On the face of it I thought my Sunday was going to be a disaster. Initially me and Dave were meant to be trekking down to Cornwall to see the legendary Oasis play an exclusive gig.
However our plans were ruined by a stupid Canadian pushing Noel off stage in Canada from which he broke his ribs! The gig was eventually cancelled at the last minute.
Still as one door closes, another one opens.
With all of the excitement of a fresher I had marched down to the fresher fair earlier in the week and signed up to a number of societies, some of which were having their intro meetings that said Sunday.
As a result at 8am on Sunday morning I found myself attending my first rowing class, in an actual boat with oars and everything.
Now rowing was something that I wasn’t immediately interested in - I’ve never considered myself to have the build for the sport to be honest. However when I got chatting to the man holding an oar outside of the student union I could hardly say no. A man holding an oar on dry land has a lot of pulling power I think (not women).
Anyway the rowing went well, or at least I enjoyed it. And you know how it is when you try something new; you start planning it out in your head until you can see yourself on the podium at the Olympics.
So I showed a certain amount of willingness when I was told the next session was in the gym at 7:30am on Tuesday morning. (I was a little less keen when they mentioned the socials dressed in lycra) We will have to see how it goes, but for the moment at least I have great plans for my rowing future.
The real excitement of the Sunday came a little later on though. I went down to the student Union coffee shop for what is called the ‘Sunday Paper’ society. As the title suggests, this society is made up of a group of students that meet up every Sunday just to read the Sunday papers, have a chat and a cup of coffee and even a slice of lemon cake if the occasion really takes them.
Isn’t that the best thing you have ever heard in your life? I couldn’t stop smiling at the thought of it when I was initially introduced to the concept. How could you ever have a bad Sunday if you are a member of the Sunday paper society? The only thing that made me sad was that I hadn’t thought of it myself.
And to be honest it did live up to the hype. I walked in a little late to see people sat round tables, their papers open and the chat flowing. I spent 2 hours studying the independent and talking to some nice girls about the state of my Sunday. It was 2 hours very well spent and something I plan on doing again and again.
The final event of my eventful Sunday was a trip to see a free show put on by some improvisation comedians called the Shrimps. Again something I learnt about at the Freshers fair.
To be honest, a bunch of rowdy freshers must be the worst possible crowd, but they handled it well I thought - especially when one of the comedians first stood on stage and said,
“Tell me something that annoys you”
“You”
He then spent the next 5 minutes talking about how he annoyed himself….highly amusing if you ask me.
Roll on the student Sundays I say.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Re-joining the Student Community
I think it was today that I really realized I was a student again. I woke up about midday after a heavy night in a club called ‘Embrace’. It was a Sheffield Hallam night which was full of Freshers singing, dancing and fornicating to some of the cheesiest cringe worthy anthems ever put upon this planet.
My drink of choice for the evening was Cherry VK, and the usual shirt and shoes was replaced by a tshirt and shitty pair of trainers. All of this is obviously par for the course for a Wednesday night, or at least I hope.
Truth be told I think this degree might be a little harder than the first one. I mean some of the lifestyle features are similar – I live in a grotty house, I’m eating dinners such as southern fried chicken and pasta and my financial situation can already be described as bleak.
But the sense is I am older and better prepared to work hard. According to my timetable I have 40 hours of learning contact a week.
Also the intro programme for Masters students is much more focused on meals, bowling and coffee as opposed to drinking, clubbing and sleeping.
Still I am loving being here and Sheffield is growing on me all of the time. Hopefully I can get the balance right, and make the most of being a student for one last year at the same time as getting my degree.
My drink of choice for the evening was Cherry VK, and the usual shirt and shoes was replaced by a tshirt and shitty pair of trainers. All of this is obviously par for the course for a Wednesday night, or at least I hope.
