z

You know when you've been in Leicester too long when:
1) You're always slightly surprised that the Haymarket Centre no longer smells of stale p**s.
2) You know every nightclub in Leicester by a previous name.
3) You've watched City play, standing in the Family Enclosure.
4) You know who Dusty Hare is.
5) You remember Leicester United.
6) You are thrown by people who:
a) Don't know where Brucianni's is.
b) Don't know how good their milkshakes (and ice-cream sodas)are.
7) You remember when it wasn't a Leicester Mercury headline without the words "shock", "horror" and/or "probe".
8)You used to go into town especially to see Lewis's Christmas windows.
9) You call people "mardy".
10) You know what a "jitty" is.
11) You get disorientated driving down St. Margaret's Way as you no longer have the swimming baths for reference.
12) You were amazed when the lions on the fountain turned out to be bronze.
13) You've watched more than one large fire from the Great Central Way.
14) It's not "mate" it's "me duck".
15) You've been amazed at how often this was debated in the Mercury's letters page, usually by some mad Northern woman and a handful of locals with far too much spare time.
16) You remember George's Salad Bar, and have wondered what would've happened if you'd walked in and actually ordered a salad.
17) You've been to Twycross Zoo. More than once.
18) A Fox Cub has wheels and an engine (unless it's actions are being narrated by David Attenborough).
19) You know which "Gate" is which.
20) You've been roller-skating at Granby Halls.
21) You remember when Fosse Park was ASDA, Everard's Brewery, Oliver's Shoes and some horses.
22) You've sat in Daniel Lambert's chair.
23) You think Bobby's is a good restaurant, but can't believe that:
a) People actually travel all the way from India to eat there
b) They can get away with using furniture clearly bought from a garden centre.
c) It's not even good garden furniture.
24) You can spell "Engelbert Humperdinck" and ShowaddyWaddy".
25) You buy more Leicester than Cheddar cheese.
26) You know they're Diwali lights until the beginning of December.
27) You remember "Lineker's" sparkly red and blue sign on the market.
28) You have actually shown this off to someone visiting Leicester.
29) You know the difference between a cob and a bap and that your mates could back you up on this).
30) You've actually been into the Gas Museum on Aylestone Road.
31) You spent years confusing salt & vinegar, and cheese & onion crisps.
32) You get a craving for a TJ's when out drinking in other towns
33) You don't know anyone who hasn't been to Skeggy.

Elvis

2005-11-03T14:41:00.000Z

Watching Fireworks on Narborough Road at 9pm Tuesday night, theres loads and loads of them. Big fuck off boxes of 40 fireworks seem to be the trend now, only need to the light the fuse once, and stand back and be deafened again and again in quick sucession. I could just about see one display near me by sitting on the wall, as i did, a figure stumbled around the corner, looking to the pavement and muttering. I realized he was wearing a shiny white jewel incrusted elvis suit, topped off with slicked back grey hair(with black patches). He was smoking a cigar and was obviously drunk as hell, i watched him walk a few more metres before he gave up and sat on the steps of a church and put his head in his hands and fell silent. For a long time. Its biazarre seeing an Elvis impersonator in such a state, i never really considered that they could be depressed, but then i took a step back. These people dedicate their lives to the memory of someone who was a wreck, who fucked up big time, i'd be majorly surprised if there was one happy Elvis impersonator out there.

In other news, i managed to get the last ticket to see Mark Thomas live next week, i'm looking forward to it, i dug out all his old TV programs and laughed my head off. Its amazing that there hasn't been anything on TV like it for a long time.

How has your week been?

Vomit

2005-10-27T22:02:00.000+01:00

I spent most of last Saturday throwing up pink liquid in the disabled toilet of BBC Radio Leicester. That’s my licence fee well spent. So a lesson for us all is never to drink too much tesco beer, it doesn’t get you very drunk, but it sure as hell makes you pay for the cheapness in the morning.

