Ultravox & Life

Have given up trying to find time to catch up on my Blogging, so have decided to draw a line and start from now. Have also started to Blog the planning of ToneFest 2, the re-run of last years 40th birthday bash, that although it was a complete success and a fab weekend, didn't go as I had originally planned. http://tonefest.blogspot.com/

Anyway, received a phone call at 5pm today from my best mate from Seldown school, asking if I wanted to go and see Ultravox at the BIC, as he had a couple of free tickets. What a great night! I don't see enough of Chris and we laways pick up from where we left off and have such a laugh about the past and the things we got up to as kids and young adults. So going to see these 80's legends was quite apt and helped jog some memories.

Ultravox seem to be jumping on the 'Let's reform and do a nostalgic tour' thing that's all the rage. However, they were fab with Vienna being the highlight, which was no surprise. Fab live rendition.

Mike is still suffering from Glandular Fever and spent all day in bed. Over did it yesterday, probably. Lucy and William are nutty as ever and Emily had had a great time at Cheer leading today.

Susan crashed the Mini this week on the M25 and the car was taken to a pound in New Malden before being transferred to a body repairers in Bournemouth, although no one seems to know where the car is at the moment. So there's a job for tomorrow!

Anyway, off to bed and back tomorrow.

6 Months Behind

Well 6 months has passed since my last post and have thought of Blogging lots since, but want to catch up on all that's happened. As it all snowballs the task gets bigger and time needed increases. So I've decided to write a list and catch up over the next few weeks to get up to date!

Things to write about and pictures to add:
1. Birthdays - All the children are September or October so that was abusy as ever!
2. Stockmarket Crash! - That made work interesting!
3. Jon & Becky's Wedding - Another Photography Job
4. Holiday to Cyprus in October
5. Chelsea Match
6. James, Stereophonics & Kooks in Concert
7. London at Christmas
8. Christmas at Home
9. New Year
10. The Sad passing of Susan's Grandma
11. Jake Morley & Randall Stevens
12. The Snow
13. Snow Patrol & Fearne
14. Lucy's Studio Shoot
15. Sandford Scooter Rally & Warmwell
16. ToneFest 2

Messing About on the Water

Well, summer sort of arrived and Matt our next door neighbour called round on Sunday and invited out on his boat. We caught some Mackeral and a Squid (caught by Susan) and had it for our tea. All in all a lovely family adventure!

ToneFest

Well, the deed is done. The crazy idea of having a Mini-Festival for my 40th Birthday was indeed a crazy and sometimes very naive idea. After months of preparation and planning the week arrived and my friend Dave and I hired a van, packed it with all we needed and off to Wareham we went on the Wednesday 3rd September. when we arrived the field seemed to have grown ten fold and where to set up became our first decision. I had a full size outdoor stage coming and caterers with a full field kitchen, both needed water, one for cooking and one to fill ballast tanks. The problem was that the Purbecks had decided to greet us with 40 mph and winds and weather that changed it's mind every ten minutes. Wednesday was the first of many nightmares with the rain and wind against our every effort to set up. I had hired a camper van and after a while we retired to this to rest and wait and see what Thursday would bring. Rain rain and torrential rain bounced off the camper in the morning. The raindrops turned the camper into a large drum, which made a lie in out of the question as well. The stage was due today as were five marquees from three different companies. Would they still come and set up in this??? Off to Wareham Town Centre we went for breakfast and I felt lower than I could begin to explain!

My relationship with my Dad has always been amazing, but I was bought up to think for myself and as my Grandfather had had very little to do with my Dad, I had watched him cope on his own through most things. I have turned out the same but this situation needed some advice from him. He had taken a few days off work to help set up and I phoned him at my lowest point to ask for some advice. "I'll be there at 11am ", he said "and we'll decide over a nice cuppa and a fag!" 11am arrived and so did my Dad and the Sunshine! The stage crew had been on the phone constantly up to that point and in the end I told them to come along anyway.

So Thursday was a great day and everyone arrived and all the marquees went up, as did the stage and caterer. That evening, I stood on the stage and looked out and felt great. What a roller coaster ride of emotions, but against the odds we were there and ready. We retired to the camper for a Strongbow and to talk tactic for the big day the next day. We parked next to the stage to pinch some electric from the generator and slowly all drifted off to sleep content with the days work.

