Did I lose a day?

28 Jun 2010

Glastonbury eggs. An accidental homage to CND.

Sunday. The last day of Glastonbury Festival. Cathy was up and out for her last shift in Medicine Man Pharmacy this morning. Back at the tent, the rest of us take time for fried eggs and waffles for breakfast. I’ve mentioned the choice and quality of food at Glastonbury before. You can eat as healthily or as badly as you like. I always remember that I am living rough for five days or so. Food reverts to its primary function as fuel, (although a quick burger on foot as you move from stage to stage is more than likely to be compensated for when you can relax and enjoy some of the wonderful healthy foods from all over the world). Today was a fuel day! The children and I were to head out later to a stall we’d spotted which sold kangaroo, ostrich and crocodile. Crocodile was our favourite! They were all delicious but we weren’t tempted this time by the ant or scorpion lollies!

I looked up to see giant fairies.

Back at the pharmacy, things were still busy. Although hayfever products and eyedrops were still selling well, there was increased demand on cystitis products today. In this festival situation, the opportunity is taken to counsel patients on just how much extra fluids they need to be drinking! Loperamide sales have been steady all weekend but we have also had some requests for senna tablets! The pharmacy is in a good position to see the world go by in the market place and I looked up to see three giant fairies floating past the serving hatch.

I relaxed in the Tipi field

I have some friends who meet up in a Tipi and I headed up to see them all again. This year it was wonderful to get out of the hot sunshine into the cool shady interior. (This contrasts with other years when I pushed in from the cold driving rain, to an interior warm from the logs burning in the middle, smoke rising up through the vent in the apex). As we sit inside chatting, the rest of the festival is muffled and I always feel peaceful and restored when I leave. There used to be one small tipi field but now there are also several fields on site where you can rent one instead of bringing a tent. I’d love to do that one day. One of my friends, who erects tipis before the festival, tells me there is also a tipi field off-site but with all modern facilities on hand including the helipad and helicopter to bus people into the site! I met up with the others at the Queens Head to listen to Mountain Man. Their beautiful haunting singing was just the thing to ease us gently into the day. Stepping out into the market again we moved away from Slash up towards the Green fields again. This was our last chance to wander and to buy some presents. The annual mass wedding took place today. The rules are simple. Your marriage lasts one year. You can return year after year to renew your vows. One couple had been returning to renew their vows at the Glastonbury Festival for 20 years! There is so much to see and but we accepted that some would just have to wait until next year. Some came past us, and the parade of strange vehicles drew us into the dark areas of Arcadia, The Unfair Ground and Shangri-La. Some of these places really come to life at night when you can party through to morning to a background of entertainment such as laser shows and giant robots firing lightning at each other!

A lovely end to Glastonbury 2010

The gentle music of Jack Johnson was our background as we ate tea and we headed out to set up camp towards the back of the Pyramid crowd again. Faithless drew a huge crowd and most remained to see Stevie Wonders headlining set. The children, and the crowd, still found their own entertainment going on and the beautiful view of the Pyramid Stage against the night sky was constantly changing as Chinese lanterns of various shapes & sizes floated past. There was occasional excitement as a lantern moved off through the crowd sideways instead of floating above them, but the people simply shouted and laughed as they let it rise on its journey. One caught in the ‘single tree’ and burned there for a while. No one-seemed concerned and I’m confident the fire crew were on hand if it looked dangerous at any point. (They later acted quickly and efficiently when a firework misfired and burned among the crowd, nearby). Neither sleepy child wanted to leave the blanket, the crowd, the sky and lanterns or the music but we gently coaxed them back to the tent.

We sat outside for a while with hot chocolate & Bovril and let Glastonbury 2010 finish gently.

Did I loose a day? Apologies for the slight delay to the (almost) last blog this year. I’ve been living rough for almost a week and the technology didn’t always keep up. I depended upon my iPhone, my camera and electricity for my laptop. They all failed at some point. I kept it all safe for you.

I’ll be back to tell you what happens now . . .

Jim.

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