Gatecrasher Long weekend

Da Girls Da Guys
Da Gang
Da path back to the tents.

Well, blessed are the English to get two long weekends in one month. Statistically speaking, this makes it an awful lot more likely that it will rain on a bank holiday weekend in May. Realistically, it is likely to be rubbish weather for both of them. We got super lucky with the first one - see the pics on that entry there's blue sky. Ok, so that was in Amsterdam, and this time we were back in sunny Mother England.

So, we had all (Arthur, Suze, Richard, Me and Lois) bought weekend camping tickets for Gatecrasher summer sound system, a two night music festival (of the dance/trance variety) in Northamptonshire. So we went.

Saturday ws OK, the rain mostly held off, the Prodigy played the main stage and the tents were also all going strong. I was not. Exhausted from no sleep, too much work, and just being generally worn out, I had all the staying power of an English football team in the Euro Cup qualifiers. (none) So I flaked out about 8pm, thought I'd duck for a quick nap in the tent before gettingup for the main action. Big mistake. At least the part about gettingup was. Tent was so snug, and so cosy in my sleeping bag there was no way I was getting out of it! So I had a lovely early night, heard the prodigy from a distance, and Lois came and checked on me so everyone else could stop worrying about me and have a good time. They did, I was in slumber heaven. Lois and Rich came back to the tents about three, this was precisely when the first rain drops started to fall.

It rained the rest of the night, and got a bit windy too.

Then it rained pretty much the rest of the day, still windy. Things not looking particularly good, but hey, they put Glastonbury festival on for a week with pouring rain every year!

So by now the campground was looking a bit worse for wear, the wellington boot stand was running out of stock quicker than you could say 'my shoes are soaked'. Nonetheless, we wet weather geared up and made for the mainstage for Pendulum, a Perth band doing pretty well on the circuit here. Nope. Pendulum, not playing the mainstage, it was soaking wet and the electrical things don' t like that. So Pendulum's set got moved into another tent, at a non announced non published time, but we guessed which one and where by the massive queue up to get in. So we missed them.

Chemical Brothers were supposed to play the main stage, after Pendulum, but you guessed, they were cancelled too. Seriously disappointing. So we played pick a tent - I chose the main arena (there were 11 consecutive stages, make it ten because there was the one which was closed because some guy died in there duiring Pete Tong's set the previous night) And in the main arena I stayed. All night, and it was BRILLIANT. Paul Oakenfold is still a genius, and the guy before him, also very very very bloody good. Got going with the glowies, and really suprising how little of that sort of thing there was there - me being the shy retiring type took a bit of centre stage and a floorspace cleared and I went nuts with them. I was totally worn and wasted and all stomped out by 3 am, did a run up to the tents to take everyone's crap back, bring them more water etc, then back up to Bed. I had bought myself a pair of motorbike boots for the occasion, purely to match my outfit, but turned out they were an absolute godsend - like welly boots with ugg boot lining, my feet were tasty warm and dry. My boots however, were trashed!! Never mind they will clean up.

So we packed up the next day in what looked like the aftermath of the apocalypse, tents flying through the air (seriously) with the howling wind, and whole sections of the campground flattened, torn flattened tents, collapsed and soaked, people dragging their muddy and soaked belongings along behind them on muddy sleeping bags, through knee deep slop, the long haul back to the car. Only to find, in a lot of cases, that many, many,cars had been broken into over the weekend - in the secure £10 per vehicle car park, which was a bit rubbish. Ours were fine though.

Oh yeah heaps of tents got robbed as well. And bags - backpacks - while people were wearing them in the arena tents. I read one story on the forums that a guy felt a tug on his backpack, turned around and caught another guy with his hand in it, kncoked him to the floor, took the six passports and wallets he had on his person off him, and then that six people picked him up and bodily threw him over the boundary fence. Lucky he got out alive really. Pretty disappointing how scummy people are.

But we had a brilliant time anyway, despite the mud, rain, and cancelled performances. Ahhh, now we can truly say we have experienced a festival, English style.

Amsterdam May Long Weekend - 3rd to 5th

Statues depicting The nightwatch, a famous painting by Rembrandt

(I think)

Got to get out of London for the Bank Holiday weekend. We booked this trip ages ago, and had been hanging out to get away.

