Reading Festival 2012: The best weekend of my life!!

Hello readers!!
Yesterday I got back from Reading Festival. I went last year, and after going this year I've decided to go every year. It was by far the best weekend of my life, despite the fact that I have lost my voice from shouting and screaming so much!!
I decided to take disposable cameras, because I keep losing my digital cameras at festivals, so I need to get the photos developed, and then I'll put the best ones on here, but in the mean time I thought I'd write a bit about the bands at Reading and the camping!
Me and my friends decided to go early bird, so on the wednesday instead of the thursday, which was such a good shout because we got a really good camping spot and could just chill on the thursday. Reading is a massive festival so you can't ever really get bored as there is so much on offer for campers. Reading has plenty of stalls to buy pretty much anything, a fair, two silent discos and loads of food. Plus when you camp with lots of people, and/or meet new people, you have a lot of fun!!
I think the line up for this years Reading was one of the best I've seen. On the Friday, The Cure headlined, but to be completely honest, their set was very boring. As one of my friends said, it was the sort of music to slit your wrists to!! The first band I saw on the friday was Cancer Bats, a heavy canadian thrash/punk band. They were absolutely amazing. Even if you don't really enjoy 'heavy' music, you can still apreciate the atmosphere of seeing them live on the main stage.

Cancer Bats

After Cancer Bats I watched spector, who I saw live back in March supporting Florence + The Machine in Cardiff, and they didn't dissapoint. Fred Mcpherson (the lead singer) has an absolutely amazing voice. After Spector we headed back to the mainstage to catch Crystal Castles. I saw Crystal Castles last year in the NME tent and worried the sound wouldn't be as good on the main stage, but they were amazing. The crowd went mental! I was close to the front and felt like I was going to die! I went to the side a bit so I was slightly more out the crowd for Not In Love, which has stuck in my head as one of the best songs I heard them perform. Alice Glass is just so crazy you can't help but adore her. I then went and watched Touche Amore in the Lock Up Tent. Touche Amore are heavy, yet melodic. They're songs are short, and they remind me a lot of La Dispute. They were really fun to watch, evn though I did fall over in a mosh pit!! A bit embarrasing!

 Crystal Castles

After La Dispute we watched Bombay Bicycle Club, who I saw last year and found a bit boring, but this year on the mainstage they really impressed me. Lucy Rose was there and did some of the vocals which definitely improved the set.
A band I hadn't planned on seeing but who were amazing was Sleigh Bells. As The Cure was boring us a bit, we watched Sleigh Bells in the Festival Republic tent. There was an amazing atmosphere and a lot of people there to support them for what was apparently their first UK show.

Sleigh Bells

The saturday however, was the best day of the festival. I was already amazingly impressed with the line up and didn't think it could get much better, until Green Day turned up and performed a secret set at about half 11ish in the NME tent. There is something so amazing about seeing such a huge band perform in a relatively small space. Billie Joe Armstrong really warmed the crowds up. Green Day were one of the first bands I got in to when I started liking alternative music, when I was about 11 or 12 and trying to find my own feet, so seeing them live was absolutely incredible. A highlight has to be when they played Minority, even though I wish they had enough time to play Jesus of Surburbia.
Another highlight of the saturday was seeing OFWGKTA (Odd Future). I liked Odd Future but they turned out to be better than I expected. They are a group like no one else, from their music, the atmosphere, their cult following, to the way they make their money through clothing rather than music. The fact that they are like no one else really translated in to their live performance. The crowd went crazy for Tyler, The Creator. A highlight was when they closed their set with Radical, and were joined by punks Trash Talk, before being kicked off the stage for going over time.

Odd Future

 Green Day

Another highlight from the saturday was Florence + The Machine. She was incredible, and the whole festival atmosphere just added to her performance. She got everyone in the crowd to hug eachother, and as she continued with her performance the rain fell. When she performed Shake It Out, the rain became so heavy, yet this just made the performance more amazing. Florence's voice is so powerful, and her whole set felt incredibly magical.

