Michael*

I'm tired but pretty good, thanks - I think I need a summer holiday soon (although it doesn't feel like we've had a real summer yet this year). So do you have good seats for the concert? I bet it's a huge venue for Madonna!

Oh wow! I wish I could see it too, but I don't think we get SNL here. They were playing live on TV last night but I switched it on too late to see them. I just found out that 'Sex on Fire' is number 1 in the UK charts too!

How about Vatman, the superhero VAT inspector? :D

I think Catman or Ratman would be the way to go, that way I only have to change one letter instead of two :D

Oh no, I'm not really a good cook - I can just make a few basic things, but I'm a mean heater-up of food :D I quite like toast though, I could probably live on a diet of toast and cereal :)

Hey Iliana! How are you? Do you have much longer to wait before you see the Madonna concert?

I know! I love that one already, and I can't wait for the album. I'm always trying to spread the KOL love around here :D

Yes, from Pacman to Batman in one easy step! I need to think of my next one now - I'll see what I can think of with a similar name :D

CD wise or food wise? :D Well CD wise I got the Santogold album and food wise, mostly standard stuff - rice, bread, that sort of thing. I agree with you though, I find food shopping just as much fun as CD shopping! :D

So did you get the shoes you wanted or were you just browsing? I did a bit of shopping too on Saturday but just for CDs and food :D

I went to Wales a few years ago and ended up walking for miles there too. I usually quite enjoy it as well, but in the Lakes it was covered in mud. Somebody had tried to drive a tractor along the path and got stuck, it was a right mess :D

From what little I've seen Manchester's a really nice city, perhaps not so much on the outskirts but I guess you could say the same about most places. I'm sure you'll have a great time there! I'm doing okay, and I have a day off work tomorrow - woohoo! Three day weekend! :D

If you should ever find yourself at the Lamb Inn in Grasmere, ask for the Yorkshire pudding with onion gravy and chips, it's huge! All the walking up hills is pretty tiring though, especially when it's raining and all muddy :D

Haha yeah, when I'm 85 I'll be laughing at everybody in else the retirement home. Actually I'm not sure if that is a good thing! I've been to Manchester a couple of times but only ever to see bands and stuff, so I've never really spent any time there. Did you visit before you decided to go to the uni?

I was just visiting family over there - it was good, I've never walked so far or eaten so much :D Curse the Lake District and their giant Yorkshire Puddings!

Hahaha, yeah you could be their triangle roadie! That's a shame about Beck and MGMT but you'll love CSS! I saw them in, hmmm - April maybe? And they're crazy, it'll be a really fun show! I saw the list of bands at Detour as well, it sounds great - I wanna go too :D

That's good about the placement, so they don't throw you in at the deep end right away! Do you know when your semester starts yet? I know my sister isn't looking forward to it (she's studying journalism at Sunderland). For the most part we get on pretty well, I've always tried to look after her being the oldest :) Do you have any other brothers or sisters?

Thanks, I hope you have a great weekend too! I'm going to the lake district, just for a couple of nights. I'd say that I hope it doesn't rain but I don't think it'll help :D I won't be drinking though, I haven't for... hmm, it must about 18 months. Not that I was a big drinker before that anyway...

I remember at uni, info like that used to go missing all the time. Me and a couple of friends went back to register for the second year, and they said they'd never heard of us so we had to go and find our lecturers to confirm who we were :D So do they send you on the placements right away?

Haha, that's weird! I have a sister who's a similar age to you - she's about to start her second year at uni. I'm doing okay, it's been a busy at work but tomorrow I'm going away for a couple of days so I can rest my eyes for a little while :D

They were really good, worth checking out. Their myspace is myspace.com/theweekthatwas. I think I might add them now! Haha, are you sure you couldn't be like stand-in cowbell player, or cowbell tech maybe?

Maybe there'll be a single out first to keep us going :D How are the uni preparations going so far?

stival? Who else was playing?

Oh wow - that's cool, you should have asked to join the band! I think I should add Cold War Kids to the list of bands I want to see (it's getting bigger all the time)!! Yesterday I went to see a band called The Week That Was, kind of like an offshoot of The Futureheads and Field Music. I didn't know what to expect but they were great! So, it was a good line-up at the fe

Oh I know, it's an agonising wait! But at least the album is less than a month away now...