Suzie and Arthur (but not Arthur, thats another story), Brian, Richard, Lois and I were all heading to Amsterdam. I had been before with Trish, just for an overnight stop. Amsterdam is just a gorgeous city, so clean, and feelse spacious and lovely compared to London. There's something about the Dutch attitude to life too that is very refreshing. Very open and tolerant. People cycle everywhere. People are friendly and smiling, and its OK to strike up a conversation with random people - you do that in London and everyone thinks you are weird!

Bike.

We flew in on the Saturday morning, Arthur dropped us at the airport as his passport did not get back from the British Home Office in time for him to come. So he was stuck at home.

We landed, at found Lois, who came in on a different flight. Bought tickets for the train, and straight away you feel the difference between the countries. The guy who sold us the tickets was chatty and friendly telling us abou this and that that wold be on over the long weekend, and wishing us a happy stay.

So we headed for Centraal station, sitting ourselves in first class on the train as there were no other seats! No one came by to check out tickets anyway.

The weather was gorgeous every day, about 20 degrees, clear blue skies and sunny. Perfect Spring weather.

Canal Scenes

The hotel we had booked was waaaaay over the other side of the city centre, in the Leidseplein district, but seeing as it was barely 12 and we could no check in until 2, we walked, taking in the sights along the way.

Checked into the Backstage Hotel, and WOW, what a bargain for amsterdam! Funky furniture, great beds, and helpful staff. In a nice area overlooking a nice little canal too. Getting our bearings we went down to the Leidse square for a heinekin and a breather.

All the cafes line the squares, and they have loads of tables and chairs out the front, all facing the square so you can sit and people watch. Yes, it is entirely touristy, and based on the premise that there are so many tourists bustling through every day, they are not competing for your repeat custom, so the service, and food, can be questionable. The waiter was perhaps the worst I have seen, dropping a coffee cup and wine glass at the same time, and then not even bothering to clean it up at all!! So we say there and watched the world go buy, and the buskers, including the capoeira fellows in the picture.

Now let me clarify, about the types of establishments there are in the 'Dam. A coffee shop may or may not serve coffee, its primary business is smoking pot - by whatever means. A cafe, is a drinking establishment - ie beer.

Next was a wander further around town, after buying our tickets for the evening canal cruise. Through the flower market, touristy again but a necessary sight nonetheless.


Rushing home to get changed and showered and on to dinner at a thai restaurant before the canal cruise. The traditional Dutch cuisine is not much chop, they tend to focus on international food a lot. Lots of Indonesian, Argentinian and Uruguayan steakhouses, Italian, and wok in a box type places. A few gourmet delicatessons too.

The canal cruise was lovely, still light when we set out, then twilighty, and finally twinkly night, sitting out on the back deck of the boat, glass of wine in hand, with the cool evening passing us by on the banks. We went past the mayors house, and the poezenboot - a canal boat that is a cat refuge, which we later visited - past a reconstructed tall ship, through tiny little canals and big wide ones, past floating hotels and the Centraal station, and sticky beaking in the windows of the people who live in the canal boats and never close the curtains. The Dutch are not a prude lot, that is for sure.

I love this picture of Brian and Suzie, sitting out on theback deck of the boat.

We were knackered after our big day, so being pathetic, and not being the typical amsterdam long weekend party hard brits, we all slunk back to the hotel and crashed into beds.

The next day, the plan was to head to Keukenhoff. It took us from 10 am to about 3 pm to get there - wandering the shops, breakfasting in a little cafe in the flower market, and trying to figure out how to get tickets and get to the thing!
Flower Market


Keukenhoff was amazing. Entirely tulipped out, back into town, and Richard and Brian went out for a Steak dinner while us gals stayed in the hotel, you know, sitting around, gossipping and being girly.


It was hot!

And the final morning. Checked out of the hotel just in time, then wandered through another part of the city, having a gorgeous bruch (mine was carpaccio of beef, with avocado, rocket, and other yummy things, on the typical dutch dark brown and malty bread - it is delicious) More wandering around and being tourists, then we clocked up a few hours of shopping. The shopping in Amsterdam is truly excellent, I bought shoes, a dress, a skirt, and another bag to put it all in!!
Kitty at the poezenboot - cat home. He's seen better days. The luckiest cats are rescued from a street life and brought here, then people come and adopt them if they are lucky.



