Joe told me before we got that no matter how good you expect it to be, it will be better. I have to say that i had to agree with his statement (apart from the pool, but that's just being picky!).
The setting was beautiful, set high up in the Massif Central, dead centre of the Cevennes national park and mountain range. The village was the stereotypical french rural village, a few houses supplied by a local store, boulangerie, and a petit bar/restaurant which doubled up as a internet cafe.
It was so good to get there away from the heat and the expense of the south coast, the latter aided by the fact that Claude, Pierre's grandma and here partner David were staying at the house (known to the family as 'La Capel), despite owning a house up the road, and provided us with food. My diet consisted of fresh bread, french cheese and red wine. The downside of them being there is that we couldn't be as free with smoking, but all this meant was that we could relive the feeling of being 14 again, sneaking outside after the parents had gone to sleep and having a cheeky joint.
Time during the day was spent going on walks, getting pissed in the bar, chucking a frisbee around on the village football pitch next door or even going for a dip in the ice cold fountain that was about 8 feet deep and sourced directly from the mountain spring, and then going for a dip in the pool, which as a remnant of the previous owners needs some work done as the linings coming off, but that's a technicality.
I wish i could of stayed longer, i only ended up only staying 3 nights, but needs unfortunately i had to go to another festival which was in Croatia, and was meeting Ali and Archie in Zagreb on the 12th so had a few trains to catch. I had romanced about buying a little mobilette and riding all the way to Soundwave at a steady 30mph but the only man who would possibly have one for sale, Roland (roll-on) aka My Nigga Roland, i never got round to meeting...
...ah well, c'est la vie.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
WorldWide
After spending a couple of days with Ally and the rents it was time for me to leave again. My mum had just had some bad news about the cancer and was off to portugal to see her sister, her flight was half an hour after mine so i got a lift with her, luckily i had no hold luggage and had already checked in so the fact that i arrived at stanstead 15 minutes before the flight boarded ended up being ok. i walked swiftly through the airport and as i was about 3 gates away i saw a sign for final call on my flight, broke into a run just to see that the queue had gone nowhere and to the calls of 'look he's running'. Waiting there were Pierre and Joe, Joes sister harriet, her boyfriend max and their mate, Hannah, Lucy, Naimh and their mate Alice, so a few first impressions were made of me as the sweaty late one.
After the flight we arrived in a very hot montpellier where we tried to get a bus into to town to get the train to sete but instead opted for a taxi all the way to the hostel. This pretty much blew my budget out of the water as it cost 75 euros for between me pierre and joe. We got the hostel, after a quick walk up a very steep hill, and again, as were checking in, i reinforced my reputation as the sweaty one by sitting on one of the plastic chairs in the foyer which, when i left it, had a little puddle collected. we couldn't move into our room until 4 so we decided to go into town get some munch and then got to the beach party which was the launch of the festival. When we were on the bus there i realised i hadnt eaten all day (i was up at 4, it was now 1 in the afternoon) so started to feel really hungry, when we eventually got to the beach the huge munch we had was incredibly buff. The sick thing about the beach venue, named ACD beach after the bar it was set in was that the speakers faced the sea, so if you were swimming or playing bat and ball or frisbee in the sea, you could still hear the music and dance along club med stylie.
Wer missioned to get the very infrequent bus back when we gotr back to the hostel we found out that harriet and max had hitched a lift. we had dinner at the hostel that night and tried to imbibe some very room-temperature pastis, luckily the girls had soem beers so we managed to snaffle a few of those. After a while we headed down to the lighthouse venue called Phare du Mole which was where most of the nighttime DJing would take place, we got there in the middle of Theo Parish, who i felt was a bit of a let down, as he kept on dipping and boosting the bass, which was a bit rubbish and ultimately broke the soundsystem. After his set he gave a little speech, and kept repeating, 'i should of done a sound check!'. Diplo was next up and he was wicked. He opened up his set with some sick tunes, brought it a bit commercial during towards the end (he played skream's remix of la roux) which didnt really fit with the festival, but ultimately it went down well and i thought he was sick! I went home after him cos it was some whack mintech DJ on afterwards and i had virtually been awake for 24 hours as well.
