A weekend to remember

It's that time of year again, festival season!! I started off with Slam Dunk Festival in May (check out my blog post here) and then a few weeks ago I went to Download Festival.

I do feel like I cheated slightly, seeing as I didn't camp there. Instead, I stayed at my sister's place in Derby, with the comfort of a proper bed and a decent shower, then got the shuttle bus over. Although she did keep kicking me so maybe I would have been better off sleeping in a tent haha!

I went to my first Download two years ago and I was dying to go again this year, especially when I saw the line-up. So many of the bands I wanted to see live were playing, and amazingly there weren't really any clashes.

Early Saturday morning, me and my best friend headed out towards Derby train station to catch the shuttle bus. It seemed like ages since we went in 2012, but as soon as we walked into the main arena, it was like we'd never left. Soon enough we were singing along to the likes of Bowling For Soup and Fall Out Boy. Then in the evening, the headliner was Linkin Park, the band (along with Three Days Grace) that I listened to religiously on the way to and from school, all those years ago. It was actually quite surreal to hear some of their songs live.

When I woke up Sunday it was time to do it all again, however this time I was going solo, as my friend had to be back in time for work. First I saw Skillet, who I absolutely love, then I ended up queuing for two hours, to get my CD cover signed by The Pretty Reckless. It was totally worth it and I even got a great big smile from Jamie and a nice 'Thank you' from Mark. Black Stone Cherry played a not so secret gig and Steel Panther put on a hilarious performance before The Pretty Reckless came along playing some of my favourite songs. Finally Aerosmith ended the weekend with plenty of hits and a spectacular explosion of confetti that made it look like it was snowing!

All in all it was a great weekend. Thank you Download, maybe I'll see you again next year?

J :)

Dirty little secret

On Saturday, me and my friend traveled up to Leeds for Slam Dunk Festival. It was quite a long journey, but it was interesting to see how the accents of people getting on the train changed, the higher north we got. When we finally got to Leeds we were in desperate need of a hot drink. After sitting in the train station for a while, sipping white chocolate mochas (so yummy), we suddenly realised it was later than we thought, and that we should probably find our hotel. Luckily it wasn't too hard to find, however it was raining a bit.

The All-American Rejects

After dropping off our stuff at the hotel, we headed out to find the festival, but ended up walking in circles and got completely lost. Eventually we heard music and followed our ears. Finally we got to the site but then got confused how to get in. In the end we arrived, slightly bedraggled and ready to rock. We may have only saw a few of the bands, but they were totally worth the hassle getting there.

I really enjoyed seeing We Are The In Crowd again, especially when they played one of my favourite songs at the moment, The Best Thing (That Never Happened). We also got to see Mallory Knox and knew more of their songs than we realised. Then The All-American Rejects blasted onto stage with Dirty Little Secret. I was really into them in my first year at uni, so it was good to finally see them live.

The next day we made the most of being in Leeds with a shopping trip. And yes, we got a bit lost again, and drenched by the rain, but hey that's all part of the adventure!

J :)

Thunderbirds are go

Last Saturday me and my sister went to see McBusted play in Birmingham. We were big fans of Busted in our pre-teen/ early teen years and it was amazing to finally see them live, and they did not disappoint. McFly and Busted played all their top hits and gave a good show, which included a flying space ship, Matt Willis in a wedding dress and some giant balls! There were also some pretty awesome pyrotechnics going on.

Been there, got the t-shirt.

Me and Amy have very different tastes in music, so it was really nice to be able to go and do something like that together. It was such a good night and I'd fully recommend it to any McFly and/or Busted fans.

J :)

End of exams

Yesterday I had my last exam and went out for lunch with my course-mates to celebrate. Somehow it turned into a bar crawl around Coventry. Spontaneous days/nights out are always the best!!

             Weatherspoons - The Earl of Mercia (Vodka and Coke)
             Weatherspoons - The Flying Standard (Hollywood, Strawberry Daiquiri)
             Castle (Vodka Redbull)
             Brown's (Vodka and Coke)
             Rosie Malone's (Summer Berry Sourz shot)
             The Pheonix (several Vodka and Cokes)

While we were out we played a game where we had to guess peoples five favourite alcoholic drinks in order.

J :)

Dissertation done and dusted

So last night I handed in my dissertation!! I've been working hard on it all year and it was so good to finally finish it. Now that it's in, it's kind of hit me that I'm about for finish uni for good.

J :)