Canal. Bikes. Quite typical.


Then we stopped in the square for one last beer, and off to the aiport.

Back to the nitty and the gritty of the grotty dirty city that is London. *sigh*







Ahh we'll be back. We have to take Arth!!




Fish Eye lens sillyness




Pixies on lilly pads.

Keukenhoff Spring Flower display, the Netherlands

Amsterdam, Sunday 2nd of May

Brian forcibly dragged us out of the city and on to Keukenhoff Spring Flower display thingy.
I have memories of looking at pictures of tulips and windmills in books from when I was a little girl, and thinking that I wanted to see that one day.
Even as we were buying the tickets, and even though I had looked it all up on the net before we went, I never connected that Keukenhoff was THE tulip disply I had wanted to see. The realisation came within 5 seconds of walking in the gate of the gardens, it was over-awing to see. Just tulips, tulips, tulips, and a few hyacinths and other things, as far as the eye can see. Oh and buckets of people too, but fortunately the place was big enough at 80 acres, to absorb the cast of thousands that thronged around like bees over the flowers, with the click click whirr of shutters non stop in every direction.
There were just amazing, beautiful tulips, so many varieties and colours I never knew existed, all set in immaculate gardens, with different designers, and themes throughout. Here are a selection of some of the several hundred photos I took that day, with Brian's beautiful new Canon 40 D and 17-85mm Lens. (I have severe lens envy).

Meadowy

Garden Path

Burning

Pretty pink

I love that series of three pics




YELLow

Hanging around in the wrong part of town

Funny turtles

Resting

Not tulips. I never knew hyacinths smelled so strong. But they do.

Thats just afew of millions - there are so many photos my eyes are burning from sorting through them. As I went to sleep that night, the pictures in my head were made entirely from tulips. Sounds were heard as tulips, and smells were in tulip colours too.

Tulip overload!! But I love them!!

Snowing in London

Written 11th of May, about sometime back in April.

Ok, I have gotten super slack with the blog thing, and there are tonnes of things I should probably put in here.
So lets start with when Mum and Brian came to visit.

It snowed. On their last day.

We woke up in the morning, and looked out the window, and there were huge white fluffy flakes up to the size of 20 cent pieces floating down, and a few inches of snow had gathered on the ground. This is a BIG DEAL in London - sometimes in winter it snows just a little, but rarely does it gather on the ground. So it was on with the ski gear and out into it for us!!
We built a snow bunny, with squished raspberries for eyes, so he looked a little like an albino, and also a little scary.

And then we made snow angels, and caught snowflakes on our tongues, threw snowballs at mum, walked down to the Thames and looked at it, and then had to pack up and take Mum and Brian to dover to get on the boat.


I was paranoid about them being late, as I usually am, and had read the traffic reports saying there were problems en route. So we hurried on out to Dover, thinking we would be able to drop Mum and Brian and then go and have a coffee with them before we left. But there was nowhere at the boat we could go really, they didn't let anyone in who was not going on the boat. So we left them there, Mum had a few sniffles, and off we went.

On the way back, decided to stop in to a National trust property, called Igtham Mote. Its a 13th century moated manor house. It was just gorgeous driving down the country lanes with everything all snowy and beautiful.

Winter wonderland - in the middle of April for Chrissakes!!

So that was the end of another weekend. Back to the Grind.

Not really a blog entry, but a recipe

I just made pickled mushrooms, with a whole lot of other stuff thrown in with it, and it looks like it is going to be really yummy. So I'll put it all down here A) so if anyone wants to try it they can and B) So that when I want to make it again I'll know what I did.

Take 500 gms of small mushrooms, I used chestnut mushrooms, clean them just with paper towel so none of the manure stuff remains.
Finely dice half an onion
Peel a whole head of garlic into cloves.
chop a red capsicum into smallish chunks,
finely slice a red or green chilli.

Throw the lot into a big frypan - I used a wok, over medium-low heat, and add:

150 ml good olive oil
let it saute for a bit, and add about a teaspoon of black pepper (whole or cracked)
a teaspoon of dried italian herbs, and ideally some fresh thyme and oregano
2 Tablespoons of pinenuts

saute for abuot another five minutes, then add

250 ml cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
juice of a lemon

1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar.