Truth be told I think this degree might be a little harder than the first one. I mean some of the lifestyle features are similar – I live in a grotty house, I’m eating dinners such as southern fried chicken and pasta and my financial situation can already be described as bleak.
But the sense is I am older and better prepared to work hard. According to my timetable I have 40 hours of learning contact a week.
Also the intro programme for Masters students is much more focused on meals, bowling and coffee as opposed to drinking, clubbing and sleeping.
Still I am loving being here and Sheffield is growing on me all of the time. Hopefully I can get the balance right, and make the most of being a student for one last year at the same time as getting my degree.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Interim Period
Since I got back from Karachi things have been non stop. Obviously there were the festivals, which provided an unforgettable 2 weeks welcome back period to the UK. Then there was a week working for the Cambridge Evening News, getting a bit of an insight into the media industry. Now I'm in London, half way through a 3 week period working for a careers network company, before I make my next big step - A masters in Print Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
So things are good and I think that is what I want to acknowledge.
Lots of people warned me about the challenge of coming back to the UK and settling in after being away for so long, but to be honest its not been that difficult for me because I am excited about what I have done but also about what I am about to do! I've found myself naturally not living in the past but concentrating on the future.
Don't get me wrong, because I have thought a lot about my time in Pakistan and I realise what a priceless experience it was! I also realise how happy I was there (which is strange considering Karachi is considered the 3rd most dangerous city in the world to the British foreign office) and I really miss both the place and the people. The whole year was like an adreniline rush, just because every day I knew what I was doing was part of a once only opportunity, and thats exciting.
But also the space away helped me come to terms with the end of an era - University, AIESEC, certain females etc. - and focus on the future more, and what I want to do next. Focusing on that makes you feel much more content and to be honest at the moment I'm enjoying everyday of being back.
So things are good and I think that is what I want to acknowledge.
Lots of people warned me about the challenge of coming back to the UK and settling in after being away for so long, but to be honest its not been that difficult for me because I am excited about what I have done but also about what I am about to do! I've found myself naturally not living in the past but concentrating on the future.
Don't get me wrong, because I have thought a lot about my time in Pakistan and I realise what a priceless experience it was! I also realise how happy I was there (which is strange considering Karachi is considered the 3rd most dangerous city in the world to the British foreign office) and I really miss both the place and the people. The whole year was like an adreniline rush, just because every day I knew what I was doing was part of a once only opportunity, and thats exciting.
But also the space away helped me come to terms with the end of an era - University, AIESEC, certain females etc. - and focus on the future more, and what I want to do next. Focusing on that makes you feel much more content and to be honest at the moment I'm enjoying everyday of being back.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Reading Festival
I came back from Pakistan early for the festivals and I have to say it was worth it! V was fun - the Stereophonics rocked my world with a barrage of coolness and old songs while the Verve provided numerous anthems to sing along too while I was covered in piss thrown through the crowd.
But Reading was where the action was really at. It was easily one of the best festivals I have ever been too, and so different to any other festival experience. For Reading you see, I was part of the Campsite Assistance Team (CAT), which meant in return for working 3 eight hour shifts I got a free ticket. I even managed to wangle it so I was not working for any headline acts. The deal was too good to be true.
Rage
So as a CAT I had the responsibility on my first shift of helping people put up their tents and joining in with the general excitement about the festival. It soon became clear that people were excited about one thing in particular…RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
I don't think I have ever been to a festival and seen as much excitement and hype about one band. To me that indicated one thing though, it would be packed. Dan and I made our way to the front for Queens of the Stone Age, the band before Rage, and we literally could not move. As soon as the music started the crowd collapsed with me going to ground fearing for my life.
Realising that this would be no way to enjoy Rage against the machine, I retreated 10 yards backwards!
Feeling like I had enough space to atleast clap when Rage came on, I thought my positioning would be fine.
However as soon as they hit bombtrack, people stormed forward to mosh and I was crushed once more. This time it was utter carnage though. People were screaming 'get me out of here' and 'I can't breath' and after 4 songs I found myself scaling the golden circle barrier along with hundreds of others!
