Friday, August 29, 2008

Magical Mystery Tour

I was in good time, for once, on the way home from Greenbelt. In spite of the Cheltenham Supreme Soviet's hatred of railway station signs (do they think it lowers the tone or something?) we found the station much more easily than last year. I got the train, with time to spare, and even found a power socket to recharge my mobile and N800. I should have known it was too good to last.

Unfortunately the train stopped. The train in front was "affected by an incident" we were told, eventually.

I passed the time by comparing Reading Festival to Greenbelt with a fellow festival-attending passenger. We had better food, it seems, and less rampaging through the site. Reading had Metallica - so arguably Greenbelt won on that count too. Reading had better wristbands though, and the Salvation Army with cheap soup for the revellers!

The track was closed, so we went backwards instead. An extra 50 minutes would be added to the journey. Stations with strange and obscure names rolled past - sometimes more than once. Time passed. If I'd had GPS I might have known where some of the places were.

I had to ring the airline to change my flights, skilfully avoiding their premium rate £1-per-minute "some mobile networks may change more" booking line. You'd think a £25 - £30 fee for changing a booking would be quite enough - but apparently not!

Several hours and a few sandwiches later I was at home, and it was time to catch up on wedding arrangements. It's harder than you think folks! Much much harder. Maybe we should Just Do It, and tell everyone later. But that's a story for another day.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Hippyfest 2008

It's back to Greenbelt: good food, good music, good talks, interesting music, interesting talks, music, talks, and many worship alternatives. I'm afraid i missed the mesiaen recital. And the disabled buddhist basketweavers against Israeli occupation.

This morning we found out that the tent site was not as level as Peter has thought, so i'm drying out my passport and chequebook!

I've found a free charging point - not in range of the wifi this year, alas.

And I'm getting hungry.

When the improvisation band, with their bike wheels and cardboard tubes have gone, I may go hunting for pancakes and coffee...