August Bank Holiday in Yorkshire: Saturday

Saturday morning's alarm call came courtesy of the local hunt's hounds welcoming their feed at about 6 a.m. It's amazing how far their howls carry across the fields. After a breakfast of bacon butties and mugs of tea we set off for Pickering to go on the North Yorks Moors Railway. This is a steam train service that runs along a valley in the moors from Pickering to Grosmont (and back again).

We took a ride but stayed on board when the train pulled into Goathland which is famous as 'Aidensfield' in the Heartbeat TV series and as Hogsmeade in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone. Saw this advert for the old Craven A cigarettes. I think they only told half the story - it didn't mention what they did to your lungs...

Getting off at the end of the line in Grosmont, we watched our train steam off back to Pickering.

We wandered around the engineering sheds. You get to them through a tunnel that was first used by horse drawn trains.

While we waited for the train back, we had lunch in the village pub. Sonia's soup came IN a bread roll.

The journey back was on a different steam train, apparently the "Sir Nigel Gresley" is famous in trainspotting circles as the first train to do more that 110 mph. It definitely wasn't doing that on the way back but it was all very enjoyable.


Late Saturday afternoon was spent shopping in Pickering and Kirkbymoorside to get picnic items for Sunday. We headed back to camp and decided that we would have fish and chips from local chip shop in Nawton. In the evening we decided that we would try the pub in the next village. This involved the OS map and a walk on footpaths over the fields to Wombleton and back. Despite my best endeavours we managed to take the wrong turning on the way there, it was a nice walk down and then back up a field. When we got to the pub at 6.30 we found that it didn't open until 7 so we sat on the table in front and waited. While we sat there the first rain drops started to fall just as the pub was about to open so we headed inside to wait for the rain to stop. A couple of pints later and we headed back via a different route. Again, we missed a turning and didn't take the shortest footpath back. But we did get back before nightfall after following a footpath that led us to a layby to the east of Nawton.

August Bank Holiday in Yorkshire: Friday

We went away last weekend to the North Yorkshire Moors. We pitched the tent at a nice quiet campsite near Nawton and Beadlam called Wrens of Ryedale. Arriving at lunchtime on Friday gave us an afternoon to familiarise ourselves with the area. A drive up to Gillamoor took us to a small church with a short steeple and a view across the dale.

A short drive across the dale took us to Hutton-le-Hole, home of the Ryedale Folk Museum. We preferred to sit outside a small shop by the stream eating tubs of local ice cream. We then wandered into Kirkbymoorside to check out the local shops before heading back to the campsite. After cooking our tea, we wandered down the lane to the village pub on Friday evening. As we sat in the dry we watched the rain start pouring down and chatted about what we were going to do over the weekend. Once the rain stopped we headed back to see how the tent had coped. Everything was dry inside so we settled down for the night.

Full Flickr means delayed sunsets

I've filled up my Flickr allowance for August by the 24th. Normally not a problem but I've just produced 4 sunset photos from Monday evening.
I hope that people share my modest opinion that they are very good photos. So I've posted them here until I can get them into my Flickr account...or I might have to think about paying out $25 for a Pro account...

Countries I have visited

Just found a website that lets you create a map of the world showing the countries you have visited. I thought I would have a go and so here's my map:


create your own visited countries map or vertaling Duits Nederlands

A weekend in Dereham

Spent last weekend in Norfolk with Mum and Dad. Not that I need a reason to visit but it the weekend was a chance to celebrate two events - Mum's birthday on 15th and Gemma's A level results on 17th. I'll not say how old Mum is, but it's been a few years since she got her bus pass.

With an A at English, a B in Art, and a C in Maths Gemma's results were what she needed to go to College at Lincoln to read Fine Art so she's happy. On the academic front Edward also got "A"s in all his year end exams apart from RE, so we're all proud of him as well. He says he doesn't read blogs because they're either very good or full of mad people whining. I'll let you decide what label fits this blog.

We took the opportunity to visit Elaine and Ben's new house on Saturday morning, as we missed them last time we were over. It's a nice bungalow over in Toftwood and they have a good sized garden with a pear tree. They've just got a kitten from the local cat rescue centre and even I have to admit it's cute.



On Saturday afternoon we finally got round to putting some silver paint on the flat roof. It had been sitting in the garage since before Easter but every time Dad and I had a spare weekend when we could do it, it had been raining so it was too wet to apply the paint. We got about 3/4 of the roof painted before the rain swept in and stopped us working.

Saturday night was eating out night. Dad drove Mum, Sonia and I out to a pub by the County Showground where we were joined by Gemma, Edward and Gemma's boyfriend Chris (who got 4 As and 3 Bs for his A levels). Dad and I split the bill to treat the birthday and exam celebrants.