Next day i went online for a bit and whilst pierre and joe went for a coffee. I met them at the cafe where they were sat with naimh and lucy, we went to monoprix for some munch and then went to get the bus. Joe started running for it but it seemed like a bit of a fruitless endeavour and pierre and more so i slowly lagged behind. when i got round the bend i saw the bus pull away with joe and pierre on it! waiting for the girls i decided to give max and harriet's hitch hiking idea a try. In about 3 minutes a guy in a convertible pulled up and asked me where i needed to go, to which i responded the beach, as i got in the girls walked past so asked if they could come too, of course! we ended up getting to the beach the same time as the others. The music on the beach was good, as it was the day before, but i was looking forward to some live music in the third venue called the Theatre de la mer.
After going up to the hostel to finish off our pastis (this time with ice) and drink some leffe which we had bought we headed down to the venue with sandwiches in hand. When we got there we were told we couldn't bring them in so we stashed them and whatever beer we had left. The theatre de la mer is a big romanesque open-air amphitheatre which over looks the sea, probably the nicest venue for live music i have ever been too. We got in for the end of sebastien schuller who was a bit weird and ambient but afterwards came Soil & "Pimp" Sessions... Never before have i seen a group of guys that looked so cool. Soil & Pimp are a Jazz group from Japan who Gilles Peterson described as the biggest name in the world of Jazz at the moment, and I could see why. I'm not usually into Jazz as a dance music (in fact i've just starting downloading one of their albums now) but literally half way through their first song half the amphitheatre was on the dance floor in front of where they were playing and the other half of the amphitheatre was standing up in their seats, dancing as well. After Soil & Pimp we collected our sandwiches and made our way to the Phare du Mole. Pierre wasn't sure whether he wanted his or not, but litterally a second after he mentioned this he dropped it under my foot as we were walking, pierres mind was made up for him then and there, goodbye sandwich.
The main act that i we wanted to see at the Phare du mole that night was Dorian Concept who was doing a semi live set, playing the melody on a little keyboard whilst he DJed at the same time, It started to rain half way through his set and, because the stage had no roof, the tech guys had to hold a plastic sheet over the decks whilst he was DJing, eventually it was pouring down and the crowd was uniting under the heavy rain, marvelling at the lightning bolts out at sea, until the music had to be turned off, as well as the lights probably due to safety. He came back on about 15 minutes later when the rain stopped and finished off a very good, despite being interrupted, set. After was a another mintech DJ called Martyn so i went for a rest cos my feet and knees were hurting pierre came with and fell asleep, standard, the only man i know to fall asleep more than me. I was waiting around for Carl Craig, of whom i had heard good things but when his set started i realised it was a standard friday night 4am type radio one music, the type you listen too when your on the bus home, the fact that Gilles Peterson kept interspersing it with bursts of 'you are listening to the sound of detroit, Mr Carl Craig...' in his best radio voice, didnt help. I decided to make my way home, i guess I'm not that much into my Second Wave Detroit Techno.
That morning i set my alarm for 9.30 in order to get up in time for the free breakfast, i filled my boot sand went back to sleep but agreed with myself that it wasnt worth it doing again. That day we went to the beach as standard, all of us hitch hiking, i assumed my sunbathing pose and subsequently did my daily routine of nap, swim, eat, swim, sunbathe, frisbee, nap, swim, that night we skipped/missed out on the live music, in sacrifice of getting pissed and eating a meal of ratatouille and frites at the hostel. That night was deffinately the best night of music at the Phare du Mole. First up was Fulgeance, a sort of lesser, french version of Dorian Concept but almost as good, towards the end of this i got a bit tires so went for a cotch and ended up having a little nap, when i woke up, god forbid, I heard house music! It was Jazzanova playing some sick tunes It might of been a couple of nights previous but it fits into my memory as happening on this night, Joe was trying to chirps Alice, so employed me and Pierre as wing men, which of course we were very excited about, are job was to get rid of hannah so we performed a 2 man dancing barrier manoeuvre which slowly moved hannah away from the other 2, and she was none the wiser, except until she reads this of course. next up was Laurent Garnier Live. For me and i reckon a lot of people this was the highlight of the festival, an amazing live set which culminated in a rendition of his massive choon, 'man with the red face'. I'm sure you guys know it but if you dont here's it is, quite a sick video as well...
After laurent was another mintech DJ so i went home!
