My First Year in London: Radio 1’s Hackney Weekend

YES!

Calvin Harris

And what a weekend it was!

On Friday evening Naomi and Jess showed up at about 11.30pm after catching the late train from Manchester. We had a couple of drinks and caught up a bit and we decided on a few of the acts we definitely wanted to see the next day.

We had been looking forward to this day for a couple of months and finally it was here. We woke up on Saturday at just after 7am. Which, considering I only live a 30 minute bus ride away from Hackney Marshes may seem quite early but we didn’t want to miss anything. We got to the site just after 9am and waited in the early morning sunshine until 10am when the fist set of gates opened. We had all been given airport style plastic bags to put our metals in as we all had to go through scanners. After another few check points we eventually got into the site at around 11am where we set off for our first stop – the bar! We explored the site which included the enormous main stage, three tents, two outdoor stages and pop-up DJ sites. We got some lunch and more beers and saw the first DJ set at 12noon – Tim Westwood. This bloke makes me cringe. I like the music he plays but he doesn’t half talk a load of old shite… Turns out the BBC has just announced that his contract will not be renewed – not surprising.

deadmau5

EastEnders!

During the early part of the day we got to see Leona Lewis (not my choice), Emeli Sandé, deadmau5, Annie Mac, Example, Rudimental, Ed Sheeran and Nicki Minaj (again, not my choice). The atmosphere was excellent and only got better when Calvin Harris absolutely smashed his set in the Dance Tent and took a rather surprising turn when I found myself actually really enjoying Flo Rida’s set – he’s got a lot of bloody good songs to have a dance to and threw 90% of his clothes into the crowd – strange but great. And of course we then came to the head liner, one Mr Jay Z. But we weren’t only treated to Jay Z, oh no.. On came Rihanna, MIA and Kanye in a spectacular end to a fantastic day.

West End Live

Totally knackered, totally soaked from the evening rain, but totally worth the wait – all in all, a great day. If only all festivals could be £2.50! The journey back to the house was smoothly done where I found Traum and Calla who had arrived earlier in the day. As they left on Sunday morning for day 2 of the Hackney Weekend I couldn’t help feel pangs of jealousy!...although I ached all over and think I quite possibly would have broken myself if I’d gone for a second day.

Photography Exhibition

I was feeling rough from Saturday but powered though on Sunday to see the West End Live event at Trafalgar Square, the National History Museum, a photography exhibition and the England match in a little-known Bier Keller just off The Strand where they are showing all the games on several big screens and you can buy drinks by the litre – ACE. Good times had with the Brennan’s and Rosie who had popped into London for a few days whilst on the way home to Norfolk.

Track Walk

By Monday, the cold and wet weather on Saturday had caught up with me and I was feeling awful. I’ve spent two days shaking it off and recovering and returned to work on Wednesday to some excellent news. About a month ago I interviewed for a position with the team I’m currently with on placement. I originally thought it would be good interview practice and would allow me to find out what a technical interview would be like… turns out they’ve decided to offer me a position and today, I accepted. This all means I’ll roll off the scheme much earlier than expected but will be able to focus on the area of IT I’m interested in. Hurrah.

While I’m still on the scheme for a few more days I’m going to take advantage of the random things I get to do… Tonight, I’m heading over to one of our west London offices to see the Central Track Access Control, watch the last train leave the station and power be turned off the track and – once someone has checked the current is actually off – walk down the track through some of the tunnels. Why, you may ask... Well, why not? This should all finish around 3am and then I’ll need to get two night buses (/a taxi) all the way home so I’ve decided to treat myself to Friday off!

Finally at the front!

Emirates Airline

Another rather cool thing I did today was ride the new Emirates Airline. Now I'm not one for heights - AT ALL - but after seeing it built over the last 6 months I thought I'd better bite the bullet and give it a go. Terminals are at North Greenwich and across the river at the Royal Victoria DLR station. It was really good!...and a bargain for just £3.20 or £6ish for a return 'Boarding Pass'. I bought some lunch, queued up, boarded one of the cabs and took off very quickly. It rises rapidly to 295ft at it's highest point (I was gripping on rather tightly at that point). I hopped off at the other end and wandered in the sunshine to Canning Town to get the Tube back to the office.