My birthday was a pretty quiet affair this year. No-one could really afford to do much and I was still a bit ill with a cold I couldn’t shake. I met up with Claire and Tony at Zero Degrees (I know, not very original but they were meant to have a new menu!). When Nick and Rob arrived we headed for FOODS! It wasn’t until I got home I realised my weird pizza that was meant to have noodles on it was noodle-less. Hmmm that’s not fair! I think next time I’ll go back to the Goat’s Cheese one, I swear it’s the best pizza EVER!

C&T got me some more vinyl figures, I swear I need a display cabinet for all these cool little plastic beasts and N&R got me some chopsticks from their trip to Paris. They turned out to be the same kind I’d bought Claire a few years ago which wasn’t a problem for me as I’d very nearly not given Claire hers as I fell in love with their little faces Good timing too as I eat loads of stir fries and my chopsticks are getting old.

Paul & Chris joined us later at the Purtle and as if to prove how old I am, I went home early! I knew if I left before 22:00 I could get a train and then a lift home. After that and I’d have to pay out almost £30 for a taxi. Sod that! It was a good night spent discussing Venture Bros and films that make us cry. I do miss going out and having mad rants with people, it’s so unfair that no-one seems to be out any more. I can’t afford to go out on the off-chance I might bump into people now. Argh, I need a job! I need money! I want to have a social life again!

On the Friday afternoon I met up with Janine and saw Tim Minchin. Well I say ‘saw’, unless we jumped up and down we couldn’t actually see anything as they’d draped black fabric over the metal fencing. He was great as usual. Caught some of Streetlight Manifesto and then The Horrors, saw a little of the Deftones. Saw Florence and the Machine and she was brilliant, I was really impressed. Soulsavers were really good too. But the highlight of Friday was definitely Faith No More. For all the people who said having them play inside a tent was a stupid idea because it would be rammed… nuh-uh! I went to the loos in plenty of time before they were on stage (which were awesome, clean and I didn’t have to queue for them at all over the WHOLE weekend, a festival first!). The loos were right near the tent so when I came out I could see the tent was really empty with spaces at the front so I made the most of it! Stood at the barrier at the front left and waited for them to come on. WOW! They were amazing! Absolutely loved it, although it wasn’t right seeing a guitarist who wasn’t Big Jim. Maybe I should’ve stood on the right and blocked my view of him with a post so I could pretend it was him! It took ages to get out of the festival site that night, but at first I really didn’t care because I’d finally seen FnM! I was meant to go to their infamous Brixton Academy show in 1990 but for some reason didn’t go. I don’t think I could afford it at the time. A lot of my friends went and are visible on the You Fat Bastards video. I am still jealous!The queue for the taxis was immense. I’ve never seen it that huge. Ever. I’d got blisters on my feet on the way to the festival site from the station at 12:00 so by 00:30 they were killing me. I knew I had 2 large blisters on each heel that rubbed with every step. I’d had plasters on them but they’d rubbed off over the course of the day. It was the first time I hadn’t taken my chair to a festival either, thinking I’d just buy one in the arena. Except this year they decided not to sell ANY chairs in the arena. Madness! Not sitting down all day coupled with blisters made walking a slow nightmare. Queueing for a taxi for two and a half hours was bad enough… but spending that time with idiots shouting “Haha! You don’t know how to get to the station! It’s only 10 minutes walk you fucking morons!” made me get really, really angry. I KNOW HOW TO GET TO THE STATION! It would have taken me about three hours to get there considering I could only shuffle in agony and even if I got to the station, what then? No more trains that night. They really didn’t consider that not everyone was getting a cab into the town centre, I was getting a cab in the opposite direction! Eugh… RETARDS!

