well, I'd forgotten all about this until Z printed off one of my blogs on here and handed it to me in the week. I think Facebook kind of took over for angst, but is actually less expressive so I thought I'd return. I'm not really doing much treading water as the arachnoid cyst and the brain connections continue to bug the hell out of my life with noisy tinnitus and balance issues - worsened by more recent labyrinthitis (probably from the neural feedback shorting out as it gets more blocked/damag
Here we are again. We arrived in the campervan fields yesterday. The journey in the campervan uneventful. We set up the awning, and settled back in the long grass and the sunshine. Z was excited as her school is out the way, it's the first year she is able to come before Friday. As the sun set we lit the BBQ, and suppered on burgers and haloumi. A few beers, and the obligatory look at the site at night all lit up and waiting for us it was off to bed. We were woken by voices, and the trudged of
This year's Glastonbury Festival has all the makings of becoming the stuff of legend. Sunday's line-up is topped by Stevie Wonder who draws what has to be the biggest crowd ever assembled in front of the Pyramid to see his singalong set of hits and feel good numbers to "celebrate" Glastonbury's 40th Anniversary.
Wonder had the masses in rapture when he brought event founder Michael Eavis on to the stage saying, "I want to thank this wonderful man who's had this for 40 years. Yes, 40 years. It
Today followed last night's Gorillaz example with a host of special guests. Muse stole the show with an encore guest performance from U2's Edge, and before them Scisssor Sisters had an appearance from Kylie.
Biffy Clyro were special guests in a packed Park although we couldn't find anywhere near enough to see it, while Shakira and The Dead Weather played to those roasting in the sun at the main stage we chose to chill at the Bimble Inn and bumped into friends. George Clinton and Midlake head
It's a scorcher! The main stages sparked into life in the sunshine and Rolf Harris started the party.
Many of the campsites began to fill up and the day's entertainment was topped off with Gorillaz and a host of guests including Snoop Dogg, Bobby Womack, and Lou Reed amongst others. Unfortunately Mos Def had to cancel his appearance at West Holts and Femi Kuti was moved back to headline the flag filled stage.
Earlier Snoop Dogg had drawn the biggest crowd of the day, and The Stranglers pl
Conditions were near perfect in front of the main Pyramid stage for the eFestivals World Cup football match which raised over £8000 for WaterAid. With the crowds entertained by Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs and an Endorse It In Dorset supergroup before watching a closely fought game where England took the honours winning 6-4. The game was even watched by WaterAid presidentPrince Charles from the stage. Unfortunately post match entertainers Supernova had to cut their set short as the Festival
For many we discover the first experience of Glastonbury was being stuck in long queues in the hot sun for hours at the pedestrian gate entrances with no water some even miss the game.
Even at the campervan fields we took an hour to get in, traffic around the perimeter holding us up.
Once in we had to come to terms with limited mobility because of K's ankle, and plans to explore greenfields had to be shelved.
We watched the England football team's victory on screens in the newly named
Parked up, awning up sat out on a warm night in Glastonbury suburbia listening to the sounds of folk getting settled enjoying a beer and a smoke and watching the sky lanterns float off into the night - bliss.
It's only about 7 or so hours until we set off for our twentieth year of Glastonbury. My wife yesterday badly twisted her ankle and despite much grinning and bearing (and a few tears) she is determined to go and won't consider any other option.
We are taking our campervan and so will be arriving on site tonight Tuesday. I'll be letting you know how we fare and what wonders we witness on this blog.
Ah happy Beltaine! Usually I'd spend it down the Double Locks in the sunshine, but instead it's going to be hectic! First up we have to prepare the field tonight for one of the highlights of the archery calendar our club hosts the prestigious Grand Day where we play host to archers from the south of the country and further afield. Hundreds of them, which means when I finish work here at eFest towers, I have to rush off and mark out the field as cricketers are using it tomorrow - they'll continue
Well it's about this time of year that I start to look at a few gigs to review, and get into the swing of things before the summer season. Only, this year there's absolutely nothing around to review. Thankfully Vibraphonic, is on the horizon, hopefully that is:
K went to a councillors meeting the other day, where they suggested that in order to save some money after they lost it all gambling in banks around the world, they cut the festival budgets. firstly it was suggested they just stop fund
Last week I went back to the doctors for more tests - now they've really narrowed it down, and provided a few answers.
Firstly my tinnitus is not caused by exposure to rock music at festivals, it seems there's something blocking the signal that runs through the bone in my ear to my brain. This block is microscopic, non malignant (by now it should have grown through the bone it is housed in if it was) and has been growing really slowly for decades, until it bumped against the nerve.
So my p
Ah only 10 days until we set off on a bit of a trip of a lifetime! It's been 2 years in the planning.
We've got a fish/house sitter so no need to put our aquatic pets in a hotel anymore - and so we're ready for our big adventure.
We'd booked a hotel in Vila, which was the best we could afford until the other day I discovered the Australian equivalent of lastminute.com and we scored a luxury room in THE island resort - Irririki resort - on the island my sister was born on.