Sunday morning was fairly quiet. We spent a while preparing for a lunchtime barbeque, hoping that the rain would hold off. It didn't, so Dad had to cook under the car port. The main dish was a large Scottish salmon that he stuffed with cucumber and bay leaves before wrapping in tin foil and lobbing on the BBQ. It was so large that the nine of us couldn't finish it and we had a box full to take home with us.

So all in all, an enjoyable weekend with family.

Flickr Nottingham Group

I joined the Nottingham Flickr Group yesterday evening and posted a load of my photos from around Nottingham. Have already had several positive comments about the pictures I took back in March 2006 (that can be found in this blog at Sunny Sunday Morning in Nottingham and More Sunny Sunday Photos).

I also added a Flickr mozaic to this blog after I got back from Cambridge. If you can see a photo you like the look of, just click on it and you will be redirected to the photo on my Flickr pages. Hope you enjoy them.

Cambridge Folk Festival Day 4

Sunday morning was as fuzzy as Saturday...I had to wander down to the corner shop to get some cash and a paper. After a morning sitting around reading the paper and waiting for the world came back into focus for some of us, we headed into the arena for the final day's music where we met up with Helen and Phil plus a couple of their friends who had day tickets. It was a very international line up.

First up were Rodrigo Y Gabriela. My note says "mexican version of stairway to heaven"!
The traditional north English folk tradition was represented by John Tams and Barry Coope: "quirky humour and traditional folk songs"
Capercallie gave us the Scottish tradition: "chill out session for a Sunday afternoon"
The John Butler Trio from Australia: "OK- Mel big fan" - she was VERY excited to hear that they would be in the signing tent after their set and she headed off as soon as they finshed to get her CD signedEddi Reader finished the afternoon: "perfect" was my one word description of her set.
Mozaik kicked off the evening session but we only stayed for a couple of songs before heading back to the tent for a wash having been sat in the hot sun all afternoon, so "no comments".
We returned at the end of their set and heard an amazing set from Betty LaVette "growly voice and solid soul/blues and 60 years old"
Emmylou Harris was the big star for Sunday night: "crowd worships her, told joke - vegetarian is a native american word meaning bad hunter"
The closing act was Croft No.5. I was looking forward to them but "good but too tired to enjoy" was my pithy review.The end of the music found us all gathered around the gas lanterns back at the tents talking about the weekend, what we had enjoyed and what we had not. the consensus seemed to be that it was a good festival, very relaxed with nice toilets (and those who have been to Glastonbury and used the "back to back long drops" will know just how important the sanitary arrangements are for a festival). I enjoyed myself, Sonia says she did too, and maybe we'll do it again next year...

Cambridge Folk Festival Day 3

Saturday dawned with a fuzzy head. It may have been the heat as the sun rose higher in the clear skies but we didn't move much from in front of Stage 1 once we had settled into position at lunchtime.
I put it down to the wonderful music and the proximity of food and drink vendors. Some of us enjoyed them more than others...

While some people wandered back to the campsite for BBQs before setting out for the afternoon, we bought our food on site to save packing (and washing up).
First up - Julie Fowlis: "relaxing and charming"
Tom Russell followed her: "very funny"
Dervish (same as Thursday night)
Teddy Thompson: "OK, can hear that dad taught him to play"
Salsa Celtica (long time personal favourites): "into the groove"
The afternoon tea interval was spent eating and drinking before we settled down for the evening session which was kicked off by Cara Dillon: "better than expected" (I think this review is based on our previously having heard her at Tolpuddle Festival and not being impressed).
Nickell Creek: "rocking in the sun"
Cerys Matthews, formerly of Catatonia: "disappointing, not good"
I evidently enjoyed The Chieftans: "band as old as me and still going strong with skiddly diddly fun"
The evening closed with Los de Abajo, a Mexican skapunk agitpop band: "great dancing set as the crowd thinned out"On the way back to the tents, Bill bought their CD so we sat around finishing off the beer listening to music under the stars.

Cambridge Folk Festival Day 2 continued

There wasn't much chance to post any more over the weekend, given the access problems for the free internet - too many teenagers and too little time - so I'm doing a series of posts now I've got home and downloaded the photos. My "reviews" are based on the notes I scrawled in my programme after each set - the writing is clearer earlier in the evenings (I blame the bar staff for selling me Badger brewery beer in 4 pint containers and Pimms in large jugs with lots of ice, but not the nice woman on the spicy hot cider stall who served me warm alcohol to keep away the chill after the sun had gone down).

