Saturday and Sunday at The Daze

Well I best finish off the weekend cos if i don't now i never will! This is as a distraction rather than an account of any earth shattering event. It was a valiant attempt on our part, to do so much. Especially as I was more interested in getting the stupid dongle working so we could talk to you. This weekend festival is dedicated to you and Storm! So it was appropriate that the Sunday theme was hearts.

Saturday started well with hot sunshine and drying mud.We left the van about mid day for another quest to fit in as much as possible. Which means just roaming the site and being at the relevant stage at the right time! We're getting good at this and here we are for the opening acts on the main stage, up front and raring to go.
As we waited for the next band, a passing young'un reminded us of you as she casually hoola'd amongst the crowd.

And crowds there were, it seemed busier than  last year and it was! 3000 more people, 15000 in total. Bit of a shame really as there was no extra space provided! Only joking, it just seemed like more mats were out in front of the main stage with more groups of people fixed to their spots! The little big top was positively lacking people as we watched several acts who were playing to a small audience. I think a lot of people can't be bothered to move and the main stage is enough for them. When the headline acts played, the hill was definitely more difficult to navigate, it was wedged for PIL all the way to the food shops at the back. Quite a spectacle.

The second shot above is a picture of me going to the men's urinals ! mmm I hear you say but it does capture the spirit? of the event with the main stage illuminated in the background and as promised, no band shots to bore you with.
So tired and happy, we swiftly return at midnight before Pil have finished and drop into our beds, exhausted.
Sunday sees us lasting,only just, to another 12 hours of festival madness. Phew, it definitely is hard work keeping up with it all and we did find ourselves just sitting outside the big top for Richard Thomson, supping a pint of ale and chatting with Mike Workman.

 We started the day meeting up with Mike for a coffee outside the red bus in the glorious sunshine. Mike is a lovely chap and has great interest in your challenging Australian trip. We haven't seen him much since last year but its a pleasure to see him again at beautiful days.
As I mentioned, them is hearts this year, so we and many others dress up accordingly.

Although Mum and my fancy dress are not as over the top as others, our large hearts hanging from our necks make an impression on many. Mum wonders if ours are up to it?

Of course they are! I even had a young lady come up to my heart and touch it with fingers and say ' what a lovely heart you have' ! Another chap touched mums heart then mine and took away some love with him! What a mad bunch.

We sat amongst the crowds, we danced with the mass and let ourselves go into the spirit of the day.

We socialised with Mike and drank some ale with him while music infused the air, another chap joined us, Paul, who had a stall there. We knew him from yesteryear. He also supped ale with us and made merry of the daze in the setting sun.

Having some company was nice. A bit like last year, someone to stop and take time out to just enjoy being there. Like we did with you. Bands are bands but people and friendship are special. We chatted with Mike for an hour or more, mainly about holts field and what it means to us. How special it has been and still is.

Which leads us to the finale. The Levellers. They have a new album out so that featured a lot in this years set but they sound just the same and the crowd adored it. We were having trouble keeping awake, which didn't do the stars of the Daze justice. We hung on of course for the spectacle we knew was to finish the event and it didn't disappoint. Here are a few images to remind you of this lovely Daze.

They really do make an effort and the fireworks were well worth waiting for. This was Beautiful Daze 2012

Beautiful Day 1

Friday morning and the rain continued to fall! Luckily by the time we set off into the festival, it had stopped, leaving a quagmire for us to splosh through to get to the festivities.

Mucky stuff with a strange sweet smell but with our welly boots on, we had no problem getting through the entry gate

And on past the campsite entrance, yuch. Portaloo heaven. Making our way following your favourite fashion girls!

So in high expectations of the day to come, we went straight to the big top to watch the Levellers open the show acoustically ( yawn ) and hurriedly left to find something a bit more interesting.
The childrens play area was full of said nippers enjoying all on offer, including the same fellow as last year doing his juggling, contortion tricks etc, we passed by as we'd seen it before. The mud is an experience to say the least!  Hard to walk through and getting deeper. 15,000 people sure make a lot of mess but everyone seems happy and the concert proper gets underway. Hobo Jones and the Junkyard dogs open the proceedings on the main stage and they are a lot of fun. As you can see in the next photo, people are so keen to enjoy themselves that they are throwing their children at the stage in delight as the irreverent group wind up the audience.

The sun is starting to shine and we are loving it.
A walk to the Bimble in shows the state of the place, not quite the pleasant amble of last year. Now it's a slippery sloshy muck track and the stall owners must be feeling it. It's quite hard to even get up from the main stage as the mud is deep and slippery.

