For Carlos

The internet arrived in our house when I was in my early teens.    It was a lot simpler then.    Facebook, twitter, myspace, bebo, faceparty (is that still going?) didn't exist.     It was all fields back then as my grandmother might have said :)

As a young, non cynical, optimistic thing I set about trying to make friends in foreign lands.  Something perhaps my parents would discourage me to do now given the potential dangers out there.    Anyway, as a young spanish learner I wanted to talk to people who could help me practice.   In addition as a teenage girl, I picked boys...yep a strumpet in the making maybe!

I talked to many randoms via the wonders of yahoo messenger, most of which are long forgotten.    A few still linger in my memory.   An angry greek who ranted at me about european politics,  Jesus from Mexico city who mostly told me he loved me and sent me animated e-cards, his english was as good as my spanish so that soon fizzled out!   An american guy called Crash (I'm not sure that was his real name, if it was his parents were cruel) and Carlos also from Mexico.

Carlos was an average kind of guy,  I don't really have a lot of memory as to what we talked about.  Probably the sort of nonsense you chat when you are 15, music, school and friends I guess.

As with most long distance friendships they disappeared as the years went on.   A few years ago however Carlos appeared again, via the wonders of facebook.    It would appear we both still had the same old email addresses and therefore facebook matched our contact details so we were able to re-connect.

Still being a Spanish learner (sadly not much improved!) I enjoyed reading Carlos' long status updates and now and then we would comment, and share birthday wishes etc as you do.    Both Carlos and I  daughters this year.   It was lovely to hear about his family.

In mid December unfortunately however my friend Carlos, who was 38 years old passed away.   I never met him but when I read the news I was and still am deeply saddened, though we were only friends via a small screen he had an impact on my life, in some ways more than people that I have actually met which feels a little bizarre.

The internet can be full of the wrong sort.  Letting your teenage loose online can be like giving a box of knives to a toddler.   Viruses and criminals lurk in every corner.  Just sometimes though it brings people together who ordinarily would have passed each other in the street without a second thought.

I will never forget you Carlos.  Thank you for being my friend.  I will miss you.

Boomtown Fair 2013...with a baby

As I write I am currently recovering from our trip to Boomtown Fair festival at Matterley Bowl.   This was my first festival with my little one in tow and to say I was nervous about this is an understatement!

Being a seasoned festival goer I know what to expect.  There are festivals that I have attended that I would never consider bringing a baby to, however after attending Gastonbury and Camp Bestival a few years ago (without children) I was fairly confident that I would be able to cope.

First things first, Boomtown Festival is pretty cool.   Would I take my little one there again... I don't know. There are definitely some issues that they need to iron out first.

I got our tickets for this festival when I was pregnant.   Obviously at that point I had no concept of what it would be like to have a baby, never mind take one to a festival.  After baby was born I did a lot of research on the festival.  Initially I had booked a B&B to stay in off site.  I eventually cancelled this as thought we may struggle to get off site each day.

I read the official website from cover to cover, there is very little information on kids at the festival outside of the official website.  That I imagine is due to the fact that the festival is in its infancy having been only running for a few years.  The website for the festival does however emphasise that the event is very much intended to be a family one and they have children's interests in mind.  The kids have their own dedicated part of 'town' and there is a quiet family camping area.  According to the website the family camping area is the first area that you reach on entering the site.

I was fully expecting entering the site to be a bit of a nightmare, it usually is with most festivals. I was however hopeful that given that the capacity of Boomtown is 30k as opposed to Glasto's 100k plus and the fact it is supposed to be a family event that the organisers of the festival would be ensuring that entry was as painless as physically possible...there I'm afraid I was very wrong.

The gates to the car park open at 8am.   The festival gates were due to open at 10.   I am unsure why the need for the two hour time gap but I was aware of this before I set out I suppose.  We aimed to be at the festival for just after 8 in order that I could give the baby a feed (I'm breastfeeding, she feeds every couple of hours) and  then be near the front of the queue so that we wouldn't be behind 30 thousand people when the gates opened at 10 and that we could ensure that we got a spot in the family camping area.  (I wasn't sure how big the area would be and I had read some bits and pieces online that suggested that outside of the family camping area the festival might be a little crazy and so was nervous about not getting a space!)

