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Wash up.
By Jim Hutchins
We slept
in a bit on Monday morning. Many people packed up and left last night and the
Family Camping field continued to empty as we had a relaxed breakfast. We knew
that it was pointless trying to leave at lunchtime or afternoon as we would
just spend several hot hours in the car with the children, as the lanes around
the festival became gridlocked. Instead, we decided to take a relaxed look around
the site and have lunch before packing, aiming to leave around 6.00pm. Our
friend Sally was more organised though and, since she lives locally, offered to
take the children with her own for the day. It didn’t take long to persuade
them as they now had the chance to finish their holiday with other children, a
puppy, a dip in the local swimming pool and a shot of the new iPad! Personally,
I’d have been persuaded by the porcelain flushing toilet! It was a wonderful
offer and it freed the rest of us up to pack up without the added pressure of
tired, hot & bored children.
First
though we had a chance for a wander. The Pyramid Arena was empty again. The
flagpoles at the ‘single tree’ stood naked in the heat. Surprisingly, the
grass, although dry and bleached, held up well over the whole field. I’ve never
seen it survive so well. Normally it’s either wet mud or dry and dusty but, to
be honest, this is the first time I’ve ever had a whole Glastonbury without the
fields getting muddied underfoot at any point. Although the Pyramid still
stands, the equipment has gone and the electricals are being dismantled and
removed. Virtually everything will be gone from the site by the end of today.
The markets remain in place until tonight but only the food outlets are doing
good trade. Although some visitors, like us, wander through, the main business
is to fellow traders as they strip down their stores. There was a time when
this would be a good time for bargains, as traders tried to get rid of stock to
save them taking it home. Nowadays though, they have a summer full of festivals
to trade at. Virtually everything stayed at full price and I heard several
failed attempts to barter. The general market stock is different now too. Part
of the pharmacy and medical problems in the past were simply because people
weren’t prepared for the conditions. Although some supplies were available,
they used to run out quickly. We now finish the festival with plenty of
wellies, sun hats, blankets and sun lotions so we no longer have such huge number of
victims of exposure to the elements, to deal with.
As we
packed up the tent, we realised that it was going to take longer than we
thought. It looked like we would need to carry three large loads, a couple of
miles to the car park. The first journey was hell but we took plenty of rest
and drink breaks and our spirits remained high as we chatted about the fun we’d
had. We brought one luggage trolley with us but when we arrived at the car we
found that people had abandoned another perfectly good trolley and a
wheelbarrow in the field. We moved the cars a little closer to the site and
hatched a plan to do only one last run with the three trolleys. As we finally
dismantled the tents it started raining. It didn’t last long but it was
wonderful. Since I’d got in the habit of putting my head under the water tap to
cool off, I certainly wasn’t going to complain if the rain cooled us off! With
trolleys piled high, we took our time on the last journey. We managed the hill we’d been dreading with less trouble
than we expected. We agreed that we’re clearly fitter than when we arrived
after hiking up and down hills for a week, drinking plenty of fluids because of
the heat and eating really rather well. We got to Sallys just after 8.00pm, were
treated to a wonderful meal in the garden (and a porcelain, flushing toilet!),
gathered our kids, hugged and headed home.
29 Jun 2010
The flagpoles now stand naked by the 'single tree'.
The empty Pyramid already being dismantled.
Both pharmacies were busy, professional and well run. I still believe that the market pharmacy should be part of the overall medical provision plan and be subsidised as such (instead of being treated and charged as a normal market trader) as it was in the first few years of Arena Pharmacy. The organisers show no sign that they agree. In practice Medicine Man Pharmacy provided self medication, advice and triage services with little acknowledgement. The current, ‘no prescription’ rule doesn’t allow the pharmacy to operate to either its legal or professional capabilities and does a real disservice to the customers. Every day of operation saw many unwell customers presenting at the market pharmacy with prescriptions, often having been directed by other medical facilities to us, having to be turned away with the distress of a further long walk uphill to the FMS pharmacy at Ivy Meads. Perhaps a limited prescription formulary could be agreed for future festivals with, say, Salbutamol inhalers, Trimethoprim, Flucloxacillin and Fucithalmic etc.
On the home run with the last load of camping equipment.
We also have our invitations to work again next year. Cool.
The main reason for this blog is for my own sake, since I have such a lousy memory. I do hope though, some of you have enjoyed what I shared as it happened. Please feel free to let me know here, or on rocknrollpharmacy@virginmedia.com .
RocknRollPharmacy blog signing off for 2010.
Thanks everyone.
Jim. :-)
