Post GB blog.....

Here I am, tucked up in a warm bed, laptop on knee, cup of coffee in hand, radio 2 for company....and here I am, feeling ok, no post gb blues, because I have had a good time, with lovely friends, and I feel their lvoe still with me, and it makes me happy....

I feel happy because I was dreading it a bit,..the last two years have been very difficult and emotionally draining for me, and I took that emotion and stress to GB where it got multiplied by thousands, and I seemed to spend a great deal of time crying..the stress and tiredness made it worse.

But just before this year's festival, I seemed to get my act together - really! - and suddenly I was hopeful I would cope better, now that I am more stable, with the passing of time since losing my mum and dad.

And it was fine..only a few tears, but shortlived, and in private, but most of the time I was happy, busy, and more importantly, on the receiving end of hugs and lvoe and support from the most wonderful group of people I have had the pleasure to work with. I hope they feel it was all reciprocated.

Best moments: during build week when Front Desk was already busy and I was missing meals....being captured by angels in Control, who gave me lunch (at about 4pm!) three days running, wonderful crackers and pate and tomatoes, given with a hug, a cup of tea and they even did the washing up......

Going with friends - and Clive! - to see the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain on the grass at mainstage on Sunday afternoon....

Going backstage to witness Gaynor setting up Laura with Daniel Bedingfield and taking the photograph! And here it is....













and when I showed people the photo, everyone going, 'What a brilliant piccie, who is that with Laura? Cos at GB, Laura is more famous....

No wonder I'm thin.....

I never seem to stop...and I'm not eating as much as I used to..mind you, that should read no wonder I'm not quite as fat as I was..thin doesn't really come into it....however, I am still losing weight which is good.

Had a consultant's appointment yesterday morning, at 8am. Can't quite get used to this going private business, I know one shouldn't need to, but we have insurance, and needs must...the scan appointment I had at two days notice, at 7pm, the results were with my GP in two days, and consultant appointment within the week. Don't panic, nothing serious, just the speed of private medicine. The same process on the NHS last year took four months. Too long, too much time for worrying .

He said, as he put his rubber gloves on, that he does early appointments cos it's better than doing the school run, too many shoes, too many coats, too many children, it's easier to come to work. I have every sympathy with him, but whose fault is it he has too many children, given his area of expertise....???

Well, when I was away the other weekend with my cousin, he told me a rude joke...rude, but very funny...you know the kind of joke that makes you laugh all over again when you think of it? Well.....lying back on the couch thinking of England, I remembered the joke again (there was a connection, believe me..) and just wanted to roll around laughing....it took such self control not to..but as he was about to examine me, if I had burst out laughing, it would have put him off his stroke somewhat, and he might have lost confidence with his professional technique....it wouldn't have been fair, so I stayed silent...after I think the stress on my face from trying not to laugh, concerned the nurse, who asked kindly if I was all right. 'Fine thanks,' I said beaming. Why can't I be like other patients and look worried?

Anyway, straight to work for a hard day in the office, then off to Laa's new house, where I wallpapered the bedroom wall with the luxury, expensive wallpaper Laa had chosen. And very nice it looks too! Quite green..with white tree and leaf silhouettes..I had it done before Laa came home from work..many late nights this week, and when I met her off the train, Mec had been to the office to help her carry back all the stuff needed for Cheltenham..how they carried it all... boxes and bags and a suitcase..on the underground and BR I will never know....

Missing..one T shirt....

You wouldn't believe it..I went swimming with Rosemarie after work..or rather after leaving work early cos I was asleep at my desk..checked e-mails, had another quick sleep, then went to the pool. Swam 22 lengths - yes 22 , this is a record, with no rest at all...then showered and went to get dressed. Stuff out of locker, dress..or rather skirt..then t-shirt...t-shirt??? No t shirt. Nowhere to be seen. Searched locker. Empty. Searched bag, shook towels. Searched floor. Accused everyone in changing room of stealing it...no luck there. Well, I had it when I came in, I said. M&S. Dark army green. Size 14. short sleeved t shirt.