On arrival at the festival I was a little concerned to find that there was an extreme lack of other children.   We found one other lady with a baby in the queue but no others in sight!   At 10 am it was getting warm and very crowded and I was anxious to get in and get the tent up and sit down with the baby.  I was wearing her in a sling and I was getting hot.  I had a limited supply of water and was conscious that I needed to stay hydrated as I was feeding.

With regards to breastfeeding.  The Boomtown fair website makes mention of the 'Babychamber' where breastfeeding mothers can feed in a quiet environment.  This would suggest that they were expecting feeding mothers like myself and this had also contributed to my decision to attend the festival.

The news then spread through the crowd that there were still some health and safety checks to be completed onsite so they could not let people in.   Why were these not carried out the day before or at least in good time?   Then, news came that the ticket scanners had broken...so the wait continued.

It was around 12pm that the gates finally opened.  That's at least 4 hours of waiting for most people.   Really, not ideal kids or no kids. :(   I appreciate that health and safety checks needed to be finalised but did anyone consider the health and safety of the crowd waiting for such a long period outside with a lack of access to important facilities and shade?

Had I known that entry to the festival at that point was going to be this difficult I would have perhaps delayed mine and baby's arrival to much later that day. I was perhaps just a little naive n my confidence that things would run a lot smoother.  You live and learn eh!

On entry to the festival random searches were performed and I was searched by possibly the rudest woman who told me that I was 'very brave' to bring my baby to Boomtown and basically looked at me like I was a complete moron for being there.

The searching was not an issue, this is common at festivals.   I was however carrying a baby and a backpack. My husband and 3 friends were waved through without searching.  I am unsure why I was selected to be the recipient of a 'random'' search given the fact I was carrying a small baby and somewhat unlikely to have a bag full of Ketamine or knives.   But I appreciate that it is an unfortunate world we live in and you can't trust everyone.

It would have been helpful had the steward in question taken the time to zip up my bag again instead of leaving me to struggle with the baby to pack my clothes back in and zip my bag up.  (My husband was struggling himself with a sack truck and huge bag)  Perhaps she thought that as I was so foolish to bring my child to such an event that I deserved everything I got...I got through the entrance area and burst into tears.

We were then pointed in the direction of the family camping and helped with our bags by another steward who actually appeared to be a decent human.

There was problem number 2.  Instead of being the first camping area you got to, quiet camping and the kids area were at the complete opposite end of the site to where the entrance was.  A-MAZ-ING, thanks for that.  It also did not appear on the map we were given in the program.   We ended up camping in 'Oldtown camping' and not in the specific quiet area.  It was right next to kidstown and there were lots of families camped nearby.  Perhaps they, like us just couldn't deal with walking further to get to the actual family area.

Basically, entry to Boomtown is in vast need of improvement.   Perhaps a separate gate for families to enter would help oh and perhaps a training course in  people skills for the miserable bint on the front gate.

I'll move on anyway!

When we finally got into the festival we did actually have a good time.  I clearly had a more chilled festival than I would normally.  I spent a good deal of my time in 'Hold it down' town  which was the hippy area, listening to acoustic music on the flying lotus stage and eating cake.

The festival has two main areas.   The bowl, where you will find the big Arcadia spider, the Boombox, people dancing on cars, Downtown, Chinatown and El Barrio Loco and more general madness and the area at the top of the hill where Kidstown, Oldtown, Town Centre, Mayfair ave, Trench town, Hold it down town etc are.   The top of the hill definitely has a more family friendly vibe.

There was a 'Magic Carpet'  moving walkway to help you get up the hill.  In all honesty I thought this wasn't worth the £10 for the weekend.  The queue for it took ages, it was quicker to walk up the hill, you couldn't take luggage on it so it wouldn't have been useful for that either.  Apparently children under 5 were not allowed to use the magic carpet.  It would have been useful if this had been mentioned on the website as it simply stated that children could travel free with a magic carpet ticket holding adult.  The moving walkway was a nice idea in principle, but really...pointless.