If there is not enough liquid to cover the mushrooms, add some water till they are barely covered.
Bring it all to the boil for a minute or two, then spoon into jars which have been sterilised (boil the jars and lids for a couple of minutes in a big pot and then put them in a hot oven for ten minutes to dry) there should be enough liquid in each jar to cover the lot. This batch made about 3 medium to large jars worth.

Let cool, then refrigerate. Can be used straight away or should keep for quite a while in the fridge! The garlic is great used in just about anything - its so good I can just eat it whole though.

There might be a bit of left over liquid - I use this stuff as a salad dressing.

Yummy.

Other than making pickled mushrooms, we have been pretty busy, and I suppose I should get around to writing those blogs. Later.

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Blackberrying

Of the fruity variety, not the electronic gadget variety.

I am amazed at how much food justr grows in this country. On the verges, hedgerows, wherever. There are apples, blackberries, apples, blackberries, nettles (yes you can eat them) and then some more blackberries. So being the hunter gatherer forager type I am, I decided I was going to get me some of this free food.

Just have to find them first. Down by bedmond lane, which is a lane that goes under the motorway and we are widening the bridge, there is a public footpath. These public footpaths criss cross the contryside, ambling through farmers fields and along hedgerows, evenunder motorways. This particular footpath, like many in the country I am sure, is particularly well endowed with Blackberry brambles. The blackberry is a sprawling thorny plant, with long canes that reachup and then dangle down, with masses of thorns, and hopefully, big fat juicy blackberries.

So one afternoon after work, I stopped back down by bedmond lane, fossicked around behing the seats in the car and came up with two cleanish plastic bags that formerly contained muffins. I started up the path, and wow, there were shiny little blackberries everywhere. I don't think it is easy for me to convey just how excited I was about this. I mean, they are berries, and I love berries, and they are for FREE, when you can buythem in the shop for 3 quid a small punnet. So I went a little nuts, pick and picking and picking. Indeed, the plants had pretty much taken over the walkway, and it was more like a duck-weave-carefullystepover-be snagged-way. Never mind the scratches, never mid the itches and the tearing of clothes, I was harvesting blackberries!! So with a large bag full, and bleeding profusely and itching profusely, I thought I'd try my luck further up the lane. BINGO, the biggest, bestest blackberries I have seen. All... right... up high.. and far out in the middle of the patch just out of my reach. Damn. So I circled them, waiting, looking for any opening... and again, BINGO! A large square concrete block - we call them Kelly blocks - was there, just a little way into the brambly patch, and I could get to it by climbing ontp the farmers gate and just stepping over. Yay, I was in big fat blackberry heaven. Doubled the haul right in this spot. Also double the number of nettle stings.

Blackberries are clever little sods. They protect themselves in several ways. The first and most obvious is the thorns of the plant itself. Just like rosebushes really. The second is buy providing the ideal habitat for an array of nast, scary, big pointy teethed spiders. I am not really a spider person, so I got creeped out numerous times byt hings I though were spiders, and actually by two spiders as well. THe third way they protect themselves is by cohabiting with nettles. For anyone who doesn't know about nettles... They bite. A plant that actually bites you, and then you get a little lump come up, and its a very itchy lump.

So by now very itchy, and scratchy, I still didn't quite have enough blackberries for my liking. Two kilos just wasn't going to cut it. Back along the road to another little section, but after the mega patch I had just cleaned out, they were measly and miserable in comparison, so I stole just a few more, and headed home. Via the apple tree at Junction 25 - Richards old work. But the apples aren't quite ripe yet.

So..all these blackberries. Richard doesn't eat them, geez, what am I going to do? Ah HAH. Jam time. So I googled how to make Jam, and got me some sugar with added pectin, a lemon, and a couple of big green cooking apples. Chop these, throw them in thepot with the juice of a lemon, a kilo of sugar, and the well washed berries. Boil for ten minutes. Test to see if the jam will set by putting it on a cold plate and pushing it around then licking it off the plate. Yep, its ready!! I cannot believe how easy it is to make jam! Its so simple, I wonder why anyone buys the stuff when they can pick the berries and make it for free....

Into the jars (wash and boiled) and lids on. I now have four big jars of apple and blackberry jam, and its really yummy. That should last me a while!!

Then we went to Norfolk on the Friday, I'll get around to posting that blog soon.

The aftermath of the blackberry jam volcano.