It wasn't ideal, but very Rage esque I thought. Despite all of this Rage were rocking and well worth the hype…they were easily one of the best bands that I have seen.
Beer Cans - A recipe for happiness
My second shift was 8am til 4pm on the Saturday, and to be honest this was the one that I feared the most. However just after starting, someone pointed to me that for collecting one bag of crushed beer cans I could earn myself 3 beer tokens!
This to me was a no-brainer. My job was to walk around the campsite, giving assistance. The campsite was covered in empty beer cans. As long as my pride didn’t get in the way I could easily collect a few beer cans, get a few tokens, and have a very merry afternoon.
And that is exactly what I did. I walked off that shift with tokens for 18 free beers in my pocket, and what is more each bag took less than 10 minutes to fill! I could hardly contain my happiness.
I spent the afternoon in between the beer can bar, drinking as much beer as possible and chatting to the other drunken folk and watching the Editors, Bloc Party and the Killers.
The final night
The consequence of getting every festival evening off, was that I was scheduled for 12am to 8pm Monday morning. Reading and Leeds tradition indicates that this is ‘wreck the place’ night! Although secretly, part of me was quite please because at least it would go quickly.
Well tradition lived up to its name on this occasion. For the next 8 hours, a number of situations arose that just defied all that I could have expected, the majority of which it has to be said happened in the best of spirits. Some though were a bit over the top.
I think I first realized it wouldn’t be the average night when we were told,
‘Be careful there is a riot organized here for 1am’
‘oh how do you know that?’
‘Well there are signs up everywhere.’ – Literally people had put signs up advertising a riot.
Come 1am there were hundreds of people by the toilet blocks ‘angry mob, angry mob’. Soon they had the metal bins upside down and were banging them with sticks to the rhythm of their chants. The bin banging went on continuously for the next 5 hours, as did the chants and fires of the angry mob. The only thing is they weren’t that angry.
It was more like a good spirited angry mob, even when they chased 4 police meat wagons off the site! I had never seen that before, and I doubt I ever will again.
The angry mob were far from the only astounding sight though.
On my first round the campsite I saw a crowd gathering at the mud sodden ground near the water tap. What I saw when I got there was bare back mud wrestling only ending when someone was pinned for three.
Further round and we found a guy passed out on the side of the campsite road. On waking him up, we made him take us to his tent. He took us to a 2 man tent, assured us it was his and entered only to hear,
“Get the fuck out of my tent”
Feeling slightly frustrated with his games, we took him on to a 6 man tent and again he assured us this was the one.
“Get the fuck out of my tent”
Thankfully the scene drew the attention of his friends nearby and they took him to the safety of his own tent. I can only imagine how long that would have gone on for if they hadn’t have seen us.
There was also the more moronic behavior of ripping power cables out of the generator and then using them as a rope swing, and of course the burning of tents while people were still in them, that was taking it a little far. I even caught someone stealing things to burn from the recycle area.
Amongst all of this chaos there was even a man wandering the campsite with one bare foot looking for a left shoe as he had lost his earlier that day.
Anyway like I said, the majority of the rioting, although not to be approved of, was just friendly banter! What a weekend though, I’ve been laughing ever since… I can’t remember having that much fun in months.
But Reading was where the action was really at. It was easily one of the best festivals I have ever been too, and so different to any other festival experience. For Reading you see, I was part of the Campsite Assistance Team (CAT), which meant in return for working 3 eight hour shifts I got a free ticket. I even managed to wangle it so I was not working for any headline acts. The deal was too good to be true.
Rage
So as a CAT I had the responsibility on my first shift of helping people put up their tents and joining in with the general excitement about the festival. It soon became clear that people were excited about one thing in particular…RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!