I was able to venture out for a bit in the evenings while the man looked after baby and got to dance like a crazy person at tribe of frog and discover the cool micro venues, like the gypsy disco in Oldtown, Funkington Manor in Mayfair and last aid in town centre.   I loved this about Boomtown as there felt like so much to discover and you could easily wander for hours looking at things without getting bored!

All in all, we enjoyed ourselves.  The festival has quite a nice community spirit.  There were idiots there but they are at all festivals.  Most people I came across were also pretty cool and nobody else (aside from lady at the gate) was negative about baby.  We did see quite a few kids and babies over the course of the weekend and they seemed to be having fun.

'Kidstown' appeared to be a bit sparse and was unsure if everything advertised on the boomtown website was actually there.   I did not see 'the pig' for example over the course of the weekend.  That being said I only made a couple of visits as my little one is not ready for playing with much more than a rattle at present.

I do think that Boomtown has a long way to go before it can really be considered a family event.   If it's your first festival with very young kids I wouldn't recommend it.   I think there needs to be a few improvements on entry and more needs to be added to Kidstown (as really there wasn't a huge amount there in comparison to the kids area at Camp Bestival for example).

The experience has not put me off festivals with a baby.  I shall just be much more selective next year.

Boomtown might get there one day as a family event but at the moment it seems the festival is still only a baby itself.

Glastonbury, the verdict

Ok so it has taken me a long time to get round to writing about Glastonbury. In fairness I have probably only just recovered from the 'glasto jet lag'.

So here we go. If you read my blog below I expect you would have guessed that a part of me had wanted to dislike Glastonbury. There is something about wanting to hate something after its been overhyped so when I was rudely awakened in the wee small hours of a rainy June morning I must admit I was grumpily muttering obscenities to myself and wondering whether it was all going to be worth the hassle.

We arrived in the car park at 6am the gates to the actual festival do not open until 8 I believe, the car journey onto the site itself was pleasantly pain free so by this point my mood had lifted slightly.

At about 6.15am I unfolded a camping chair and cracked open a can of strongbow (don't judge me please, neither for being an alcoholic nor being one that drinks strongbow, Im at a festival, rules are different :)

Unfortunately this was the low point really, as little did I know at this point that I was going to queue for no less than 4 hours in the rain, to get into the site itself. 4 hours is upsetting on its own but when you are carrying a rucksack with what feels like a ton of breeze blocks inside and attempting to drag a sack truck through the muddiest mud that Somerset can offer its certainly not something that will fill your heart with joy!

still smiling! :)

Finally we did get in and find a space to pitch our tent in an already heaving campsite (on a wednesday morning, bearing in mind the festival does not technically start until Friday).

The first thing I realised that this is a festival in its own league of festivals. The vastness of it is the aspect that strikes you first I think. The size of one of the fields is probably the size of the entire Reading festival arena. It seems to always take an hour to walk between stages, due to both the distance and the volume of people. It is therefore advisable to set off early if there is something specific you want to see!

The best advice I had before I left was, don't expect to be able to plan what bands you will watch, you will have a better experience if you let the festival take you where it wants to. The festival itself is like a small town. There are a variety of bars where you can actually sit on sofas and there is live music. Even if you were to simply sit in one of these for a day and miss the main headliners you would still have an awesome experience.

Also unlike your standard festival there are things to see and do almost as soon as the campsite opens. Usually if you were to arrive on a wednesday am you would be largely confined to your tent until the Friday when the arena opens and the festival officially kicks off. Here however there are bars playing music open from Wednesday eve so effectively you are getting two extra days of entertainment for your ticket price. Glastonbury suddenly was seeming better value for money.

My one issue is perhaps that I would like to see less of the likes of coldplay and U2 and more bands that are more to my taste. I very much enjoyed flogging molly but I would liked to have seen some more of the heavier bands. This is where Reading and Lowlands win for me. However it cannot be said that Glastonbury does not have an extremely diverse range of music so maybe I was in the wrong place at the wrong time I don't know.

If you are a dance/drum and bass/dubstep fan you will however been in your element as there is an entire arena, containing about 5 separate stages all devoted to such music which will keep you busy to the small hours.

In addition to the bars and stages there are the healing and greenpeace fields where you can see all sorts of weird and wonderful things. Perhaps try some dandelion vodka (but only if you have a strong gag reflex if you want my advice). There are also the circus and children's fields putting on an array of entertainment and street theatre until late.

