Blogruary Day 9: The Night Out in London

This blog is late, but for good reason.

Blogruary Day 2: The Lock Up

I've noticed something worrying about my life. I don't particularly like weekends.

The New Year's Resolutions

Another year has passed by and we are soon to welcome in 2013. The world didn't end and the Olympic Games went off quite well which makes this year a qualified success in the eyes of many people.

However, 2012 has been a very mixed year on a personal level.

I graduated from university with a very respectable 2:1 degree and I began an MA degree which will hopefully lead to a job that I will enjoy.

In a way though, 2012 has been a year of endings as my university experience at Reading and enjoyable, independent lifestyle came crashing to a halt.

It is at this time of the year that I would usually be desperately creating a New Year's Resolution which would usually result in 'I will not bite my nails'. That itself always fails mere minutes into the new year.

This year though, I feel like I actually have resolutions which are do-able and genuinely life-improving.

I hope that this year I can actually stick to the challenges that I've set myself, and trust me I've set myself a long-list for the coming 365 days.

Let's hope 2013 is a good year, and I wish you all the best.

Follow me on Twitter @Alex_Harris1991

The Graduation

One of the biggest life milestones is arguably your graduation from university. Last week, I hit this very milestone.

It was a very melancholic day, however. It was the last time that I will really ever visit Reading, it was arguably the last time that I would see a few people whilst for my best friends that I have made from university, this represented the end of an era.

If I am being honest, I was pretty anxious about the day. This covered four reasons. One, I didn't know what to expect. Two, I didn't want to be the idiot who fell over when receiving their certificate. Three, I didn't quite like the fact that this represented the death-knell being sounded on my university experience. Four, I didn't want to look like an idiot in the robes.

However, it was a fantastic day. The sun was shining, I enjoyed putting on the fancy robes that I was given, it was great to see friends, teachers and families whilst it was just a proud moment for my parent's to see me graduate.

Oh, and I didn't fall over which was a relief.

The Bloc Party Gig

It's a Sunday afternoon and, quite frankly, I am bored. Oh so bored.

Hence, I am now reflecting on what was a pretty monotonous week itself. I had to work a couple of times at my local pub, I went to the pub with a couple of friends to watch and England and I went to a friends' 21st birthday party.

There was one highlight of the week though. 

On Thursday night, I went to see my favourite band, Bloc Party, play live on their first tour in three years. 

Earlier in the day, I went back to Reading to clear out my student house with my house-mate in order to receive as much of our deposits back as possible. There was one further issue as well, I had no one to go to the gig with. 

I offered pretty much every friend I have the free ticket. Sadly, everyone rejected the offer with there being a wide range of reasons why they couldn't attend. 

Who did I turn to?

My sister. Yes, my sister who has previously gone to a couple of We Are Scientists gigs with me. I warned her that the moshing and jumping from the crowd would be more ferocious, but she batted away my warnings. 

I told her to be ready to leave our house at 3:45. We caught our train on time and then via the underground we reached Koko in anticipation of a large queue. 

Just a few people were there. I even knew a couple of them due to them being fellow Bloc Party fans. 

After a couple of hours of queueing we entered the venue and got right on the barrier, in front of Kele. The perfect position. 

The support band, Story Books, performed. I can't think of a more apt description than to label them as very average.

Bloc Party then came on stage after an hour of waiting and immediately launched into some new tracks. There aren't enough superlatives in the English language to describe how amazing they were but I will tell you that I had a big grin on my face throughout the entire gig. I realise that makes me sound very simple. 

I asked my sister at the end what she thought. She responded by telling me that she was in agony due to the moshing and pushing going on and that she felt like she had been physically abused. 

She doesn't want to ever go to a Bloc Party gig again.