Day 4 was at ACD beach all day. We decided to have a sit-down meal in the town centre, but the cafe 'hotel-de-ville' had basically finished lunch so pierre and joe had the plat du jour and i went down the road for an omlette and frites sandwich. on teh way to our spot where we hitched from some 15 year old algerian kid offered us so hash, so we picked up off him, was good shit, straight out of north africa afterall. The beach party had been expanded from the previous 3 days and now the seats and barriers extended nearly all the way to the shore. The music seemed to be of a higher calibre as well and it seemed as though everyone was a lot more up for it as well. The girls bought a fuck load of beer so we got some ice and made a make-shift fridge in the sand, time was spent during the day swimming drinking and dancing, particular highlights included a nighttime swim (so weird!), listening to a shit load of Michael Jackson and loving it, especially when Simbad dropped thriller with a full moon in the sky. It went on until about 4.30 when the security kicked us off the beach, just as we left the beach we witnessed a massive fight between some local 'racail' in which a non-involved couple became involved when the fell into them and they reacted as anyone would, but ended up being hit and thrown to the floor. we made our way passed the fracas where the girls hired a cab cos they couldnt be arsed to walk the hour home from the beach. Me, Pierre and Joe started to walk, attempting to hitch a lift with the few cars passing by, after about 10 minutes walking up the road a car pulled up, despite me having my hand down the front of my shorts. the two gusy in the front were playing some badass arab-french fusion hip-hop but suddenly the music got cut off and the guy in the passengers seat asked us what we did. 'students?! ah so you must take drugs...' he then went on to ask us how much drugs are in the UK, before they dropped us off at the foot of the hill before the familiar walk up the hill to the hostel, where i watched the sun rise over my book and a spliff, waited for breakfast to be set up, eating then going to bed.
The next day was Pierre's birthday so we checked out and moved into the girls room. we went for lunch in town and used the internet for a bit before going to a little place we had found earlier in the week and had some beers and some cake the girls got him. afterwards we headed back to the hostel and chilled out with will morgan, michael hessle and their mate who until this point i have forgotten to mention were also staying at our hostel. The next day we got up for breakfast and left for pierres yard in the countryside.
Worldwide was wicked, the thing i didnt like though, apart from the mintech, was that it felt like you needed to be late twenties and monied, and for that reason i dont think i will go there for at least another 5 years. Sete was a lovely setting (get it?) but i would have preferred to have been in an apartment in the centre rather than in the hostel at a treks-legnth up teh steepist hill i have ever seen in a french town.
I leave you with the official video of teh last day of teh festival, u get a brief video of joe doing his music face and a bit of me taking photos of my back...
WHAT AN EPIC POST!!!
After the flight we arrived in a very hot montpellier where we tried to get a bus into to town to get the train to sete but instead opted for a taxi all the way to the hostel. This pretty much blew my budget out of the water as it cost 75 euros for between me pierre and joe. We got the hostel, after a quick walk up a very steep hill, and again, as were checking in, i reinforced my reputation as the sweaty one by sitting on one of the plastic chairs in the foyer which, when i left it, had a little puddle collected. we couldn't move into our room until 4 so we decided to go into town get some munch and then got to the beach party which was the launch of the festival. When we were on the bus there i realised i hadnt eaten all day (i was up at 4, it was now 1 in the afternoon) so started to feel really hungry, when we eventually got to the beach the huge munch we had was incredibly buff. The sick thing about the beach venue, named ACD beach after the bar it was set in was that the speakers faced the sea, so if you were swimming or playing bat and ball or frisbee in the sea, you could still hear the music and dance along club med stylie.
Wer missioned to get the very infrequent bus back when we gotr back to the hostel we found out that harriet and max had hitched a lift. we had dinner at the hostel that night and tried to imbibe some very room-temperature pastis, luckily the girls had soem beers so we managed to snaffle a few of those. After a while we headed down to the lighthouse venue called Phare du Mole which was where most of the nighttime DJing would take place, we got there in the middle of Theo Parish, who i felt was a bit of a let down, as he kept on dipping and boosting the bass, which was a bit rubbish and ultimately broke the soundsystem. After his set he gave a little speech, and kept repeating, 'i should of done a sound check!'. Diplo was next up and he was wicked. He opened up his set with some sick tunes, brought it a bit commercial during towards the end (he played skream's remix of la roux) which didnt really fit with the festival, but ultimately it went down well and i thought he was sick! I went home after him cos it was some whack mintech DJ on afterwards and i had virtually been awake for 24 hours as well.
