End of the Road festival 2012

Well it's been a week since we came home from End of the Road and already it feels like a distant, lovely dream...

One of our friends visited this festival last year and said that she would never go back to a large festival again. And I have to say, I agree with her. This little festival has a capacity of 10,000 and apparently this double the number it was in previous years. It is based at Larmer Tree Gardens, which is a beautiful set of gardens and woodlands on the Dorset/ Somerset border. It took us about 4 hours to drive there in our campervan and the last half an hour's drive is just amazing. There was a huge full moon and the clouds were absolutely enormous. It literally felt that we were driving to the end of the world!

When we arrived, we pitched up the van and five minutes later, we were greeted by our neighbours-  the lovely family from Happy Days Retro Vacations, whose Airstream caravan we had stayed in earlier on in the Summer holidays! While the kids made friends and ran around, Kevin kindly helped us to put up our awning and event shelter. I then popped down the "road" to meet my friends who were eating birthday cake and drinking fizzy wine. Our other friends had had a bit of a campervan nightmare and eventually arrived about midnight.

The next day, we got up, ate breakfast and walked for FIVE MINUTES!! to get our wristbands. And then another FIVE MINUTES!! to get into the main area. What a treat compared to the 20 minute slog up steep hills at Camp Bestival.

One you get inside, it is no more than a 10 minute walk to get to any of the music stages. There was the Woods Stage, which is a pretty normal looking stage at the bottom the hill, the Tipi Stage (which apparently used to be one tipi but they have had to expand it a bit), The Big Top, and then there is the Garden Stage. It is like sitting in a very beautiful back garden! There is a beautiful painted archway, a little old house and that;s it. Even the (very clean) festival toilets are screened from the stage by a pretty walkway.

                                                 Image credit: Eve Vermandel, EOTR website

Musical highlights for me included Cashier No 9, John Grant, First Aid Kit and Cold Specks. All absolutely beautiful voices which worked so well in a more intimate environment.

                                                         Cashier No 9: Lost at Sea

There is a small children's area, but it is quite low key, including circus skills, animation, crafts made out of recycled materials. And that was absolutely fine. It took a lot of pressure out of the day as we weren't running around, trying to see everything and do everything.

Then at night, we took the children into the woods with their glowsticks for a journey of adventure...the woods had been transformed, with hundreds of fairy lights, cherubs hanging from the trees, tiny toys wired onto the branches, a library in the wood, peacocks, totem poles and a disco shower! It honestly took my breath away and I must have gone into the woods about 8 times because the children loved it so much. There was also a games area in the woods, with table tennis, jenga, connect 4, Operation and wobbly mirrors, which was full of children and adults having an old fashioned, good time. There were tree trunks covered in crochet, knitted scarves adorning the branches and tiny labels saying who had created each part.

                                       First Aid Kit performing Simon and Garfunkel's "America"


Oh another highlight was the bonfire and the mulled cider bus, which quickly became my new favourite festival tipple!

At night, we walked into another wooded area, where there was a disco, complete with 70s flashing dancefloor. it was such a surreal experience but very good natured and lots of people having a good old boogie.

On a practical level, it worked very well as we could take the children into the festival for a few hours, take them home for a nap, cook tea at the van and then wrap them up warm before heading out for the evening.

I bought myself a lovely, cosy campervan jumper from a vintage stall and a screenprint to remind us of our wonderful weekend. The colours match my front room perfectly, as I have an orange sofa and teal Orla wallpaper!

There is a sister festival called No Direction Home, which is in Nottingham and I am seriously debating going back next year. It was heavenly.

On a very happy note, can I take the opportunity to say a warm hello to

Glitterygirl

who is my latest follower! Welcome and thankyou :). My blog has been a bit slow to get started, so every new follower means such a lot to me. I now have a grand total of 8 x

14 day detox plan...an update

Well, I lasted as far as day 10 when we had the teaparty at work (see my previous post). In that time, I lost 9 pounds. Not bad in 10 days! I also felt loads better, more energetic, more sparkly, more fizzy!