I stood there. Can't go home like this I said. Well that's a very pretty bra you're wearing, says Rosemarie, that'll turn a few heads when you walk through reception....No really, this is ridiculous. I get the giggles. I can't go home. Ever. I send Rosemarie to reception to explain my plight, and ask them to find something tasteful from lost property. She goes, and I realise several women in various states of undress are just staring at my chest. Yes, ok, you've seen it now, move along, nothing to see here. Not funny now. Rosemarie is gone a long time and people are still looking. One woman says, So you've not found your t shirt then. Yes, of course I have, I just want to sit here with no clothes on. Dur.

Rosemarie returns. They wouldn't lend anything from lost property on the grounds that the clothes belong to someone else. Err..yes... they weren't helpful, so Rosemarie made a fuss and said, you must have something, my friend can't go home in her bra (pretty and lacy though it is..) so she produces.....a bright, bright, vivid yellow T shirt, polo, several sizes too big. I put it on and I have the words Cannons LIFEGUARD emblazoned on my chest. Very fetching, says Rosemarie, who laughs all the way out to the car. On the way out, I report my t shirt stolen..I want it back.

Counting down....

Went through all the stuff on the floor of the 'new room': we still call it that although it was converted from the garage to a room more than 10 years ago...what can we call it? There is the lounge, the kitchen...and the new room.....it is, or was, my room, so we could call it Sally's room....it was once my therapy room - where I worked as a therapist, giving it rather than receiving it!! It is where the piano is, and all my music, and guitars, and where I used to teach the guitar, so was called the music room for a while..then it just became a dumping ground, for kid's stuff not wanted on voyage, pre/post gap years/uni/various flats/ then for my parents' stuff: full of boxes, records, books. two TV's, unwanted pcs, the ironing....yes, I am trying to sort it out to reclaim it as a room.

It represents inside my head....all the time the room is a mess, I am a mess. As I am sorting the room out, and clearing it, so I am getting sorted out. Well, in one corner, on the floor was a pile of GB front Desk/Training stuff, probably been there since last year, and I have gone through it and binned some out of date information.

I went into the attic last night (well, actually, sent Clive, like a chimney sweep boy, and he passed down four heavy boxes labelled Front Desk, and I will go through them tonight and remind myself what we have, and what I need to buy...oh goody, stationery shopping!!!!!

The week is slipping by, and there is a lot to do, washing, ironing, packing for Sunday, work (unfortunately) wallpapering for Laura when the paper arrives, cleaning and tidying the house and providing proper food for Saturday, when James will bring a 'friend' home for a proper visit..oh help...

Nearly time.....

I thought this might amuse..well, it amuses me... I have a Winnie the Pooh calendar on the wall behind my desk at the office, and it came with a sheet of WTP stickers for Very Special Occasions.

So in preparation for next week, I have stuck stickers on depicting what I might be doing....Sunday 20th..jumping up and down with excitement, leaving to go to Cheltenham..Monday 21st, putting my waterproof hat and coat on, plus Wellingtons...Tuesday 22nd, working very hard Making Lists and Writing Things Down, 23rd, Jar of Honey (need sustenance) 24th, me and George Thinking and Reading, 25th, me with Jar of Honey, 26th, me and a friend at Mainstage, Watching and Listening, 30th, me very tired and fast asleep in bed back home....

And lastly.....

Richard Thompson, who headlined on Friday night, was amazing, and brought in the biggest crowd of the weekend, we reckoned almost 2,000, the car park was full....Oyster Band, who headlined on Saturday, Seth Lakeman (gorgeous, talented, gorgeous) and Steeleye Span..who closed the festival on Sundayt night. What a line up, and that isn't mentioning the other fantassic bands....Fiddlers Bid, from the Shetlands, being one....

Not a bad line up for a First Festival, with an average of a few hundred people attending. Sorry it has taken all week to share!

One more time.....

Don't think there has been deliberate blog silence, over the past week - this is not the case. But every time I have tried to blog, and download some more festival pics, something has gone wrong, the process has taken for ever, and then when it finished..hey presto, no pictures!! I became so annoyed, ladie and gentleman, that an expletive would ensue, and I would turn laptop off in disgust.