Next day i went online for a bit and whilst pierre and joe went for a coffee. I met them at the cafe where they were sat with naimh and lucy, we went to monoprix for some munch and then went to get the bus. Joe started running for it but it seemed like a bit of a fruitless endeavour and pierre and more so i slowly lagged behind. when i got round the bend i saw the bus pull away with joe and pierre on it! waiting for the girls i decided to give max and harriet's hitch hiking idea a try. In about 3 minutes a guy in a convertible pulled up and asked me where i needed to go, to which i responded the beach, as i got in the girls walked past so asked if they could come too, of course! we ended up getting to the beach the same time as the others. The music on the beach was good, as it was the day before, but i was looking forward to some live music in the third venue called the Theatre de la mer.
After going up to the hostel to finish off our pastis (this time with ice) and drink some leffe which we had bought we headed down to the venue with sandwiches in hand. When we got there we were told we couldn't bring them in so we stashed them and whatever beer we had left. The theatre de la mer is a big romanesque open-air amphitheatre which over looks the sea, probably the nicest venue for live music i have ever been too. We got in for the end of sebastien schuller who was a bit weird and ambient but afterwards came Soil & "Pimp" Sessions... Never before have i seen a group of guys that looked so cool. Soil & Pimp are a Jazz group from Japan who Gilles Peterson described as the biggest name in the world of Jazz at the moment, and I could see why. I'm not usually into Jazz as a dance music (in fact i've just starting downloading one of their albums now) but literally half way through their first song half the amphitheatre was on the dance floor in front of where they were playing and the other half of the amphitheatre was standing up in their seats, dancing as well. After Soil & Pimp we collected our sandwiches and made our way to the Phare du Mole. Pierre wasn't sure whether he wanted his or not, but litterally a second after he mentioned this he dropped it under my foot as we were walking, pierres mind was made up for him then and there, goodbye sandwich.
The main act that i we wanted to see at the Phare du mole that night was Dorian Concept who was doing a semi live set, playing the melody on a little keyboard whilst he DJed at the same time, It started to rain half way through his set and, because the stage had no roof, the tech guys had to hold a plastic sheet over the decks whilst he was DJing, eventually it was pouring down and the crowd was uniting under the heavy rain, marvelling at the lightning bolts out at sea, until the music had to be turned off, as well as the lights probably due to safety. He came back on about 15 minutes later when the rain stopped and finished off a very good, despite being interrupted, set. After was a another mintech DJ called Martyn so i went for a rest cos my feet and knees were hurting pierre came with and fell asleep, standard, the only man i know to fall asleep more than me. I was waiting around for Carl Craig, of whom i had heard good things but when his set started i realised it was a standard friday night 4am type radio one music, the type you listen too when your on the bus home, the fact that Gilles Peterson kept interspersing it with bursts of 'you are listening to the sound of detroit, Mr Carl Craig...' in his best radio voice, didnt help. I decided to make my way home, i guess I'm not that much into my Second Wave Detroit Techno.
That morning i set my alarm for 9.30 in order to get up in time for the free breakfast, i filled my boot sand went back to sleep but agreed with myself that it wasnt worth it doing again. That day we went to the beach as standard, all of us hitch hiking, i assumed my sunbathing pose and subsequently did my daily routine of nap, swim, eat, swim, sunbathe, frisbee, nap, swim, that night we skipped/missed out on the live music, in sacrifice of getting pissed and eating a meal of ratatouille and frites at the hostel. That night was deffinately the best night of music at the Phare du Mole. First up was Fulgeance, a sort of lesser, french version of Dorian Concept but almost as good, towards the end of this i got a bit tires so went for a cotch and ended up having a little nap, when i woke up, god forbid, I heard house music! It was Jazzanova playing some sick tunes It might of been a couple of nights previous but it fits into my memory as happening on this night, Joe was trying to chirps Alice, so employed me and Pierre as wing men, which of course we were very excited about, are job was to get rid of hannah so we performed a 2 man dancing barrier manoeuvre which slowly moved hannah away from the other 2, and she was none the wiser, except until she reads this of course. next up was Laurent Garnier Live. For me and i reckon a lot of people this was the highlight of the festival, an amazing live set which culminated in a rendition of his massive choon, 'man with the red face'. I'm sure you guys know it but if you dont here's it is, quite a sick video as well...
After laurent was another mintech DJ so i went home!
