Glasto Nearly Upon Us

According to the Glastonbury Festival countdown clock right now as I type there are 11 hours and 1 minute until the festival gates open. I've never been to Glastonbury Festival but I do have some fond memories of some of the performances I've seen from the TV coverage. It's good that they cover it on TV nowadays, when I was younger it was never broadcast on TV - it might have been on the radio I suppose, but I never heard it if it was.

I did attend a festival for a few years running in the early/mid 90s. The music lineup was really good and I saw some great acts. But the downside was that I didn't have any friends to go with and so I felt a bit lonely on my own, as everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves with friends and generally having a big party, staying up into the early hours, sleeping most of the day etc. I have some good photographs I took of the people and one day I'll have to scan them in and post them up here. I was afraid of being in my tent alone at night, having the stuff in my tent stolen and all sorts of violent thoughts go through your mind. But there are some really nice things too: the people are generally very friendly, you see lots of people with weird and wonderful tattoos and piercings, strange looking hairstyles and clothes - and you get to see some strange behaviours too - whether drug induced or not. I would recommend at least trying one music festival out during your lifetime.

I hope the weather stays dry for the people this year.

A Sunday in June

I've found this month a difficult one to blog. Quite a lot of things are happening this month, my daughter's birthday for one. She received an early present from her grandma. A new bicycle, it's bigger than her old favourite and its quite heavy. The saddle is as low as it can get and she can't reach the floor properly when she sits on it, her tiptoes do but not the whole of her feet. Yesterday, we found a great place to cycle: it's a track between two villages that used to be a railway line but is now a special track for cyclists. Some traces of the railway still exist, like the platforms but they are all grassed over and you can barely tell. It was a great place to try the new bike out. My daughter has fits of tears when she has to learn something new, she fell into a patch of stinging nettles and stung the side of her hand. I didn't think she would get back on the bike after that but she eventually did. Her next challenge was to push off and get herself going without me holding the saddle. After several miles and lots of tears and coaching she eventually did it and instantly brightened up. We went from despair to triumph and almost over-confidence instantly!

I was woken up with some excitement in the house on Sunday. I had completely forgotten it was Father's Day. The family congregated around me as I groggily woke up and found their expectant faces eager for me to wake up and seize the day. I didn't feel like seizing anything except more sleep but I tried to hide my tiredness. I was given some really nice gifts and it was a lovely surprise, I love my family. I couldn't go back to sleep but by the evening I was good for nothing, all that running after my daughter on her bicycle.

Oh Sunny Day

Unusually for England in June, the weather hasn't been so bad so far. Sunday and Monday were absolutely lovely. Let's hope it continues a bit longer than forecast (Thursday and on to the weekend doesn't look so good). This week I finally converted my Club Nintendo stars into something useful - points to spend in the Wii shop. We don't make a lot of use of the Wii's online potential: sometimes looking at news and the weather channels, sometimes playing strangers at Wii Chess, sometimes entering Mii competitions and judging other entrants and sometimes playing multiplayer races on Mariokart Wii. This week though, I used the stars I've earned through buying games and converted them into Wii Points Cards and have accumulated the 500 points needed to download the Internet Channel. This is a web browser on the Wii. So I can watch You Tube on my TV and read blogs and so on. There are also games sites that allow you to play free online Flash games on the Wii. I don't think I'll be writing much on the Internet Channel though because typing on the Wii is a bit like trying to type with one finger on a keyboard your not used to: painful.