Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts

Thanks to my friend Andrew (aka Greenie), even though I missed out on getting a Glastonbury ticket the conventional way*, I managed to sneak in as a VIP on the back of his media pass. He takes photos and writes for a DJ website as a hobby and so he can get media passes to music festivals ;-) ;-)

So, on Thursday I finished packing my bags, including pink flowery “wellies” (GUMBOOTS) with hand-painted design, and waited to be picked up by Greenie in our rental car. Unfortunately, there were problems. We were supposed to be taking two other people to share the cost and at the last minute they pulled out because one of them was really sick and possibly wouldn’t be going to the festival at all! Fair enough really. And then the rental car company forgot to come and pick up Greenie, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because he got an upgrade and a discount (I think). We ended up in a hybrid car (petrol an d electric), which made us feel a bit more environmentally friendly since there were now only two of us in the car.

Getting out of London proved to be a bit of a mission without a map (I stupidly didn’t pack my A to Z) so Greenie succumbed and bought one and we got underway without any further hitches.

If I describe the rest of the weekend in this much detail this is going to be an epic worthy of War and Peace, so I’ll stick to highlights, lowlights, and memorable events.

Finding my tent: My friend Shelly from school in London (who I worked with) had arrived much earlier than me and kindly agreed to take my tent and pitch it near hers. The plan was that I would call her when I got there and we would meet up so she could show me where my tent was. I don’t think so. Cell phone reception was a nightmare and I trekked around with my giant pack until it was dark. She managed to get a message through that she’d be at the stone circle for sunset at 9:30, and that‘s where we finally met up. Needless to say, I was happy to see her!

Friday’s musical highlight: Bjork, weird and wonderful, with Shelly and Phil.

Saturday’s musical highlight: Fat Freddie’s Drop, with, initially, all the Kiwis from London and, randomly, my friend Chris from London, now a community support officer in Manchester, who I met at Little Canada as a fellow Field Studies Instructor.

Sunday’s musical highlight: Pendulum from beside the stage (in the backstage/VIP area), with Greenie but mostly by myself because he was busy taking photos. I was so close! And I had so much space! Awesome.

The mud: See pictures. Did you know that pulling your feet out of sticky mud gives you sore inner thighs? And is exhausting?

The weather: Bursts of torrential rain interspersed with hot and glorious sunshine. Created dilemmas about what to wear, and ensured the mud went back and forth from slimy, easily negotiated puddle to sticky, horrible mess. Also probably the reason that I spent most of my time in the Dance Area and occasionally the Other Stage. There were five stages in the Dance Area and they were relatively close together therefore easy(ish) to get between. The Other Stage also wasn’t that far away and had some good bigger names on.

I think for the rest, I will respond to any questions you may have!

Oh, by the way, it was fantastic and I would absolutely recommend it.

* The conventional way of getting the ticket this year involved registering with a photo which would go on your ticket (to stop ticket touts onselling them at exorbitant prices) and then when the tickets went on sale trying to get onto the website or through to the phone lines to actually purchase one. My friends who managed to get tickets all got them through an out-of-town contact: strategy for next time!!

Lakes District - May Bank holiday weekend

We headed up to the Lakes Distric on the train on Friday evening - I nearly missed the train! Because of my tube line from work being down. It should've been a really quick journey but I had to change three times. Anyway, I made it.

Saturday was designated as our big walking day, so we got into a taxi nice and early in the morning ;-) ...

Where we were walking was quite far from where we stayed, so we got a taxi to the bottom and then started in earnest up this quite steep road... Quite shock to the system to start that way!

Steve, Tash, Greenie and Jared 'battling' up the hill.











The information that Steve had said it was going to take us five hours to do the round trip. On the way to the summit of Coniston Old Man, we summited (he he) two or three smaller hills. Once we had got up to the ridgeline it was fairly easy going, and we weren't really zooming.


Jared wasting my water













A tarn and the view from the ridge - aah the fresh air!


















Clambering over one of the many rocky outcrops













And up one of the many rocky outcrops (Jared)


















Another great view












Stupidly, I didn't really take any decent photos at the top - there were too many people and some of the other shots were more picturesque. But if you check Jared's blog or Nick and Tash's blog they might have some...

The walk down was very steep. This is the way that most people walk up and back because it is shorter, but we were so glad to have done the route that we did. It was quite hard scrambling down and looked much worse for those who were coming up.

Once we got down the first steep rocky bit it did calm down a little bit and we came across this old quarry which inspired all of us to try out our photography skills...


Through a stone doorway













Steve, Nick and Jared making their way down












At the bottom we happened to come out right beside a pub! So you can probably guess what the next move was...

Unfortunately, it didn't have food so after one pint of the excellent local ale we moved down the road to a different pub and got a meal. On the way we started playing this ridiculous word game which I won't expand on here. Let's just say it wasn't very popular with the parents sitting near us so although we thought it was hilarious and continued to play it we did 'turn down the volume' a little. In retrospect, it's probably not AS funny as it was to us then, but we'd had a considerable amount of exercise followed by not insignificant amounts of beer - excellent recipe for hilarity!

Our plan had been to walk around the lake (Coniston Water) and then over a ridge back to our hostel. It turned out to be a lot further and more difficult than we expected so after a bit of disagreement amongst the troops we got another taxi back to the hostel. The people at the hostel probably thought we were silly! Leaving in our hiking gear in a taxi and then returning in a taxi - must've looked like we didn't do anything. Never mind.

And, by the way, the walk that was supposed to take 5 hours only took 3 and a half, at a leisurely pace too!

Random photo time. We were staying near a town called Hawkshead so that was where we walked to get dinner at a local pub and supplies for whatever. On the way we passed the sight in the photo below. I couldn't resist taking a photo. I have no idea why this staircase to a wall exists, but it looks pretty funny!
















Sunday we wandered around the cute little shops in Hawkshead and then walked to see Beatrix Potter's cottage, Hill Top.
Me outside Beatrix Potter's cottage.













There were timed entried because the cottage was so small so we took refuge in a local pub while we waited for our turn (along with everyone else!). Inside the cottage was really cool though. They had some of her books open at relevant pages so that you could see that the cottage in the story was in fact the cottage where she lived! I never realised this before.

Once we'd done that we continued the walk around Esthwaite Water (map) back to our hostel. Once again, many photo opportunites...

Traditional Lake District scene - water, stone fences, pasture and big ole trees











The others got a bit ahead of me. This is them crossing a bridge.












Monday was the day for walking back towards Lake Windermere where we could get a ferry from Bowness across to Windermere to meet our train. Once again Steve had some directions for us to follow but it wasn't quite as simple as the writer made out and we made a huge detour. Luckily some other hikers had an OS map with them and we figured out how to get back on track.



Steve and Jared at the trig point on High Blind How. We weren't supposed to go here. But there were great views!















Greenie, Tash and Nick poring over the directions. This was after we had had our detour and were back on the 'instructions'. Still fairly representative of the day though.







Near the bottom of the steep descent to Lake Windermere











Well, in the end we made to Windermere with time for a pint and to buy some supplies for the train journey home. All in all, a great weekend!

Rewind High - 12th May 2007

This was organised by friends of ours as fundraising for a children's charity in Nepal that they are involved with. You can guess what I went as from the pictures :-)


Scary!!












Jared and Nick













Tash (kapa haka girl), Ben and Beck













Nick and Ben














Steve and Richy













On the tube - Beck, Ben and Kylie












Jared in Ben's wig