Day 4 was at ACD beach all day. We decided to have a sit-down meal in the town centre, but the cafe 'hotel-de-ville' had basically finished lunch so pierre and joe had the plat du jour and i went down the road for an omlette and frites sandwich. on teh way to our spot where we hitched from some 15 year old algerian kid offered us so hash, so we picked up off him, was good shit, straight out of north africa afterall. The beach party had been expanded from the previous 3 days and now the seats and barriers extended nearly all the way to the shore. The music seemed to be of a higher calibre as well and it seemed as though everyone was a lot more up for it as well. The girls bought a fuck load of beer so we got some ice and made a make-shift fridge in the sand, time was spent during the day swimming drinking and dancing, particular highlights included a nighttime swim (so weird!), listening to a shit load of Michael Jackson and loving it, especially when Simbad dropped thriller with a full moon in the sky. It went on until about 4.30 when the security kicked us off the beach, just as we left the beach we witnessed a massive fight between some local 'racail' in which a non-involved couple became involved when the fell into them and they reacted as anyone would, but ended up being hit and thrown to the floor. we made our way passed the fracas where the girls hired a cab cos they couldnt be arsed to walk the hour home from the beach. Me, Pierre and Joe started to walk, attempting to hitch a lift with the few cars passing by, after about 10 minutes walking up the road a car pulled up, despite me having my hand down the front of my shorts. the two gusy in the front were playing some badass arab-french fusion hip-hop but suddenly the music got cut off and the guy in the passengers seat asked us what we did. 'students?! ah so you must take drugs...' he then went on to ask us how much drugs are in the UK, before they dropped us off at the foot of the hill before the familiar walk up the hill to the hostel, where i watched the sun rise over my book and a spliff, waited for breakfast to be set up, eating then going to bed.
The next day was Pierre's birthday so we checked out and moved into the girls room. we went for lunch in town and used the internet for a bit before going to a little place we had found earlier in the week and had some beers and some cake the girls got him. afterwards we headed back to the hostel and chilled out with will morgan, michael hessle and their mate who until this point i have forgotten to mention were also staying at our hostel. The next day we got up for breakfast and left for pierres yard in the countryside.
Worldwide was wicked, the thing i didnt like though, apart from the mintech, was that it felt like you needed to be late twenties and monied, and for that reason i dont think i will go there for at least another 5 years. Sete was a lovely setting (get it?) but i would have preferred to have been in an apartment in the centre rather than in the hostel at a treks-legnth up teh steepist hill i have ever seen in a french town.
I leave you with the official video of teh last day of teh festival, u get a brief video of joe doing his music face and a bit of me taking photos of my back...
WHAT AN EPIC POST!!!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Scotland
One of the biggest things i have been looking forward to doing this summer is revisiting Guislich farm near Aviemore in the Highlands to repeat the holiday we had when we were fresh faced &รจ year olds.
Thanks to beachbreak being 3 days instead of 4 i ended up having to wait around in london for an extra day as i had booked my flight presuming that the festival lasted a day longer. I therefore arrived a day later than the majority of people but quickly got into the flow of things, hannah and rachel preparing a buff munch before a nostalgia tripping session of reading our scrapbook from last time before an equally nostalgic game of 'I have never'. Rachel contacted her mate in Warwick to send us up some ganj because we sorted out any beforehand
The next day we got up early to do a big walk around loch morlich. we had lunch in a mountain pass and walked a lovely path back to the bus stop. Than evening some people continued whittling the spoons they had started the night before, i started my pipe. Alice and Ali whipped up a buff curry.
The day after we chilled, a bit knackered from the previous days walk, we sat around the cottage munching, reading whilst intermittently checking whether the draw had arrived. We had a brief visit to the nearby loch where the girls were swimming topless so the lads went full nude, the retreat was quite bad, i must say. We had a really buff barbeque for dinner that evening.