Why not get your face painted especially if you have a friend who is afraid of people dressed up as cats.

Christina, doing her bit to make mullins feel uncomfortable!

Finally if you have the energy after a day of walking miles in the mud (so many miles I actually managed to lose weight!) you shouldn't go home without visiting Glastonbury's late night areas. Shangri-la, arcadia and the unfair ground.

We discovered these on our last night and I wish that we had found them a few nights earlier as they are something else. Nightclubs with buses crashed through the front and all sorts of crazy things

Sadly by this point I was a broken woman and managed only to wander round in awe for a bit before crying off to my tent!

In conclusion I have to concede that Glasto is the most impressive festival I have ever been to. I also heard that Reading was in the region of £190 to attend this year. When you consider that Glastonbury is not only 2 extra days long its probably 5 times the size of Reading - value for money wise its really a no brainer. Sorry Reading...its not you...its me.

In my heart Lowlands will always be my true love festival wise, I prefer its more intimate feel the fact its so offbeat and I've seen a more diverse range of music here without doing a half marathon between stages.

However would I go to Glastonbury again given the chance? Whilst I was so desperate to hate it. Your damn right I would, In a heartbeat.

See you in 2013 Mr Eavis :)

The journey so far

Melissa, sums up this picture

So, Im about to embark upon my 10th festival, the epic that is Glastonbury. It will be my first time at glasto and I'm unsure whether I am excited or not.

When I was 16 I was absolutely desperate to go, but my mother, who is a worrier forbade me. In any event, I had nobody to go with. It was not until I was 18 and met Rob that I got my first go on a festival at Reading 2001.

Reading 01 will probably always be the festival I look back at with the most fondness. Probably because it was my first, and also because it was awesome. This picture isn't isnt 01, I think it was probably Reading 2003...I cant find my 01 pics, but Im sure they are similar :)

Times felt simpler then, it was ok to hug anyone you wanted, join a hoedown for no good reason and there was a van that sold as many hats as you wanted for £1. What more could you want :)

We had a few years following at Reading with some epic musical performances, Marylin Mansun on stilts, Green Day's burning set and an accoustic set from Staind (because of technical difficulties) all spring to mind. But there were so many more...

Someone told me that they hated Reading festival as it was like going to a festival in a car park, looking back, it was a bit...but that didn't stop it being the best weekend of the summer :)

In 2006 my best friend (selfishly :) ) chose August bank holiday weekend to get married and so Reading and I had to 'go on a break'. We haven't been back since :(

2006 we headed North to Download festival. I remember three things about Download. 1) There was an actual riot, 2) it was dusty 3) Someone set fire to the toilets when I was in them. Aside from the fact Download felt a little like a war zone, It was messy and we had fun...see I look happy...and tanned...tanned no doubt because of the dust!

After Download, clearly we had a taste for change and it was decided not to go back to Reading the following year so on it was to Rockness. Poles apart from the anger of Download. Rockness on the banks of Loch Ness was a much prettier festival. Well pretty apart from winning the award for the worst festival portaloos I have ever experienced ( Evidenced by the fact I saw a girl open the door of one and be so disgusted that she threw up on sight of what was inside...grim) Fortunately we had paid an extra few quid for 'VIP' tickets, which did not get you much extra other than flushing toilets & a rhubarb vodka bar but in the circumstances it was money well spent! Here I learned that the Scottish can drink an impressive amount of beer constantly for days. Heights of hardcore I will only ever aspire to. Im told that weekend I saw Kelis turn up in a helicopter, the chemical brothers and daft punk. In all honesty I mainly remember meeting a man called Lauren...

not sure which one Lauren was... :)

In 2009 we did camp bestival, which I have written about in a previous blog. In essence its a family festival which is great if you have kids, but not my usual choice. I wont bore you with that again anyway and I'll move on.

In 2008 we got confident and decided to venture abroad for our festival fun. Lowlands in the Netherlands is a brilliant, well organised festival, the weather even held out for us and again in 2010 when we popped back. I don't speak dutch but but festivals are supposed to be mad so the fact that everybody is speaking another language just adds to the charm. In any event, when drunk everyone understands each other fine :) Setting aside my love of the 'Reading' years Lowlands is probably the best festival I have attended.