However, since then I've been to a music festival and drank rather a lot of warm cider and vodka, eaten quite a few naughty sandwiches for lunch this week and I may just have scoffed a kitkat at the computer. oops.

I have bought the stuff to make some more smoothies though and will certainly get back on the wagon soon.

Perhaps after my husband's 40th birthday in 2 weeks. Blush.

A very special tea party

I have had a bit of an eventful week, so havent had a chance to get onto here....I have missed it!

Last week, my wonderful, wonderful manager and colleague retired. She was an extremely talented psychologist and everyone she worked with loved her and respected her in equal measure. We had known that she was planning on retiring for the past year and the best way I could allow myself to say goodbye was to throw her an extra special party.

We decided to host an afternoon tea party on her behalf and invite her family, her friends, her work colleagues from the past and present. Apparently she had looked into hiring a company that provided an afternoon tea party, but it was hundreds of pounds! So she had bought some pretty paper plates and napkins and thought that would be it. 

However, we had other plans. I asked my Mother in law to dig out her amazing china tea sets, which are over a hundred years old. She also had some amazing Queen Anne teacups and saucers from the 1950s. 

We then found about 7 cake stands, from vintage cut glass ones to modern cardboard ones, I dug out my best Cath Kidston teapot and milk jug and we had 4 beautiful flower arrangements with roses and lavender in tiny teapots.

My friend managed to acquire about 10 sets of pink and green bunting from her friend's wedding, so we covered the whole clinic in it! She also made some beautiful cupcakes for the occasion. Good job as my cake making skills extend to fairy cakes and chocolate rice crispie cakes...

About 60 people turned up, which was testament to how much people admired her and wanted to say goodbye. It was perfect. There were loads of speeches, lots of laughter and I just about managed not to cry.

On the Thursday, I popped my head around the door to say goodbye as I was going away for the weekend. (I'll tell you more about that in my next blog post). We both hugged each other, burst into floods of tears and I cried all the way home in my car. It is so hard to lose someone you appreciate so much.

I made her a picture using some vintage maps, showing the locations of places we had worked together. On the back I wrote a lovely quote from Dr Seuss, which says

"Dont cry because it's over. Smile because it happened".

Unfortunately I didnt heed my own advice, and burst into tears at work yesterday morning when I read my thankyou card from her...slightly embarrassing in an open plan office, especially as I have never cried at work before. Luckily one of my colleagues noticed and took me downstairs for a hug and a big mug of tea!

Anyway, if you have someone you work with who inspires you, makes you want to be a better person and is generally awesome, make sure you appreciate every day you get to spend together x

People Tree Autumn/Winter collection

I've got to be honest, I've never bought fairtrade clothes before, even though I dont buy from shops like Primark anymore. Funny really because I always buy free range meat, fairtrade coffee, tea and bananas!

Anyway, this brochure popped through my letterbox yesterday and I just love it. I would happily wear any of these dresses and am thinking about finally spending some of my birthday money.

Check out these beauties: Sorry the resolution is poor, the images were tiny and when I tried to resize them, they went all blurry. Technology isnt my strong point.

Lydia Squirrel print dress, £80

A nice bit of Orla:

Orla kiely owl dress, £95

Jill Red striped tunic, £48


I've just noticed that there is a sale on, I may stock for up next year's Summer! Actually there's loads of dresses which are in the catalogue but not on the website yet, so I will post again when they appear.

Detox- days 3 and 4

Well I am still sticking to the Jason Vale 14 days to turbo charge your life plan. By the skin of my teeth! Yesterday, someone brought in a large tin of Roses into work (which were scoffed in less than 24 hours, naughty bunch) and then today brought in a load of birthday cakes. I had to use every bit of my strength to step away from them.

Link: Aikawaii shop, etsy

On day 3, I didnt really feel too hungover any more, although I must have been tired as I fell asleep on the sofa at 9pm. I did have a slight catastrophe though, as my vegetable "power soup" had developed muscles of  it's own and had started fermenting in the flask-yuuuk. So I had to eat an emergency avocado and keep focussed until my dinner, which was very nice. Honey roasted root veggies and salmon.