Friday was our second day at the festival and we settled down by stage 1 for the start of the evening.

First up were the Broken Family Band - "lively set - joined by Eddi Reader"They were followed by Marcia Ball - "damned good rocking RnB set"Richard Thompson closed stage 1 for us - "great, super, with Christine Collister"We then staggered over to stage 2 to watch Dervish play closing set of the night - "lively skiddly diddly" which saw Sonia and Mel dancing jigs under the trees.The evening finished with a hot drink from the Internet cafe and a chat round the gaz lanterns before we collapsed into our sleeping bags.

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...

Fathers Day trip to Scotland

We had a long trip away for Father's Day this year. As my Grandfather has just moved into a care home, we went up to see how he was settling in (and to see how my grandmother was coping with not having him around the house).

Mum and Dad came over on the Thursday afternoon and stopped the night with us. Dad and I watched England scramble a win against Trinidad & Tobago and shared a couple of drinks. Friday morning saw us on the road at about 7.30 a.m. I did the first stint driving. Dad and I swapped over every few hours. The weather was dry and sunny until we hit Dundee when it started raining. Got to the Water Wheel Inn in Milltimber about 6.30 p.m. After a quick freshening up unpacking, we were joined in the bar by Dad's cousin Jean for a drink and a chat.

Saturday dawned overcast in Aberdeenshire (no change there, then). We did a bit of shopping and went to seen Jean's new decking by her summer house. Worked out how many you could get on the dance floor over tea and cake. We then drove up Deeside towards Tarland, stopping off at the Lochnagar distillery to get a few samples on the way. We had a wander around Tarland, with me showing Sonia the shop where used to get my sweets from Dolly, and Dad showing us the house next door where he used to live. We popped into the Commercial Hotel across the road for lunch. Dad explained that this was where Dod used to come for his lunch every day. We also walked around the "old" and "new" cemetaries, looking up family gravestones, with Dad explaining who was who and how they were related.

Granddad is in Alastrean House, Tarland. It was formerly the home of Lady MacRobert, who lost 3 sons in the RAF (one in Iraq in 1938 and two in 1941 in the war). She set up the house as a RAF care home. The management recently passed from the RAF Benevolent Fund to a private organisation, but RAFBF still has rooms in the home. As a retired Squadron Leader, Granddad had been there before for short respite breaks, so he knows his way around the place. We saw him for afternoon tea with Grandma. His memory was good as he remembered that Mum and Dad had been out to see Michael in Australia, and when Dad mentioned that they had also been over to New Zealand, Granddad said that his father was planning to move there but that his mother wanted to go to Australia instead and that nothing came of it in the end. This possible emigration (in the 1920s?) was news to Dad. We shared a cup of tea and some cake. It was noticeable that many of the staff were young Polish women mixed in with a few locals. They chatted to Granddad using his first name and knew that he liked coffee rather than tea, and he was very happy with their help and support. He jokingly told us that his big expedition of the day is getting up to go to the loo in the morning. We left him after a while to give him some rest as he had a disturbed night's sleep and promised to come back on Sunday for tea.

Sunday morning was spent in Duthie Park, wandering around the greenhouses and admiring the floral displays. We also popped in to Curry's to get a new camera bag for Dad's digital camera - my father's day present for him. We split up int he afternoon. Mum and Sonia went off to a garden centre with Jean, while Dad and I went back to Tarland. The aim was to have fewer visitors to tire Granddad on Father's Day. Again we met him and Grandma for afternoon tea. He was a bit more chatty, having had a better night's sleep. His main concern was that he couldn't lift both his legs at once and that meant he wouldn't be able to drive. We had a chat about the types of car Dad and I were driving, and he told us that he's never driven a car with power steering. But, as he pointed out, he's 94 at the end of July so he's not going to be doing much driving! He also chatted about what he keeps in the box on his walking frame - his paper, his hat and most important: his tobacco and pipe. These days, he joked, he smokes lighters rather than his pipe (trying to keep it alight). We left him after tea and a piece of birthday cake (as it was one of the other resident's birthday) as he was heading off to the smoking room. He was able to get around with his walking frame quite well, the only difficulty being his getting out of the chair.

After leaving Alastrean house, we wandered into the "old" cemetary again for Dad to look for a headstone that Jean had mentioned, before heading back to her's for our evening meal. Jean had laid on a great spread of roast chicken, baked potatoes and salad. I set her up on www.Flickr.com so that she could see Dad's photos once he had downloaded them and we eventually headed back to the hotel.

Monday was spent driving back to Nottingham. The rain stopped round about Edinburgh as I drove over the Forth bridge. Apart from an hour sat in traffic looking at the Metro Centre in Newcastle, the drive back was straightforward and we made it back to Nottingham in time for tea. Mum and Dad headed off back to Norfolk first thing on Tuesday morning.

