Glastonbury 40th Anniversary

I don’t know many people who would say I am often at a loss for words. This is one of those times. For anyone who has never been to Glastonbury, I don’t know how to begin to describe it. Seriously. But, I will try so I can share this experience and record for prosperity the awe I felt my first time there. I sincerely hope it will not be my last time at Glastonbury.

Size:
For the few days that Glastonbury Music Festival happens, it becomes the largest town in England. There were 180,000 tickets sold this year (they sold out in a few hours!) and there are countless other people there as vendors, security, clean-up, etc. It is the most massive event I have ever seen and much more massive than I could have ever imagined. Online they said 200,000 people were there!

We were tremendously lucky to be going with Dave, Karrie, and Steve who are festival junkies. They have been to Glastonbury more times than they can count and they really know the ins and outs. They took off a full week (two days before the festival, festival, and two days of recovery after!) and left London at 4:30 a.m. to pitch the tent on the first day the grounds were open. To be fair, we had a great tent location! Close to the main stages, but not so close that we had people tripping over us.

Tent:
You want a tent that gives you a little bit of space for when you need down time. You want a tent that will be waterproof/mud resistant for the wet years and something that will give shade for the sunny years. But… we were told that you should not have a tent that is a space hog or you will never be able to find a spot to pitch it. You do want to make sure there is not a good pathway right by your tent or else Dave warns that late night drunk people fall into you! The result of this chaotic tent placement ~ a very difficult time getting from the path to tent and back!

Music:
Music starts about 10 a.m. each day and stops somewhere around 6 or 7 a.m. the next morning – then it starts back up again at 10! People told us there were something like 45 different stages and we thought they were exaggerating. I know think they probably underestimated. There are around 10 HUGE stages and another 6 BIG stages and then a whole bunch of other sizes. What I loved the most was the variety in music styles; they really have something for everyone.

Food:
There is food for everyone at Glastonbury! Meat lover, non-pork, lacto intolerant, vegan… not a problem! They have all types of food to match the variety of music. Once Karrie showed us where the ‘good’ food was, I was in heaven. I had an amazing crep with egg, chese, tomoatoe two days in a row because it was so tasty! I also loved a chicken and bre wrap that I had for lunch. Lenny tried some Ostrich and some curried goat. You never have to go hungry, that’s for sure!

Open Heart Surgery

We all have bad days or tough times. But I feel like I have been having a lot lately – more than my fare share. I don’t quite know what is keeping me in an eternal bad mood but I really hope it stops soon.

Let me start at the top:
I was upset about something or another. (To be honest, I can’t even remember what anymore. I am sure it was something silly.) I was rushing out the door to meet up with Ingrid for some coffee and a chat… when I tripped a little… AND let my laptop gently brush against the metal table. Well, I felt that it was just a gently brush. However, it would appear that my computer felt otherwise. The screen went black and we couldn’t see anything. Humm…. Serious problem.

In moments like this, you think about all that we do now a days on computer. We were lucky that all the guts were still in order and the computer worked when hooked up to an external screen. But that didn’t really feel like a solution.

While I was off brooding during my coffee with Ingrid, Lenny started to look up my computer model on the internet. He found a site that would explain step by step how to replace the screen. That was the start to my little green Dell’s open heart surgery. I won’t bore you all with the details (I thought it was very exciting!) but Lenny managed to get the computer all taken apart one evening and find the part we needed to order.


About 3 weeks later when we had the parts and the time, we finally replaced a small little orange bundle that lives at the place I dropped the computer. I can’t begin to explain my surprise when it turned on and worked!!! To be fair, we were both quite pleasantly surprised! I knew that Lenny was smart (or I wouldn’t have married him), I knew he was really smart when he was doing Diabolical Sudoku quickly, but now I know him to be the miracle man that he is! Thanks, honey!

Happisburgh Beer Festival

The Happisburgh (pronounced Haze-Boro. I don't see it either, but I promise that is really how people say it) Hill House Pub Beer Festival is an amazing four day treat! I never imagined myself at a beer festival... once I knew I was going, I certainly didn't think I would be saying that it was wonderful. But, wonderful it was!

Emily, Jayme, Becca, and Dave (and loads of other Norwich friends) were going camping in Happisburgh for the 10th annual beer festival. They said it would be fun- so off we went! This adorable little pub next to a camp site gets in about 60 different micro-brew beers and another 20 ciders. People just go up and order by number! I stuck to cider and had an amazing afternoon in the rain alongside our wonderful friends. The wind speed was so high we joked that we had 2 months of weather in 1 afternoon! It would be sunny one second, raining the next, and just cloudy a few minutes later. It was really amazing.

On Saturday night the forecast was for 30 mph winds. Our little HomeBase tent didn't even live through the first night. The peg hole broke apart and split in two before the sun came up at 5am. We knew we didn't stand a chance against 30 mph..... so, we moved in with Jayme and Emily! Who would have thought that we would end up in the 'guest room' of their tent!

I think my favorite part of the festival was seeing the variety

of people and ages there all enjoying their pint and the band. I could just picture my parents and about a dozen other people there with us & having a blast! I will really miss the fun, relaxed nature of the pub environment.

Becca is always ready for anything! Rain or shine!

Ireland

We had a long weekend to Ireland booked in April. But by the time I got back from California after the Iceland Volcano I put my foot down and refused to go anywhere! We decided to re-book that trip for the summer half-term.

It was quite a whirl wind trip, but we saw a few amazing spots. I am just going to do a brief highlights photo tour:

After a real scavenger hunt- we found a rather unknown little castle called Johnston Castle. We had a little majestic walk around a lake and ice cream next to some peacocks.

In Waterford, we hoped to see the factory and lots of sparky crystal things... but instead we just got the construction of the new complex! Bummer.

Some Blarney Stone luck for Maia....

And some for Lenny too!

Last stop - Cliffs of Moore. All I can say is ..... awesome.

Thanks, Ireland. Amazing trip and we look forward to coming back again!