So back at the main stage we indulge in a pint and a spliff just in time for Toots and the Maytals. Fantastic.
We dance to tunes we remember and ones we don't know as Toots leads us all into a state of euphoria ( spliffs working now )

What a star and what a band. Nothing the weekend will offer comes close to this old master of ceremony.

So as the night moves on, we eat and drink fine food and ale, leading us to fine closing act of a band called Midlake in the Big Top. Superb musicians crafting a wall of sounds and harmonies to get high on. Well, I don't think we needed much encouragement!

Before we had left the mainstage act to watch Midlake, this last photo should give you a flavour of what is best about the festival. Just being here!

It could only have been improved by you being in it as well!
xxx Dad n Mum

festive old fools

Yep, its the day we arrived, Thursday and with booze and pot partaken of, we set off to have a wander around the site as the clouds got heavier and we got sozzled! It was a very wet evening but undeterred we sploshed around looking for .......... nothing really but we ended up in the Bimble Inn with your mother wanting more booze and a fag, typical. I was going along with it and supped I think our 3rd real ale and things really started to get out of hand, only joking.

This shot is of the Bimble Inn in full swing and the following is a devilish Mum on a mission!

More beer please, so now we are out of control and after a spot of dancing and when I could drag your Mum away from the dancefloor

We ran at a pace through the site under torrential rain after having forgotten to wear our coats or wellies and got back to the van drunk and drenched. Luckily the ground had not yet turned to mud otherwise I doubt we would have made it home in one piece.
 I have exaggerated all the facts a little bit to make for better reading but I'm sure you get the idea. We had come to party and we were going to give it our best shot. I even had a hangover, only a small one, and the festival proper was not even started. We were going to have to pace ourselves or burn out too quickly.

Camping Mercedes Benz

So here is the tale of the leaking fuel tank! I thought I'd bring you up to date with a few events from the recent past as they were, as usual for us, quite eventful !!!
Breaking down is something I seem to have brought you up to believing, that it is a perfectly normal part of travelling. From your very first trip in 1989, yes you were just 6 months old, we spent our first day inside a garage at a country town called Barcellos, where we had proceeded to freewheel down the very steep hill into town without any breaks!!! The town was alive with a bustling market, which we saw from the inside of a garage. A familiar place for us as many trips and many garages have been leading us up to the most recent visit to the repair man and a stay in a garage.
We arrived at Biarritz knowing that we had a developing problem and had decided to head to France to tackle the issue. Which was a steady drip of fuel from the tank. What we didn't know as we drove through the streets of Biarritz was that the problem had become worse and there was now a steady stream of diesel leaving our ancient, rusty tank. This we found out in Anglet Carrefour's carpark!! As we stopped to get some supplies in a supermarket you may well remember.
With a bowl under the dribble, we pondered what to do. It was around 5 oclock in the evening by the time the breakdown lorry turned up, a nice lad who would take us to the local Mercedes garage in Bayonne. It was Monday 7th May, Bank Holiday in Britain. We arrived at the garage just as it was closing and guess what, the french take the Tuesday off, not the Monday, so we were to spend two nights in the charming location picture above! Here, we drained the remaining fuel out of our tank, into a 25 litre water bottle. To siphon, one sucks until fluid starts to flow then spits out any excess in one's mouth. This I did all over your mothers trousers, much to her surprise!! But at least we had stopped the leak and now could settle in to our new camp spot and try to relax.

Tuesday was a good day with exploring the neighbourhood taking up most of the afternoon. A long walk along the river bank, past a collapsed bridge and on into Bayonne centre.

It's a fine old town is Bayonne, So typically French you expect to find a guillotine around the next corner. We only find other tourists enjoying the heady atmosphere of the approaching storm. Will it strike before we get back to the van? Well no, fortunately. We made it just in time.

So Wednesday arrives and we enter the garage compound where we are allowed to stay until our new tank can be found and fitted. We are parked amongst the lorries and are allowed to come and go as we please until 6 oclock in the evening when the compound is locked up until the following day! A strange feeling, to be all alone in a large Mercedes garage in the sweltering heat.

The tarmac soaked up the days sunshine and kept it in the high 30's for most of the night. The lorries towering over us not allowing any air flow, suffocating is a word that comes to mind !

But we made the most of it, using the motorbike in the daytime to visit old haunts, including Lafetenia and the beach where we three swam and sunbathed at a few years earlier. It was a heat wave and swimming was a great relief. Well done that motorbike.
In the daytime, we had access to the garages toilets and showers, they were really very hospitable, tres gentile.








We waited until Saturday before the part arrived. First thing, at 8 am, we entered the garage and the new tank was fitted under my usual watchful eye !!!

