Well, lots of things have been happening over the past few months (yes I know it’s been a while, I’m sorry, busy, new role at work, changing blogs and website templates, that sort of stuff is to blame). We’ve been up to Grantham to visit Jenny a few weeks before Isabella was born; we’ve been for walks in the countryside; travelled down to Bournemouth for a weekend with Maria, Will, Kathy & Sharon; stayed for a couple of nights in a B&B between Bath and Bristol; I’ve travelled up to Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh for work; Heidi came down to visit; plus lots of other things. You might notice the blog is new and there is a new Calendar button on the menu which details exactly what we’ve been doing.
Here are a few examples from the last few weeks. We saw Liam Finn at the Barfly in Camden, a bar and music venue that could be described as functional at best, a student venue without the University, dark, dirty and dank. Still, the music was good!
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Then the weekend just gone saw us attend the O2 Wireless Festival at Hyde Park. With Patricia and Sam, down from Manchester for the weekend, we made sure to arrive early on the Sunday to firstly get VIP tickets (thanks Patty and Sam for getting us some as well, we were delayed arriving) and secondly to be at the O2 stage before 2pm so we could check out the secret act. I had a hunch that Ben Harper might be the secret performer and he was! What’s more we got to get quite up close and personal as the power was pulled from the performance while Ben was playing the second song (apparently he started too soon, before it was licensed). Once Ben had realised he got up, headed to the stage barrier and jumped over to perform the next two songs in the middle of the stunned crowd. Patty was really close. How close? Close enough to take this photo:
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That was our ‘festival moment’ and will live long in the memory I think. Afterwards we went and grabbed a free lunch courtesy of a text to O2 (festival hint #1 – look for free stuff everywhere!) which was very nice. Later in the day I managed to win myself a pair of shoes in the New Balance Shoe Toss. The idea was simple; take a pair of trainers tied together by the laces and toss them at a wall with pegs sticking out. If the shoes hung on a peg you got a pair of shoes. It sounds easier than it was (judging by the amount of failed attempts in evidence). So, I won a pair on my first throw and later on went back along with Patty and Sam so they could have a go. To prove how easy it was I had another couple of goes and on the second attempt landed the trainers again, so Keryn got a free pair of trainers too! Patty wasn’t going to take this lying down and later on managed to succeed in the trainer toss only to find out that they had run out of trainers.
The weather was fairly ominous for most of the day but heavy rain was restricted to the occasional downpour. Keryn and I managed to catch performances from the Goo Goo Dolls (fleetingly), the Delays, Powderfinger, Ben Harper (on the main stage this time) and the Counting Crows. More photos from the day can be seen by clicking below. The thumbnails below are randomly taken from the gallery photos, a nifty new trick.
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