I've just found out via Twitter the dates for next year's Cambridge Rock Festival! It'll be on August 2, 3, 4 and 5 at the same place - Haggis Polo Club Farm in Barton, just outside of Cambridge. I'd love to go for the full four days this time, with a crapload of my own food and cash for more souvenirs of awesomeness. Of course I'll be dragging people with me again this time - Jason, Holly, Sian, and they can bring as many people as they want, providing they all have their own tents and ticket money and the like. It would be groovy to go in a big posse!

Another story on my to-do list - the Open Mic UK one - is slowly coming together as people get back to me. Three St Helens contestants are doing well on it so I'm doing a piece on them, and I've e-mailed them all a set of questions tailored to how far they've progressed, their circumstances etc. Turns out we've got some high-flyers here! One's through to the regional finals of Open Mic, and another has also got through to the finals of the Miss Teen Queen modelling competition.

That's one of the things I've noticed since starting work at the St Helens Star - there are some very gifted people in town. It seems to be a hub of creative talent - there are artists, writers, musicians, models - and we're also celebrating some very good A-Levels and GCSEs this year. Then there's obviously the heavy emphasis on rugby in town - we have some very talented sportsmen and women, too. It's just a pity that my judgement of St Helens was clouded for so long by the narrow view that I had - and that was the rather inelegant view of Beth Ave.

Plus, it has to be said that everything I've achieved has been done so in the borough of St Helens. Good GCSEs, good A-Levels, the Prince's Trust and work experience at the Star... mind you, I tend to attribute my own successes to my need to rise above. I did so well because I knew I had to be better than the people who put me down. I had to do better than my parents had done, and I had to say 'no' to just staying in the same place all my life - moving along at the same level. I guess that could have happened in any town, be it Portadown or St Helens or even London.

Anyway, it's time for lunch soon! I have half a pot of soup and a baguette upstairs, as well as a Muller corner (peach and apricot - omnomnomnom) and a huge carton of orange juice. Heck yes!

Twas a cold day indeed in Liverpool - and everywhere else in the North West, for that matter. We're talking the 'OH MY GOD IT'S GONNA SNOW *panics*' kind of temperatures. Perhaps I shouldn't have said that; some nut-job might read it and start another meteorological riot. The first mention of 'snow' these days sends the whole of Britain into a frenzy.

Seriously, watch this: snow. AAAAH OMG IT'S GONNA SNOW WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEE. See? It's good to know for when you're A) in Britain and B) bored.

I'm glad I started buying Record Collector magazine, because every issue has a list of every record shop that stocks it (Kaleidoscope of St. Helens included), as well as a list of all the major vinyl fairs taking part over the next month. In the latest issue, I read with joy that there would be one in Liverpool on the 20th (today, as you may have guessed). Not only that, but it's run by a group called Premier Fairs, who do fairs all across the North of England on a regular basis. Their Liverpool ones are always at the Holiday Inn, which is just across the road from Lime Street Station.

Did I go? Of course I did! A record fair in my local area was an opportunity too good to pass up. So I put a bit of money aside, and waited for the 20th to arrive.

Before we go any further, I have to make a snazzy announcement. It's music-related, but nothing to do with this vinyl fair. Last Wednesday I got paid, and I spent just over £70 of that money on something very worthwhile.

( It's under the cut, though, because I'm an awful, evil person. )

Premier Fairs will be running another record fair at the Holiday Inn on Lime Street in April - the date will no doubt be in Record Collector and it's already up on the Premier Fairs website. If anyone's interested, it's literally right across the street from Lime Street station and they always put up a great big sign on the day. I'll definitely be going again, alongside my usual raids on the Saturday market record stall and Kaleidoscope. That way I can get a wider range of stuff!

Also, I'm considering bringing a new feature onto my journal - an in-depth catalogue of every vinyl, CD, cassette and book that I own. It sounds very nerdy but it would be a neat way to a) show people what I've managed to get my hands on and b) keep track of what I have.