Friday morning, I was woken up by one hell of a racket! As I drew back the curtain and peered outside, I noticed what was causing the noise. The back panel of the stage had come loose and was now horizontal and flapping in the 60+mph wind, slowly disintegrating as the violent wind battered it. What about the marquees? From the side wind I could make them all out except one. Where had it gone? Panic set in and I shot out of the camper and there is was still intact but out of view! Phew.... I went back inside and we decided to wait and see if the wind would die down. I watched out of the window as the wind relentlessly whipped across the site and then the top corner of one of a group of marquees came undone and started to flap in the wind. Ten minutes later I watched as the whole thing collapsed and turned into a tangled pile of canvas and poles. The company that had provided these marquees had turned up with the sort of marquees you can buy from Makro and B&Q and these proved that they were just not up to the job. It was heart breaking to say the least. We cleared up the wreckage and again the thought of cancelling the whole event was at the forefront of my mind. Susan phoned and I told her how I felt. She then read me some of the comments on Facebook and I could have easily cried for England. My friends truly are a nutty bunch of loonies and their positive comments lifted me right back to positiveness. we still had a 9m by 20m marquee with a small scaffold built stage at the end (meant for one man acoustic acts between bands on the main stage!). We set up a bar in there and the next minute people started to arrive. Over three hundred people came along, loads camped and the party seemed to start as soon as the first band started at 7pm.




The bands were absolutely awesome and to see friends I haven't seen for 25 years singing along and smiling like never before was very overwhelming. That tent rocked for the next 36 hours and no-one cared about the weather, although on the Saturday, the wind dropped and we had a 6m climbing wall in action for about five hours, as well as bouncy castles and kites.

Dodgy were the headline act for the Saturday and everyone crammed into the marquee to catch them. They were absolutely superb and after them, and to end the live music, Sgt Pepper's only dart board band, a fantastic Beatles tribute band. I have seen them many times and they were better than ever. The highlight was when Nigel Clark, the lead singer with Dodgy, came to the bar to get a drink and on his way back to behind the stage he joined in with them and sang Beatles songs for the next 45 minutes. I even joined in as well. 14 bands played their hearts out and every single one of them where brilliant and a hit with the crowd.

As for the cake..... I was and still am speechless!

I vowed that I would never ever do it again, however the next one is booked for May 2009!!!! :-)

Poole Park Fest & Lucy's Pictures

On Sunday, we went to the Poole Park Fest, I had to meet the guys from Legend (Bob Marley Tribute) before they play my 40th in a couple of weeks. Anyway, I took Lucy & William to the park with Michael, but he went off with his friends......GIRLS and turned into a complete numpty in front of them. Bless him. I love the Poole Park Fest, great music, just too many people for my liking. It seems you have to bring the world's biggest picnic blanket, 6 chairs a table, a hammock and wind breakers....then fill the table with half of Asda and try and take up as much room as possible in front of the stage. Yes I was late getting there and couldn't get near the stage!
Lucy and William were desparate to go on a Thunderbird ride. One of those cheap and cheerful back of trailer type rides that did nothing except go round and round. I coughed up my £1.50 each and plonked them both in a Thunderbird each, thinking Lucy would get bored and William would stand up half way round and try and get off. As it happened, it was the best £3.00 I spent, William just giggled (very loudly) for the duration and Lucy grinned for England.





I have just copied the pictures from my memory card to my Blog and it seems Lucy has found my camera at some point. I have lots of pictures of Peppa Pig on the Telly as well as quite a few of our house from about 3ft off the ground. Here's one of William and one of Lucy's toes. There's always one of her toes!!!

Birthday plans nearly there. Can't wait to see all my old friends again and rain or shine it should be a giggle.

I'm rubbish at this blogging lark!