It was a long weekend, driving over 900 miles to Aberdeen and back, but I felt it was important to help my Dad see his Dad on Father's Day.

Flickr photos go live

I've just got into Flickr and have been posting some of my old holiday snaps. At the moment, my favourites on public view are from our holiday in 2004 in NW Scotland. Here's the view that greeted us as we walked down to Balnakeil beach on a warm August afternoon.

Balnakeil Beach 01
Originally uploaded by Bob Watt

If you click on the picture you get redirected to a larger version on my Flickr pages where you can see more photos.

The wet weekend lingers

It's the Tuesday after a Bank Holiday weekend at end of May and the rain keeps coming. All plans to paint the flat roof have been put on hold as the roof is never dry long enough to sweep the dust off let alone apply the special paint.

So the day has been spent pottering around Dereham, watching the rain fall, watching Roman Holiday on DVD. The positive outcome was the purchase of a couple of folding sack trolleys ready for moving stuff around at Cambridge.

We'll have to wait to see if there is a break in the weather long enough to dry out the felt so we can get it painted one weekend. Meanwhile, it's back home tomorrow.

What we did on a wet weekend

Things never quite turn out how you plan. In the end we didn't go to the party or to the Arboretum. Instead, Saturday was spent doing laundry and a bit of shopping for birthday presents etc. Sunday was a different matter. I woke up and decided to finally swap the sitting room and dining room round as Sonia had suggested before Xmas.

First problem - how to move the TV, NTL box, video and DVD? Obvious solution: Dig under the stairs for the cable and connectors that were bought last year for this purpose and make extension cables for TV aerial and NTL cable.

Second problem - how to get the cables from front room wall to new TV position in back room? Trailing cables around the walls and through two doors was not an option so it was up with half the carpet in the living room and then up with a few floor boards to feed the cables. Drilling a couple of holes and then the judicious use of carbon fibre interlinked tent poles, blue rope and a pair of long barbeque tongs meant we soon had the two cables running below the floor boards to their new position in the former dining room. A quick connection up and check showed that the TV and NTL box worked.

Third problem - how to move a dining table from the back room to the front room, and move a 3 seater sofa from the front room to the back room? Brute force and careful angling (and the lifting of the back room door of it's hinges when it got jammed) were the order of the day. Only complaint from Sonia came when she was under the sofa in the hall way and I asked her to hold it while I removed the door. Other than that it went smoothly.

We then had a clear out of books, moved the videos and DVDs around, and decided that the front room carpet could go back down for now as we'll now need to decorate the front room. The late afternoon included a trip to deliver the birthday presents before collapsing on the sofa for the evening.

Monday morning was spent in town buying a new vacuum cleaner and net curtains for the front room (didn't need them when it was a sitting room but now it's a dining room we eat our breakfast in there and the public doesn't need/want to see us first thing in the morning...). After attacking the meadow at the top of the garden for 45 minutes I had got about two thirds of it down from knee to ankle height when the rain started. I'm a coward and decided to stop using the electric strimmer, so I've still got some more strimming to look forward to next week.

After lunch we headed over to Norfolk as I'm planning to help my Dad paint his flat roof tomorrow if the rain holds off. Popped in to see him at the golf club where he was helping run a Juniors Competition. The early evening was spent helping him set up a Flikr account so that he can share his photos with family in Australia. We seem to have got that sorted and while he's gone off to watch a bit of TV with Mum and Sonia I'm typing this lot up.

Oh well, time to be sociable with the rest of the family. Let's see if drinks are being served. To quote my mother "The sun is over the yard arm somewhere in the world"

What to do on a wet bank holiday weekend?

The Bank Holiday weekend is in the balance - quiet or rowdy? Wet or dry? Whatever the weather I'm hoping of a relaxed weekend as I'm recovering from a small visitor. A stomach virus came to stay with me for a couple of days so I've been off work and have spent my time on the sofa catching up with the backlog of Lost videos in between dashing up stairs...slept through for 10 hours on Wednesday night from 7pm and was even too feverish to work a computer so it must have been serious. Made it back into work today but was warning people not to stand between me and the door.

On the rowdy front, there's a possible party in Hucknall for one of Sonia's friends from her MA course, but as we forgot to RSVP we'll need to ring to find out if it's OK to turn up. Plus we might pop into the Arboretum during Saturday afternoon for Audio Massage in the Park if the wet weather holds off.

