This will be the 100th blog that I have ever written on this here website and what better number is there to start a possible comeback? No that's right there probably isn't one really, so lets head on into the blog.

I flirted with the idea of a comeback over the summer when writing a blog/review of the electric gardens festival but that was just a one off in the greater scheme of things and who knows this one quite possibly could follow in the same vein.

So what have I been up to in the last year I hear you ask, well if I was to even start thinking about all the many blogging opportunities that I have missed. I drunk some more alcohol, I passed my first year of university, started renting a house between me and 5 of my friends at uni, I drunk some more and now I find myself here at stupid o'clock in the morning writing a blog rather than sleeping.

My new house is off campus in the small village of Wivenhoe, I live with Ben and Qandeel who I used to live with last year and Dan, Steph and Rossen who I didn't but I do believe there is at least a brief mention of all of them at some point in previous blogs. Coming to the end of the first term here in this house there have yet to be any real problems with the living conditions and everyone appears to be getting on fine. There have been rumours of people wanting to move out at the end of the year from both Rossen and Qandeel but neither have really come into a deffinite decision as of yet.

The only real problem that I am having is the work, yes I know the whole point of university is that you are meant to work so you can get a degree and then live your life happily ever after with lots of money. My problem isn't that I don't think there should be any work, it is that i STILL don't have the enthusiasm to do anything despite the extortionate amounts of money that I am paying to get this education. I foolishly believed on getting to university as a fresher that I would do more work than I did at A-Level, that didn't materialise and I put it down to the first year being worthless and so yet again I came into 2nd year thinking I would do more work but no I havn't. I rarely turn up to lectures or seminars, I don't do the readings that I am suposed to do and I am still rushing off my essays the night before they are due in. I have actually got to the stage of wondering why I am actually at university at all...

don't get me wrong, the university experience has been great, the living without my parents and having to do things for myself has been a great learning curve in life experience and I have met some of the coolest people that I am ever likely to meet but unfortunately that won't get me a degree at the end of the course. I really do fear that at the end of the course or possibly even by the end of this year, I will have come to the conclusion that I have just wasted an awful lot of my money and got not all that much potential to earn back.

This blog unfortunately will not be one of my happy-go-lucky blogs about how I have enjoyed a night out or something along those lines, it is just going to be a long rant about the problems of university living, although this next bit is a little less, oh shit i'm wasting my life and more - silly fat bastard, stop drinking.

The picture on the left is a before and after shot of me. The one on the right was me just a couple of weeks after joining university in October 2006, the picture on the left is me in November this year (2007) and I'm pretty sure I am not just seeing things when I say that in the one on the left I look a lot fatter. I know it is a bigger picture and all but I deffinitely have a more defined face in the picture on the right.

The problem with this though is that although I have identified the problem and know how to change it, namely doing more exercise, eating less crappy food and especially drinking less beer. I don't find myself wanting to change my ways enough to stop this process happening. It is very similar to my problems with essays and with most of the problems i face in my life, I fail to do things that I don't particularly want to do in the short term to benefit me in the long term. I know I should but I just don't. This is why I am poor, fat and am likely to get a poorer grade than possible, if not fail my degree.

and on that optimistic note I shall leave you, will I write another blog in the near future or will it be another year before I go again, that is something that only the sands of time will determine.

Ta Ta for Now, Ant

END

This may not have been one of the fashionable summer festivals but for people like me, who like a non-stop selection of indie that hasn't quite made it into the mainstream, it was immense.

Day 1
The first act that I really stopped and watched properly was Blood Red Shoes after I had heard that they were good and although not bad they sounded a bit too much like The Subways for me.
Next it was Pull Tiger Tail who again were decent but nothing particularly special.
Then off to 2nd stage to see the Foals.. these were pretty dissapointing I thought (this review is beginning to sound like i didnt enjoy it but it gets better now)
On the main stage next was Kate Nash, an artist who I had wanted to see for a while and she put in a stirling performance. The only downfall to her set was the timing, I unfortunately had to miss out on seeing most of Lethal Bizzle but luckily I did manage to catch 2 or 3 of his songs on second stage, including the amazing Pow! and a cover of House of Pain's Jump Around
I stayed in the second stage for one of the main reasons i went to the festival, The Holloways who once again were amazing, every time I see them the number of people who really seem to enjoy them rises, especially when generator comes on. Having seen them 6 times now I am still wanting more, another clash of timing though happened during this, I had to miss out on The Pipettes who I had really wanted to see but I just had to see the Holloways
Next on second stage were the New Young Pony Club, who i managed to bag a photo with earlier in the day, playing a solid set which included most if not all the tracks from their album Fantastic Playroom, it is quite amazing the energetic dancing of the lead singer Ty, she is quite awesome.
And finally on day 1 was Supergrass who I watched from a way back as I dont know much of their new stuff but nevertheless I enjoyed their performance.

Day 2
Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man were the first band I saw on day 2 and although not really knowing much about them I did like the band that two of the members were in before hand Les Incompetence. And they didnt dissapoint with their very charismatic front man and good selection of songs including a cover of a song by the farm.
Then quickly yo the Main stage to see Hot Club De Paris who although were quite enjoyable, not knowing many of the songs I didnt find particularly inspiring.
After on the main stage were the Noisettes who despite me not knowing much about were very impressive and I will deffinitely be checking out more from them.
This succesion of artists was my longest stay in one part of the fields for the entire festival, Milburn were the next band on the main stage and despite technical difficulties and in my opinion too many songs off the as of yet unreleased new album and not enough of the old songs that made them one of my top bands of last year, they still provided a very good performance.
The Maccabees followed and gave a very good performance and although I think they are a good band, their single Precious Time for me is the only song that really stands out, I left their set 5 minutes early to rush over to the second stage.
This was because Kid Harpoon was playing, my third time seeing him but the first with his backing band, The Powers that be and they deffinitely gave the performance a very different feel, not better nor worse but different, this performance was one of my highlights of teh festival having never heard the great songs such as milkmaid and late for the devil with a backing group.
I headed back over to the main stage to catch The Rakes who were unsurprisingly very good, with the strange dancing and banter of lead man alan donohoe just adding to the experience
And finally Patrick Wolf coming on late dressed in the weirdest concoction of clothing and make-up Ive seen for a while was excellent, in fact much better than I was expecting, I have always just thought of him as a pretencious, cocky man with some talent and he is pretencious and cocky and VERY talented but also does put on a great show and clearly enjoys himself whilst doing so and through his performance gained me as a fan.

All in all a very good festival, at least 9 if not 10 out of 10, my personal highlights being The Holloways, Kid Harpoon and Patrick Wolf

Well I was gonna do a blog for Matt's birthday but I never got round to it, but just to let you know it was nothing too unusual for a birthday round our parts. Went to spoons, the birthday boy got violently sick and the soberist ones (of which i was unusually one) had to help everyone else get home. Lovely.

So yes, onto my first ever thanksgiving. First I would like to point out that it is not that we just randomly decided to celebrate, it was in honour of our 2 American flatmates. it started as any other Thursday would, IR seminar, mondo's hour then Politics seminar, all very normal but soon after that came the start of the rest of the day. At 3 we went out to the field to play a game of American football which is apparently is a tradition and thus a part of our day.

 <i got bored of writing, i'll finish at some point>