Hiya,

 

I’ve been away on NUS training and a well deserved holiday for the last three weeks so there’s not much been going on really. My holiday wasn’t that glamorous, well in fact it was the Reading Festival so unless you can call designer wellies and a rain Mac glamorous then I certainly Kate Moss. The bands were good, Bloc Party were amazing and Rage Against the Machine were out of this world but I was very disappointed that Slipknot had to cancel as the drummer broke his foot and Avenged Sevenfold  also cancelled as the lead singer had vocal strain. This left a really interesting atmosphere on Sunday, as no one was sure whether bands would replace them or when any of the shows were on. The big winner of the day was Mindless Self Indulgence, a fantastic band who I cant even begin to describe what they sound like, kind of like metal mixed with Japanese pop, they are just amazing. Check them out on you tube or Myspace when you get a minute.

 

The Alternative Tent was by far the best where I got to see Steven Lynch the amazing comedian songwriter and also Robin Ince who were both superb.

 

Yesterday I went to the NUS Media Reception and got to meet loads of amazing people from Amnesty International and some really remarkable and heroic people. The highlight of the day was a panel debate on freedom of expression which was chaired by the comedian and journalist Hardeep Singh and the panel included Richard Budden (NUS National Secretary) Kristyan Benedict (campaign manager fro Amnesty International UK) KO AUNG (Former student leader in Burma and part of the Free Burma Coalition) and Shao Jiang (an exiled student leader involved in organising the Tiananmen Square democracy protests in 1989)

 

The debate and stories from these people were absolutely amazing and has really inspired me to get more involved with Amnesty International in the future. Amnesty is looking to set up a student group at Anglia Ruskin next year and will have their very own stand at fresher’s so if you would like to get more involved in their work, find them at the fresher’s fair or drop me an email and I’ll let you know what’s going on.

 

That’s all from me for now, speak to you all soon

 

Kate

xxx