M.E.A: September 2010

So 16 weeks after leaving Leicester I'm heading back. The summer has gone so unbelievably fast and I'm not even sure quite how I have spent it, but I think I need to make a not of things anyway if only for my own reference.

Straight after getting home, way back in May, with no time to recover from the massive extended mess fest of the preceding 2 weeks I found myself working as a lifeguard. Which is WAY less exciting than it may sound.

I have spent a vast proportion of my summer listlessly watching a pool full of small fat wobbly noisy blobs and their equally pudgy if slightly more badly tattooed parents. The sum total of my heroic work related acts have been the occasional cracking of a cold pack for a bruise, or the handing over of a plaster followed by a certain amount of 'health and safety' form filling. I have at least learned an extreme tolerance for mind bending boredom and can withstand a 10 hour day in temperatures and humidity that would make a rainforest jealous (you know its bad when you can feel your knee caps sweating).

I spent 2 days on the beach. 1 day in Bournemouth with a group of Oxford university students, I felt a bit academically swamped when the history students decided to build a historically accurate sand castle complete with defence strategies. The other day was spent surfing at Pawthcawl with the 'rentals, the only chance I have had to surf all summer which is gutting considering how much I love it. *sigh*

The best gig of the summer was a particularly messy night in Brixton at a place called Plan B, where we saw Kode 9 and Hudson Mohawk. Such a good night, but so so messy. Kick out was 5am and I've got to say there is something really special about seeing London in daylight when no one else is about, kind of ghostly. Sunny and beautiful.

My brother went off traveling in June too, heading off to China and Mongolia which has resulted in irregular bursts of familial excitement whenever one of his sporadic emails arrives, or he updates his flickr account. Not that I'm at all jealous of his travels! Not one bit. Actually I'm so green its indecent.

I have spent too long mooching about the cotswolds, drinking ale and cider, poking about in burned out cars, being the driver on trips to the pub. I have again learned the massive drawbacks of living in the middle of bloody nowhere, not that i didn't know them already, they have just been reinforced. The best pub in Cirencester closed last year as well which is a constant cause of terrible sorrow and much nostalgic reminiscing about Bob, the legendary barman of the 12 Bells who's personal philosophy on beer would be "you'll have what I give you and like it" "What the fuck do you think this place is, a corner shop? We don’t sell chocolate, nor do we sell stamps or baked beans! This is a fucking pub. We sell beer, fags and crisps. Now which one do you want?”. It has reopened now, different people owning it. People were drinking lager in there! From the bottle. Sacrilege!

I've been back to a childhood fun-pool (with flumes and wave machine) and discovered that the flumes are WAY better when your bigger and heavy enough to get a fair amount of air when riding the flumes. Anyone who knows of the Oasis in Swindon should go and ride the Great white, GREAT fun. It now involves a yell and a loud thump about 7 seconds in.

Bestival was rather good.

CRE was amazing.

Seeing Glitch Mob in Bristol wasn't bad either.

Discovering a place called 'pick a pot and paint' in Cirencester was brilliant. And very self explanatory.

Baked cupcakes.

Been to multiple house parties

Smoked a cigarette and drunk wine from the bottle in a swimming pool in my underwear- there is something decadent, if highly impractical about attempting to smoke while floating.

Got drunk a fair bit.

Swum A LOT - 5am 2 hour training sessions 5 days a week are brutal, even if they were only for 2 weeks

Ruptured an ear drum

Painted

Dossed

Slept

As you can see I'm getting bored with this extended writing malarky. Its been a good summer. G'night x