Wednesday

The Tutti Pole cafe in Hungerford (just missed its 30th anniversary by one day!)

Sunday

I'm an adventurous sort, so my new thing today was the side of Homebase where I discovered that they sell plants as well as DIY goods! I spent 99p on a dying orchid to see how long I can keep it alive. I told MrM this when I met him at the till and he said he'd be impressed if it survived until we got home....

Sunday

New thing was a boot sale and also a cricket match and a petrol station in Bodmin.

Saturday

New thing today was a field in Cornwall for a party!

Friday

Rain, rain, rain. New thing today was watching some old film - not sure what it is as I didn't get my TV guide last week...we were at a festival and when I got to the paper stall, I was told to get here earlier next time. Will remember that for next year...

Thursday

Upper Bucklebury Village Hall for a special exercise session!

Wednesday

New thing today was The Borrowers Arrietty - such an innocent film - beautifully animated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzBBIBSi2Vo

Sunday

More bands = yay!
We started with the Fabbies (not new!) then basked in the sun and watched the Levs v children football match. Then the Beat (excellent - here they provide a soundtrack to political activism www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwpoCSPRebE); Divokej Bill; Stereo MCs; Flogging Molly and the Levellers (not new, but both awesome!)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qs7XZ78lDLw

I love this festival! Roll on 2012!

Saturday

More bands!

Dan Donnelly (not new!)
The Mob - the first band I've ever heard at this festival that made me move to another stage.
Dog Daisy
Rachel Sermanni
The BLockheads (not new!)
Paul Heaton
Lasting Days
The Maybirds
Leatherat
Mad Dog McRea (not new! I love these guys although there was a funny antagonstic atmosphere that I'd not experienced before. Nothing to do with the band - just drunk people aggressively storming past and a security guard who spent the whole act intermittently shining a torch into our eyes.

Friday

New bands at Beautiful Days - the standard of the acts can always be relied upon!

Sheelanagig
Levellers acoustic (not new - haha!); http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGPJZQDudwU
Four men and a dog
Gogol Bordello: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv2de8nl8Ss

Monday

TWO new charity shops in town; Mercy in Action and YMCA

Saturday 13 August 2011

New things today were: Richard Digance (hilarious!), The Shee (Scottish folk band - all girls, I think, but apologies if not - blame the fact my view of the stage was obsured by a child repeatedly blowing up a balloon, letting it fly into someone's face, chasing it, and starting the process again), the Blockheads (not a new thing as I'd seen them before, brilliant again), Lau (folky with one great song -seen them before) the Horslips (fab, lively Irish band), Badly Drawn Boy and Fairport Convention & Friends (who in truth we didn't see as we went into the village to the Red Lion to watch a brilliant band called Mary Jane). The other new thing was eating fish and chips with sugar. I'd asked MrM to put plenty of salt on my dinner but sadly he picked up the wrong container. By accident, so he says.....

Friday

New thing today was watching all of these bands except the Coral as we'd seen them before at Glastonbury. They were equally poor at acknowledging the crowd, although I can't say no to their cutesy riffs and 60s flavour:

Moore, Moss, Ritter; The Travelling Band; (enjoyed both of these), Steve Tilston &
The Durbervilles, Charlie Dore (enjoyed this - great voices both, but I have to admit falling asleep in the warm sunshine; The Dylan Project (brilliant - and I'm not a huge Bob Dylan fan...); The Urban Folk Quartet (great, but a bit too showy), The Coral and the wonderful Seasick Steve - really liked this, was only marred by an obnoxious Scottish man shouting in the face of some poor sod who had the audacity to ask his son to stop dancing in his face....

Thursday

I forgot that after going to Newbury Hall, our other new thing was going to Cropredy festival near Banbury! Founded by folk legends Fairport Convention, it's a festival with about 20,000 people in a lovely, village setting and my ticket was my Christmas present from MrM!

After a lot of confusion about our campervan (the website is quite unclear that your camping charge covers you no matter what type of vehicle you have, and because this wasn't clear, I'd spent an extra unnecessary £30 on another vehicle permit). I moaned all the way into the field and when we got there, stopped the van and the steward asked us if we had an awning. I said "no". MrM thought he said "Did you have a good morning?" (He didn't, but I got told off.....)

The festival is very relaxed and full of old hippies, including one dreadlocked dog that we were standing near in the queue. We entered the arena which was extremely well laid out and organised, with white lines painted on the grass to show you where you could park and where you could sit. Rather than standing around like at Glastonbury, the layout was more like the proms, with people sitting in picnic chairs, supping wine and even kicking back in those impractical tents.

very folky line up:
Fairport Acoustic (only lasted about 10 minutes!); Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts (very relaxing and didn't she used to be in Tiny Tin Lady?); Blair Dunlop (very talented youngster); Home Service (some sort of 70s supergroup); Hayseed Dixie (superb and very lively!), and the old reggae masters UB40.

Thursday

Newbury Hall - took our French lad's enormous bag into the office.

Wednesday

A conference room in a health club for a talk on exercise.

Tuesday

New thing today was a coffee morning for bumps and babes!

Monday

New thing today was a side street in Hungerford to collect a rather large and scary eBay purchase!

Sunday

Highclere Castle boot sale. I have been to Highclere before (better known now as Downton Abbey!) - when we saw an outdoor performance by Russell Watson. Today, I was here for a fabulous boot sale where I literally filled the car up with purchases!!

Saturday

Lots of new shops in my home town....

Wednesday

My new colleague's new house!

TUesday

Asda in Reading. Only ONE other person had taken their own bags - I mentioned this to the cashier, she said that no-one ever takes their own.

Saturday

What an exciting life - first new thing was going to a lawnmower repair shop and garden centre before heading to Sandham Memorial Chapel to see the wonderful lively WW1 paintings of Stanley Spencer.

SUnday

Hungerford football club

Monday

Picking up my new colleague from her home in Reading

Friday

Harry's Bar!