I don't think I have ever been to a festival and seen as much excitement and hype about one band. To me that indicated one thing though, it would be packed. Dan and I made our way to the front for Queens of the Stone Age, the band before Rage, and we literally could not move. As soon as the music started the crowd collapsed with me going to ground fearing for my life.
Realising that this would be no way to enjoy Rage against the machine, I retreated 10 yards backwards!
Feeling like I had enough space to atleast clap when Rage came on, I thought my positioning would be fine.
However as soon as they hit bombtrack, people stormed forward to mosh and I was crushed once more. This time it was utter carnage though. People were screaming 'get me out of here' and 'I can't breath' and after 4 songs I found myself scaling the golden circle barrier along with hundreds of others!
It wasn't ideal, but very Rage esque I thought. Despite all of this Rage were rocking and well worth the hype…they were easily one of the best bands that I have seen.
Beer Cans - A recipe for happiness
My second shift was 8am til 4pm on the Saturday, and to be honest this was the one that I feared the most. However just after starting, someone pointed to me that for collecting one bag of crushed beer cans I could earn myself 3 beer tokens!
This to me was a no-brainer. My job was to walk around the campsite, giving assistance. The campsite was covered in empty beer cans. As long as my pride didn’t get in the way I could easily collect a few beer cans, get a few tokens, and have a very merry afternoon.
And that is exactly what I did. I walked off that shift with tokens for 18 free beers in my pocket, and what is more each bag took less than 10 minutes to fill! I could hardly contain my happiness.
I spent the afternoon in between the beer can bar, drinking as much beer as possible and chatting to the other drunken folk and watching the Editors, Bloc Party and the Killers.
The final night
The consequence of getting every festival evening off, was that I was scheduled for 12am to 8pm Monday morning. Reading and Leeds tradition indicates that this is ‘wreck the place’ night! Although secretly, part of me was quite please because at least it would go quickly.
Well tradition lived up to its name on this occasion. For the next 8 hours, a number of situations arose that just defied all that I could have expected, the majority of which it has to be said happened in the best of spirits. Some though were a bit over the top.
I think I first realized it wouldn’t be the average night when we were told,
‘Be careful there is a riot organized here for 1am’
‘oh how do you know that?’
‘Well there are signs up everywhere.’ – Literally people had put signs up advertising a riot.
Come 1am there were hundreds of people by the toilet blocks ‘angry mob, angry mob’. Soon they had the metal bins upside down and were banging them with sticks to the rhythm of their chants. The bin banging went on continuously for the next 5 hours, as did the chants and fires of the angry mob. The only thing is they weren’t that angry.
It was more like a good spirited angry mob, even when they chased 4 police meat wagons off the site! I had never seen that before, and I doubt I ever will again.
The angry mob were far from the only astounding sight though.
On my first round the campsite I saw a crowd gathering at the mud sodden ground near the water tap. What I saw when I got there was bare back mud wrestling only ending when someone was pinned for three.
Further round and we found a guy passed out on the side of the campsite road. On waking him up, we made him take us to his tent. He took us to a 2 man tent, assured us it was his and entered only to hear,
“Get the fuck out of my tent”
Feeling slightly frustrated with his games, we took him on to a 6 man tent and again he assured us this was the one.
“Get the fuck out of my tent”
Thankfully the scene drew the attention of his friends nearby and they took him to the safety of his own tent. I can only imagine how long that would have gone on for if they hadn’t have seen us.
There was also the more moronic behavior of ripping power cables out of the generator and then using them as a rope swing, and of course the burning of tents while people were still in them, that was taking it a little far. I even caught someone stealing things to burn from the recycle area.
Amongst all of this chaos there was even a man wandering the campsite with one bare foot looking for a left shoe as he had lost his earlier that day.
Anyway like I said, the majority of the rioting, although not to be approved of, was just friendly banter! What a weekend though, I’ve been laughing ever since… I can’t remember having that much fun in months.
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