Florence and The Machine

Kasabian headlined the saturday, and if i'm honest, they were slightly dissapointing. I expected more from them, but they just didn't do it for me. They were ok, and Fire was great live, but it wasn't amazing, and kind of makes me wish I went to watch At The Drive In headline the NME stage instead.
On The Sunday I went to watch Howler perform on the NME stage. Jordan Gatesmith, the lead singer, was so good. The crowd wasn't as big as I expected, but they did perform fairly early in the day. The crowd did go mental for Back Of Your Neck however, which they closed with. One of the best acts from the sunday however was SBTRKT. They were more lively than I expected, and they were amazing. Pharoahs and Wildfire were so good live and the crowd were really lively.

Jordan Gatesmith from Howler

Of course, the main highlight for me from the Sunday, was the Foo Fighters closing the festival. They were mind blowing to see live. These Days and Hero were amazing, but when they closed on Everlong was the highlight for me. Watching the fireworks and the confetti fall from the sky as they played was very emotional. Dave Grohl is such a good frontman and proved that throughout the performance, as he constantly talked to the crowd, and got all of the 10,000 people there to sing happy birthday to his mum, which was so cute!!

The Foos!!

All I can say is bring on next year!!

Crystal Castles performing Not In Love

Foo Fighters Performing Everlong

EFT: My new discovery, but does it work?

I heard about EFT some time ago. EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Therapy. Its a technique used to rid the body and the mind of negative energy, thought processes, physical worries, etc. I first heard about EFT through the brilliant Gala Darling, who wrote about how she used it to overcome her eating disorder. When I first read it, I believed what she wrote, I thought well that worked for her and thats awesome, but I wasn't sure if it was something I believed in myself. I'm a very open minded person, I believe in things that a lot of people in the busy western world would dismiss, like the use of meditation. However for some reason, i just couldn't fathom how EFT could really get rid of some things. Especially stuff like allergies, as when Gala wrote she first used EFT, she wrote that she used it to combat her asthma. Could this technique really get rid of asthma?!
So what is EFT all about? EFT uses something called 'Meridian Tapping', where you tap certain points on the body in order to get rid of negative energy. You tap the 'karate chop' point of your hand (watch the videos below to get more of an idea how to do this) while saying 'even though I [have this problem] deeply and completely love and accept myself'. You then go on to tap other points of the body while listing the problem. This is meant to allow the negative energy to rise out of these points. It is also meant to be really important to say that you LOVE AND ACCEPT YOUR SELF, DEEPLY AND COMPLETELY. I could understand saying this when it came to using EFT to combat the likes of depression and eating disorders, but for allergies? really? Well apparently so. We must accept ourself, to realise that these things are not A PART of us. It may seem like your depression/eating disorder/asthma is a concrete part of you, but its not. EFT helps to unblock the paths in the body, which block up the energy creating negative thoughts/feelings/physical issues.  Even though I first dismissed EFT, I like trying new things, so I thought i'd give it a go. Yesterday I felt overwhelmingly hot for no apparent reason, so thought I'd try it for that. Its such a small thing, but I gave it a go. I then drank some water, and lied down for a couple of minutes. All of a sudden i felt very very cool. It was amazing. Of course this COULD have been a coincidence. It could have been a trick of the mind. But all you have to do is type EFT in to google and there is so much information on it, with tonnes of people claiming it has worked for them. 

EFT is something I have only just begun using/becoming fascinated with. I have only used it once, I don't know much about it. Maybe it doesn't work. I'll definitely blog more about it when I know. However it clearly works for some and thats great. While I first dismissed it (you have to admit, tapping parts of your body while talking to yourself sounds crazy!!) when you think about it, it makes sense. The use of holistic approaches to medicine, where the mental, emotional, and physical are all taken in to account together, has been around for thousands of years. People constantly brag about the use of acupuncture, where needles are put into pressure points of the body. Maybe we rely too much on therapy and drugs, and not enough on being in tune with our own bodies. This therapy not only uses the mind, but it taps in to the nervous system of the body!!
EFT can apparently be used for everything, from anorexia to insomnia, migraines to allergies, weight loss to quitting smoking, etc etc, and can be used when going through other types of therapies. You can even do it on the go. When you get stressed, just tap the karate chop point of your hand a few times to get clarity and control back.

