Playdate with MY cousins

10th August]

Monday morning the boys were dead to the world, Di and I packed up the rest of the tent and yet they slept on. Finally we had to tip them out of their sleeping bags (sweet revenge) so we could actually pack up the tent!

After getting back, unpacking, all taking a bath and getting sorted my uncle (who is just 4 years older than me) and his kids (my cousins) came round for a playdate. Obviously my uncle thinks he is 6 years old and is rocking a jesus look with the beard and the sandals!

Serious game of footie going on in the garden there....

It was lovely to see them if only briefly, once they said their good-byes it was time to welcome Rob back home, who had been in China for a week and to get our backs backed, ready for the next adventure...Paris!

Forgotten Fields and The Levellers

[9th August]

Followed by another early morning. Thankfully the whingy kids family were packing up, along with a lot of other families. The festival finished late Sunday but I expect many people had work Monday morning so a lot left Sunday.

We were blessed with beautiful weather all weekend, Di can't remember going to such a mud free festival, I can't remember ever going to one with crappy weather! maybe I'm the festival good weather fairy or something!

The toilets had also been cleaned and they organizers had come to their senses and let people into the arena a bit earlier so Sunday was a lot more chilled. There was a lot more circus tent fun and a bit of drama where Ry, who had taken his shoes off, managed to lose a shoe. Of course we hunted everywhere and couldn’t find it. We got Marcus the circus master to do an announcement and had all the staff keeping an eye out but it was no where to be seen! A couple of hours later... Ry came back with a grin on his face, apparently some dad had handed the missing shoe in! *phew*

We spent most of the day just chilling, we had no net access which was great - a forced digi detox. 

Di caved into Ghandi’s flip flops and had a veggie curry with a plate full of pickles and side bits and a plate full of popodoms. Ebi-kun has never tried Indian curry before so he had a sample of all Di’s dishes and then decided he wanted the kids curry. I wasn’t sure if he would like it so asked for a wee taste, the staff were great and gave him a ladle full to try. He polished that off with Di’s left over rice and then had a bacon buttie!

Late afternoon was time for the balloon disco in the Big Top, they started off with tiny ones then kept adding bigger and bigger ones, the kids were running round like loonies, and some of the adults too - lots of fun!

The boys both wanted exotic burgers again for dinner, everyone opted for the same as the day before, although Ebi-kun was interested in trying zebra, he changed his mind at the last minute.

Then what you need after a big fat burger is to go on a swing ride, first time either of them had been on one, they loved it!

All to do now was to wait for the bands to come on, there were smaller bands playing through the day but we didn't really make the effort to watch any of them. Waiting time meant Top Trumps time, I lost count of the times we played over the weekend!

I love this photo of Ebi-kun as the sun was setting, it sums up the whole festival feeling for me.

Finally the headlining band, The Levellers, an old favourite of mine and so Ebi-kun knows a lot of their songs too, he got so excited when they came on. Putting him on my shoulders wasn't such a good idea, he is way too heavy these days. We did however manage to get right to the front, which reminded me of when I took my little brother to see them at the NEC (enormous arena) when he was 13, I lost him as he tried to get to the front, thankfully I found him later on but missed most of the gig as I was trying to find him!

They played lots of the old stuff and because a lot of people had gone home we had a good dance right near the stage.

Ebi-kun loved it, he was buzzing all the way back to the tent! It was the perfect way to finish the weekend really.

Forgotten Fields And Famous Authors...

[8th August]

We were awake bright and early on Saturday morning, no thanks to the whingy kids in the tent next door! We had some heathy snacks for breakfast then headed up to the ticket office to see if they could replace Ebi-kuns wrist band, they had put in on too tight the night before and it was hurting him. They chnaged his band without issue and we discovered a couple more screw ups from the organizers, firstly the toilets hadn’t been cleaned over night - porta-loos at their best, or not. 

Lots of grumbly parents as kids were kicking off and refusing to use the minging toilets and then we discovered that they arena wasn’t opening until 10am and of course, this is where all the food stalls were. No food to feed the kids, not everyone had bought either food with them (big daft really) or cooking equipment. More angry parents ready to rush the gate by 9.30am! We kept the boys busy, playing hairdressers!

Apart from these teething problems, everything else seemed to go OK. We had toasties for brunch then lazed around as the boys played football. Nic, one of our uni friends (that I used to make dance outfits for) lives literally next door to the site and he had free tickets so we met up, again I haven't seen him since we left uni but we are mates on facebook.

Nic bought his partner Steve with him, who is lovely and funny too and he also happens to be an international best selling author, he wrote Before I Got To Sleep which was made into a film last year and last week he left to do a book tour with his latest book Second Life, if you love mystery thrillers, you will love his books!

It was really good to catch up, it was as if we were back at uni, stupid stories and remembering all the daft things and people! Nic and Steve didn't stay for long, they had things to do (and probably have a much nicer toilet back at home!)

Once it started heating up we headed into the Big Top Tent which was excellent. They had shows and activities on throughout the day, kids Zumba was hysterical they also did a beat boxing class, trapeze lessons, juggling and other circus shenanigans then later in the evening they had films showing in there. Just outside the big top there were hula hoops, juggling balls, things to toss and jump on, tight ropes to try, a section for the little ones and some crafty activities too - all very well done. 

The boys spent a lot of time in there as we sat under the big trees enjoying the atmosphere and a crafty beer or two. We tried to take a siesta because we knew the boys would struggle to stay up late, Ry managed to fall asleep but the rest of us were too hot. Bit of a fail really.

For dinner we headed over to the exotic game burger stand, Ebi-kun had his eye on the kangaroo and I decided to try the llama (I have had alpaca before in Peru so figured it would be similar. Both were good. Di and Ry just went for plain ole cow!

Ry and Di are both Super Furry fans but Ebi-kun and I are not so bothered, we all stayed up to watch them play but Ry wasn’t happy because they didn’t play his favourite track (in Welsh!) maybe next time. So it was another later night...

Forgotten Fields Music Festival

[7th August]

Di had won tickets to the Forgotten Field festival which was held about a 45 minute drive out of Brighton, near Tunbridge Wells. We spent the morning packing and making sure we had everything we needed. Di is an old hand at this festival lark, she has been winning tickets to all the big festivals since our uni days! Ry has been to 5 or 6 too so he knew the drill, I haven’t been to a big music festival for about 20 years and it was Ebi-kuns first.

We arrived without much of an incident then headed down to the camping area when the first of many orgainsers bungles became apparent. The festival had been advertised as family friendly but then they had assigned the field furthest away from the car park to the family camping which also happened to be the field closest to the main stage

It took us a while to find somewhere to pitch the tent, mistake #2, there was a definite lack of camping space, they really needed another field or two. We eventually got pitched and set up then we headed into the arena once Ebi-kun had done his hair!

Due to the ticket prices being quite low they were strict on what you can and can’t take into the arena, so they can make their money of food and drink. It wasn’t a big festival so the choice was pretty limited. We decided to go for pizza the first night, although Di had her eye on Ghandi’s Flip Flops!

The kids played for a bit and then we had a cheeky wander back stage, we had a general public pass and a green pass that no-one seemed to know what it was for. We were told we could use the hospitality tent and since no-one was really manning the gate we had a poke around backstage and used their fancy loos whilst we were at it. Unfortunately we didn’t see anyone famous (not that we recognized anyway).

We then went to watch a couple of the bands, we made it through the Horrors but then the boys were getting tired so we went back to the tent, because we were so close to the main stage we could still hear everything anyway!