Glastonbury

June 21-24, 2007

Check out this for a line up...

Arctic Monkeys, The Killers, The Who, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, The Fratellis, The Kooks, Lily Allen, Manic Street Preachers, The Go! Team, Iggy & The Stooges, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Bjork, The Chemical Brothers, Amy Winehouse, Super Furry Animals, The Magic Numbers, Shirley Bassey, Babyshambles, The Twang, Mika, Mr Scruff, Hot Chip, Damien Rice, James Morrison, The Klaxons, Fat Boy Slim, KT Tunstall, The Coral, The View, Bright Eyes, Maximo Park, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Holloways, The Automatic, Modest Mouse, Steven and Damien Marley, The Cat Empire, Josh Pike, Pendulum, MIA, Chumbawamba, Gogol Bordello, The Bees, Pete Doherty, Editors, The Enemy, Cold War Kids, El Presidente, Mark Ronson, CSS, Billy Bragg, The Gossip, Fat Freddies Drop, Holy F##k, and many more.

Awesome!

That sums up Glastonbury in one word. Muddy would be the other word of choice.

The experience began as I (Davo) set off from Felsted with my fold up chair and sleeping mat strapped to my pack with bailing twine. I only had the essentials and everything I had could be left at the festival site, except for my phone, wallet and camera.

I caught the bus from Stansted to Heathrow where I met a couple of blokes about my age who were also obviously off to Glastonbury. We had half an hour to wait for our bus. Three of them were coming from London and one was meant to come via Heathrow to pick us up. An hour and a half later it hadn't arrived. It forgot us!

The three of us weren't too stressed about it though. By this stage we'd cracked the French wine, the bicardi and the vodka and coke. The bus company were very good about the whole thing and got us a taxi from Heathrow to Glastonbury! They also bought us drinks and sandwiches before leaving, so we loaded up on coke to mix with the bicardi on the way. It was a cracker of a ride!

Glastonbury was a mudfest already when I arrived on the Thursday night and the festival didn't officially start until the following morning. The gummies (aka wellies) were on straight away and stayed on for the next 3 days. Hence the nice 'welly burn' at the end of the weekend. At random moments, I'd be plonking around in puddles and swishing my feet in the mud and I'd just crack up laughing, it was incredible how muddy this place was. Unbelievable. Each morning, the diggers came in and removed excess mud from the mosh pit areas in front of the main stages and laid down loads of straw.

I spent the weekend with Pete, a mate from vet school, and Tom, a mate from Felsted, along with his brother Ben. We saw the first night out with a silent disco which is a novel idea but a good one. Everyone gets a set of wireless headphones as you enter the marquee. You can party along to the music, or take your headphones off and actually hear the person next to you speak! Good craic.

Highlights of the weekend were aplenty. The food... Glastonbury took festival food to another level. Japanese food, Jamaican food, Mexican food, gourmet pies, proper Cornish pasties. Big shout out to the Falafel Man. Pete and I were a bit worried when two former leaders of the Bovine Appreciation Group at uni were standing together eating vegetarian falafels.

The drink... Brothers Pear Cider, a Glastonbury icon.

The costumes... probably the best one we saw was a guy in a Borat swimsuit covered in a see through poncho.

The music... where to start. The Killers were amazing, as were the Arctic Monkeys, Fratellis, The Holloways, The Bees, etc.

The random stuff... torrents of rainwater running underneath and through peoples tents, people dropping stuff in the mud, Pete posing for photos with hot chicks, meeting strangers who for short periods of time became your best friend because they were wedged next to you in the dense crowd, the stench of walking past the portaloos, the tightness in the lower right hamstring late on sunday and the agony in the feet as you trudge along to the next stage, pulling on the same pair of 'trousers' (be careful not to use the word pants because in England that means undies) after three days in the mud because there's no point getting another pair dirty (and also because you only bought one pair), the comedy tents, the circus tents, the secret appearances on random stages by well known artists and celebrities, the signs encouraging weird methods of doing your bit for climate change, the echoing shouts of 'bollocks!' late at night, the sight of thousands of tents crammed in next to each other, the fact that mobiles don't really work there but amongst a crowd of over 180,000 people you happen to randomly run into your mate, it was an incredible weekend.

