It’s a Blog ! Not a Log !

to keep you occupied till my next post

Norman Jay Part 1

Norman Jay Part 2

African Head Charge

Hairbear Bunch and Dangermouse
Originally uploaded by BagRat

So we’re back from the Big Chill Festival, and boy what a festival it was.

We arrived about 8:30pm Thursday night after detouring to Bristol to see a mate, so was pretty late compared to previous years, anywa after setting up camp we headed up to the Body & Soul area of the festival where there was a forum meet on the go, by the time we got up there we were pretty much soaked to the skin as it had started raining shortly after we arrived, did’nt stay there long as we were throughly knackered and wanted to get some sleep so we could enjoy Friday nights shinnanigans.

Come Friday morning we were up and at em, spent most of the day just wondering around the many stages, tents stalls that make up the Big Chill, enjoyed sampling all the foods that were on offer as well, it was sometime around then that I donned the Dangermouse mask and gloves, this was to be one of the enjoyable moments of the festival, as no sooner had I put the kit on then I was mobbed by people wanting there picture taken with Dangermouse, dead funny walking around and constantly hearing people scream “DANGERMOUSE”, also had a lot of fun asking randoms if they knew where I could score some quality cheese’s as I only had Cottage cheese and that did’nt give the buzz I wanted

Anyway I’ll continue the rest of the Big Chill weekend in the next post as I’m still recovering to be honest.

till we set off for the Big Chill Festival, I’ve just spent the last couple of hours getting everything packed into the car ready for the off tomorrow lunchtime and for once everything seems to have fitted in just nicely, all we’ve got to do now is finish packing the clothes we want to bring and then we’re ready.

Mel finish’s work at 2pm so hopefully be leaving Manchester around 2:30-3:00pm and should get to Eastnor for about 6:00-7:00pm, we’ve just got to go via Bristol to see a man about a dog and were home free.

Cant wait

Big Chill festival 2006

Well wasn’t that a good weekend for a change

It seems as though its been months since we had such a sunny set of days, just hope that its a precursor for the Big Chill Weekend, cause if it is I might actually get a suntan before the years out.

Now suppose I’d better tell you what sort of a weekend we’ve had :

Friday : Well this was supposed to be just a quiet night in for me and Mel to watch some movies, but instead it turned into a night in with me, Mel and our mate John, how did this happen, well after we’d watched the first of our movies “The Last Castle” with Robert Redford ( a very good movie, you should watch itI got a missed call of John, so rang him back to discover he was having a bit of a relationship crisis and needed a mate to cheer him up, so got in the car picked John up went to Asda to score some beers and cider and then headed back to ours where all 3 of us talked into the early hours until John fell asleep on the recliner.

Saturday was intended to be our get everything ready for the Big Chill Weekend i.e. test the new tent, clean out under the stairs in order to find camping equipment, test pack the car to see how much room we had etc etc, but as John had stayed over the previous night this didn’t happen as planned, instead Mel, John and Blue went for a walk on the field and were later joined by Ben, who turned up at ours about 11:00am, so while they all chilled on the field I set about checking under the stairs, where I found about 4 torch’s, various camping style head wear, our camping flags and some spare gas for our camping stove, so it was a fairly successful clean up.

Next up was testing the new tent, at first this looked as though it could be a bit of a nightmare due to the instructions provided with the tent weren’t exactly the easiest to comprehend, but after about 20-30 mins I had the tent up, and if I do say so myself it looked pretty sweet indeed.

What the finished product looks like.

Anyway if your after a tent like this its the Quecha T6.2 available from all good camping shops for £169 or there abouts, we got ours from Decathlon in Stockport, the tent specs can be found here and I’ll no doubt post a review of the tent once we get back from the Big Chill.

After packing the tent away it was time to take Blue for her Saturday walk round Ivy Green and Chorlton Water Park, something we both enjoy as it gets us out of the house and gives us both a bit of exercise, something I need more then Blue, think this could be down mainly to me visiting Orlando’s afterwards for a Jerk Chicken and Salad sarnie, Blue got a sausage

Chorlton Water Park

Then it was home to chill out in the remaining sunshine and finish the beers from the previous night.

Sunday  was just a day to lay in bed most of the morning and then it was up and away to Ivy Green again, spent about an hour wondering round the woods and alongside the Mersey, both of which were fairly busy, put this down to the sun being out I guess, then it was off to Chorlton Green to sit in the sun and drink some beer.

Got home from the Green around 7pm and again it was watch some junk TV and the to bed.

And that dear readers was the weekend, not a truly eventful one, but still a nice one especially as the sun shone near enough the whole weekend, here’s hoping that Summers finally arrived.

till we set off for the Big Chill Festival and today was spent getting ready for it, yep got to practice putting up the new tent we bought from Decathlon, its a pretty neat tent as well, takes a lot less time to put up and you can stand upright in it, which may not seem exciting, but believe me spending 4 days camping having to constantly be bent over when you in the tent so your head doesnt keep hitting the roof is a bonus  believe me.

Also cleaned out under the stairs and dug out some of the camping gear we thought we’d lost, so far I’ve found about 5 torch’s, 4 hats, some camping gas stove and a picnic set, also found some flip-flops I forgot I had.

Really looking forward to this years BCF as it’ll be a nice break before we head to Cornwall, plus theres a lot of bands playing I’d like to see and just as many that I’ve never heard of, but I’m guessing I’ll like them, there’s never been a band I haven’t really liked play there yet.

All being well we head down Thursday about 2pm, stopping off in Bristol first to see Paul and pick up some camping gear he’s lending us and then heading back up the motorway to Eastnor, should arrive there sometime after 6pm I’m guessing, should give us plenty of time to get the tent up, freshen up and get over to the forum meet up in the Body and Soul area.   Determined this year to meet up with a few more Forumites, hoping Dave and Newshippers will be there, be nice to see them both again.

Anyway got a few more things to get ready before Thursday, so I better go get them done . . .  in the meantime heres some photos from the last few BCF’s we’ve been to

Big Chill 2005

Big Chill 2004

Trafford Centre, just way way way to many people bustling about shopping till they drop

I filmed this one Saturday in there while waiting for Mel to finish her shopping.

All these people spending there Saturdays running round shops buying stuff they dont really need, but are made to think they need it by the mass advertising and playing to peoples fears that if they dont own one of those there some how inferior to everyone else, consumerism at its height, thats what the Trafford Centre is

Watching back this footage I saw quite a mad thing for the Trafford Centre (or maybe its not), kept seeing a set of girls walking around in coloured Tu-Tu’s and at first thought I was seeing things, but they appeared again and realised there really were people in there in fluorescent Tu-Tu’s mixing with the Shopper on saturday . .  weird place indeed