Buddies and Exercises

Well the buddy system is working well; my buddies Stuart and Nick the traffic/site managers are kidnapping me regularly and I’m getting away from the never ending stress at the same time as getting to know the site and campsite better.

They even let me drive the tonk (so cool on bumpy ground – I’m getting a taste for 4WD off-roading).

Cullen passes us at one point on the campsite and as Stuart reflects the horrified look on his face simply says “I’ve created a monster!”.

By the time I’m coming out with stuff like “oh you mean out by junction 26” and giggling with glee when I accelerate over the bumps everytime Stuart attempts to answer a radio call, he and Nick are looking at me in a similar manner…

Of course they all get their own back in the afternoon. I think it went along the lines of “let’s secretly plan a major incident exercise and make L1z the unsuspecting Duty Manager at that point”.

B******s!

Still I do at least get my own back on Geoff, who had no idea the “shall we go to the volunteer’s session” wasn’t such an innocent enquiry.

Still he shouldn’t have imagined that he’d ‘retire’ after years of fantastic service on the H&S front without us marking the event in some way.

The festival develops

Day by day the festival starts to take shape.

Marquees rise from the ground, tipis are sited, decoration goes up, radios switch on, surprises crawl out from the woodwork, teams form and get briefed, mile after mile of gaffer and tiger tape get deployed, rubbish gets cleared, venues prepared, stages built, big tops raised, paperwork finalised, tickets and meal vouchers sorted, lanyards prepared, loos serviced, water mains charged, computers networked, keys organised, signs erected, hazards controlled, campsites prepared, wind damage repaired, caterers open contributors arrive, art is created…a festival forms.

A Familiar Feeling

Driving on to the racecourse site, feels very familiar these days.

Less familiar for this time of year is to find the traditional festival village area only has one marquee even partially erected.



10 seconds later the reason becomes clear – the new centre course village is decidedly more advanced.



Walking into the Production Office feels like arriving home – so many people to catch up with. Greenbelt family.

I love these people.

MS Centre

I hang on in London longer than originally planned, so that I can go with Mum to the MS Centre.

I’m very impressed – loads of amazing machines and equipment that understand her needs and staff who know what they’re doing.

Hopefully the new foot brace thing will be ready soon and will prove an improvement on the current rubber boot contraption.

Family Gathering

My brother’s family come over to join us at my parent’s house.

The kids (R & J) are on good form – most entertaining (which is surely the reason God put them on the planet no?).

On top of this though are some serious discussions that need to be had between the adults about things like respite care.

Not conversations that anyone wants to have, but ones that are sadly needed.

Slow Drive to London

Good lord preserve us from Friday night drives on the M6.

News

Two little minor news stories caught my eye today.

First off the Advertising Standards Authority has criticised L'Oreal over "misleading" claims about its wrinkle and cellulite creams.

According to the BBC, L'Oreal's advertising for Wrinkle De-crease and Perfect Slim made effectiveness claims were based on surveys of 50 and 48 women respectively. Oh and ASA claim that half the women didn't even register the improvements claimed.

So, surprise, surprise, it seems that the claim that the wrinkle cream was "the first anti-creasing cream with Boswelox to counteract skin micro contractions" and could "rapidly reduce wrinkles", was actually a load of Boswelbollox.

Who could have predicted that eh?

Pseudo science, made up compound names and dubbed voice overs would have to appear on my all time top ten advertising sin-list, which I may just formulate properly when I get some time.

The other story Joan Bakewell and Anna Ford respond to the comments Michael Buerk made recently.

I think Anna Ford sums it up nicely when she says: "He's bonkers. He's a dear old-fashioned chauvinist of the first order.”

Buerk on the other apparently claims that men are being given a lesser role in society.
"All they are is sperm donors, and most women aren't going to want an unemployable sperm donor loafing around and making the house look untidy."

Well he’s got a point; I mean at least when women were ‘unemployable, breeding machines” they at least tidied the house up whilst they were at it…

Remember to Eat

Stuart and Karen, pop round this evening to deliver two tents for me to take down to Greenbelt.