Saturday I got to sleep in a bit, first band I wanted to see was Eagles of Death Metal at 14:35. they rocked as usual. Always makes me feel good seeing them live, they seem so happy! Jesse dedicated a song to his little girl who was sat at the back of the stage in ear defenders on Dave Grohl’s knee. She went really shy and hid from the cameras. Bless! There was an hour of rushing around, bumping into people and getting food before the band of the day, Them Crooked Vultures! Although I’d heard of the collaboration, I didn’t know that was their name until Claire & Tony told me on the Thursday, along with the rumour that they would be playing. Sure enough a big X appeared in the field on google maps on the Friday \m/ They were in the same tent as FnM the previous night but it was a whole different story. We got there fairly early and already it was pretty rammed. We got in a little way so we could just about see the stage and the screens, then it got ridiculous. As the band came on stage huge waves of people forced into the tent. I got annoyed that there was hardly a sound for each member of the band until Dave Grohl walked on stage and they went insane. We even heard people express their confusion that he was drumming and not singing, “who the hell was the ginger bloke with the mic” *sigh* Then another wave of people barged in sending me flying and pushing Claire over into Tony. I had enough. I just shoulder barged my way out. I no longer cared if I annoyed anyone. I set up my chair outside and watched on the screen, it was a better view and I could sit down and eat at the same time. Claire & Tone joined me soon afterwards. They were the last band I need to see that day really so I spent the rest of the night walking about looking at stalls and checking out smaller bands in the little tents.

Got in on the Sunday late again, which was silly really as I knew I was going home really early that night and getting a lift home from outside the Orange campsite entrance. No traffic made it bliss and made me feel smug Got into the Dance tent for deadmau5 and he was amazing. Unfortunately I couldn’t see the stage or screen at first for the evilmau5 entrance, the tent was rammed. I’ve never known such a polite crowd though! I was at the edge of the tent and everyone who walked past me said excuse me and thank you. I was really impressed. After that I spent the day wandering about catching bits of bands and bumping into people again. I couldn’t believe I was leaving while Bloc Party were playing. It was about the earliest I’d left a festival since my ex started hassling me after I saw Butthole Surfers one year. I only saw that one band that year but as the day ticket was about £20 back then it wasn’t much a big deal! Oh how times have changed! I wandered around the camp-sites for a bit, bought some ear-rings (I always have to buy at least one thing from every festival as a souvenir) and wandered out for my lift.

It was an awesome festival this year and even though I didn’t see many full sets I caught performances by countless bands,  wandered an awful lot, met some great people and had a fantastic time. The new layout of the arena was really impressive. There was a HUGE space set aside for toilets, I’ve never seen so many! No queuing and there was always loo roll and soap! Amazing! They also had some tents a little closer together this year but had big metal fences between them which did a really good job of stopping the sound merging. Great work. I’d been dreading this festival as I had a real sense of foreboding but it turned out to be unfounded. Roll on next year!

Hello again! Long time, no type.

I have had such a manic time the last few months, much of it involving slow internet connections and then the joy of no internet connection at all. Woo! Well, now my intarnetz have properly returned and I’m in the migration to UKFSN. Sadly I’m on an LLU so it’ll be a while, but meh. I also hope they can provide more than the 0.5meg they are currently quoting, or I will cry.

So, I’m back! Sorry if people thought they were being ignored, you weren’t. I did have internet access on my phone, in the Turtle, at mate’s houses, but it’s just not the same as at home. Often I would read messages and promptly forget all about replying. My bad :shame:

I know a few high profile people have died lately, but I’m not a people person. I was upset to hear Alex has died. I liked Alex.

http://www.alexfoundation.org/

I’ve managed to let myself get thoroughly bored. I can’t actually remember what I’ve done lately.. this is more a recap for myself:

Monday
Did the usual and went to The Fez at the last minute. James got me in for free though – woo, yay, etc. Shame everyone I knew buggered off early. No idea where James went, but he never came back so I went home via another boozer – tsk…

Wednesday
Went to The Blagrave with some people I used to work with at the very last minute. They watched football, I sat around waiting for it to end. Pretty much everyone agreed I am much happier now I’ve left work. Met some randoms in the Turtle again though. Yayness! Apparently I have nice teeth…

Friday
Tried to buy shoes for Karen’s wedding, bought trousers instead. Damn Schuh for not having my size… damn me for having big feet Went to ZeroDegrees with Claire. Food was ace. Man next to me nicked my olives. Claire has informed me I was being chatted up… I was oblivious… Saw a tired & sweaty Chris after his day of moving to his new flat. Sooo jealous! No-one was in the Purtle or Turks, so I was good and had a really early night.