Check it out h
I've had a battery of tests today - I keep thinking this is like some Duracell test - where they will press my head and feet and a giant glowing indicator will light up my side to show how much charge i have left!
Well my appointment was for 10.45 at 11.45 the first doctor sees me - turns out the consultant isn't available (why not just cancel at this point? - I have work to do, and my spinal tap isn't until the afternoon) but he goes through the same proceedure as my own GP did - then I go t
Since about August I've been getting a lovely buzzing noise in my ears and a bit of disorientation - sounds like the results of a good night out? Well I thought it was hearing damage - so went to the doctors. Found out earlier this week that there's no damage to my hearing at all - the noise it seems is not coming from my ears!
So wa-hey back to the brain scan machine for me! And it seems the doctor played down the results of my previous tests!!!
Terrific! On the plus side I do get to see
been a while I think I'm number obsessed - had woman flu (it just goes on and on and on) since Guilfest, then WOMAD, and now Endorse It - weather's looking good for that - touch wood. Broken a long bow and bought a new since my last post - currently have one - Grand Master Bowman score - need three to get the classification - and going to enter the County Champs - if i do well then County Squad beckons!!! Not bad for someone doing it just over a year. Lookin' forward to Beautiful Days - Z is gon
Getting the hang of the new job, I've got a rough idea of how it works. The hard bit is working out what I've done wrong when it doesn't! Now I've got to get up to pace as rapidly as possible. Archery was hard work Friday - straight off the train into archery, Sunday's frostbite was well attended but blustery and it's the longbow league shoot this friday. If I get a good score in that I'll be rewarding myself at the beer festival mmmm 60+ Winter-only brews & Festive Cyders, a Tombola and Pro
Ah so today is the first of Jan 08 - or 118 as has been rattling about my head all day. The end of December rushed up over me and gave me little time to post. We had our work's Xmas do at the races - where I won enough to get very drunk on alcohol, but not enough to show more than a tenner to K the next morning to justify my huge hangover. Work continued a pace and I completed half my workload for January to give the lads a chance to train someone new up.
Then suddenly it was panic pressie bu
Well last Friday I'd handed in my notice and had to pack up for an early plane flight - packing took a bit longer than expected and as K had to visit the Archery Club to sort out some stuff - as it was we didn't get to bed until midnighet and were up again two hours later for the trip to Bristol airport and our flight.
No problems boarding and time enough to have breakfast, my sister and her party (her daughter aged 2 and 2 additional friends of hers) cut it fine arriving literally as we were
Well after 12 years at print publishing with LCD I've decided to change jobs. Well thankfully someone offered me the chance to change career and I jumped at it. I can't say more as they are announcing my imminent arrival at some point in the future. It's in the field I really love so kind of like getting paid to do your favourite hobby.
I'm off to Spain for a week now - so it may be announced while I'm away. Anyway I'll be catching up with Boris and Jo while we're there and generally take a
Well there's a big change in my life on the horizon, and I can't say anymore than that but it can't come soon enough. Looking forward to heading to Spain in the beginning of December - the temperature in Murcia is over 20 degrees both day and night at the moment - lovely! Have to get in touch with Boris and Jo and firm up meeting them - not looking forward to getting the plane at 4am though! But really looking forward to the first break since festie season and getting a Wii too! Looks like Metr
To celebrate breaking the 350 in archery yesterday with a personal best of 354 thought I'd mention these interesting factoids:
The trade of yew wood to England for longbows was such that it depleted the stocks of yew over a huge area. The first documented import of yew bowstaves to England was in 1294. In 1350 there was a serious shortage, and Henry IV of England ordered his royal bowyer to enter private land and cut yew and other woods.
In 1470 compulsory practice was renewed, and hazel,
Work have decided to up the anti this month - to ridiculously high productivity levels - I'm now producing each day the equivalent of what the whole office of six staff used to do in a month when i first started - hence my blog being a bit quiet. Trouble is the work load is giving me headaches now - and i had a really bad one at archery on Tuesday - nearly buckled over i did, shot through the pain though - for a low score however. Talking of archery off out to the woods this weekend to shoot f
'Ancient' religions tended to be more based on science - witnessing and celebrating the changes of the seasons and the forces at work in nature - they didn't have science to explain this but gave the forces at work arhetypes. Many of the old religions also took into account the human condition - using archetypes to explain personality traits - loving, violent, mad, forgiving, optimistic, sanguine, introverted etc. In those days there was no school of psychology. These were described as frequenci
Just got chatting to the country's master bowyer - and he says he'll make me a custom bow! Cos I'm tall with long arms it'll have a 30" draw - and will be made from yew and hickory! Plus it's half the price of usual bows of this spec.
Secondly, happened to be checking on the 'traditionalness' of this bow when i found this:
While the English used the Longbow, Keltic archers were pictured and described using shorter, gently recurved Flatbows. Below is a hunting scene showing 16th century Sco
