Fabulous Friday....

Woke up in the caravan on Friday morning to look out on the surrounding hills, blue sky and sunshine, and thought, I love this camping lark! Given that I spend GB shut up in a box, to be on the field with everyone else was lovely. Especially when, having got up and showered, there was a knock on the caravan door and the lvoely John W asking, 'Would you like breakfast?' Would I?
So we trot obediently to John's caravan, all of 20 yards away, to find cereal, toast, cooked breakfast, tea and coffee all awaiting us. We have a leisurely breakfast, and greet occasional members of site crew wandering past, and I decide I just lvoe this way of life.....

The day is spent getting the site ready, all 4 tents...one mainstage, one beer tent with stage 2, a Family activity tent, and a Merchandising tent...oh and there is the stewards' tent, and medics...one familiar medic, S, is all smiles and envelopes me in a huge hug. He's lvoely too. What a community! I help to build the stage in the beer tent, and still have the bruises across my thighs from carrying the staging. DC and I drive round in Pete's little bug with the trailer on the back, full of chairs and tables, and deliver them to the various venues. One or two site crew members ride on the trailer, to help with the task, and Pete took me to one side and asked me to tell David off, as he was breaking the rules....why me???

We managed a tea break in the caravan during the afternoon, inviting visitors in for tea and cake. So civilised. Just as I was wondering what else I could do, Pete came up with the job of helping the band get ready to play for the night's private party in the beer tent..the farmer's own band was playing, but due to a lack of communication somewhere, the sound man denied knowing a band was playing that night....so the late hour and lack of kit meant everything was behind..three of us hit the stage and began 'wiring up', putting up mike stands, mikes, cables, plugging up...we worked for an hour in a whirl of activity, me DC and young BP who was a star, and we had the band ready to go by 9.15pm..only an hour or so late..the beer tent was packed with 300 plus family and friends, the band rocked, and we had a good time, especially when we thought we had missed out on the hog roast, and the lvoely George had kept some back for us...

We kept working, keeping an eye on the venue, challenging young girls on under age drinking: well, she turned out to be a boy, much to my embarrassment and the parents' annoyance..but they did eventually apologise for buying him alcohol..he was only 13....then when I had to challenge drunken people who were dancing on the tables, and ask them to get down..one of them was the farmer's wife..she owns the land!!! But as Doggit said encouragingly, 'she doesn't own the table,' and she did get down and looked suitable chastened. The farmer apologised to me for his wife in the morning..anyway..some more photos of Friday's set up.....

building mainstage..... and how many people does it take to move some one tonne hay bales into the Family tent? Answer, after we have all put our backs out trying to move them manually, you get Pete's landrover on the other end of a metal rope..then then the farmer turns up and offers his fork lift...why didn't he say that an hour ago?????