Touching Down

Very cool weekend. Where to start? I was going to mix it up a bit and just write a random, non-linear list but, due to my tired and wired nature today, I’d only end up confusing myself. For those that don’t give a fraction of a shit about what my Freakend was like please look away now. You could check out some of the far superior blogs to the right of you (Or at the very bottom of the screen as I’ve heard that the link list has a tendency to move around)
For those that you that enjoy this sort of post, please strap yourself in and prepare for a field day of blah, blah, blah.


FRIDAY

-Upon leaving work I went home with a giddy, ‘Thank Spongebob I’m out of there!’ feeling. I didn’t have much time to really shake off the work day so I quickly grabbed something stupid to eat whilst trying to iron the many, many creases out of my stripy top. I was ready in double quick time. I then realised that everyone didn’t get back for another hour and a half. I watched some ‘Friends’ whilst sulking just a little.

-Perked up when Steve got back. He managed to take me down in the first ten minutes with a sharp spear onto the sofa (Again, I’m talking about the wrestling move not a) An actual spear and b) His nether-rod.)

-Nick turned up with a ‘surprise guest’. I haven’t seen Campbell for a while and it was nice to catch up and shoot the breeze.

-We caught the train to Snow Hill Station and met Matt, Tom and Katrina. We then headed down to Digbeth Town Centre being careful to keep a tight hold of our pockets and not look at any of the troll-like residents for too long.

-We headed to The Barfly and Matt and I spoke to the guy in charge of the guest list. After much page-turning and concerns that I’d been left off the list and would have to PAY to see GLC, they managed to find my name. It was on a page all on its lonesome.

-The barfly is a very small, very indie kind of place. The drinks were insanely expensive before and during gig time but amazingly cheap when the bands stopped playing.

-We saw Zane Lowe chatting in the crowd. This happened a lot during the night and he did float in our direction a couple of times. During GLC he stood next to me and Steve. Steve didn’t realise and bumped him a couple of times. I’m not a big Zane Lowe fan but I did admire his ability to mingle without any “I’m on T.V, get the hell away from me, minions!” type attitude.

-Watched the first band ‘The Morning after Girls’. Only one of them was actually a girl. She was nice. The band was okay.

-Next band: ‘Be Your Own Pet’. Spunky, punky kids. Good fun.

-Goldie Looking Chain came on. I’ve seen them too many times now and the joke has worn a little thin. I went and stood by the MTV2 stand and talked to Be Your Own Pet and clapped along to a body popping contest between Zane Lowe and the female singer of BYOP. The drummer chimed in and won with ‘The Worm’.

-GLC left the stage and a load of people left. Zane Lowe began to set things up for his D.J set.

-Despite some sound trouble at the start and Mr Lowe’s lack of D.J skills (His mixing wasn’t so seamless. His ‘battle cries’ and chants were pretty cool.); some great and good songs were dropped. Some freaky dancing was done. Zane Lowe was our temporary hero.

-Two members of GLC joined our circle for a jig. One of them was out of his tree.

-Tom vanished much to everyone’s worry. It turned out he had used his drunken homing instinct to head to the train station. It was closed so he had to sleep on a bench until 5am.

-We got the night bus home. Trouble is that it didn’t go all the way home. It came to a stop 4 miles from home. We walked the rest of the way. At least we can trust our legs.

-Everyone crashed out and I stayed up for a while. I watched a couple of intriguing programmes made for insomniacs.


SATURDAY


-Woke up in the afternoon. Damn you, intriguing programmes made for insomniacs!

-Thankfully, I had no hangover because I don’t drink anymore. I’m not sure why I expected one. It must have just been out of habit.

-Went to visit my sister. Played with my little Niece; she’s learned a couple of new words and she can now walk around. She proved this by telling me to go away as she kicked me. She was just playing. She’s not one of those brat babies or anything. She’s a sweet kid.

-We went back to Westfield and prepared for the evenings frolicals (This was after a hellish, ill-advised trip to the local Mall where I was reminded that I have little of two things needed at a busy place like that: Money and patience)

-Steve drove up to Wolverhampton so we didn’t have to fuck around with buses. We headed up to Tom’s where we convinced him to join us. He was feeling fragile after the previous evening’s events and he was contemplating an easy night in. This didn’t last long.

-Royal London, The Moon Under Water and then The Little Civic. I had water while the others had Vodka Redbulls. In the Civic we managed to get some free We Are Scientist tee-shirts. Bonus!

-We then went to Blast off and danced lots. The good D.J was on so it wasn’t the usual Brit-Pop hell.

-As it was a celebration of sorts; the boys put up messages on the laser writing that flickers across the back of the stage. “Congrats to Chris Bate on Death Rides the Nine being made” and “Chris: “That’s why they call me Grim”.

-We came home and I watched MTV2’s ‘120 Minutes’ until 4am. I made a list of some cool new bands to check out so it was productive insomnia. Also watched about half of ‘Secretary’ and fell in love with Maggie G.


SUNDAY

-Did the usual family visit thing. I saw my Mom who has come back from Cyprus for a couple of weeks.

-Went to visit H. He’s had two kittens. One of which he has chosen to name ‘Raffles’ in honour of our stray feline friend.

-Played UFO/X-COM for the later part of the evening. It’s an old strategy game I used to have when I was a kid. I have to finish it as an adult. It’s so damn hard though!

-Had a massive sleep.