Saturday
Karen’s wedding. Wore stupid semi-smart clothes. Felt uncomfortable the whole time. Wished I’d worn jeans & a t-shirt so I could have had more fun. Justin got absolutely wankered. Much hilarity ensued, although being the very last guests to leave and the car journey back weren’t quite as much fun… Poor Matt for enduring it all sober!!

Sunday
Died. Got messages about going out, but they didn’t get to me until it was too late. Got annoyed with staying in

Monday
Shopped! Met up with Chris & James, did The Fez Club thingy for free again. Saw Dezzy for 2s before he disappeared and never returned. Probably the only time I’ll go to that place and know people… and I didn’t even speak to them!

Wednesday
Cocking postman didn’t ring the doorbell so my new corset is now back at the bloody Post Office. Not impressed. Have to try & get there tomorrow to pick it up. HASSLE! Made a fantastic chocolate cake. It is awesome. I make the best cakes. Staying in is making me antsy…

Thursday
Going to see Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip at The Fez Club – should fuckin’ rule

Friday
Going out to get royally smashed with Robyn. Starting off in posh boozers, gonna end up at the Purtle, you just knows it. Hopefully it will be messy and involve limbs ’n’ shit. Maybe I can burn some bloke’s earlobe again. That was always a laugh…

Saturday
Off to see Mark Thomas at 21 South Street with Chris. Very much looking forward to this & getting mucho drunko afters.

Sunday
Sleepies!! Yeah right…

This weekend has to be one of the most random in a long while. Had a feeling Friday might be as dead as last week so prepared for the worst. Didn’t really happen like that!!

Started off with work people, did the Turks thing, did the Turtle thing. Even did the sitting in St Marys graveyard talking cod shit thing! Loads of people were out & about. Although I didn’t get round to talking to half the people I meant to… I remember Paul asking me for some meths at the Turtle though… WTF?!? Timing on Friday ruled though, managed to get to the Rising as Kev was leaving – cheap(ish) taxi – yay! The taxi driver was sooo cool. Spent most of the journey back discussing horror films.

Got home and failed to feel tired. Went on IRC… looked up & the sun was out. Completely failed to get back to sleep after a measly 3 hours.

On Saturday I went to say goodbye to my favourite cousin ever, Heidi. Can’t believe out of the millions of cousins I have, she’s the one who’s moving to Australia

After that I went into town & did the Turtle thing all over again! Me & Nick were at least kept amused by the guy trying to detect bombs using his mobile phone… weird… Met Ectospazz (the band playing the Turtle last night) and discussed filthy southern rock.

Nick wussed out :p and went home. Within 20 minutes 5 random blokes were sat with me… within an hour we were coming up with really bad jokes and downing flaming shots of Sambuca… a drink fight ensued. Stickiness followed… Then 3 more random people joined us thinking I knew the original randomers… later we were joined by more, new randoms! So bizarre!

Tried the Rising after that, but it was a bit dead. Today has been nowhere near as random… boo for predictability.

I am now officially a Jo of the minted variety. Money cleared yesterday apparently. Just moved a stash of it into savings… gonna be earning about £80 a month in interest. Wheeeee!!!!

The amount of money in my savings account is currently at AWESOME. I bet I spend it all on booze and gadgets. Go me!

I’m on a total high from this right now, but I know soon I’ll remember I had 3 hours sleep last night and I really shouldn’t be awake… let alone going to see my favourite cousin off, she’s moving to Australia-land forever and then going back out drinking again straight after…. ow! Ow!!

R.I.P. DeathCopter

Getting ready for a night out. Trying to get into a good frame of mind, last weekend was pretty rubbish.

Bored. Looking forward to going out tomorrow. Gotta be better than last Friday, yeah?

Getting ready to go out drinking… again… I like this no working thing.

I have finally left employment. I am now officially unemployed and farkin’ lovin’ it.

A big THANK YOU! to everyone that came out to wish me farewell. It was a good night, would have been better if I didn’t have to drink the evil cider, but fuck it. At least I managed to not think I was a cat this time. Onwards and upwards…

Been invited to the Beer festival again today… but that’s just silly. And I have a house warming to go to if I’m still invited Ms Robyn?

The leaving work festivities should be continuing on Friday at the Turks and then the Turtle, just because we can.