At least the third time of trying this morning has been more successful, and brings you Los Pacaminos, Paul Young's Latin-American style band, whose CD I bought and now dance round the living room to it on a regular basis! Also featured: Flook, an excellent folk band where the lead singer and flautist plays standing perfectly still on one leg (pictured) Did she start this trend, or was in Ian Anderson??

More pics when blogger allows. The Biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig news of this weekend is that Laa and Mec are in their very own house!!!!! I spent Saturday stripping the lounge walls of wall paper, then all of Sunday putting lining paper up so they can paint it white. The kitchen is now white, the bedroom white..the lounge will be white...and it is the most lvoely warm, sunny house, and it feels like their home already. Final, final moving in day is next Saturday..I am booked to put up just one wall of rather stylish, expensive wallpaper in the bedroom..it's been ordered over the internet, and Laura is desperate for it to arrive so I can hang it before I leave for GB on Sunday evening!!!

More festival pictures....

Some proper pics, you would expect...and some from a sad Ops person, of the side access to the 'car park' festival site., cos I was concerned about disabled access, and health and safety etc..... the only access, in fact, and that had no lighting the first night!!! You can imagine event he smallest crowds going through in the dark, and falling over those little wooden posts, cleverly wrapped in tiger tape..and bubble wrap.....

The main act on Thurs evening on mainstage, playing to , maybe about 300 people??? were a folk duo called John Spiers and John Boden (pictured here) and they were bloody good..now am proud owner of 2 new CDs!!!!!

Friday we had a lazy start to the day, breakfast in the adjoining hotel, shopping in the village shops for supplies..then I had a long phone call after which I was upset (so what's new I hear you say...) and my cousin waited patiently, then sat me down listened and talked, and made me a cup of tea, and didn't mind at all that we missed the afternoon at mainstage..he was an amazing and very astute listener and giver of advice..he is a trained legal arbiter and sums up evidence very succinctly!!!!! Dried tears and a big hug later, we were ready to go to the evening session...and what a great evening it was..more later.....

First pictures...

....of our cottage: the lounge, my bedroom 9ensuite of course!), the dining room and the view across the village square...see that blue front door? That is ours and the cottage is directly behind the pink flower basket on the lamp post. If it looks idyllic, it's because it was.

It was a very special place, physically and emotionally: a place I was worried about going to, but it was ok, and without knowing, my cousin had given me the space I needed, and spoiled me absolutely, because he wanted to, without asking for anything in return. Except the pleasure of my company, of course!

Amazing....

I'm in this totally amazing old stone cottage, in the village square of Wickham, the most gorgeous traditional English village, half an hour from Southampton..the shops round the square are olde worlde, and in between the butchers and the hairdressers is the old front door of Anchor Cottage, owned by the hotel just further up the street..they use it as an overfill..it is absolutely beautiful...large rooms, stone or wood floors, minimalistic, uncluttered, beautifully furnished..three double bedrooms, mine is en suite....one thing I did not expect was to get into bed, turn on the laptop and find an unsecured wireless connection through the 12" solid walls!!!

When Johnny arrived to pick me up, and we drove off down the road, a bit of me wanted to shout 'Stop, let me go home, I really don't want to do this...' it's bizarre, I hardly feel I know the guy although he's my cousin, and I'm going away for four days!!!!

Now we are here, and have walked down to the first evening of the festival....I was stunned...it is the first year of this festival, and it's tiny!!!! It's held partly in the village hall, and the mainstage is in the car park round the back..it's like being in a large school playground, with..I don't know, maybe 300 people sitting or standing around? I have counted three stewards, one security guy, (with radio) one guy in a yellow jacket, another guy in a suit, also with radio, he looks like 'Management'. We ate our dinner in the village hall, they are serving food all weekend, so we both had ham, egg and chips and a cup of tea in the main hall, sitting at a formica table....

I have also counted two blocks of portaloos, seven in one block, four in the other (inc one disabled). I have noted one temporary light which is leaning and looks a little unsteady...the side path round the side of the hall hasn't got enough lighting and there is a kerb, disabled access is crap..there are a few random bollards, which to give them their due, they have put stripy tiger tape on so no-one walks in to them...