One of the best 'last night' parties Ive been to. Kees Van Hondt's DJ set on the final night is a mad mix of people dancing with bits of tree or random inflatables. I don't know why, as I say, I don't speak dutch. I'm not actually sure if the dutch know either.. All I know, is that it is sheer brilliance! :)

So after the fabulousness of Lowlands I'm unsure if I have spoiled myself for the festival that I was so desperate to go to when I was a young un. The cleanliness of the Netherlands is to be swapped with what is almost guaranteed to be a mud bath. Im excited, Im scared and to be honest for £200 Im expecting great things. So come on Glastonbury...show me what you've got....

Toto I don't think we are in kansas anymore

Hey, Long time no post I know.

Have been busy being jet set which has been amazing. Decided to take a trip down under to the merry old land of Oz.

I arrived in Sydney with no expectations really, normally I spend weeks and weeks obsessively reading up on my chosen holiday destinations but for some reason Australia has never really excited me. I kind of always assumed it was mostly like England but with nicer weather and full of people who were obsessed with bbq food. Oh and I think someone said something about jellyfish.

In fact, so disorganised I was I didnt actually realise we needed a visa until the day of travel...doh! fortunately you can get them fairly easily online!

In truth, its not like England at all really. Its bloody massive for a start. England is the size of a tiny ant. I think going somewhere so big does make you feel tiny and insignificant on the scale of things.

Anyway...It all started well, sunshine, pizza, jugs of tooheys new and chilling in the big city. After 2 days we headed up to cairns. Id heard great things about cairns so I was actually a bit excited by this point to be going there.

And when we got there I was not disappointed. Beautiful day, and it looked gorgeous.

We arrived at our hostel where we were greeted by a typical chirpy aussie who checked us in

'hey guys, yep got you a room on the top floor tonight, but we are going to try to move everyone downstairs tomorrow'

'ok...(we look confused about the moving rooms situation)

'you don't know what Im talking about do you? didnt anyone tell you'

Now Im on my holidays I don't read the news papers and again at this point I was regretting not researching prior to travel.

With that, chirpy Aussie man, (still smiling) slaps a newspaper on the counter. On the front page was a picture of a large storm system...underneath, the headline read: 'The monster'

G U L P

'Yeah, so we are actually recommending everyone tries to leave cairns. There is a flight out to the gold coast tomorrow'

Rob and I look at each other, and just start laughing. Coming from a country where a light snowfall can shut an airport, neither of us have any experience of weather that is really any more extreme than a light drizzle.

Ah well says Rob 'its only a bit of wind'...'lets go for a beer'

Anyway...a few hours pass and we are not laughing so much any more. People are starting to look nervous. Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasi is upgraded to a category 5 storm system. We book a flight out. They close the airport. The storm is so large there is no point driving anywhere as there is not time to get out of its way. All there is to do, is sit back and take it.

6am Im up, not sleeping well due to jet lag and nightmares involving flying cows like in the film twister. When I log on to the news page on the internet the headlines read like the apocalypse. Nothing like media hype for when you need reassurance. The big news now is the potential storm surge, south of the centre of the cyclone the tidal surge is expected to reach 6 metres. The low lying areas are being evacuated. The army has flown everyone in Cairns hospital to Brisbane. One article actually uses the word tsunami.

Now I've never had to cope with any sort of disaster and I always thought I was someone that wasn't phased by much, but at this point, I'm ashamed to admit I cried like an 8 year old girl. No longer was I annoyed that some bad weather might ruin my holiday, this looked way worse.

We go to the supermarket to stock up on batteries, canned food etc. Its 7.30am and its very windy. The cyclone isn't even due to cross the coast until 11pm. Supermarket is obviously shut, we meet an american couple from our hostel on our way back.

'Is the supermarket closed' the guy says

'yeah' I reply

'all day?'

'yep there is a sign in the window'

'is it because of the cyclone?'

Now...if someone was to give an award for dumb questions that would be up there. No its closed because they have run out of eggs. I mean...seriously!!

The hostel makes the decision to ship us all out to an evacuation centre. The hostel is a wooden structure, and they are not sure how it will hold out.

