Saturday 21 July 2018

Lost for words - part one


The long dusty Summer continues without let-up -  sorry for lack of posting lately – less screen time, more sunscreen time.  Work, sleep, rat-catching (no killing involved, I would never - just relocation), books, freckle-cultivation, too much Prosecco (if there is such a thing).... is that it?

Well, not completely...   I also had a fab time at Latitude Festival, which must be just about the friendliest place on earth, quite otherworldly, and where I mistook the map symbol of a Pepsi Max Drink Station for the obelisk where I was supposed to meet a friend and ended up looking for a monolith akin to Nelson's Column when in fact it was all of about four foot tall.  But it worked, it all worked, and we pals all found each other amongst the crowd of thousands.

The whole experience has taken on a bit of an Alice In Wonderland feel now, and what with all that confusion re. size – first the tiny huge obelisk and then later, when texting my location: “We’re near big fish flagpole” and the hilarious reply: “Can only see a little red goldfish on a stick”.  When does a little red goldfish on a stick become a big fish flagpole?  Or is it all just relative?  Big… or little… who knows which is which in such heady surroundings?  And who cares - you are away from the violent, screaming world and in this escapist bubble, where complete strangers offer you their pink fondant fancies whilst bass lines rumble like trains through your guts.

I was only there for one day so missed quite a bit, but loved what I caught.  I thoroughly enjoyed Sleeper who were even better than I’d expected after all these years (also prompting a new girl crush on Louise Wener who was on top form and utterly charming).  Wolf Alice also hit the spot for me; I’d been really looking forward to seeing them and especially their performance of Giant Peach during which, as hoped, they wigged-out full Hawkwind-style...

It was also the first time in a long, long while that I’ve woken up in the morning with smudged eye make-up all over my face because I was too lazy to take it off the night before.  Ooh, a long while!

But there will be far better reviews and summaries floating around and I'm happy to leave more detailed descriptions to those who do it best; for now this is just a post to break the silence and to rediscover my blogging mojo which has been AWOL for almost as long as it is since I've slept in my make-up.  Irony is that I have had a few things I’d like to write about but just haven’t been able to find the words and the energy, somehow.

Talking of lost words, though, I’ve deliberately/foolishly labelled this as a 'part one' to force myself into following it up with another post, hopefully before the Summer is out, which is about a beautiful book I recently bought, and once I can actually catch those elusive words and put them into some semblance of order they might land on these pages soon.  In the meantime, thanks for bearing with me!

14 comments:

  1. Sounds like an excellent (part-) festival.

    "a new girl crush on Louise Wener" - welcome to the club!

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    1. Well, she IS lovely! Would so like to see more female role models like her too.

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    1. Thanks John. Can't promise to be prolific but still here!

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  3. They were great, superb musicianship too.
    You're right... it won't be long probably until we're shivering in our woolly jumpers looking out at the frost and simply trying to remember what it feels like to be too hot, but failing completely!

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  4. Working and sleeping pretty much sums up my life lately too. I tentatively reintroduced the bird feeder to the garden this year after a long break and remarkably have seen no rats so far (though Mrs S has seen one). As you know, we've had considerable issues with the blighters in the past. For future reference, what rat catching method did you use and what was your success rate?
    Good to see that you enjoyed your time at Latitude. Several of our blogging chums have been to the festival at one time or another over the years, but I still haven't made it there, despite being close enough to it to be able to hear the music wafting into the garden.

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    1. Glad you managed to bring the birdfeeders back and hope you can keep them going! I have such mixed feelings about rats - I think they're wonderful creatures, so intelligent, and like Chris Packham, in my heart I would be quite happy to just leave them be and let them live their lives - if you look online you can find plenty of people who agree...
      https://twitter.com/chrisgpackham/status/953317207437692928
      But there are all the other issues - in particular, having a small garden and the effect on and response from neighbours. Anyway, our compost bin was the main attractant and the rats were quite young, so I put a humane cage-style trap inside it each night with bread covered liberally in peanut butter. I saw eight or nine altogether but we managed to catch five (separately) this way! And then took them out for a little drive into the middle of nowhere next morning to release them. It was all a bit of a palaver but felt like the right thing to do. Gradually the others have now disappeared - but that may be down to neighbours' cats - or maybe someone's despatched them another way, I don't know. We've stopped composting for the moment but when we restart will need to fix some kind of rat-proof mesh to base of bin.
      Yes, Latitude was excellent and my mate and I definitely want to go again - hope you can make it there too some time, such a great atmosphere and for you so close!

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  5. So glad you managed to go to the festival and that it turned out to be a great chance to watch some bands and meet up with friends. I am constantly amazed how people find each other at these big festivals but it always seems to happen - Big/little obelisks have their place. We have three festivals near us every summer so I will try and make at least one of them (probably the smallest one) just to test the water. I refuse to camp nowadays but if I do make it there is a good chance I might also just crash when I get home without taking off the eye-makeup/lipstick first (used to be a regular occurrence but so good nowadays).


    As for the elusive words, it seems to be a common problem over the summer - Just so many outdoorsy things to do I think (depositing baby rats in your case) that time in front of a computer seems ill-spent somehow. We will all return refreshed in the autumn I'm sure.

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    1. Oh yes, hope you can get to one of your nearby festivals next Summer and tell us about it. Likewise, no camping for me - a B&B with hot running water, though to be honest I don't think it would have been so bad to spend that one night before going home in a tent, given the lovely weather. Instead of being woken up by the distant strains of still-partying teenagers I was awoken in the early hours by some most peculiar and unfamiliar bird noises right outside the window; we were on the estuary, so a different kind of wildlife!

      The Summer heat hiatus seems to have taken a hold generally although I am in awe, as ever, of our daily posters. Still reading even if not writing but yes, definitely less time in front of the computer.

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    2. Just wanted to return and clarify, none of the three summer festivals have happened yet so still think I might fit one in! DD is definitely going to the third one so we could go and embarrass her in front of her friends, or, she might quite like having up turn up - We'll see.

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    3. Oh, that's brilliant, sorry I just sort of assumed there that they were over, don't know why! Yes, be great to go if you can, and let us know what you think. As for embarrassing the offspring, it seems sort of different at these places - not sure if that'll be your experience but at Latitude it actually felt like the majority of festival-goers were probably over 40....

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  6. Welcome back- blog as and when it comes.

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