My big toes are still numb a week later for some reason?

Davo and Pete

Davo and Tom at the silent disco, Ben in the background.

The Arctic Monkeys headlining the Pyramid stage on Friday night

The Fratellis

The Killers headlining the Pyramid stage on Saturday night

Nice!

Visiting Richo in Oxford

June 14-17, 2007

The time finally arrived after almost a year for Davo to visit his ex-house mate, ex-college room mate, Richo, who has been studying in Oxford for the last two years. Since it was end of exam time at Oxford, it was always going to be an eventful weekend...

Oxford has a unique vibe. It's a university town which doesn't seem to have some of the elements of normal society. First of all, everyone who is studying in Oxford is there for a certain period of time then they leave. Most of these people are very special, because of their academic talents, but also because of their quirky personality traits. There are all sorts! The second majority group in Oxford are the tourists, who come in waves and frequent the obvious parts of town. Obviously there are people who make a living in Oxford as well and have families there, but they seem to be a small minority.

It was a great time to visit. There is a long standing tradition (there are a lot of these in Oxford) after finishing final exams, where your mates and family will shower you with stuff as you walk out of the exam hall for the final time. The students wear compulsory attire, so they are easy to spot and thankfully very difficult to confuse with an innocent friend of a student (that would be me). The 'stuff' usually includes champagne, confetti, flour, eggs, beans, seafood, etc. There are police baracades and all. Richo and his mate Monte (whose floor I gratefully accepted as my home for the weekend), live smack in the middle of the centre of celebrations. So at 12.30 and 5.30, every day they cop the action!

On the topic of traditions, they are endless in a place like Oxford. I learnt a lot from the discussions with Richo's mates. Magdalen College, one of the 39 in Oxford, has a deer park. When a fellow of the college dies they kill one of the deer and serve it up for dinner. Myth has it that they hire a sniper to assassinate the deer so the rest don't get frightened of humans. So what happens to the fellows when a deer dies of natural causes?

New College has a mound in it's grounds, which is also next to the old city wall. You are prohibited to climb the the mound. At least you can walk on their grass though, unlike the rest of the grass in Oxford for which you will be told off for even resting a toe on a single blade of grass. The myth behind the mound is that during the plague, the townies made a catapult and slung their dead into the university's grounds, hence creating a mound. Interesting...

We drank in the pub where Bob Hawke downed the yard glass in 13 seconds and where Bill Clinton 'didn't' smoke that joint. These blokes are both fellows and ex-students of Richo's college, Univ (I'm with the lingo!) short for University College. I was lucky enough to dine at a formal dinner as a guest which was very exciting. Unfortunately the quality of some of the food at the college was not directly proportional to the quality of the company. Bob is present at every meal with his portrait perched in prime position. It's a common topic of conversation between members of colleges ... 'so how many prime minister's are fellows of your college?'

I easily had the best tour guide in town. Richo gave me a uni sports team jumper and we walked around, in and out of places where the rest of the general public were not allowed. This included the Christ Church dining hall or should I say, the Hogwarts dining hall (very exciting!); the uni running track where Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile in 1954 (might I remind you that this record was smashed by Aussie legend Peter Landy 6 weeks later back in Australia); and other amazing colleges, churches, libraries and pubs. Brilliant.

Richo was busy one day being used as a guinea pig in a physiology experiment, so I used the time to visit Woodstock, a small town nearby. I'd read that it was the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill and had an amazing palace called Blenheim Palace that was a must see. It was too bad that it had been hired out for the day by the English Football captain, John Terry, so he could get married.

Instead I went into the tourist office and asked if there was anything else to do. I asked if there were any interesting sites related to the Woodstock Festival back in the 70's where the Beatles played. I learnt that this actually took place in Woodstock, New York! Showing my age, what can I say.

So instead of seeing the great English Prime Minister's birthplace, I visited his resting place. It was in the grounds of a nice church in the neighbouring town, Bladon. His grave was modest and humble. It was a bit strange looking at the church and seeing John Terry fly over in his chopper at the same time.

Great weekend!

