Sidmouth! (Part 1 of 3)

Well, I have just got back from Sidmouth Folk Week and am absolutely knackered, however after a week of not going to bed till at least 1:30 (quite a lot later in some cases!) I cannot sleep yet!
So, instead I shall follow the basic structure of Tom's blogpost and do a rundown of each day!

Tuesday:-
Set of nice and early (abiout 10ish) in the car to Bristol, we were going to stay with my uncle there till thursday and then go on to sidmouth. However about half an hour outside of cambridge, on the Buldock bypass for anyone who knows the area, we broke down, with what smelt distinctly like a burnt out clutch! Anyone travelling along the Buldock bypass on the 31st of July and saw three girls sitting playing cards on the verge that was us! We called the AA, who, rather than coming themselves sent a local company with instructions to bring us back to cambridge, which we protested, but were told that if we took the car to a garage in cambridge then it would be fixed my wednesday morning and we could still get down to bristol to see uncle ceri and sara. So we went home and stayed the night there, living like we were on holiday, for some reason even though it was home none of us did what we usually do, but hung round together and watched videos and such, which was really odd! Got invited to dinner with Steve, an old friend of my parents who moved near us a couple of years ago. Was very nice, chicken stir fry, then we went to bed.

Wednesday:-
We got up, all ready to go, only to be informed that in fact out car needed more work than was first expected, and wouldn't be ready till friday (way too late to get a pitch like we needed for camping!) Phoned the AA, who promised to hire us a car but couldn't get one with a topbox attatchement or a tow bar! In the end we hired a van, which me and dad drove down in, whilst Mum, Ruth and HEather went by train down to honniton.
It was great fun, and the longest time me and my dad have speant together just the two of us for ages, so was really really nice! Beautiful view of stonehenge sihllouetted against a beautiful sunset as we crossed salisbury plain.
We arrived at the campsite at about 10 ish and were putting up the tent in the dark! Excellent fun, and the earliest night I got for the rest of the week!

Thursday:-
Dawned bright and rainy, we spent the morning sitting about the tent after we had finished setting up the rest of the tent. When it finally got sunny me and ruth decided to head off to the beach, which we finalyl did after a few altercations with various people threatening to go home. Unfortunately did not swim as ruth didn't want to, and I hate being in the water on my own!
And that was about it for thursday, apart from meeting up with Emily, an old friend from my very first sidmouth and speanding the evening catching up with her!

Friday:-
First proper day of the Festival, took the bus down to go to the lunch time ceilidh, which was great fun, although the caller was not the greatest and i had a little trouble getting used to having to tell my left from my right! Met a lovely brother and sister pair from Holland (Manon and Peter-Paul de Graaf) with whom i met up with agin several times during the week.
Went to the Show of Hands concert in the evening, it was absolutely awesome! They are amazing! Excellent songs including ones with lyrics like 'Is there anywhere left in England not for sale' and 'Hey ho boys let them go, out in the wind and the rain and snow, we've lost more than we'll ever know, round the rocky shores of england'. Also an excellent performance of Innocent's Song, a setting of the poem by Charles Causely (link).
We then went off the Late Night Extra, which is the late evenign ceilidh, running from 11 till 1 o'clock. Is great fun, although by the end of the week I started asking people how much they'd had to drink before dancing with them, dancing with a drunk guy who has no idea what he's doing is just not fun!

Saturday:-
Dawn broke, crash, and we headed of nice and early for the Celebratory dances workshop, with a caller who was alright, but not the best. Had lots of fun though, and was almost getting the hang of it by the end. Then did a Playford workshop, Jane Austen style dancing, wich is excellent fun to do, because you do have to think slightly about what your doing which makes it much more interesting! Then went once again to the lunchtime ceilidh at anchor gardens, and cant really remember what I did after that! In the evening I went to see the spooky men's chorale, an excellent singing group from the Blue Mountains in Australia, which was a hilariously funny and gripping performance as ever!
Went to LNE in the evening, and the to bed!

Sunday:-
First workshop was the Festival Choir run by Sandra Kerr, it was quite good, although the warm up was odd, but I enjoyed doing some singing, and going to a rehersal where people actually knew how to shut up and work! Brilliant!
Then went to the informal meet and greet with the Spooky Men at the Rugby club at 11:30. They turned up slightly late due to having been up singing till 4:30 that morning! But it was a brilliant session, with both some singing and questions! Speant the afternoon randomly wondering around with Manon and Peter-Paul and in the evening went to the dance event at the Bulverton with Fluxus, a band from Belgium. The evening was great, none of the dances were called and I had never done any French dancing before! But it was relatively simple to pick up and the first dance i joined in on was a Jig wich was really easy. I also danced a Boureé, well more than one, the first with Peter-Paul,its a great dance but hell on your calves! Danced later on with Tom, who was also considerably better than me, and who put the variations in, which was great fun, although a little confusing for me! Danced a scottische with Jen, which was great fun as she was trying to remember how, both of us speant all of the dance going forwards two three, back two three, one two three four! Excellent fun! Danced a waltz with fancy moves with Tom, which was fun, although i wasn't very good at doing to fance moves, haveing never done more than a simple waltz before! So all in all it was an excellent evening, and the fastest I have ever picked up dances in my life!
LNE that night was great, didn't dance much due to being a little tired and my back was causing problems so sat talking to Tom, a rather more interesting 20-something-year-old than most, while he stewarded, ended up with him teaching me a Mazuka (spelling?) at the edge of the floor, because he couldn't find anyone to cover his post while he danced.
All in all an excellent day, which lead to me discovering a new dance style that i absolutely love!


I am going to cut it there for tonight and head to bed, partly because i need to sleep and partly because otherwise this is an insanely long post! Will write up the rest of my week in the next few days.

Quote:
Whatever you want to do, do it. There are only so many tomorrows
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