Currently I am in Leeds. Robb and I made it jsut in time for the reading and the Chemic Pub. We caught two train later than expected from Nottignham but it all worked out in the end thanks to a rail system that actually works and makes sense!
On Friday Lizzy Robb and I went into Nottingham to bust Lizzy’s student bubble and eat at the veggie restaurant, Dotty’s. We also wandered around town where i saw lots of silly Robin Hood souvenirs but not silly enought or neat enough that they had to come home with me. Robb left on what we now refer to as a “robbabout” and said he was going to the show/gig that night and would see us later. We sat in the Market Square and watched a lone duck amongst pigeons and then a sudden downpour as the people scattered for cover.
Steve and his friend showed up further busting Lizzy’s student bubble by showing her and awesome comic shop and another veggie restaurant. We wandered around a bit, stopped a pub for an ale. Steve and I are of the vertical challenged folk and our other tow companions were tall. We had hi-fives over the awesomeness of being small. then Lizzy had to go back to her hall to get ready for that evening’s festivities. I decided I would go to the metal/power violence/hardcore show instead. it isn’t really my kind of music recorded but can be fun live. Going out to a club where they would be playing contemporary British pop music? um, I’d probably just ruin their fun. We had a few plans including Lizzy meeting up with me to bring zines to sell at the show and her packing our stuff and bringing it to the train station in the morning as I was going to stay at Steve’s. Robb was still on Robbabout.
When back to Steve’s and made pasta. This is when I realized that Steve was actually playing in one of the bands when he mentioned grabbing his guitar. weird that I didn’t pick up on that. even after seeing them I still don’t know the name of their band. The show was pretty typical as far a people watching and Robb did show up. It could have been any basement Portland show… except that it was upstairs at a club and not a basement and no one was drinking Pabst! Good Times!
After the show we were getting a ride back to Steve’s but our driver had us stop at a shop to get chips and hummus. It was just chips with a bunch of hummus on top like some sort of weird poutine. not bad. I mean, mixing chickpeas and potatoes makes sense, eh? Back at the house steve and I geeked out about comics and zines and I stole things from his bins to use in zine layout. What? They have different security envelopes here! That sort of sent us on a hunt for other layout things around the flat and we fleetings ideas of making a 24 minute zine. We settled on a project that will not be named nor will it ever see the light of day but makes me giggle to myself.
I was having a lot of fun with one of my new favorite zine people and I didn’t but I had to crash out because it was after two and we were supposed to catch a train at 9… which got pushed to 10… and eventually we settled on a 10:30 train after headed back to Nottingham University to pack our stuff and then back to town to the train station. I felt so gross I don’t think I had a shower in 3 days and I smelled like a power violence gig. yum, I sure do love that I’e come up a punk rocker and don’t mind so much. I just worry that other people do!
We got into Leeds at 1Pm and Amy greeted up, took us home to drop our bags off and walk to the pub just in time! More later because we are trying to figure out the plans for the day.
Alex Wrekk 