This time it isn't really my fault that there is going to be more than one blog's worth of information in this here post. The events that you are about to read about occured on wednesday and thursday of this week and I would have been hard pushed to both blog and sleep in between so I chose the latter. It does unfortunately mean though that you die hard blog fans will have to sit through another extra-ordinarily long blog. I will though try to make it interesting and thus again have started with a moderately cryptic title so here you have it:

A Fashionable Drink in Holloway
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1. I am quite a big fan of a band called The Holloways, this outing was my 9th time seeing them, but despicably it was my first of 2008. Despite this poor show of form on my behalf I am still on the bands mailing list and so when an e-mail came through on Monday telling me that I could get free tickets to see them I was as good as there, I e-mailed back straight away asking for 3 places on the guest list, I probably could have asked for more but I decided to go for a number I knew I could fill rather than asking for 10 and only getting 5. So i decided on taking monsieur's Ross Savill and Leander Fernandes. The e-mail said 7:30 and I wasn't sure on the exact time schedule of the gig so I decided to get there bang on time and we did. Unfortunately the bands werent on for about an hour and a half after this and being a bar in London the drinks prices were extortionate and so we only had a couple each and found us some seats and sat there waiting for the bands to come on.

The first band emerged at about 9 o'clock and started to play, they were called InLight, they were inoffensive, unimaginative and a bit boring if I am going to be quite frank. They said that the song they played last was going to be in a film.. quite why I don't know but you can't always account for taste. They finished and there was a short break before the next band came on, page 44, the name straight away suggest pop-punk and after about 30 seconds of fairly indie-ish chords they reverted into that exact genre, the most pop-punk voices I had ever heard and so again I was not entirely enthralled by the performance but I would still suggest that they were slightly more exciting than the first band.

The main event though is what I was waiting for, THE HOLLOWAYS wooo! I am pretty sure they are beginning to recognise me, Rob Skipper deffinitely looked at me and smiled but then I did see a band he was in last week as well so maybe it is due to that rather than my long term Holloways fanship. One of the first things mentioned was that it was Dave Danger, the drummer's birthday the day after but you don't really need to know that, its just for my personal remembering really. Anyway enough pointless rambling and on into the more musical side of things. The set was largely the old material from the first album but there were 4 new songs, the ones that are currently on the band's myspace of which I am now addicted to Sinner and Winners. I of course though saved my most mental dancing for Generator, what a great song that is, especially when heard live. Within what felt like mere minutes the show was over, I made sure I got me a setlist (which was written on the back of a lager box) and then we made our way back to the tube station and travelled all the way home.

2. So yes, I slept and before I knew it, it was Thursday and the day that seemed so unlikely to ever happen to me. I went to a fashion show. Now I never have claimed to be the most fashionable person but my girlfriend, well, she is and so I decided to go along with her to London Fashion Weekend. I didn't really know what I was expecting from a fashion show but I thought I might as well go as I have never been to such a thing before and I might enjoy it and even if I didn't I was spending time with the woman which is always great.

We got up to South Kensington by about midday and waited for her Friend Kareece to meet us there, if you remember in the last blog she was late meeting up and again she was late. You could see the anger building in Kalistra's eyes but it didnt really matter in the end as we actually got in a good 15 minutes before the time stated on our tickets. And so we were inside and what was in there, rows and rows of fashionable clothes being looked at by fashionable people, 90% of whom were female, 7% were gay men and the other 3%, of which im included were guys who were there with their girlfriends. It wasnt awful, maybe not my cup of tea but nevertheless I wasn't as bored as I thought I might have been and the food that they were serving was not too overpriced. I had a nice chorizo, sweet potato and some kind of fancy lettuce sandwich for just £2.

out of the 50 or so stalls set up around the place there was only one for men's fashion which I decided was very sexist and thus complained about for 2 minutes until I got bored of that. We carried on walking around for a bit until it was about 3 o'clock and time for us to go and watch the catwalk. This bit I did genuinely find quite enjoyable. As I said I know nothing about fashion but seeing all the models wearing different clothes going down the catwalk was good. I took photos of just about all the outfits and obviously I am not going to put them all up but here are a couple, well here would be a couple if I could get the new pictures system to work. There were even some of the clothes which were a little revealing in that they were half see through and the models weren't wearing any underwear so I saw some boobies. The girlfriend did point out that I was maybe a little more interested in these fashions more than the other ones but obviously I denied the accusation.