Wednesday was Allons last day in the highlands so we decided to do a big walk up Cairngorm, the 3rd biggest peak in the UK, we ate lunch at the top then walked along a ridge until we walked down possible one of the steepest descents i have ever walked before finishing off with a relatively leisurely stroll back to the foot of the hill train where we started our walk. That night Florence and I cooked risotto and melanzane di parmigeanno before saying goodbye to Allon. After dinner i managed to niggaflip Ali, check it out here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=123730887109&subj=1616250069
The next day we had another chill out day quite similar to the one before. Hannah and Alice baked a crumble which i thought tasted like weed, and then when Florence mentioned it, Hannah and Alice went SUPRISE!!! and presented to 8th bags of weed! We had all given up on the possibility of it arriving, and didn't even realise they had gone to check the postbox at the end of the track. We needed rizla and backy so we needed to go into Aviemore, and therefore decided to go jumping of the bridge. I forgot how high it was as well as how sick it felt to jump off. That night mesh and sherene cooked a great meal though i cant quite remeber what it was, some sort of shepherd's pie maybe, one thing for sure was that it was buff. That night joels mate david called him to tell us that michael jackson had died, we were sceptical to say the least until nearly all of us got a text from someone or another. We then went to bed reasonably early to get up in time to avoid the rush we endured 3 years previous when we were leaving.
After a leisurely tidy and pack, the cabs arrived. Our cab driver looked like an old sea captain, and could of easily been 100 years old, yet he still stood a good 6'4" in height and probably could have taken any of us. We got the train to edinburgh where we were gonna stay for a few days, we crossed the Firth of Forth rail bridge which i was a bit too excited about. Florence and sherene put all of us up (the 9 who were left in Scotland minus Alice who went home plus Ben who met us at edinburgh waverly) in their huge apartment just looking over the edinburgh meadows, but more importantly above wine rack. Ben cooked us a delicious curry that night, we also got on the pre-lash before going to see Brodinski at a club called Caberet Voltaire ('Cab Vol'). Before we left the clock struck midnight meaning it was rachels birthday(!). Inside the drinks were cheap, so i bought rachel her birthday drink. After a while brodinkis set began, which was sick. We also found out that the club was giving out loads of free johnny and lube so lots of fun was had repeatedly going up and collecting more lube, and trying to not look weird get more condoms as well. Hannah nicked some of lube, so i led her to the place where they were giving it out we both got some more rubbers and lube and as we left the guy in charge of the sexual health booth said, 'have a good night'. The rest of the night i spent intermittently falling asleep and raving before going back home with everyone at the end of the night having a ridiculously strong bedsy and going to sleep. brodinski ended his set with a few Jacko tunes, a trend i'm sure would follow throughout the summer.
The next day we went for breakfast for rachels breakfast. the munch was good and it was funny listening to the polish staff saying 'bigger breakfast with extra tatty' We then went to a bar called brass monkey where you can go and put on one of your own films to watch so watched a film called 'Black Orpheus' that joel gave rachel for her birthday, about a samba dancer who has a forbidden love with a woman in the favellas of rio during carnival which ends tragically for them both. i missed a big part of the middle partly because i fell asleep. that bight we all made cup cakes and fancy dress raffle for dinner, i had to dress as a farmer, highlights included ben as osama bin laden, ali as eve and joel and sherene as eachother.
My last day in scotland consisted of ben allon and I doing soem plumbing before getting lean and meeting the others at the mosque for some peng munch before going and hanging out in grace's amazing flat for a cup of tea and some telly before getting the train to the big LDN.
Unfortunately i had to leave earlier than evryone else cos i needed a few days to sort stuff out before going to europe PLUS Ally was coming up to visit and i needed top spend more that a day with her.
Thanks to beachbreak being 3 days instead of 4 i ended up having to wait around in london for an extra day as i had booked my flight presuming that the festival lasted a day longer. I therefore arrived a day later than the majority of people but quickly got into the flow of things, hannah and rachel preparing a buff munch before a nostalgia tripping session of reading our scrapbook from last time before an equally nostalgic game of 'I have never'. Rachel contacted her mate in Warwick to send us up some ganj because we sorted out any beforehand
The next day we got up early to do a big walk around loch morlich. we had lunch in a mountain pass and walked a lovely path back to the bus stop. Than evening some people continued whittling the spoons they had started the night before, i started my pipe. Alice and Ali whipped up a buff curry.
The day after we chilled, a bit knackered from the previous days walk, we sat around the cottage munching, reading whilst intermittently checking whether the draw had arrived. We had a brief visit to the nearby loch where the girls were swimming topless so the lads went full nude, the retreat was quite bad, i must say. We had a really buff barbeque for dinner that evening.