I am truly rubbish at this Blogging Malarkey. August has without doubt been one of my busiest months ever with so much to write about. It seems that when life is dull and I don't do much, I have time to Blog about the fact that I've not been up to much etc etc.... 8-)

Anyway, August has been, so far, a month full of stupid ideas, promises to friends and flippant comments keeping me on my toes. Firstly, my 40th birthday. For the last five years, my best friend from school Chris has been running the Endorset It In Dorset festival and I promised him in the beginning to come along and photograph the event for England, in exchange for a few free tickets and a bit of backstage camping. Well I went the first year, a one day festival for Big G's 40th birthday. Great event and from there the EIID Festival was born, now pulling 5,000 people over 3 days. So when the phrase 40th birthday entered my head last year, when I was reminded many times that it was the "BIG FOUR O" next year (why do people have to ruffle your hair when they say it as well?) the thought of a small festival for my friends and family seemed a great plan, I had a year to plan it, Chris could get me a field and with the invention of Friends Re-United and Facebook, I'm contact with loads of lovely people and great friends from my past. So the planning started for this small scale one day event. Well! As I sit here typing, two weeks today I will be on day two of ToneFest! with 90's supergroup Dodgy headlining. (Jokingly asked them after a gig in Shepherds Bush in March (pics below on previous blog from the Camden gig), if they would play, after one two many sherbets :-S...........and they agreed, in fact they're really excited about playing!) and 11 other bands playing all sorts of music over two stages!

So the planning for that has pretty much taken over my life at the moment. I am unfortunately one of those people who isn't happy until it's perfect. A common Virgo trait. So you'd think a sensible thing to do would be to get my head down and crack on with the planning, but no, not me. On August 1st, my friend from school, Gary Ellis, finally lived his dream and set up a radio station, just for one month to start with, then he will apply for a full time licence and go from there. My firm sponsored his show every weekday afternoon and on August 1st, I tuned into to listen. It was great, he's a soul/house DJ and plays great tunes. When I telephoned him at the end of the first week, I told him how much I'd enjoyed his show and those of other DJ's, then like I do so often, I joked with him and flippant said to him that his station lacked a Reggae show (I love reggae as well as pretty much everything else) and that a nearly 40 year grey haired old fart is just what they needed. His response "Done deal, you're on" and with that I was given the 3am - 7am slot on a Saturday morning (all that was left) and have just finished my second show this morning! I've never DJ'd before in my life but had a great time and some people are awake at that time of day. The station is back at Easter (1st May) for six months and I should get a normal slot of 9pm-11pm on a Wednesday evening, which would be superb fun. We'll'' have to wait and see what happens.

Right enough blogging for today, will add some photos to this blog later. I'm off now to get hair braiding stuff, confirm the booking of two generators, a lighting tower, some luxury loos etc etc etc.

Emily

Whoops!

Well have forgotten to write for two weeks! Here goes one BIG blog!

Firstly, lets revisit some goal setting...

1. Take more photographs.

2. Lose some weight.

3. Exercise regularly.

4. Do more as a family

5. Get organised at work.

1. Have purchased two second hand Canon cameras from eBay for Me & Susan and have been snapping for England, so sort of tick that one off.... Done!

2. Now about the weight thing, forgot to log my weight in the beginning and probably haven't been very good recently, so we'll start again with that one and monitor it regularly from now on.

4. Lots of focus here and we have done loads of things together and to top it all, after camping with 4 children last weekend, we've decided to borrow some money (if anyone's got any to lend!) and buy a motorhome, pack it up and get away every other weekend at least. It dawned on me that we live in one of the best places in the country and you don't need to go far to have a good time away. Certainly can't afford to fly anywhere anymore.

5. Getting there at work with Briony making a huge difference. Business is still busy and long may it continue.

Yes, I know i've ignored 3! Sort of goes with 2 so not a lot to report there :-s

20th July - Kimmeridge & Swanage

Sunday 20th July was forecast to be lovely and I hoped to get some day tickets for Camp Bestival at Lulworth Castle. Sadly they all sold out before I got round to it. So off to Kimmeridge for a picnic and a bit of rock pooling then to Swanage for tea and an unplanned whizz, I mean 'chug' around the bay in a rented motor boat. We all looked very wind sweeped and interesting when we tried to return to the pontoon, but embarrassingly, we stalled the engine and couldn't start it again, so had to be rescued! Had a nice pub meal and then home.

Swanage:

To say Lucy is a nutcase would be an understatement, she always makes us laugh. Everynight when I go to bed, I take Lucy for a midnight tinkle and this is what greeted me that night. The flash has brightened it up unfortunately as the effect of the red glow across the eye mask frightened the life out of me! :-)