They are a little appalled that I’ve been working on emails since I got home and it’s now half ten and all I’ve eaten is a few raw carrots. I had managed to turn the oven on a while back, but hadn’t got as far as putting anything in it.

When they leave I find this message on the board.

Victoria Plums

It looks like the Victoria plums on my two miniature trees should be ripe soon. A bumper year; I’m having to support the branches as the plums are weighing them down to the point of breaking.



The first few I’ve picked have been beautifully sweet.

Too good for jam this year!

Impromptu BBQ

I’m not sure quite how it happened. Stuart rang up yesterday to arrange a convenient time to drop round the tents that he and Karen would like me to take to Greenbelt for them.

Within the space of a few sentences I had somehow invited them (plus other Greenbelt Mancunions) around for a BBQ.

Lovely to see them all and it was a grand night – Big Brother Eviction Night in the lounge, slightly more cerebral conversations in the garden.

Just a shame Stuart and Karen forgot the tents.

A Brief Escape

Mid-afternoon, S texts to suggest an early dart to That Cafe, as she points out, I need some time off, even if it's just an hour or two.

Two courses of fabulous food (I plumped for Avocado with salad potatoes bound in a tartar sauce, served with a Nicoise salad of blush tomato, French beans, olives, capers and free range egg with a balsamic vinaigrette; followed by Lamb rump
cooked pink with braised fennel and chicory, served with a roast beetroot and green peppercorn gravy....yum!) and lovely company all for £12.95 (before you start, the company was free...) and home by 8.45pm so still time to do a few hours of festival work.

Well to be honest the two kind of merged really...three festival phone calls were received in the restuarant. S is very forgiving, she knows the score at this time of year.

You need friends like that.

AWOL

I know, I know, I've been a bad blogger (though not as bad as some I contest!).

Just the teensiest bit busy at the mo.

Plus I promised to do some blogging on the Greenbelt site. I've been struggling for material there as you'll see and the last couple of entries there didn't seem appropriate to duplicate here and...well...errr...

Will try and improve I promise.

Not that I have anything interesting to say right now. Yet another night of staying in with my emails rather than being out to play...only 2 weeks left to go...a thought that is both scary and reassuring...the end is in sight.

Art is Our Airplane

There’s a small gallery on Fairfield St in Manchester called the International 3, whose tagline is "Art is Our Airplane".

I love that expression.

If art is your airplane, where will it take you today?

I understand what Bill Drummond means about when a relationship with a piece of artwork sometimes ends. Maybe it's the point when that piece of art ceases to transport us somewhere?

Of course Bill has gone to quite extreme lengths to revitalise his relationship with a certain piece of art...

Delegation

I’d committed to cutting back on the Greenbelt work from the rather ridiculous levels of the last few years. Spotting an area of need, getting a solution up and running and then getting someone to take it over is a good pattern and delegation of the venue manager management was key to my plans to workload reduction.

A quick glance at my email folders suggests this has been pretty successful. Greenbelt 2004 folders contain exactly (spooky!) 2600 emails. So far the Greenbelt 2005 folders total 1642, which with only a few weeks left to go means it’s looking pretty good.

The continual improvement on the information we’re able to make on available via the website has had a major impact over the last few years on the number of ‘common’ questions that get emailed, but that notwithstanding I know where most of the ‘missing’ emails have gone this year...and I need to buy Ben a pint of quality organic beer as a thank you.

Countdown

As I look at my diary this morning, there is the dawning revelation that I only actually have two weekends left before I head site-wards for Greenbelt.

Aside from the nagging feeling that I should have spent more of the weekend just gone sorting out the boxes of kit that I’ll need to take with me (let’s face it emptying them from last year would be a start even...), it means there are important phone calls to be made.

Chief amongst which is the call to make my pre-festival haircut appointment.

Now experience tells me that this is a bit like ‘festival shoes’, in that most women, but few men understand this concept.

Let’s just say that if you’re going to spend a week and a half, walking round and round a large site, whilst living with only basic amenities, decent yet attractive footwear and manageable hair is a must.

It’s a girl thing...you wouldn’t understand…