I was worried when the main band came back on at 2 mins past 11 for an encore..what are their licence conditions???? As we were leaving, a single steward was standing in the dark at the side of the hall, pointing out the bollards and kerb, and cables (under rubber matting) and encouraging us to be safe and not trip. 'You need better lighting here,' I say, concerned, and she says, 'Yes, we know, we will have it tomorrow,' so I leave, happy, with the crowd of, oh at least 40 people at that point.....

Have I come to relax and enjoy the music? Sorry..I'll try.....

A lesson learned......

I have been computer literate for a long long time!!! But still learning, obviously.... re my previous post, Ode to as Lost File, I worked on my report at home and e-mailed it to myself at work. On Monday in the office, I opened said e-mail attachment and finished work on the report. Pretty sure I pressed save, but who knows........ lesson to all..if you open a document as an e-mail attachment, always press 'save as' and put it in a folder. Mine was just an attachment which saved itself (I think, if it saved at all! and agree with Shaun about this) in a temporary folder. I then went to e-mail the report to my student, and three months of work would be finished, out the way, happy bunny me...when I went to My Recent Documents, it wasn't there..first sign of impending doom.

To cut a long story medium, it's hard to find a document when it is in a temporary file somewhere like cjoo56k or any other number you wouldn't remember..so you have to start doing lots of strange deep delving searches..which I spent longer doing than finishing the report....

Today I will try what Shaun said in my comments, though to be fair I think I did all that and more yesterday..... but one more go won't hurt.

Why? Why go to all that bother when I could re-do the work in an hour? Well, I tried . Yesterday, I really tried. Writing her strengths, learning opportunities, engagement with clients and other professionals, putting theory into practice, of her understanding of values and ethics, so it goes on, with me giving examples work..all that took me an hour to finish on Monday.

But yesterday..I just couldn't! I tried. I made phone calls, checked e-mails, tidied my desk, went to sleep for a while - really! - but all the words that came out of my head so successfully yesterday have not only gone from the pc, also from my head. It's almost impossible to redo a piece of work..it's like my brain won't let me,,if I frustratingly can't remember what I wrote, I have to be creative and start again....yesterday I had to abandon it.

Well, this morning I have to redo it before leaving at lunchtime to go to my folk festival with my cousin...and I have s staff supervision session and a family visit to fit in...better get up then!!!!!!

If I can't blog til Sunday..be sure I will then.................see you xxx

It could only happen to me??????

Or so my friend Jacky says when she is rolling round the floor at my latest story.

I have a cousin, older than me who I haven't really seen much as I grew up, we lived at opposite ends of the country, then he was married, so hardly met up. Then in the last five years, we have met up at five funerals and a wedding... Uncle Bill, Aunty Sue, Aunty Terry (his mum) then cousin Tobie's wedding, then my mum and my dad..we got to know each other quite well and earlier this year James and I went to stay with them, and we discovered that we are both folk addicts, and also festival goers!

We said we must go to a music festival together!!! We haven't spoken in months and last week he rang out the blue and said would I like to go to a festival near here, this weekend? Um..yes thank you i said, envisaging driving to meet him somewhere just for Sat and Sun, maybe even go in my litte tent overnight!

No, he rings back, tickets are booked for the festival near Southampton, from Thurs to Sunday, no B&Bs around but he has found us a cottage for three nights! So he is driving down from Liverpool tomorrow to pick me up so we don't miss the opening band!!!!

So..four days with a guy I only see at weddings and funerals. Might be ok....I made Jacky laugh cos I was obviously worried about going but just couldn't say no..I said, 'And I teach assertiveness!'

Ode to a lost file....

Working so hard these past few days..finance meetings, paperwork, focus focus..hospital appointment for a scan..more of that later...

Then today, finally finished placement report on student, saved it and it seemed to go in a funny temporary file with letters and numbers..then I tried to e-mail it to her and couldn't find it..wasn't there under My Recent Documents..have actually spent more time looking for it than it took me to write, but I so wouldn't give up. Now I have, lost not found, and I have to do it again tomorrow and find all the right words, I worked so long and hard on it..........

Was going to go swimming tonight to celebrate joining gym properly..then got an e-mail from Jacky saying, 'Would you like to come round for supper tonight?' Suddenly I liked being spontaneous again, and yes I would please, we had fun and a laugh..I am so blessed with good friends..near and far ..thank you...