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news 2008.07.06 sunday

22 hits this week (1w+) 9690 total.

1w late due to glastonbury and computer problems.

July.

Tuesday took the kawasaki to work.

Wednesday we got the van back. We loaded up the trolleys ready for the morning.

Way back in april we joined in the annual mad dash for glastonbury tickets, attacking it with 2 pcs, laptop, dial up and broadband. No success after 2 hrs, and it normally sells out in about an hour. Anyway for some reason I carried on and about 30 mins later managed to buy tickets. Actually it didn't sell out before it started.

Thursday up early and loaded the trolleys into the van, getting away about 06:25. Stopped at the michael wood services for breakfast. Along the a361 we eventually picked up worthy fm only after rounding the tor. We kept expecting to hit the back of the queue, but soon arrived and turned straight in to car park w29. W29 exits onto the old railway line (outside the site), which is at least on the level, if a little bumpy - the trolleys doing a great job, as we progressed past shed wellies and other debris. Headed up the hill and camped near the dairy ground hedge, a few tents back from the metal road. At the gate we were given a pack of 7 biodegradeable tent pegs - the 1st broke almost straight away, but we managed to use 4 of them for the inner. Standard metal for everything else. All sorted by 11:00 - this is unfeasibly easy, and it's not even raining.
We headed over to the park to see our brazier, but it had been replaced by a round wooden seating area - lots of other braziers about though. A sandalism sand sculpture getting started at the bottom of the park. It had been extended even further up the hill, so you can get a great view of the site without ascending the jellyfish tower. Continued over to the "sacred space" with its stone circle - never been there before. The wooden dragon only hinting at the real dragon in the stream behind the trees.
Down the hill through the green crafts area and on to shangri la where all the darkness looks a bit out of place in the daylight. Found a cafe with some appalling spelling on the menu - expressially in the coffee area. Over the railway into trash city where again the metal figures looked as though they would be better after dark.
Into the jazz world field where we had something to eat - an excellent sausage and tartiflette from la grand bouffe. An early highlight of the festival, sitting on a bench while apparently spontaneous waves of cheering swept through the site in the sunshine. A red devil and blue angel stopped in front of us to adjust their stilts. Had to move a bit quickly when a tractor came through spraying water onto the dusty road - yes, it really was that dry.
Headed back to the tent for some sleep, intending to return, but it started raining in the evening, gradually getting heavier. Didn't get much sleep listening to the adjacent new arrivals, the bunch of talkative geordies and students with their nitrous oxide and balloons - woosh. At some point 1 of the now tentless geordies had to explain to each of the others as they returned how he'd left the tent to let water in and float the airbed. The rain seemed to stop quite suddenly, but that's probably just from dozing off and on.

Friday up early with all the noise. We headed over to the park for something to eat, only to find most places still closed, settling for coffee and orange juice. It now had its familiar ice cream sloshy mud on the slopes - combined with lack of sleep - feels like a normal glastonbury. Walked down past the orange chill and charge tent and got something to eat.
Over to the pyramid stage for the subways. 3 years since we saw them on the john peel stage. Excellent apart from the excess smoke and tracks from the difficult 2nd cd.
Went for a bit of a wander. I returned for kt tunstall in the rain, while carol went back to the tent.
We headed over to the john peel stage in plenty of time for the ting tings, but the crush went all the way back over the bridge, so we gave up and went round the other way to see gossip on the main stage. A remarkably good set of songs, over the 1 that usually gets shown on tv.
Went for another little wander round the shops and some chips, meeting dave with his tequila water pistol. Returned for the end of the editors set.
Back up to the park where we saw a remarkable orrery/planetary thing rotating. The sand sculpture having developed claws and a tail. Then back to the tent with the sound of the enemy coming up the hill from the other stage.

Saturday morning we seemed to have had a little more sleep than before. Toilets and washing areas getting increasingly disgusting. But, no sign of rain, and the sun starting to appear between the clouds.
Walked down the railway line to have a look at the green areas before the bands started. The area in front of the other stage doing its usual impression of a sandy beach. Found the garden organic area. The queue for the solar powered showers was closed as the water supply to the whole site had failed - temporarily we hoped. The jazz world field looking a lot less green than thursday.

I went over to the john peel tent to see emmy the great - who was rather good in a quirky/folky sort of way. Back to the pyramid to see martha wainwright while having roast beef lunch sitting on the bench by the ice cream van to the right of the stage. Carol reurned in time to see seasick steve, including the story of the 3 string guitar. Rushed over to the cabaret tent to see some of kevin eldon, not realising he was only on for 15 mins. Had a proper look at the circus area with various creatures wandering about including bugs, mermaids, and a whole flock of sheep - baaaa. Saw a 1 person theatre (1 person in the audience, that is). The sheep gathered around the diy trapeze - carol wanted to have a go, and joined the queue for a while, but it was going to take about an hour.
We went over to the john peel tent to see british sea power - quite popular with people with bits of shrubbery stuck about their person. Excellent waving flags (with lots of flag waving in the audience) and some instrumental to a video of wild birds. Massive flow leaving the tent so we we went up to the cinema field, which was refreshingly empty.
Back to the pyramid for the raconteurs under clear blue sky. The monitor screens in "lack of colour" monochrome in line with the cd artwork. But this is not really about seeing the band - it's about guitar, bass and drums... with added guitar - brilliant - another highlight of the festival - covering most of the 2 cds so far.
I wanted to see the band of horses, but we needed a rest more, so headed back to the tent.