When in Rome... eat lots of pizza and gelati

May 31 - June 3, 2007

Rome again, Rome again, jiggidy jig... The Colosseum is one of the best things in the world. It's a must see, absolutely amazing. And if you ever go there, get your combined ticket at the Palatine where there is NO queue, unless you're English and you like queuing, in which case jump straight into the colosseum queue where you will wait for hours. Fortunately, we had this advice from a couple of scots, before visiting the colosseum.

The experience itself is indescribable. Those of you who have been there yourselves, no doubt share the same amazement. The only downside was the number of times Russel Crowe popped into our thoughts. Wrong!

During our time in Rome we spent a day exploring the Colosseum and the surrounding Palatine and Roman Forum. Seeing all the ruins is a crazy experience... on one hand you're thinking, 'they could do a lot with this place if they cleaned it up a little bit' and on the other hand you're staring in wonder at a piece of rubble wondering what it used to be part of and trying to visualise what this place looked like milleniums ago.

As part of a national public holiday, the local fire brigade/rock climbing club scaled the colosseum to drape 3 massive pieces of cloth on the exterior. They combined to form the Italian flag which looked pretty special.

Around every corner in Rome, we found a different ancient monument, building or statue plus more American tourists. The Pantheon, the Vatican, the Tiber River, the churches, Trevi fountain, all wonderful things to see. But the highlight of the city was no doubt the food. Fortunately around every corner we also found more pizza (for Davo) and more gelati (for Fi). We couldn't get enough of it!

Under the Tuscan sun

May 28-31, 2007

Our return to Italy began with a hot stinky night in a dodgy hotel in Rome next to the central train station. We were given cold spaghetti with uncooked meat for dinner, which went straight into the bin (we ate unbelievable Italian pizza instead) and we were staying in an apartment building/hotel room next door to a menagerie owned by a big smelly lady. She let of such a stench the manager of the hotel/apartment building kept a bottle of air freshener in the fridge to spray the lift if you ever had to use it after she did.
The next day it was off to beautiful region of Tuscany on the train. We based ourselves in Florence for 3 days and despite a bit of rain on the first day, it lived up to its reputation as the most beautiful city in the world.

On day 1 we concentrated our efforts on seeing most of the city by foot, including the inside of some amazing churches, pizzerias and gelaterias.

We also began the search for the 'elusive leather couch,' rumoured to have been the biggest leather couch in the world, perched on top of a hill with a great view of the city and a perfect place for a picnic or to crack a few coldies. Shame that Davo's sister, Janelle, is the only one in the world who has heard of the above mentioned couch. Nobody in Florence at the time, tourists or locals had heard of the big couch.

Day 2 involved a bike tour around the Tuscan country-side. With a small group of Yanks, Canadians and a Scottish tour guide, we visited an ancient castle owned by a family of an old count, which is now a base for making one of Italy's best olive oils and some brilliant wine. We were given a taste and obviously an opportunity to buy some of the brilliant produce.

The weather turned it on for us as we rode past vineyards and olive groves. We ate a beautiful Italian lunch, drunk too much red wine, then jumped back on the bikes in the afternoon. Fi had a friendly run in with a bush moments later. Very funny!

Check them out at http://www.tuscany-biketours.com/ if you're interested. Well worth the time and money if you're ever in Florence.

Day 3, began with a look at Michaelangelo's David after queuing for ages. It was good!? Afterwards our fruitless search for the big couch resumed with some new information from Janelle. Despite the fact that we still did not finding the couch, we found a very nice spot for a picnic where we sat and enjoyed the views, the cheese, the foccacia, the fresh market fruit and vegies and of course the red wine. This spot, we found out later, was apparently where the couch used to be!

After our bike tour the day before, we drove past Piazza Michelangelo, a park on the big hill overlooking Florence. A big stage was being set-up and the tour guide advised us that Muse were playing there the following night and that we could still get tickets if we wanted a couple. So our lazy afternoon continued as we moved to the top of the hill in Piazza Michelangelo where we had an amazing view of the city as well as a view of the top half of the stage and in perfect earshot of the concert. We had bought tickets the day before - after the bike tour, which were a well priced 30 euros compared to 45 pounds for the same gig in London, but later thought, 'we don't actually need these'. So we were lucky enough to flog them to some die hard fans. We sat, drank more wine, watched the sun set over Florence and saw the top half of a Muse concert! Brilliant!