Wednesday was Allons last day in the highlands so we decided to do a big walk up Cairngorm, the 3rd biggest peak in the UK, we ate lunch at the top then walked along a ridge until we walked down possible one of the steepest descents i have ever walked before finishing off with a relatively leisurely stroll back to the foot of the hill train where we started our walk. That night Florence and I cooked risotto and melanzane di parmigeanno before saying goodbye to Allon. After dinner i managed to niggaflip Ali, check it out here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=123730887109&subj=1616250069
The next day we had another chill out day quite similar to the one before. Hannah and Alice baked a crumble which i thought tasted like weed, and then when Florence mentioned it, Hannah and Alice went SUPRISE!!! and presented to 8th bags of weed! We had all given up on the possibility of it arriving, and didn't even realise they had gone to check the postbox at the end of the track. We needed rizla and backy so we needed to go into Aviemore, and therefore decided to go jumping of the bridge. I forgot how high it was as well as how sick it felt to jump off. That night mesh and sherene cooked a great meal though i cant quite remeber what it was, some sort of shepherd's pie maybe, one thing for sure was that it was buff. That night joels mate david called him to tell us that michael jackson had died, we were sceptical to say the least until nearly all of us got a text from someone or another. We then went to bed reasonably early to get up in time to avoid the rush we endured 3 years previous when we were leaving.
After a leisurely tidy and pack, the cabs arrived. Our cab driver looked like an old sea captain, and could of easily been 100 years old, yet he still stood a good 6'4" in height and probably could have taken any of us. We got the train to edinburgh where we were gonna stay for a few days, we crossed the Firth of Forth rail bridge which i was a bit too excited about. Florence and sherene put all of us up (the 9 who were left in Scotland minus Alice who went home plus Ben who met us at edinburgh waverly) in their huge apartment just looking over the edinburgh meadows, but more importantly above wine rack. Ben cooked us a delicious curry that night, we also got on the pre-lash before going to see Brodinski at a club called Caberet Voltaire ('Cab Vol'). Before we left the clock struck midnight meaning it was rachels birthday(!). Inside the drinks were cheap, so i bought rachel her birthday drink. After a while brodinkis set began, which was sick. We also found out that the club was giving out loads of free johnny and lube so lots of fun was had repeatedly going up and collecting more lube, and trying to not look weird get more condoms as well. Hannah nicked some of lube, so i led her to the place where they were giving it out we both got some more rubbers and lube and as we left the guy in charge of the sexual health booth said, 'have a good night'. The rest of the night i spent intermittently falling asleep and raving before going back home with everyone at the end of the night having a ridiculously strong bedsy and going to sleep. brodinski ended his set with a few Jacko tunes, a trend i'm sure would follow throughout the summer.
The next day we went for breakfast for rachels breakfast. the munch was good and it was funny listening to the polish staff saying 'bigger breakfast with extra tatty' We then went to a bar called brass monkey where you can go and put on one of your own films to watch so watched a film called 'Black Orpheus' that joel gave rachel for her birthday, about a samba dancer who has a forbidden love with a woman in the favellas of rio during carnival which ends tragically for them both. i missed a big part of the middle partly because i fell asleep. that bight we all made cup cakes and fancy dress raffle for dinner, i had to dress as a farmer, highlights included ben as osama bin laden, ali as eve and joel and sherene as eachother.
My last day in scotland consisted of ben allon and I doing soem plumbing before getting lean and meeting the others at the mosque for some peng munch before going and hanging out in grace's amazing flat for a cup of tea and some telly before getting the train to the big LDN.
Unfortunately i had to leave earlier than evryone else cos i needed a few days to sort stuff out before going to europe PLUS Ally was coming up to visit and i needed top spend more that a day with her.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Safaribreak Live!
I don't think there is much i can say about this, it was supposed to be by a beach but it wasn't, and i think that greatly altered the feel of it, here are some highlights/lowlights:
- Caspa & Rusko, and then being given some coke, thinking it was mandy for letting a guy go on my shoulders to take a photo, he also gave some spliff afterwards.
- Realising that after 12am the sound in the dance arena had to be turned down making any subsequent acts sound shit.
- The Safari park next door.
- Cuban brothers' jokes breakdancing, and jumping into the crowd/posing for cameras whilst completely starkers.
- bumping into a group of girls who i met at EXIT festival last year.
- Watching the Zutons then being an absolute flop and hitting the sack at about 11 due to excessive alcohol consumption.
- DIZZEE RASCAL.