We went for one more walk round after the catwalk, managed blag ourselves a free cocktail which was actually one of the most disgusting things I had ever tasted and then we left, taking Kareece back to South Kensington before going off our seperate ways.

After the Fashion show me and Kalistra went to see another one of her friends, well I should say old school friends who she hadn't seen for 3 or so years and after meeting her I am not all that surprised that she hasn't kept in contact, she was a bit too hyper-active and very much all over her boyfriend. We first went to the trocadero arcade in Piccadilly where I won a car race, which was nice, then we moved down to Leicester square where we sat and awkwardly talked for about half an hour. I used the excuse that I was going out in the evening to get us out of there and I wouldn't be lying if I said I could happily not see her ever again. Me and Kalistra then walked round the corner, bought some pizza, ate and then took the tube home. We left each other at Colliers Wood station and so I had to get ready for the next stage in my eventful day.

3. I had planned to go out in the evening for a nice drink with my mates, it was to be the last time we would all see each other before going back to university so we thought why not go to Kingston and maybe onto the Indie night at McCluskeys. I invited the normal crowd who were still around, me, Ross, Tate and Blondie but I also invited John, mr unpredictable and unfortunately this night was to be one of the ones that I regretted invited him rather than enjoyed it.

Due to me being up in Central, I was a little late in getting Kingston, the original plan had been to get there at about 7:30 but it was closer to 9 by the time we got there. John was already there when we arrived and he intorduced us to a few of his friends who you know seemed nice enough. We proceeded to drink and John's friends were seeming to get a little drunk which you know can't be helped. One of the girls though, a Belgian girl was trying to get the guys to buy her drinks by fluttering her eyelids, obviously this didn't work on me but unfortunately it did on just about everyone else and thus she got even drunker. This carried on for a bit until 2 of John's friends decided to go home and now it was left with the 5 guys mentioned earlier and this Belgian girl who was flirting with everyone at this point at one point I remember her asking someone to 'prove they were a man' then winking. Tate being a bit of a desperate ended up going to the bar with her and kissing her.. it was shortly after this that we were told that she was a prostitute. Or an ex-prostitute, but either way not the most lovely thought after Tate and eaten her face off. The night got weirder and then her and John dissapeared for what must have been half an hour, so we decided to leave.. well most of us, Ross being the nice guy that he is thought we should wait, so we tried to find him and no he wasnt in the man's toilets. He was in the ladies toilets with the Belgian girl. He denies that anything sworded happened but I find it hard to believe.

I then got fed up and just left John and the girl together and went off to find the indie night and hope to make the night better but no, it got far worse first. John who was quite drunk decided to drive. But i was in a mood now so still didnt care until he drove up next to us and practically pushed her out of the car and then drove off leaving us to deal with a now crying girl who had the cheek to have a go at us. Saying that we didn't 'want her' and despite the abuse being thrown at us we tried to help her but without her listening there wasnt much we could do, so I kept phoning John and made him come back, which eventually he did and I shouted at him to his face and he went and got her and drove off with her, after that I don't really know what happened to her but we did our best. At the same time as me shouting at John, 2 drunk twats came over and started saying we were having a lover's tiff, me already in a mood started having a go back and despite them being very mouthy I don't think they had any intention of doing anything as when I shouted back at them they quietened down. By now I was in the worst mood but I didnt want this to ruin my night so I went on to McCluskeys with the guys.

I calmed down when I got into the queue and then they took my chewing gum off me which again made me a little annoyed but I let it pass. We then went into the club, bought some shots and got on with what was a good night. A good couple of hours of indie heaven with teh highlight undoubtibly being Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire which everyone in the club went mental to. We left at closing and then bussed it home by about 4 o'clock in the morning. The best way describe the night is different. See you all soon for hopefully some more 'normal' adventures in the life of Ant D

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