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Glastonbury 2023

Pic of the week 25/6/23

On Sunday I went to Glastonbury.

(It was me on my own this year as Becky had a 30 year uni reunion)

It was a hot day, the ground was baked dry (in fact, when I got home I realised that my t-shirt looked a hue of grubby yellow  – the white having become discoloured my the dust storms that whipped up as you walked along the pathways) Perfect conditions.

This year, I had a plan. I was on site by about 9.15 having caught my bus at Street, so early the litter pickers had not yet begun to clean the detritus from the night before. I headed straight up the hill to the “letters” and enjoyed the sweeping vista across the sprawling site.

After enjoy the sunshine and sights, I ambled down, taking in Glastonbury-on-Sea, pausing to have my photo taken:

I had wanted to see CarHenge, and I wasn’t disappointed:

before scooting over to the Pyramid stage to see the opening act of the day: The Bristol Windrush Choir and Reggae Orchestra

They were great. Really enjoyed them, and afterward I was interviewed by a journo and the piece was picked up by the Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/glastonbury-windrush-bristol-caribbean-essex-b2363827.html

I stayed in the “pig-pen” (the section right at the front of the Pyramid Stage) for Sophie Ellis-Bextor who was brilliant, the highlight being when she covered Madonna’s “Like a Prayer”. Her show was, possibly, my musical highlight of the day.

I then wandered some more before returning to the Pyramid for Cat Stevens who was good, but perhaps a little laid back, although I did miss the end of his set as I headed over to the acoustic stage to watch Toyah and Robert Fripp – they finished with a cover of Bowie’s “Heroes”, another musical highlight of the day.

Then I hot-footed it back to Blondie on the Pyramid. The crowd by now was immense, It was good, but too much filler and not enough Parallel Lines.

Now tired yet happy, I decided to head for home, getting the 7.30pm bus back to Glastonbury Town Hall, and then walking home, to watch Elton on the TV. A good decision I think – I would have been so far back in the crowd, and exiting the site afterwards would have taken some time.

So a great day at Glastonbury. Musically perhaps not the best (it didn’t top Diana Ross from last year) but I really, really enjoyed myself.

 

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Sub 13

Pic of the week 18/6/23

For the first time in a year I am under 13 stone! My official weight on Thursday was 12 stone 13 and one quarter, the last time I was under 13 stone was 23rd June ’22 – one of only four weeks in 2022 that I was sub 13.

I know that over the last 18 months I have allowed y weight to creep up and establish at about 13 and a half stone, so I am pleased with my weight loss following my new regime after my health MOT and discovery that my cholesterol is too high. I am being very disciplined with my no dairy diet and also not eating other than my three meals a day. It seems to be working!

Although it hasn’t helped my running – ran 7K today, whilst my splits were not reliable, I am still much slower, averaging about 5mins per K.  I thought my weight loss and regular spinning would see me improve, but it has yet to manifest itself on the road.  I think I just need to get more miles in (unlikely over the next month or so, with Glastonbury, Majorca & Cavtat to come)

The sunflowers out the front are growing rapidly, with a number already over a metre tall. The continued wall to wall sunshine has probably helped.  The ones in the back are a long way off this growth, but seem to be healthy – looking forward to a forest of sunflowers this year.

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Rata, and other wildlife!

Pic of the week 11/6/23

The long hot spell has continued and Wednesday afternoon found me home alone (Becky had gone to Cardiff to see Coldplay and Disney 100), sat outside, reading my book.  I heard a strange noise, looked up, and saw something darting from the top deck to the bottom of the garden.  I hoped, for a moment, that it was a squirrel, but, whilst its tail was long, it was not bushy – it was a rat.  I then saw another , a little more timid, poking its head out from the top deck – confirmation: we have rats.  On Friday, Becky saw one emerge from the same place, so a quick trip to Amazon and bait and a bait box was bought, arrived and installed on Saturday.  Looking this morning, I think the edge of one of the bait blocks has been nibbled so hopefully our infestation will be short lived.

Today, Sunday, was Becky’s first as not an employee of Sainsbury’s so instead of her working and me running, we went for a walk around Shapwick nature reserve. It was lovely.  Saw many, many dragonflies:

Damson flies mating:

Swans with their cygnets:

and a very impressive Marsh Harrier. It was a lovely way to spend the morning, before coming home to potter in the garden.

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Dancing queens, butter, and bikes

Pic of the week 4/6/23

Yesterday, Becky and I travelled to London to see Abba Voyage. It was brilliant! I’m not really sure how they do it – its as if the four members of the band were there performing live for us, but they weren’t, but it was so realistic. Anyway, the music was brilliant and the dancing fun as they belted out all their classics. It really was a fantastic show.

We had originally planned to travel to London by train, but a train strike put paid to that plan, so we drove up instead, parking in the (pre-booked) NCP Richmond car park (circa £25) A really easy and direct route, although we were then slightly stymied when I discovered the district line between Richmond and Earls Court was closed that day for engineering works. So we got an overland train to Waterloo and then entered the tube system from there.  On our way back, we travelled directly from Strafford (the site of the London Olympics) all the way to Richmond on the London over ground.

In addition to the show, we also spent an hour or two exploring Camden which was fun.

Half-term is often a time for self care and I had both a dental hygienist appointment (my check up was cancelled as they no longer have any NHS dentists)  and also my over 50s medical check up at the doctors surgery. All was going well until the final results from my blood test came in and told me that my cholesterol is too high.  My total cholesterol level is 6.74 mmol/L – needs to be below 5 – my serum HDL cholesterol level (good cholesterol) is 0.98 mmol/L – needs to be above 1.0 – and my ratio TC/HDL is 6.9 and needs to be less than 4.5. So I have an appointment to discuss this with the doctor in 4 weeks time, but in the meantime I’ve started cutting out stuff high in polyunsaturated, so that means no butter, milk, cheese, chocolate, red meat … Looking on the positive side, I am seeing it as an opportunity to try new foods and expand my palette, rather than thinking of what I can’t have.

On Tuesday and Thursday I went spinning at Strode leisure centre, and really enjoyed it, so have signed up again, with the view that I cancel at the end of the summer holidays. Having tweaked a calf muscle whilst running today, it may be that I need to move my exercise away from high impact running to lower impact spinning and swimming. We’ll see ….