This video is a great introduction to EFT.

let your lazy day be the day you totally change your life!!

WOAH! I haven't written in a month? I'm so sorry guys, I've gone and done it again. i say I'm going to write more, then I sort of, let it slip. Last time I wrote was just before I went to global gathering, which by the way, was frigging awesome. I raved until the early hours, I tried that funky thing where oxygen goes straight to your brain, and I had more cheesy chips than I care to remember. All in all, it was amazing. And this weekend i'm off to yet another festival (This time Reading Festival, wooo), and that made me realise how long it's been since I wrote, and how I needed a bit of a kick up the bum.
Anyway, today I am having what I like to call, A lazy day. I'm sitting on my sofa while 'Three in a bed' plays on my TV. I'm not working. I'm not doing anything. I'm resting up for this weekend where I probably wont sleep for 5 nights. However I'm also using the day to write, to read up on information on getting a job in the journalism industry, and to update my CV. Without even moving my lazy student muscles off of my sofa.
It's made me think, that these lazy days are actually the perfect opportunity to do that thing you've wanted to do for so long but haven't. I'm not talking about the thing you've needed to do, like sort out your banking. I mean the thing that you've wanted to do. That thing you've needed to kick start yourself to being the person you want to be. To getting the career you want, to lose that excess weight, or to reinvent yourself in a completely new way. The problem so many people seem to face, is that they are waiting and waiting for something to happen. But we need to make opportunities happen. If you aren't working, aren't busy, then do it. You can still lounge around and get a lie in, yet get the ball rolling on changing your life completely. Here's how. 

Take advantage of the internet...
We all know the power of the internet. We spend enough time on it. We're constantly on facebook and twitter to keep in contact with people. We play games or watch funny youtube videos for entertainment. We listen to our music on it via spotify. We read the news on it. We even do our shopping on it. Yet we don't seem to use it to our true advantage. Through the power of the internet, you can find blogs or forums discussing topics that you have needed help on, find those inspirational words to kick start something (maybe this blog post will be that for you? I hope so!) You can also go one step further. Is it a job you are after? Scour the internet for job/intern/work experience opportunities in the sector you want to go in to. You may even simply find a website specifically targeting people like YOU with your interests, which will help. Are you dying to get out of your hometown and explore the world? Use the internet to do some research (websites like lonely planet and STA Travel are great places to start) then go ahead and book something!! 

Write...
Ok so I'm going to be bias on this one. As a writer, I do clearly think writing is great. But even if you don't have an amazing way with words, that doesn't matter. It's not about that. It's about getting your thoughts in order, and to understand yourself and your needs a little bit better. Buy a notebook and start writing. Whether its in a diary format, or a list format, or a set of mind maps or doodles or whatever, writing down those niggling thoughts and getting them in order stops our minds being stagnant and helps us realise what we need to do to get where we want to be, and makes us actually do it!

Start blogging... 
This is also to do with writing. If you have specific interests in something, and want to reach a wider audience, then blogging is a great way to do this. As is twitter. Start using the internet and social media to your advantage to take yourself in the direction you want to go. Social media is the future. And it's now the present. Because things are moving quickly.

Basically, my point is, if you start doing something, even if it's something small like researching the country you desperately want to travel around, or write a list of the ways you can make it in the journalism industry, it will kick start YOU. What I mean by this is, we can't truly be ourselves until we're on the road to doing what we want to. If we're stuck, and spending our lazy days just sitting around doing NOTHING, nothing will happen. Of course, you can't just start stuff and then expect the cogs to just turn by themselves. You do have to keep the cogs turning. It will get easier, but they will never move automatically. Not this time. So next time your aimlessly doing nothing, start doing something, and then let that inspire you to carry on doing 'somethings' until you get to where you want to be!! To get where we want, we do need to make a change somewhere. And it's easy to put it off until 'tomorrow' or 'the next day'. But why not now? Be the change today, so you can get to where you want.

You go girl!!