On the quiet front, the wet weather might also scupper my plans to nip over to Norfolk to help my Dad paint his flat roof next week. In the mean time we've also got a few birthday presents to sort out, so it looks like a trip into town tomorrow. This should be interesting as NCT bus drivers are on strike. So, will town be quiet or rowdy? My money is on the queues for the car parks getting rowdy so we might get some exercise from the walk as I'll not be driving in and definitely will not be on a scab bus!

But we won't be able to walk far under the weight of our flak jackets and stab vests, clambering over the burnt out wrecks of stolen cars that litter the ring road as we try to get away from the millions of muggers who lie in wait around every corner...if you believe the national media's version of life in Nottingham.

A quiet weekend in Nottingham

It was a quiet weekend, just a birthday party, a cup final, a haircut and some tickets.

Chris had his 54th birthday bash BBQ. We started at about 7. The rain held off most of the evening as the dozen or so of us sat around chatting and making sure that the kids didn't get too near the hot charcoal. Sonia is starting to convince Rob that they are distant cousins. Lots of lovely grub and drink, then after we'd eaten all the food and drunk all the beer and wine, we all headed off to the pub to carry on. Think we left at about 11.45 (ish).

Woke up on Saturday morning with a sore head and the cambridge tickets in my wallet. There was a vague memory of Chris with a string of tickets about 7 ft long and him handing them out to the appropriate parties. Headed off to the weekly shop. While Sonia was doing the hunter gatherer bit I went for the head massage of a No2 haircut. Barber's "bangin' mix tape of happy house" was not quite what the doctor ordered...

Afternoon was spent texting Paul each time West Ham scored, but as a Liverpool fan he had the last laugh with their usual display of a late equaliser followed by victory in a penalty shoot out.

Billy Bragg, De Montford Hall, Leicester, 04/05/06

I woke up this morning with a smile on my face. Not just because it's my birthday and Sonia was there beside me but because of the Bragg gig last night.

So why am I smiling about a gig? Let's start with a big thank you to Helen and Phil for doing the driving so I could have a pint, which meant I was relaxed when Bill came on stage at 9.

He opened up with The World Turned Upside Down and kept the volume and speed up for the next couple of songs before starting his characteristic "chats" between the songs. The 2 hour set was a mix of new songs such as I Keep Faith, old songs in a new way (with topical references thrown in such as - "how can you lay there and think of England when you don't even know who's the manager yet?") interspersed with explanations of what the Hope Not Hate Tour was about.

At one point we were given Bill's theory of how St George became the patron Saint of England which involved a jobbing Saint looking for work and coming here in the 14th Century. He moved on to produce a big cross of St George flag and talked about the need to reclaim it from the likes of the BNP, epecially as we are only a few weeks away from the World Cup Finals where a multiracial England will be represented by a multiracial England team. Personally, I'm not convinced that we need National Flags and Saints at all (says the "aging" socialist idealist in me).

The self proclaimed "soul/folk" singer gave us a few traditional tunes including John Barleycorn - that morphed into England, Half English. The music wasn't all "politics and shouting". Bill was joined on stage by Ian Mc Lagan, formerly of The Small Faces and The Faces, who provided keyboard support for several songs. A poignant section was their cover of a Ronnie Lane song about his father (the tune sounded like Witchita Linesman to me) which was followed by Bill singing the song he wrote about his - Tank Park Salute.

The first session ended with the "traditional" updating of The Great Leap Forward with Benjamin Wegg-Prosser getting a mention this time. The first encore was followed by a second "greatest oldies sing along" encore. A man on stage with an electric guitar singing most of the songs from his first 2 albums with an audience that knew the words was about as good as it gets. Bill seemed to be really enjoying himself, and so were we. I didn't feel cheated when he finaly finished the second encore at just after 11 and left the hall asking "how good was that then?"

Summer festival dilemma resolved

The tickets for Cambridge Folk Festival went on sale today. Like hundreds (or maybe thousands) of others who wanted to camp on the main site, I was on the phone on the dot of 10 when the box office telephone lines opened.

Despite ringing simultaneously on both the house phone and my mobile, I started to enter the zen zone of: hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial - hear engaged tone - hang up - hit redial...

After an hour and a half of this, I was snapped out of my telephone trance when my mobile rang in between "hang up" and "hit redial". It was my mate Chris to tell me he had got through and was on hold on his home line. Did I want him to order our tickets when he spoke to the box office?

YES!

He rang me back about 10 minutes later to let me know that we have two weekend festival tickets and a camping ticket for Cherry Hinton.

More good news came after lunch with a text message from Mel to say that she had got through and would be spending her 30th birthday weekend at Cambridge. All we need now is for Helen and Phil to get their Saturday ticket sorted.