Lauren Tabbron shares her favourite things to do in Manchester
Jess Astbury regales tales of festivities in warmer climates.
Volunteer at a festival
Many charities and businesses need volunteers to work stalls and do publicity at festivals, from Greenpeace to the makers of the Mooncup. (Look this up if you don't know what it is.)
Pros: Obviously, you get free entry to the festival. Also, you'll spend your summer with a clear conscience, safe in the knowledge that you gave up one whole weekend (!) working for a good cause.
Cons: Festivals can be ugly, ugly things; for example the end of Leeds Festival forcibly reminds one of the last days of Rome. Also, what shifts you'll have to work will greatly affect what acts you'll be able to see, and you'll end up having the same conversation all summer: “Oh wow, you were at IndiePoserFest? Did you see The Phlegm? They're my favourite band!” “For the hundredth time, no I did not! I was busy telling women all about an alternative to tampons!”
Go camping
Dig the tent out from the attic, pile into a friend's van and drive down to Cornwall with a group of mates, where you can find a field in which to spend a few nights making fires, drinking cider and feeling “at one” with nature.
Pros: Cider is delicious, and also you have an opportunity to release your inner hippie without feeling too much like an idiot, because everybody else will be doing the same.
Cons: If your campsite is discovered, there are few things to be feared more than an angry West country farmer. Also, three days into your trip you will realise why human beings invented the flushing toilet. And the mattress. And the house.
Go Hitchhiking
Ah, the open road, the freedom, the sense of adventure. Just pack a rucksack and let random motorists dictate your holiday plans by taking you to wherever the hell they're going.
Pros: Very cheap, a great way to meet new people and the image is a very romantic one. (Though in reality, standing next to the M6 for five hours probably isn't the cool, American desert hitchhiker image you're going for.
Cons: If Hollywood movies have taught me anything, it's that hitchhikers are always either crazed serial killers or the victims of crazed serial killers. I suppose you just have to ask yourself which sort of person you are.
Buy a last minute ticket at the airport extremely cheaply
Apparently for this one, you just have to wait around at the airport for someone not to show up for their flight, then you can just swoop in and buy their ticket for a fraction of the price.
Pros: Very cheap for what you might get, and it could be fun turning up to the airport with no idea as to where you'll be flying that day. You never know, you might luck out and find yourself on the plane to the Seychelles.
Cons: I got this idea from an episode of The Simpsons, so it could very well not be true that you can do this. Even if it is real, there's always the chance that you'll draw the short straw and end up on the one way flight to Hull.
Pretend to go on holiday
All you need for this one is a deck chair, a heat lamp, a TV and a pile of holiday programme DVDs. Set these all up in a room of your house and just watch episode after episode after episode. Pretty soon you'll find yourself immersed and will have forgotten all about dreary old England. Feel free to get as creative as you want, by incorporating things like sand, water, a cocktail with a pink umbrella and curly straw, anything you like. The possibilities are endless.
Pros: You get to travel the world in a matter of hours, and don't even have to worry about getting malaria pills or immunisations for all these exotic countries. Even though it may seem like it at times, remember, you're not actually there!
Cons: You will lose all your friends, who will think you desperately sad. (Remember, they're just jealous you're having such a good time and they're not.)
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