Back to the pyramid, busy for amy winehouse, so we we went up the hill a bit. Some drunken person ploughed into us and knocked us to the floor, but he managed not to spill his beer. Amy appeared barely functional, doing a very variable job of singing, but the backing musicians were excellent as usual. It seemed to overrun a bit.
We didn't hang around for the headliner, heading over to see trash city and shangri la in the dark. A beautiful sight over the valley from the hill, with the illuminated tip of the pyramid and twinkly lights along all the metal roads. Trash city looking not ready yet, so we went over the railway to shangr la. Saw some aerial acts on bungees, hoops and poles in a tent. Saw some people wander past astride giant illuminated green firefly bugs.Had a coffee and cake in the dodgy spelling cafe. Back to trash city which had now got started, with exploding gas flares, and a band on top of a red ship, with a 4 armed robot playing drums and a lobster with flaming claws dancing out front. Also a "jet" car.
We headed back along the railway, against the full flow coming from the now finished main stages. Eventually turned off left up towards the park, where at least most of the flow was going in the right direction - a surreal experience like something from a sci fi dream sequence, with so many people moving slowly on a narrow lit up metal road among a sea of tents. After 01:00 when we got back to the tent and got some sleep.

Sunday so tired that I slept reasonably well, but carol was up at 04:00 with the noise, and wanting to go home. We had had 3 nights away already and didn't see many things on the guide worth staying for. Also feeling a bit off with a cough and too much sun. There's also the problem of trying to leave the site at peak time sunday night/monday morning. A fast and efficient packing away of the tent and loading of the trolleys - a bit easier with no water pack. Even easier pulling the trolleys downhill in the early morning sunshine. We were on the main road by 06:30. Stopped at gordano for breakfast. Home by 10:30. Precious sleep at last.

Glastonbury 2008 - great. Many hours of bbc coverage to catch up with, especially the things we weren't able to get too. Still haven't seen it all.

Here are some links to the good causes associated with glastonbury - showing videos in between the bands, but completely unseen from the bbc coverage.

videos breathe alien invasion

Monday off. 1x round the village circuit 8 mins 10. Lots of washing. Into town for lunch. Bought a small pack to strap on the ducati seat. Bought the subways cd all or nothing. Made a start on the not even wrong book.

Tuesday the main computer completely failed - won't allow complete login any more. It has been getting increasingly unstable for a while. Lost some of the glastonbury edits, but most stuff is backed up on the nas. Time to move to the laptop.

Gradually catching up with the bbc glastonbury coverage. Never knew about elbow before and the excellent 1 day like this. I had seen the rubik cube logo on the other stage, but didn't latch on to the music at the time.

Friday we went to the old lion to eat.

Saturday rain in the morning. Into town for lunch. Saw the carnival preparations between the cathedrals and new art gallery in the sunshine. Then saw the procession entering broadgate. Bought the elbow cd the seldom seen kid. Didn't bother with the godiva festival, partly because of the weather, but also because of the new security fence.

Sunday more rain.

now showing tv/radio

tvguide.co.uk

bbc.co.uk/iplayer

bbc1/2/3/4 itv1/2/3/4 channel4 5 radio4

now showing cinema

coming soon cinema

	bbc.co.uk/films/comingsoon/diary.shtml uk release dates for films and more
	empireonline.co.uk uk release dates for films and more
	darkhorizons.com early info, trailers and pictures from upcoming films
	sfx.co.uk anything even vaguely sci fi

coming soon general

lhc the large hadron collider comes on line. Either the higgs boson is found, or the standard model is trashed. Or just maybe it makes a mini black hole that destroys the world. Delayed from november by various delays including breaking 1 of the magnets. 2008 august (1st collisions)

coming 1 day maybe

	spektrum dx7 2.4GHz Tx and Rx. Spread spectrum digital technology (at last) available for radio control. I was waiting to see others enter the market, but the 1st futaba offerings seem rather poor (eg display size, number of channels) compared to the market leader spektrum sets. And the retrofit modules seem to miss the point of pairring individual aircraft to Tx settings.
	1 day there will be media machine that can do all the freeview digital stuff, play dvds, cds etc., has a hard disk, is networked, and is silent. In a sense they are here now in the form of a windows media pc, but they are fabulousy expensive, especially the "silent" versions, that use massive, heavy passive cooling heatsinks. The digifusion fvrt100 does a great job of digital tv timeshift, but has no route to permanent storage. The sony hxd710 does digital tv record with dvd-rw, but has only a single freeview Rx and no network. The kiss dp-558 does hard drive, dvd and network, but no freeview and is rather big. The hauppauge mvp plays computer files remotely, but that's all it does. Maybe it will be a media pc - shuttle m2000 looks good, but expensive. In the meantime I have upgraded the fvrt100 to 160GB from xtendedplay.co.uk.
	MW44 gas turbine engine from wrenturbines.co.uk. 190000 rpm 460g weight, 3kg thrust, about the size of a 330ml coke can (length 150mm, diam 74mm). Available now. A bit late, more expensive than expected at £1450, and only available complete. This makes sensibly sized jet model aircraft feasible. Very tempted by 1 of these, but it has a long way to go up the list of priorities. The kolibri. is even smaller

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