The evacuation centre - the mall

It was an interesting night to say the least. 24 hours at close quarters with 3,000 other people. I still wish that the old guy sleeping near me wore some socks...seriously 24 hours with someones crusty feet in your face...no fun!

The red cross arrive and are brilliant. Ration packs are handed out and they update us hourly which as there is no TV is needed to stop everyone going nuts.

ration time!

The last red cross announcement is at 10pm then the power goes out 'cyclone yasi is a serious threat to life and property' yeah...thanks

I think I actually managed to fall asleep after then, fear is tiring. A baby was born in our evacuation centre there is a lot of howling an banging (from the cyclone, though I imagine the pregnant lady contributed) and after what seems like hours it goes quiet.

When we finally get let out, I initially think it has been some cruel joke to make me sleep in a mall as cairns is largely intact.

So in a nutshell (as I have to finish this now as rob wants feeding) it was only a bit of wind for us. Unfortunately some were less lucky and the winds did some serious damage to small communities on the coast. No fatalities fortunately but obviously for those who were effected its no joke.

Its days like that, that put life into perspective, and remind you to check whether its cyclone season before you take a holiday :)

thats all for now

Dawn category 5 crusader :) x

Let me count the ways I loathe thee

Bristol airport. Having popped by a couple of times in the last month (Im very jet set doncha know), Ive remembered how much I cannot stand the place. Now don't get me wrong I know pretty much all airports are a nightmare, especially with all the security checks these days; but Bristol. Well its just a special kind of awful.

Firstly Im pleased to note that they have dropped the 'international' from the title. A glorified cattle shed that flys to gurnsey and the canaries if you are lucky, probably shouldnt have tried to rise quite so much above its station.

One risk with the airport is that you might not actually get to fly anywhere at all. I once read somewhere that Lulsgate Bottom was used by the RAF in the war as a training area due to its bad weather record. I may have made that up but it does make sense as someone only has to sneeze in Bishopsworth and suddenly there are gale force winds and gone are your dreams of sunbathing in the algarve.

Fortunately these last couple of occasions I have been lucky enough to make it off the runway so I must not complain. My real beef for the latest encounter with the place is the down right rudeness of the security staff. Now I'm not saying that I want a hug as I pass through security, though inevitably I do usually get some form of unwlecome touching as the fillings in my teeth or something as minor will usually set off the security sensor. I would just like a bit of politeness thats all. I do not wish to be barked at when (ridiculously) the clear plastic bag I have thoughtfully placed my liquids in does not happen to be, (in the opinion of the miserable bint on the desk), 'clear' enough (I kid you not). Nor do I wish to be fleeced £1 for four plastic bags the Im forced to buy from the machine that is clearly there only to make extra revenue. Is it not enough that I have to take out a mortgage to buy a coffee in the cafe?

I understood that the purpose of the plastic bags were that security could check the liquids as the passed through the control area. So I am at a loss as to why I need to buy bags when clearly my liquids have now all been checked? Maybe Im just being thick? Maybe the 'regulation' bags will actually all protect us from Osama bin laden. Perhaps thats why they are £1.

anyway... I shall go, as whilst I could go on to complain about the fact they have also now moved duty free so that you are forced to walk through it on the way to departures like its ikea or even the fact it takes four years for someone to turn a baggage carosel on when you land again. I am tired and I want my tea. I therefore bring this whinging to a close.

Good night all :) x

Its what you do with it that matters :)

Check it out. Its our new tent for Lowlands festival in August. The festival I am not allowed to get excited about until I have finished my exams ( incidentally which are tomorrow afternoon and friday). Now I hope you will agree that the size of the tent is most impressive. In fact so impressive I've booked the Arctic Monkeys to play in it on the last night of the festival (haha).

My knowledge for my exams... not so impressive unfortunately, but never mind. In other really dull news Ive got an eye test tomorrow too - another exam Ill be failing no doubt! Oh well I've always thought a white stick and a guide dog would finish off my look. :)

Well Id best be off. I worry if I concentrate on anything else for too long bits of information will fall out of my head. Which would be bad as there isnt a lot in there as it is

See you on the other side for the official start to the summer!

Dawn