Admonishers of Daydreaming Ragamuffins,

The revision beat is proving quite lonely, today nearly passed without incident, tensions on both sides of the War of Information seem to have subsided notwithstanding, the inquisition over the mail that has now become routine. Crisis occurred when mother decided to paint the newly-constructed fence, and inadvertently speckled the length of my car with creosote. Creosote will always be my surface-coating of choice, but I've so far refrained from supplementing the metallic green body of my vehicle with it's delights. I immediately employed the spit-wetted finger removal technique, however, it soon became apparent this would not only be poisonous but somewhat arduous. Given the time of evening, I had to go to a self-service carwash; I've never liked using these, the next customer waiting to use the carwash after me is invariably an impatient ruffian with irritating dance music bursting from his vehicle of enhanced specification. The creosote problem was solved but overall, the job I carried out was patchy.

I am desperate for the revision period and the exams to be over, while I have enjoyed studying the course, this final run-in is strenuous. I am looking forward to whatever the summer may hold, I hope it is a holiday and not a period of unemployment. I don't think I have any plans apart from one day at T in the Park and I don't think I'm entitled to say that is a definite appointment. I am really the organiser of most of the big events amongst my massive, last year, I organised for a 4-strong group to attend T in the Park, this year, I was trying to muster a group of 6. Only 2 tickets were allowed to be purchased per person, thus I had to drill 3 people for this operation. We had decided only to go on Saturday, it's always hard to choose the day to go on when only the basic schedule is advertised when tickets go on sale - I opted for Saturday owing to Sigur Ros' involvement and the World Cup Final being on Sunday. Out of the 3 people trying to buy tickets, only one person, not me, succeeded. I believe I am the frontrunner for the other ticket out of the 2 bought, but I certainly could not disagree if it was allocated to someone else. My own attempts to buy tickets were thwarted by a computer glitch that occurred for people trying to only buy Day Tickets, I disputed this with Ticketmaster and DF Concerts but I only received patronising replies.

I cannot sum up my previous experience of T in the Park easily, in one respect it was one of the greatest days ever, in another, the worst. At the start of the day, I was feeling quite poorly, but I packed my rucksack with many bottles of lucozade, juice and food and we set off eagerly. One of the group was meeting the other three on site and this proved to be the first major drama, meeting up was somewhat stressful. Once tempers cooled from this episode, it was decided that rather than join the queue to enter the arena, we would wait until it subsided and then enter, thus I missed the Little Flames. We waited outside for a couple of hours, we did arrive early so we did not miss too much - only one band that only one member of the group really wanted to see. It was the warmest day of the year so everyone was supposedly content to bask outside apart from me, who was ill and felt alternately hot and really cold. I had trousers, jumpers and a jacket when I should have been wearing a shorts and t-shirt.

Once inside, we decided to stay as a group and I was very diplomatic all day long about who we went to see, in hindsight, this was a mistake. The group of 4 was clearly divided, 2 members seemed more interested in activities they could have participated in at home, I think for every great act I saw, they have a tale of buying a hotdog or an ice cream or visiting the toilets. We started off by seeing Maximo Park who were fantastic, although the mischievous two took little notice, there were clear problems with the acoustics on the Radio 1/NME stage all day but they managed to be loud enough to rock through this. Ordinary Boys got the vote for the next band, they were heralded onto the stage by Eldred Bowman, they were okay but they did not manage to battle through the sound problems with that stage so well and we soon left their set.

We wandered around aimlessly for a while, two of us stumbled into a small tent where the Longcut were playing to about 30 folk and it was probably the highlight of my day, they were very talented. The drummer was the lead singer and he drummed a while then he would leave the drum kit behind, switch on the drum machine and come to the microphone and sing for a while, and then he'd go back, all in the middle of the same song.

The next band after the reunion of the group was Aberfeldy, who were fantastic. The best bit was during "Heliopolis by Night", when the backing vocalist pinches her nose and sings "interflight co-ordinates for Heliopolis by night".

Afterwards, my trademark diplomacy guided us to Embarass on the Main Stage, the crowd loved them, I was very, very bored. It was obscene MOR wallowing and cringeworthy chat with the crowd. Once the ordeal was over, I caught the end of Magic Number set from the entrance to the X-Tent, it was absolutely packed and rightly so. After another reunion, they decided we would see bed-wetters Keane, yet again the Main Stage crowd fawned over them, I was growning a bit weary by this stage, seeing dreadful performances was not helping my fight, however, the Lucozade helped me last a bit longer.

There was a bit of a gap before the group's appointment with the Killers. I was being terribly polite up until now, I had no inclination to see the Killers, their songs were so overplayed on the radio at the time, I was tired of them. Ahead of this, I wandered into a tent where El Presidente were finishing a lively and fun set. We reunited again at the Main Stage, I felt the Killers added nothing more live to the tracks I was bored of on the radio, the Main Stage was also surrounded by idiots so I tolerated this no more and demanded the group left to see the Coral on the doomed Radio 1/NME stage. They were just beginning as we arrived, they were playing to hardly anyone. I'm sure the band were playing brilliantly however, such was the nature of the acoustics on that stage, the spectators were being pounded by bass and the Coral sounded more like Guns n' Roses than the band we were used to. After leaving slightly disappointed, there was long period before the headline slot that we had decided upon - Doves.

Going to see Doves was to be another a bit of a disappointment, out of respect to James Brown, they had decided to go on early and let James headline the King Tuts Wah Wah Tent, lots of people were similarly frustrated, we arrived as Doves were doing their penultimate song. They finished with "There Goes the Fear" which was amazing. The schedule change wasn't so galling after that and it meant we could see other worthy headliners Super Furry Animals in the X-Tent.

With more time to spare, two of us arrived at the X-Tent early enough to see some of Brendan Benson's brilliant set. There was to be no reunion for the headliners although there were long delays in setting up Super Furry Animals' laser show. Unfortunately, by the time of this set, I was exhausted and very lightheaded and I resembled a hamster. Being in a stupefied state, near the front of the stage, was probably quite dangerous, in my dazed state. Super Furry Animals were fantastic, they ran through all their greatest hits and they had the crowd jumping and a dazed me being rattled about. Additionally, two people either side of me, started fighting each other over a flag, I then, was amidst the fracas between them and the stewards. The band were brilliant but I was desperate to retire. Somehow, I managed to drive us all home, even with the added police diversion which I felt must've taken us halfway to Glasgow.

Pulling up the driveway, I just made it to the front door from the car, before collapsing in. I spent the next few hours drinking cups of tea and lucozade in front of the fire, before being sick, I feel this part is perhaps the fulcrum of this cat story. It was clear that I had the mumps, I have never felt so ill. The next morning I was perfectly well. My T in the Park experience was rather erratic and indefinable; I had great experiences with many bands (Maximo Park, Aberfeldy, Longcut, Doves, Brendan Benson, The Coral and Super Furry Animals), bad experiences at the Main Stage (Keane, Embarass, Killers and simpletons), the unnecessary tensions within our group and the onset of the worst illness I have ever encountered. I feel I can't say T in the Park is a good or bad festival based on my experience, I might have imagined some of it, I was in a mumps and Lucozade-fuelled stupor towards the end of the day, I only hope I can go this year and have a normal fun festival-going experience.

The photograph depicts a sunny day at Methil docks.