Tarlie Maclean :-)

The only photo of me I mildly like. And even in this my mouth looks like the one I drew on a dinosaur last night.

It’s close to a week since I got home. Without going into immense detail, the festival was a-mazing. Highlights include: Arctic Monkeys, The Maccabees, Jamie T, Dananananykroyd, The Rumble Strips & Friendly Fires.

Everything else that was brilliant:

-Shaniqua
-Camp fires
-Silent disco
-Our lovely lovely camp
-BBQ on the first day
-Fitting 4 people in a (small) 2 man tent
-THE ARENA LOOS
-Meeting new people (Welsh bikini man, spatula boy)
-“You know those new rave girls that wear all the neon and plastic shit?… tied up with guy ropes and he was grinding on them naked”
-BOLLOCKS

etc etc

I love Reading Festival. Four years strong now. But I think it may be time for a change next year. The bands and the company I was with was excellent but the same cannot be said for other festival goers. It just seemed a lot less friendly than it has before and the crowds are worsening. I hate mosh pits. They are allowed if you’re seeing a band like Slayer or something, but the Maccabees? I think not. Ah well. I think I may try Glastonbury or Latitude next year.

Excluding the negativity of that last paragraph, I had a seriously awesome time and it was arguably the best Reading Festival yet.

Band List:

Friday

Danananaykroyd – Friday, NME Tent, 12.00pm
Tim Minchin – Friday, Alternative Stage, 2.45pm
Little Boots – Friday, NME Tent, 3.30pm
The Horrors – Friday, NME Tent, 4.35pm
Friendly Fires – Friday, NME Tent, 7.50pm
Jamie T – Friday, NME Tent, 8.55pm

Saturday

The Rakes – Saturday, Main Stage, 1.40pm
Metric – Saturday, NME Tent, 2.35pm
Patrick Wolf – Saturday, NME Tent, 3.35pm
The Maccabees – Saturday, NME Tent, 6.55pm
Maximo Park – Saturday, Main Stage, 7pm
Arctic Monkeys – Saturday, Main Stage, 10.00pm

Sunday

Jeffrey Lewis – Sunday, Alternative Stage, 12.55pm
The View – Sunday, Main Stage, 3.15pm
Metronomy – Sunday, NME Tent, 3.30pm
Grammatics – Sunday, Festival Republic Stage, 3.45pm
Broken Records – Sunday, Festival Republic Stage, 4.35pm
Crystal Castles – Sunday, NME Tent, 5.40pm
Vampire Weekend – Sunday, Main Stage, 5.30pm
Golden Silvers – Sunday, Festival Republic Stage, 6.25pm
Bloc Party – Sunday, Main Stage, 7.55pm
The Rumble Strips – Sunday, Festival Republic Stage, 8.25pm

Key:
Bold = Priority

Even if I don’t get into university, I still want to move here.

Okay, I put a lot of thought into this. Next year I want to take a degree in History. I originally wanted to take English Literature but then became drawn to the idea of History and English Lit in a double honours. I decided against that when I realised I’m not particularly fond of English and, well, it’d prolly be a lot of work. So History it is. Anyway, yesterday we got our AS results and the subjects I’m taking next year I got BBC. Hopefully this means my predicted grades will be AAB. But when I checked how many UMS I had I realised that to achieve this I’d have to get high A’s next year. Without sounding arrogant, I’m not incapable. So I’ve decided to resit 2 papers. I managed to get A’s in one History and one Politics so obviously it’s not impossible. Assuming I get A’s in my resits, hopefully I’ll be on my way to getting AAB. Unfortunately Sheffield (which is my favourite) are asking for AAA. I think I’ll still apply but I doubt I’ll get in. I’ve decided on my other choices: Cardiff (AAB-AAA), Manchester (AAB-AAA), Sheffield Hallam (C in History) & Manchester Met (C in History). I’d quite like to go to a well renowned one but I’m not sure if I can now. Ah well. As long as I get a decent education then I’m happy. I’m quite keen to move to Manchester or Sheffield. Cardiff sounds appealing too but it was originally thrown in the mix ‘cause it did English&History and I decided I might as well include it in my choices. I decided a long time ago that I most definitely want to move out of London and I want to go to a University in a City which has good nightlife and stuff. Ergh, I couldn’t take it if there was only 1/2 gig venues haha. So hopefully with my predicted grades and resat exams this will get me offers from at least 2 of the above. Prefferably Sheffield but yknow aha. I’ll just work incredibly hard next year in order to ensure I secure those grades.

Apart from that I’d quite like to get a job soon. I want to Interrailing and to some international music festivals next year (in Japan, USA, Belgium, Holland, Spain- not gonna be cheap). Or well I could form a hit band and play them all but that seems less likely. So a job would be nice to save money and hopefully be able to do a few of those things.

So yeah, long boring post about my hopeful future and stuff. Things to look forward to in the near future:

Theo’s barbecue tonight
Lorna’s Party thing
Arctic Monkeys @ Brixton (maybe)
Reading Festival
Mock The Week (hopefully)
LC!

Sounds good to me x

B in History- I got a C in my International History paper and an A in my British History paper (squee) so overall that equated to a B. I’m looking to retake the former as I’d quite like to bump it up to an A tbh.

B in Politics- A high A in paper 1 for my essay on Socialism and New Labour (3 times Yes! couldn’t be more pleased about that) and a high D for paper 2 on Current Affairs and Parliament, overall this equated to a B so I’m gonna retake the second one and hopefully make it an A overall.

C in English Lit- I realised as much as I love reading and stuff, I don’t much enjoy learning English. Certain aspects are fun but all the analysis is dull and irritating. I’m gonna stick with for A2 though and I’m fairly pleased with my C tbh.

E in Economics- This was totally expected, I’m just pleased it wasn’t a U tbh. Seems unlikely I’ll retake it and I’m most definitely dropping it next year.

I did fairly well I think, not as good as some people but ah well. My predicted grades for next year should be AAB which will be quite alright. I may have to give Sheffield a miss but I think I can just about live with that. Anyway, I’m gonna get plastered tonight and be happy with my friends.

Also, I would like to point out that Chiswick is (at time of posting) 4th worst in a list of 306 comprehensives across England for A Level results so yknow… aha. Tarlie- out!