London

2005-10-19T19:14:00.000+01:00

Saturday 5am, Leicester.
I decided to get away this weekend, to London. Not the best decision when you have no money and the only reason you are going is to drink. London pints as you probably know have about a 75% mark up on northern prices. So all my plan really was to drink beer in someone else’s house is a dirty and crapper city.

My friend Richard, hitherto referred as Bez, was going as well. I got up at about 5am, after a lovely but not at all refreshing two hour sleep, to get the first bus to Leicester.  The bus driver was seemingly drunk and slurred the price at me, then did a spasmed stretch. There was only one other man on the bus, and he just eyed me awkwardly.

Bez only just got to the bus station before the national express bus left; he was looking at the timetable wrong. He bought his laptop with him, which was pretty much unnecessary, but we looked at photos, including a photo he had taken of an entry he made into someone’s wedding book when he was absolutely fucked. The sun started to rise by the time we got to Milton Keynes, Bez got off to get some fags, and the bus almost left without him cos I forgot to tell the bus driver he had left. Starving, we managed to find some well cheap scrambled eggs at red lion square in Holborn, and a seriously stoned guy did circles around the park smiling from ear to ear like a clown. Later on we met up with Sham, Eleanor and James, sitting in Red lion square; they managed to make the stoned guy shit his pants by running towards in him shouting “SQUIRREL!”  He didn’t move for 2 hours and only then did we realise he hadn’t had a heart attack and died.

First pub of the weekend, a fucking wetherspoons, that meant an even bigger mark up of beer prices, and to add to that the pub was named after some fucking royal sympathizer, great choice.  Still managed to get pretty drunk, but spent all the money I had for the weekend, that’s what London does to you, you don’t learn to realize that what you are buying here isn’t the same quantity as Leicester.  At least there was one ‘cashback; moment of the night, a seriously cheap pizza place, £3.00 for a proper Italian pizza. Then onto Brixton, to the Peoples republic of Disco, one of those ‘DJ Democracy’ jobbies, it was pretty good, and a nice setting, but way too many anarchists, plus with my now empty pockets I was starting to get sober.  But not sober enough to refrain from singing “Guns of Brixton” outside Brixton police station when we left.

Sunday 10am, Kentish Town
I went to bed comparatively early to everybody else, partly because I had been awake for about a day and a bit already. I managed to bag a really deflated but otherwise spacious pump-up bed, which someone kept trying to crawl in despite my constant protests. Early in the morning, everybody else came to bed, waking me up. We had planned to go to Marx’s grave at Highgate cemetery, but there was a £1 admission, which I would rather spend on beer. After trying to find another cheap breakfast, we made our way to Regents Park, which was a great idea, as for some reason it was still summer in London, despite the frost in Leicester. The five of us chipped in for a crate of beer, and not long after, a toilet was needed, Bez went on a half an hour trek to find a decent one, whereas the rest of us just went behind the nearest tree.

At about 4, the season finally caught up on us, and the bunch of us walked to Camden Town, I can’t stand the place, if it’s not full of American Tourists it’s full of complete life-stylists, who move there to get a taste of the lowlife, a completely synthetic one nowadays. That’s one of the worst things about capitalism; it takes everything good, exciting and underground and slams a pound sign on it. There’s bollock all that’s cheap, some guy was shouting “Hot Meals….£2.50”, over and over again, so it became a call and response thing for us. “When I say hot meals you say £2.50”….”Hot Meals?”…..”£2.50”. As soon as we started doing this, he changed the price to £2.  If you’ve been to Camden town you’ll have met the preacher outside the bank, he was telling us how he joined the army to kill people legally. Hmm…great Jesus man.  After a lot of disturbing stories he started quoting Mao to us in Chinese, I don’t know why. Not once in the entire conversation did he mention Jesus to us, maybe it’s like the labour party not mentioning Blair, thinking it’ll increase votes.  The others got a ten bag of weed, of one of the street dealers, yeah great idea, buy it off street dealers in Camden town; you won’t get scammed then will ya.

