Cambridge Folk Festival Day 1 and 2

We arrived early, having left home before 8, and were in the site and set up by 10.30ish. Found Chris, Bill and the kids with Steph and Rob and set up together in a little encampment round the back of the toilet block near the big pine tree - not as bad as it sound because we are away form the routes travelled by drunks on their way back to their tents via our guy ropes.

Mel and Mark arrived about lunchtime. We met them and guided them back to the gang so they could pitch near us in the space we had saved. We were glad to have all pitched when the skies opened and we had a major thunderstorm directly overhead with torrential rain. I got very wet running around sorting out guy ropes but we dried out quickly once the rain had gone. We showed them around the stalls, and they just had to try on the traditional festival hats...
Our Thursday night music kicked off with Chumbawamba. Good set but lousy sound mix.
This was followed by Nizlopi who played a great set, including their Xmas hit the JCB song. Sonia loved them so much she's going to buy the CD.Mel showed us her new toys - a set of glowing poys (not sure I've spelt that right) which she swung around in time to the music.Back to the tent and we crashed out. I slept well despite the sound of the generator for the toilets being on the go permanently.

Saturday has been very warm so far. Sonia and I popped into Cambridge for lunch where Sonia bought a sun hat (didn't get a picture but I'm not sure she would have been happy to see it on here anyway...). Had the usual lunch at the Golden Eagle - food not as good as the beer. Saw a few touristy sights along the way.
Then wandered back to the site. We gave Seth Lakeman a go but gave up again and went off to eat. Popped into the Internet cafe on site to post this (photos added on Tuesday). Should be seeing Richard Thompson and Broken Family Band this evening. Will post tomorrow if I can get the kids off the free internet access...

New camera

I've finally bitten the bullet and bought a digital camera: Fuji Finepix F11, I'm going to give it a go to see if it as good as my SLR. Was in the sale at Jessops for a good price but found that I needed to buy an extra memory card...

The first picture taken was out of the living room window on Saturday afternoon at a couple of birds on the rockery by the garage.


I then played around a bit more to get the hang of the controls. It takes good pictures in low light. One of the picture was of the piece of art we bought each other for our wedding anniversary:

Liz & Geoff's Wedding

Friday afternoon was spent in the company of friends as we celebrated Liz and Geoff getting married. The legalities were dealt with at West Bridgford Registry Office and we met up with everyone at Yianni's Restaurant on Hayden Road for a late lunch and a few drinks. The food was excellent and the wine flowed.

After the meal, we all headed over to Liz and Geoff's house, with their daughter Lilith leading the way. The sun came out and we all relaxed in the garden, sitting around drinking the beer from the barrel that Geoff had got direct from a local brewery. Some drank more than others and seemed to be keen on watering the lawn with beer or wine. As the afternoon drifted into evening, some of us became more than a little relaxed (I'm waiting for people to e-mail their photos of Chris asleep in the deck chair with the sign "free beer today").

We eventually had to give up at about 9 pm, having been tippling since about 1 at the restaurant. I hope that they like their present because we enjoyed their party. The pressure is now on for us to hold a BBQ one Saturday afternoon...