Leeds Festival

Leeds Festival

Leeds festival was amazing - my first festival, and well worth the £136 odd we paid for it. We (Alex and I - oooh correct grammar) saw about 24 bands (I think) including the wonderful Cooper Temple Clause, The Coral, Elbow, The Killers (who were distinctly average), The Foo Fighters, Babyshambles, Razorlight, Clor (who amazed me both in being great and in having a guitarist who looks just like Ben...), Maximo Park, Sons and Daughters, Yeti, Forward Russia (with the best ginger, plump, glasses wearing, bearded guitarist I have ever seen - everything a guitarist shouldn't be, yet amazing!), Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, The Futureheads (bore) and Kasabian.

We arrived on Friday morning (probably around about 8am, we had to get up at 5.30!) and hunted for a tent pitching spot, eventually finding one next to three tents with "peace and love" stickers on their outsides - clearly we had friendly non-rioting neighbours! So, we pitched up and then made our way through queues and queues of people to get our wrist bands (which has since fallen off my arm - grr, they are supposed to be invinsible) and to get into the main arena bit. I was amazed at the sheer volume of tents there, it took about half and hour to walk from our tent to the arena, through a sea of tents.

We did stuff other than listen to music of course, including a Ferris wheel trip, the eating of lots of lovely festival food (including tent-cooked super noodles; so good!). Alex also got a henna tattoo, a picture of which is below - fortunately it had just dried by the time we went to see The Coral as the henna got minced by the bouncing crowd! I could have said 'mosh' but I don't think a Coral crowd can be described as a mosh - it was all too friendly.

It was always interesting being woken up in the middle of the night by random drunk people stumbling over your tent's guy ropes and other people loudly asking their friends questions; questions including the classic: "have you got any cashew nuts?"

Generally the weekend was amazing, see the photos below!

Our tent, pitched up and safe from arsonists.


Forward Russia's guitarist :)


The arena, including shark-shaped Lee Sounds Unsigned Tent and someone in the foreground who I assure you is not Mary.


The Elbow photos came out best because it was daytime. They were also amazing!


A good shot of the main stage and screen


They sprayed us with little bits of paper with the title of their new album on. Best marketing plan EVER. I'm buying it! It was like it was snowing!


Alex displays henna tattoo.


The Cooper Temple Clause how I love you.


The Killers... pretty lights!


Look! Up high! Goodbye vertigo, we went on the ferris wheel... the rickety old ferris wheel... that wobbled... and unscrewed itself... and clanked and clunked...


Alex was windblown and scared... come to think of it, so was I, but I didn't capture that on camera. haha


Guess who these guys are!


A round of a clause


Yes, the lasers were better than the foos.

Tom Knows Cows

Just spent 2 weeks on a cattle farm. It was an experience, I would perhaps like to repeat but definitely not like to do for a living. The cows were cool, most of them nice (though 28, 53 and 107 are the evil kicking ones that stick out in my mind), number 7 was particularly pleasant despite being an old grandma with a top speed of about half a mile an hour (quite literally).

I got to do a rectal examination (well, more of just a general feel around before the farmer did AI, but I got an idea of what I should find up a cow's arse), which was great fun (don't laugh), I feel like I have lived the vet dream now (and so can happily retire :)

I got to calve a calf, which, either fortunately or unluckily depending on from who's point of view you look at it, began to calve when the farmer was away. So I rang him up
"Um, Wilf... one of your cows is calving," to which he replied something along the lines of; "I'll be back in 20 minutes, just get the calving ropes out of the house, my Mum will know where they are, and give it a go."
"Do i burst the bag?"
"Yes"

Twas great - what greater experience I am getting than a medical student!

Other stuff I got to do included

* Injecting
* Dehorning (which is gruesome - you get a huge soldering iron thing and gouge the horn out from their skull)
* Ear Tagging (less gruesome, more like ear piercing, but with a bigger hole)
* Milking, LOTS of milking
* Moving shit about... LOTS of shit.
* Making fires (muwaha)
* Watching for "heat"
* Following a vet round briefly.

So yeah, a worthwhile venture in the end. Glad I went! So, 4 weeks down, 8 to go!

PICTURES!!!!!!!

Granny


Some little week old Fresian/Holstein Heifers.


The low yielders enjoying their sileage, maize and sugar beet lunch.


Limousin Bull


Jack the Rotweiler- a sweetie really.