Well, you have to keep an eye on things when you are paying 60 euros an hour labour rates !! and anyway, I always like to lend a hand whenever possible. We meet all sorts of lovely people under our van! This lad lives in the Pyrenees mountains and commutes to Bayonne to work, lovely chap.
His boss was keen to help too and didn't mind getting his hands dirty. He too was a good man.

Here he is bleeding the fuel system, not that I can't do it but people in garages do like to take charge and letting them get on with it seems the easiest way. I watch and tell him what to do !

The engine fires up straight away and I jump for joy

                                                                          What joy

To be freeeeee again and able to continue our travels until the next time

                                  Running wild, aiming high. Without a care, I sometimes cry

                                  Ever so shy, ever so brave. Playing around like there is no grave.

                                  Much like me but so very young. So many things you've not yet done.

                                  This is the beginning, starting out. Fly up high, cruise all about.

Sounds familiar? 

Until the next blog

lots of love

Dad n Mum ( who is about to read through this blog now and tell me what's what ! )

xxxxx

She says it's fine so I can post it now xxxxxxx

A blog for Jaimie, well why not?

Blog for Jaimie

well why not? I've tried blogging from Morocco but as yet, I've not tried one from home. So I thought I'd start one to chat about life to you our love as it unravels over the coming months. I won't write daily, unless something exciting happens !! but I thought a few pictures along with some text might be a good way of letting you know what's happening here with your ma nd Pa.

I thought I would open the picture gallery with a rather dull shot! But there's a long story behind it that is any thing but dull. It's the whole of my life really, from when I was just about to turn 17 years old. In fact, it is 40 years ago almost to the day.  I was 16 and already pushing out into the world. It was my first trip abroad, no parents in sight and an adventure was about to unravel that I could never have imagined. I know you know the story but it seems like a good place to start. 

Lafetenia, near Geuthary. Biarritz. 

To return here 40 years later was quite moving, to say the least. This, as you know, was where life almost ended for me in August 1972. Although there are no waves to speak of in the photo, this is a quality point break any young surf dude would ''die'' to surf at. I'm outside the point on the right, well outside and yep, that's where something decides i am to become an epileptic!! My first fit is to happen face down in the water and unless one of my surf mates, a one Andrew Denison, had not missed his wave, I would needless to say be just a memory in a few peoples minds. Remember that bloke Ted Beynon? The one who drowned in Biarritz !!!! But it wasn't to be because Andrew pulled my face out of the water and kept me above water long enough for the other three lads to come to the rescue. Dai Wills, Pixie Hurne and Peter Jones. We had literally arrived that early morning after driving all the way, non stop from Wales. Our first day of a one month surf trip!

And epilepsy was to direct my life, thank you epilepsy because without you, non of the things and people that have come my way, would have come as they did!! I believe that and yet I know that at the time I was, well, oblivious of the illness, until it had happened for a second time! Which was the time i drove my little mini car into the side of a pub as i crossed Sketty cross, blanking out half way and waking up to the smiles of a policeman!! But that's another story and only complicates what i'm trying to get at.
When the implications of what was happening to me became clearer a year or so later, I was devastated. I'm an epileptic and i didn't like the word or it's effects on my life. I was to loose my driving license, my job and my self esteem. But not for long. My job was shit anyway, I carried on driving illegally whenever anyone would let me near the wheel and i was about to leave my self esteem behind and fall into your mothers arms and things were never the same again.
Already my tale has covered several years and i know, our Jaimie, that your journey with that nasty worded illness has only just begun. So I am not in any way trying to belittle the overwhelming sadness, anger, frustration etc that you must have been going through from day to day. As well as the joy you are already experiencing since you were diagnosed. Bali sounds amazing. Storm is a sweet, darling of a man. You are a very courageous, talented, beautiful young woman. Nothing can take that away from you as long as you shine from inside with all the dreams and aspirations you have.
Believe me, I have been in a place like you. And I have had and am still having a brilliant life. In spite of all the mishaps, of being abused, Asthma, Epilepsy, Hepatitis C.  In spite of our Jon having died, he lived for 11 years and I wouldn't have missed that for anything. And I wouldn't have missed having spent all these years with you and watching you grow up, through hardship and happy times. For all the tea in china!!! As they say.

So the last picture of this 'start of a blog to you', is a picture of your mum, feeling completely at ease with herself, at the very spot from where our lives could have been so different if I had not survived and embraced epilepsy.

I get knocked down and I get up again. You're never gonna keep me down

sounds familiar?

All our love

Dad n Mum  xxxxxxxxxx