There were still some beers left so I had one at the station waiting for train with no conductor on, as none of us had tickets. Nat had cooked us Mexican at her place, so who were we to refuse; it was very nice, very spicy and very messy.
Walking back from one side of Kentish town to the other takes a bloody long time, and I slipped in some vomit, and skidded a bit, was quite fun. Back at Rachael and Kam’s place, Monsters Inc was put on, and I feel asleep.

Monday 9am Kentish Town
Everybody except me and Bez had left, so I had my first shower of the weekend, which felt good, seeing as though I hadn’t had a stand-up shower in about two months.   Bez put a crappy generic action movie on starring Al Pacino, it was so generic we watched in fast forward, making up the dialogue ourselves, we were probably completely right as well. Sham came round, cos he’s a lazy student, and made himself breakfast but not us. So using my last bit of money, i went out to get a small crate of beer and a lunchtime offer pizza thing which was about £2.50. The rest of that day consisted of watching Daytime TV with the sound down, making up the words ourselves. Singing Hymns and doing impressions of preachers, so loud that the neighbours probably thought the second coming was here.

Eventually we left to go to London Bridge, I got a Travel Card, thinking I’d be using it all day; I hardly used it at all. Because we got a ride across London in the back of a white van, we couldn’t see a thing. Bez was taking photos in the dark, and we sung songs to our hearts content.  Later on, everybody used the “bendy-buses” which seemingly you don’t have to pay for, cos we didn’t.  At Victoria, I realised I had wasted money on the travel card, so tried to flog it, the only guy that wanted to buy it needed a 1234 Zones card and I only had two.  But on the plus side I found a completed Sub-Club card (see: previous post), so that meant free food.  The two hour wait for our coach back was spent trying to get rid of the travel card, some argentine bloke crashed a fag off Bez, and asked us where we got our beer, it would have been cool if he sat with us, but he just seemed interested in getting trashed.  On the bus, a girl kept staring at me, not my type, but you know, it’s nice especially when there’s nobody else even remotely interested in your life. I realised that I was back in Leicester, and that I probably wouldn’t find anything interesting to do for a while, back at the bus station, a hundred or more people were queuing up for the school uniformed themed disco at Zanzibar, nothing had changed. It was freezing, but bless those brave girls and boys only wearing skirts.

But first a little bit about myself

2005-10-18T16:26:00.000+01:00

I come from Leicester, a completely average city with nothing of interest. Of course there are the token ‘world famous’ attractions of which every city has one. Leicester has the National Space Centre, I’ve never been. It has Europe’s first or only Jain Centre (I’m not really sure), I’ve never been. I don’t think I’ll ever go to any of them. I don’t want to. For me the best things to do in Leicester are a handful of Pubs and about one decent club. But the people are great, there’s tons of weirdo’s just hanging around on the street to meet. Their around all the time, but you’ll find them easier at night, when commerce has gone to bed, and most people are shut up in their houses. I do like Leicester, but it pisses me off no end, just for existing in the first place. So occasionally I just have to get out in any way I can.

Currently, I think I’m stuck in a deep rut. Although I do exciting things, at the moment all I can think about is getting that last stamp to fill my ‘sub club’ card, I don’t even like subway, it’s just the only thing that offers vegetarian and is open at midnight. But how ecstatic will I feel when I’ve claimed my foot long sandwich, I’m sure my life will turn around that very moment I bite into a stupidly hot jalapeno. You get a good insight into the shit way managers treat their workers when you’re the only customer and they are about to close up, in my experience they are complete racists.

This really hasn’t told you anything about me and barely anything about Leicester but does it really bother you?

Here we go again.

2005-10-18T14:00:00.000+01:00

I've tried doing blogs and stuff before, and they obviously just fade of into the occasional 'survey' answer. But i've been itching to start writing properly again. Hopefully this won't turn the same way... I'll start later.