Sidmouth! (Part 3 of 3)

Thursday:-
Concertina as usual, a little more insteresting, mostly because I was tired and so the whole thing was a little harder! I went back to the tent early due to severe back pain, and sent out a random plea for anyone who was free to come keep me company at my tent! Instructed Jen in sooking dinner on our gas cooker, and took the executive decision not to go out that evening in the hopes of being able to dance that evening. This didnt quite work out, and i ended up going to the second half of the concert at Manor Pavillion. Saw Cockersedale, who were quite good, very trad. folk, with one especially funny moment where the guy who gave them the chord on the guitar had his guitar in the wrong key, which he didn't notice for a little, and the lead singer just sort of stared at him!
Went back to the tent then despite the pain headed up to LNE, sat in the pub/food tent all evening, had a good talk with Jack about books and literature, and have come away with an even klonger reading list than before. Then tlked to Justin for a while. Ended LNE with a very slow walrz because I refused to go an entire day without dancing.
Then headed to the music/jam/talk thing in the marquee at the campsite which was great fun, started talking to Stephen Taberner ( Spooky Men's Chorale) and ended up watching the sunrise with him, steve (he cooked us breakfast earlier in the week) and cathy. Very fun, but abcolutely freezing!

Friday:-
Was good last concertina session in the morning, a little sad, but have borrowed a concertina, and can get lessons from john when hes in cambridgeshire area so will definitely continue!
Went back to the campsite in the hopes of resting my back, but ended up walking round with jack as he helped to dismantle the site (his last shift as a steward). Was good fun. Then met stephen as he was getting the bus and got invited down to town with him. So went there instead.
Wandered round sidmouth randomly, after first having found breakfast for stephen (at 2 o'clock in the afternoon! australians, honestly! :p). And went to the afternoon concert at the Ham, saw The Devils Interval and Uiscedwr, it was interesting, stephen pointed out every time they hit a not wrong! twas funny, i cant actually tell so.... ! I like Uiscedwr though they were quite good, but I had to go sit outside and read for a bit, i was so tired i was falling asleep!
After the concert Stephen taught us a clapping game/rhythm/ thing, which was great fun, if a little complicated, i think i can remember all of it though! (and the cup game!)
Then me and him wandered off down the sea front and Cathy and her friend(Cathy came to the concert too) went to get food.
I headed off back to the campsite to 'pack' and kinda lazed around, then went to the eveing concert, well the second half of it and saw Vin Garbutt, who was good, but better as a story teller than a singer! Once again, sitting next to someone who sings proffesionally was interesting!
The torchlit parade and the fireworks were brilliant as ever, and the LNE was fun, my back killed, but i was determined to dance, so did about 3 or 4 dances and the polka at the end!
Stayed up as usual and had by about 3, managed to aquire Stephens hat, Justins jumper and whisky and Jo's scarf! Twas a lot of fun, the whisky was alright, im still trying to decide whether i like the stuff, but i kept nicking justins hip flask of it and handing it round everyone, got into a conversation with someone who i cant remember the name of about how it was illegal for him to take the piss out of me because he was a teacher, so i wondered what was the policy on accepting alcohol from a minor!
Stephen headed off to bed about 3, but let me borrow the hat, as he decided i would be miserable without it (anyone who has seen spooky men will understand the importance of the hat!) I went at about 4:30 as i was ltiterlly falling asleep standing up, so justin, persuaded me to go to bed. And there ended my sidmoth proper for 2007 **sobs**

Saturday:-
Was a mixture of rushing off to say goodbye to various people and awing my family with my amazing abilty to make random friends (my family beign avid spooky fans, and me having a genuine spooky man's hat! they were even more impressed when he came to collect it, butn for some reason they all thought id nicked it, no matter how many times i pointed out how completely unlikely it was for him to go back to australia without it!)
I had a theory that if i kept wandering off i wouldn't have to do any work, almost true! So went and sat and talked to justin for a while, twasn't fair, I was gunna laugh at him for having a hangover, but he didn't have one! Went through his lines with him a little, and generally did nothing.
Then went back to the tent and helped a bit, justin turned up to say goodbye, and me and ruth randomly headed over to see steve, who was taking an extremely relaxed attitude to packing, kinda standing where his tent had been doing pretty much nothing! Justin drove past while we were there and said final fare wells, and we went to say goodbye to Manon and Peter-Paul, who, having speant an hour and a half packing the car, then had a momentary panic when they couldn't remember where the car keys where. Fortunately they were in Peter-Pauls ruck-sack, but it was hilarious!
Said fond fairwells to random people like tom, who we see at most festivals and ended up dancign a six-person rosa with, dont knwo what a rosa is, ask me and il explain sometime! And we were off home, to dream for another year (well 6 months IVDF, cant wait!)
the journey home was uneventful, stopped off at Uncle Ernests and Auntie Pamela's for a couple of hours, i ended up falling asleep i was so tired and arrived home at about 10:30.


And there concludes my epic post. thanks to all for such an excellent festival. i'll be there next year!

Quote:
It takes wings to make miracles happen
On the side of a lorry on the way home from sidmouth!

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