At about 1am on the 3rd day, whilst watching Krafty Kutz at low volume, i couldn't think of anywhere i less rather be. Preferably i would want to have been back home with my mum, having just come out of her breast cancer operation, up in scotland with the homies, on in bed having a kiss and a cuddle with Ally, instead of struggling to listen to a DJ, who although quite good didnt seem to be enjoying himself either.
Apart from the quieting of music after 12, the biggestdisapointment was that on the poster it said 16th-19th, denoting 4 days, yet it was only 3. In thinking this i booked a flight up to scotland a day later than everyone else was going when instead i could have just got the train with them on the same day.
BASTARD BEACHBREAKERS
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Limbo
The joy of being finished was short lived.
As the assignments got handed in, and overwhelming sense of freedom over took me, but it didnt feel right, like it handn't sunk in yet, like there were things still hanging over my head that i needed to sort out.
I went into town to take my summer ball dress back, for those of you who dont know what i looked liked, i looked like this:
They refunded the £22.50 i had payed for it, despite it smelling like smoke and field, on top of being insanely streched out of shape. My excuse for return was 'she didn't like it, was too tarty apparently...' they ate it up like arm custard. I then finally got to put some money INTO the bank which felt good, money being one of the worries hanging over my head at the moment.
I spent the afternoon in the pub spending the last bit of time with my course mates before going to the hospital for a check up, then back into town to have dinner and chill out with Ally for the evening, as it was the last day we had together in bournemouth.
I went to lava later with Josh, Jon and James, leaving Ally to pack and much to my pleasure, most of the course had turned out to what was a less than full lava, they didn't even open the black room (!!), everyone stayed to the end and messed around on the street outside the club singin along with the buskers that always hang around student clubs, 2 of which as i know as Jim and Jim, who are my coursemate Holly's boyfriend and flatmate. Josh went back to Vera's, some beautiful Portuguese girl on Sam's course that he's been linking for a couple of weeks or so, but he's still not getting any, while i went back to purbeck with Humby, Leichmann and Nell to have a smoke, and ultimately end up with Ally. After a quick joint we went down to Harry Mundays flat where Trosh, Emma, Toby, Aisling and Lauro were. It was cool to chill out in his wicked lounge watching the sun rise and watching Laurie getting his nob out on numerous occasions while Emma kept giving Charlie GCSE level questions to work out how stoned he was. At about 530 i went up to have a lie down with Ally just to spend more time with her before we went to Isle of Wight festival at 8. After she left i went back to Hurn to find James, Jon and Holly still awake. Before going to sleep i said my goodbye's to Holly who i wont see until August as she went to newquay today and wont be back until i've gone home :(
Right now, as i was saying to james earlier, I've got that same feeling you get when you've just come back from a really good holiday and all you wanna do is be back there. I don't know if its because I won't see my girlfriend for at least another 2 weeks, that hald my flatmates have gone home, that i have no money, or that i'm just tired, but i feel that i'm just drifting at the moment.
One things for sure though, once i leave here and the summer officially starts, I wont feel like this only more, roll on (no)beachbreak!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Hey, I'm almost done
Well our summer project is over and i'm almost finished for the year, i'm just getting this bloody PDP and production analysis over and done with.
The project couldn't of gone better i feel, despite the channel 4 lady's feedback that we wern't specific enough in our presentation, i got to travel the country, make some new friends and, what do you know, i even got a gf out of it.
I have to be honest that by the end of the project my enthusiasm was dwindling and when i found out that i was going first i gave the presentation with as much gusto as i could muster, knowing that as soon as the 15 minutes was over so, effectively, was my first year of uni APART FROM THIS BASTARD PDP AND PRODUCTION ANALYSIS.
i know its been a bit long since i wrote anything but as soon as the summer properly starts, and i have stuff to write about, i will.
peace. x
The project couldn't of gone better i feel, despite the channel 4 lady's feedback that we wern't specific enough in our presentation, i got to travel the country, make some new friends and, what do you know, i even got a gf out of it.
I have to be honest that by the end of the project my enthusiasm was dwindling and when i found out that i was going first i gave the presentation with as much gusto as i could muster, knowing that as soon as the 15 minutes was over so, effectively, was my first year of uni APART FROM THIS BASTARD PDP AND PRODUCTION ANALYSIS.
i know its been a bit long since i wrote anything but as soon as the summer properly starts, and i have stuff to write about, i will.
peace. x
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