Category: Journal

Probably the best couple of days I’ve spent in a field since going to the Malverns mountain biking event back in ’97.

Highlights for me were Good Charlotte, The All-American Rejects, The Darkness, The Datsuns, and Linkin Park – who were simply phenomenal in headlining Saturday night.

Good Charlotte are just as amusing live as they are in their videos. Although somehow I found them too polished, if there is such a thing. They sounded almost exactly like they do on their album – not a note out of place and they made it all look very effortless. Hilarious but dangerous was a mass plastic bottle throw that they engineered. Looked like a 20 foot wave of plastic on top of the crowd, surging in the direction of the stage!

Metallica were pretty good, too, on Friday night, although I’m not a fan and didn’t know any of their songs, you could feel the quality (to paraphrase a certain someone!) even from where I was quietly standing. They also sounded almost too perfect to be live, but I guess that comes with the time the band have been going, and the pure energy in the performance of each song was something to experience.

Surprises for me were Placebo and Linkin Park. I’m not an authority on Placebo by any stretch, but their set was superb. I had been all set to miss it too, in order to catch Electric Six on a side stage, but that was mobbed so we returned to the main stage to see the sun setting to the powerful Pure morning. That and their final few songs really electrified the atmosphere, and set the crowd up for a great night.

To finish off my Leeds Festival experience, Linkin Park bowled me over. We have Hybrid Theory in the house, but it just doesn’t carry the same weight on a stereo that each track had in the dark on Saturday night. In a word, awesome! I went out and bought an older album (Metoria) the next day, along with those of The All-American Rejects and The Datsuns.

Tonight I went to five a side with the intention of having a good run about, since I missed a game last week while on holiday. I say five a side, but only seven of us turned up, so we decided to play three against three and one in goal.

We’d played for about a minute – I had a shot on goal blocked, and my team of three were attacking again. I went to pass the ball to Chris, past Deniz when the ball rebounded off of Deniz’s knee, right into my eye. I had no time to blink and it just hit me full force on the eyeball.

At first I went down to the ground holding my eye, thinking it would just be a stinger and I’d be okay in a minute or two. After about ten seconds I tried to look up and everything was just a blur. I could only make out colours and shapes, but that was it – everything was mess and my eye was throbbing like hell.

After a minute or two and some welcome Volvic for an eye-wash from Beppe, it became obvious that this was more than a poke in the eye style stinger.

Being the wuss that I am, naturally I went into headless chicken mode. Hey, what can I say, when most of the things I do depend on my sight, losing it is my worst nightmare. (well, waking up without my penis is my worst nightmare!)

I raced home in the car – how I got back with one eye I will never know, ‘cos I couldn’t judge distance to save myself – and ran into the house in the direction of the fridge for some ice. Fliss helped out, getting it into a poly bag and then a tea-towel so I could hold it against my eye, which by this point was almost completely washed out vision wise and aching like hell.

I’ve had ear-ache, tooth-ache, stomach-ache and almost every kind of other-ache I can think of. But eye-ache is a new one on me and it’s not fucking pleasant I can tell you.

Well, the mile-munching holiday is over after a week which was fairly hectic at times. I done a ton of cool stuff, though – including posting the entry below this while out of my chops in the Sports Cafe in London!

That day in London, phew!, I don’t think I’ve been to that many bars in one day since… well, since last time I was in London back in January. Must be the influence of cousin Iain or something! ;o)

On Tuesday I met Nicky, whom I hadn’t seen in person since primary school. Although I was kind of wary – could have been a bunny boiler! – she turned out to be really friendly and quite manic into the bargain. It felt a bit weird to be catching up with an old friend who never really had been an old friend… if you get me, but I really enjoyed myself on the night, with Nicky and her boyfriend Jan making me very welcome. Hopefully I’ll get to return the favour, wine and spirits if they’re passing nearby – four hours isn’t nearly enough time to make up for 20 years lost ground.

The tail end of the week was filled with visiting Fliss‘s friends Lucy & Jess, then auntie Christine, before a reasonably quiet drive back up the motorway. All in all, a very successful holiday with the minimum of fuss. I think we’ll do it again next summer if we have a week to spare. :o)