Groezrock, You Beauty!

Best weekend ever. I know I probably describe most things in my life as the 'best ever' - I am a very excitable, exaggerative, person - but it really, really was! I promise I'll keep my babbling to a minimum...

April 27th - 30th was when I, and my awesome pals; Ruth, Joe, and Kieron flew off to Belgium to attend GROEZROCK Festival and it was just incredible. From the moment I finished work on Friday (yes, I had to work on the day of departure; talk about mood killer) I was beyond the most excited I've ever been, not to mention being agonisingly nervous as all of my colleagues were taunting me about flying... yes they are just that evil.

In the end though flying was great! I held onto my friend Kieron when the plane started up though, I say held; more like full on clung to him. Once up in the air though it was very pleasant; there were jokes about the mile high club (I did not join it), new friends made, and even SKY vodka. Happy times! We landed, had a tough time getting the car to reverse (we had no idea how to make it reverse) so we literally had to push it, and by 'we' I mean Joe pushed it. The drive to Meerhout was fun, lots of shouting 'HAM' and the boys quoting terminator because of evil, flashing, red windmills littering the Belgian motorway. Skipping ahead; we arrived, set up, started drinking, and went to the Acoustic Punk Meeting at the bbq area where there was someone playing an acoustic guitar standing on a box. It was very odd. Still, I saw loads of people I never get to see and it was lovely! Me and Kieron stayed for a while and met some hilarious boys who told us the following jokes:

Dutch Guy: What did one snowman say to the other?
We shrugged.
Dutch Guy: Smells like Carrots.

We laughed quite a lot at the anti-climatic answer. The next was even better:

Dutch Guy: What's brown and dangerous?
Kieron and I exchanged worried looks and shrugged again.
Dutch Guy: A bear.

Well that was it. I was weeping laughing! What legends they were. They spoilt their new status after they asked to feel me up though, tisk. Anyway, after losing and then finding our tent (que hugs of joy), we consumed a copious amount of alcohol, and then it was time for bed.

The next two days were spent drinking RIDICULOUS amounts of beer, - no, I mean it, we drank soooooo much! Special Beers was the best bar ever; Rosé or Cherry Hoegarden?! Don't mind if I do! And then we eventually discovered that Jager and Fanta is damn tasty too - meeting loads of fabulously awesome people, and watching many awesome bands. I watched:  
Saturday: Mikey Erg, The Copyrights, The Menzingers, We Are The In Crowd, Reel Big Fish, The Wonder Years, Set Your Goals, Lagwagon, and Rancid.  
Sunday: MxPx, Motion City Soundtrack, Hot Water Music, Alkaline Trio, Dave Hause, Tommy Gabel, Gorilla Biscuits, and ended the weekend with Refused.



Monday, we painstakingly took our leave of Groezy and dossed around Brussels for a few hours until our flight home. I honestly don't think I stopped smiling all weekend. I can't wait for next year!

World Book Night, How I Love You

What a fantastic day/night! Brilliant! 10/10! 

So Monday the 23rd of April I headed out into the streets of Manchester in order to spread some word joy - some literary love! - basically give people, at random, a free book. Admittedly I was a tad nervous; after being so excited for the best part of two months, I now found myself somewhat hesistant to approach people - just say they proclaimed a seething hatred for books, or shunned me? But then I realised; so what! It's their loss! 

With that in mind I started offering my books to people, I got such a wide range of reactions; one person actually yelled 'GO AWAY' at me, like I'd just asked them - knife in hand - for a kidney. I was so shocked, it's a book! Take it! Read it! Love it! After a few too many negative reactions I started to get a bit sad, until, at last, a lovely old lady took a book from me (HOORAY!) she said she wasn't a big reader but she'd have a look and then pass it on to her neighbour! Success! After that the books seemed to fly out of my hands and straight into loving homes I hope! 

After a while my friend Ben came to keep me company (and to swindle a book from me) so it was inevitable that we ended up in a pub, this time on business though! I managed to give away five books, to majoritively positively people, which I thought was a raging success, considering! One couple told me when they were leaving that they give away their own books when they've finished reading them. FANTASTIC! Also that they lived, literally, down the road from me; very odd, but fantastic all the same. HURRAH! 

Onwards to Waterstones on Deansgate, Manchester for their WBN event, which I must say; I thoroughly enjoyed. Never in my life did I think I'd be drunk in a bookshop, surrounded by authors and fellow book lovers! (Nor have I ever seen my friends move so fast until the words '£1 Shots' were uttered.) Joe Stretch was forced up to the microphone first and read out a poem, either called or about, Rain from 20th Century French Poetry which was beautifully intoxicating. I have endeavoured to find this book ever since and found a copy for 50p! Without sounding like a complete suck up, I must admit that Joe was one of my favourite readers of the night; even if he claimed to hate being up there; he was very comical which helped to bring down the wall between spectator and performer, even when he picked on the audience (that'll teach me to sit on the front row). Other readers that I loved included Sam Mills, Chris Killen, and Simon Savidge who did a lovely reading of 'Rebecca' by Daphne Du Maurier (also the book he was giving out for WBN) that definitely took me back to my second year of uni, unfortunately I cannot recall what prose/poetry they all chose to read. I really should have taken better notes at the event, alas, I too was too busy revelling in beautiful words, cheap alcohol, and a wonderful day.


P.S. Since the big night I have actually received two pictures of the books I handed out! One from Rodge Glass from Glasgow:


And one from Mikaela Balder all the way from Gothenburg in Sweden!

Many thanks to you both for the pictures and I hope there are many more to come! x

Bucket List Update! (I'm Baaaack!)

It's official! I have internet in my house again - HURRAH!!! And boy, do I have a lot to tell you. Over the next few days I will be blogging until my fingers bleed; telling tall tales about World Book Night and the wonderful happenings since the big day; Groezrock Festival - only the best weekend of my life, and much, much more. But first, what better way to welcome myself back to the old blog than to announce that I have a BUCKET LIST UPDATE to inform you of! It's a good one, I promise!


Number Four: Leave My Job (i.e. Next).
Yes! It's official! It's happened! After five, long, years I am bidding fairwell to next. I tell you, when I handed in my notice I was literally shaking I was that excited! So now I have only three shifts left until my notice is over and I never have to say I work there again. Which leads me onto my next point...

Number Four: Get A Job Doing Something I love
I certainly have! A while ago I wrote about doing some volunteer work at a nursery, well I am now a part of the team (HOORAY!) and I absolutely love it! The other members of staff are awesome, the children are lovely, I'm generally excited to start my shifts and I always leave smiling. Basically; I'm happy! 

Anyway! I must take my leave as it is my Uncle's wedding reception tonight. I will be back though so keep your eyes peeled!


x

NO INTERNET!!

Hello readers - if I actually have any.

After the amazing event that was WBN I left the country and upon returning I discovered the internet had left my household for a while. Needless to say I was mortified by this and have been itching to blog about all of my amazing WBN experiences and of the fantastic festival I had just been to; GROEZROCK! But, alas, I am still waiting for Sky to buck up their ideas and connect me back up again! Luckily a lovely pal of mine, Ben, has let me use his computer so I could write this little post. I will be back soon, I promise! With lots of tantalising blog posts for you to enjoy!

Jess
x