I had really horrible, vivid dreams for the last couple of nights too. Luckily, this had also happened to my friend who had followed a similar plan a few weeks ago.

My work colleagues are laughing at my "slime diet", as they see me walking around work with a glass of bright green smoothie. However, I am starting to see the effects now. I have lost about 4lbs in 4 days and I definitely have more energy. Usually by the evening, I would be collapsing onto the sofa, but I feel fine and am contemplating doing some dancing on the wii in a minute. Late night party! I feel like my body is running on that extra posh petrol you get at the petrol station, instead of my usual unleaded diet. I had a reasonably good diet beforehand, but it was probably lacking in quite a few vitamins. I also ate lots of snacks and treats, especially at work if I was feeling bored. Finally, I was doing no exercise at all.

source:entertaininganytime.typepad

So I'm feeling pretty pleased with how I am getting on so far. Next weekend, I am going to another music festival with the kids, so I wont be able to stick to it. However, I will be seeking out the fruit juice stalls and doing my best to continue.

I love cookie: etsy

14 days to turbocharge your life- days 1 and 2

So, as I wrote in my last post, my 37th birthday marked a bit of a turning point and a decision that it is time to start taking care of myself a bit better.

Spurred on by the success of a work colleague, I have started the Jason Vale 14 days programme. Basically, you have a nutrient filled, green smoothie for breakfast, a nutrient packed, green soup for lunch (or you can have another smoothie if you want) and then protein with salad or stir fry for dinner.

I'm currently at the end of day 2. Yesterday I was feeling extremely enthusiastic, cleaned the house in the morning and crashed and burned with hunger by 4.30pm. I didnt cheat but I made my dinner by 5pm on the dot! I fell asleep by 9.30pm and had some extremely vivid nightmares!

On Day 2 I woke up, feeling as though I had been on a late night drinking session and the hangover was just about to start. However, after a nice glass of green smoothie, I felt much better. I still dont feel entirely full as my body is used to having biscuits out of the tin ad infinitum, but my body feels cleaner, lighter and (dare I say it) a little bit healthier.

This is the recipe for the Turbo Power Smoothie. It sounds pretty disgusting, but actually it's not unpleasant to drink.

Juice

1/4 cucumber
1 celery stick
a handful of spinach leaves
1/2 pineapple
4 golden delicous apples
1/4 lime

then blend 1/2 avocado with some ice and add to the juice.

When I got home from work, the rain was absolutely chucking it down and there was thunder and lightning. I really didnt fancy getting my running gear on, but luckily for me, I have a 7 year old personal trainer who told me to get changed. The rain stopped and I did a 3 mile run (with walks in between) whilst she rode her bike, giving me encouragement and sips of water from her bottle.

I think my husband thinks I have gone mad! I have changed from a serial cake muncher to a health nut lol.

Birthday/ Plan B

It was my birthday on Friday and I was 37. I had a really chilled out weekend, with a vintage teaparty with my friend and 4 children on Friday, a delicious Sunday roast at a local pub today (without the children- woohoo) and a reflexology treatment. It's been lovely.

I've never been particularly bothered about becoming another year older, but 37 seems to be a bit of a tipping point for me. I'm not early thirties, I'm not really mid thirties, I'm entering my late thirties...this is uncharted waters. By this age I imagined that I would have finished having (at least 3) children, I would be on my way to being a having a fabulous job in the NHS, it would all be going exactly to plan.

However. Life over the past few years hasn't exactly gone to plan. I had 5 miscarriages between my 2 children, leading to a lot of medical tests, a lot of tears and a 5 year age gap between my children. I now have a toddler whilst all my friends' children are at school. I absolutely adore the ground he walks on and I wouldnt change anything, but it isn't what I had planned. I was offered the super duper job in Devon 3 years ago, but had to turn it down as we had elderly relatives to care for in Birmingham. One of them has had cancer and one sadly passed away last year. The NHS is a very different place to what it was 5 years ago. Promotions are scarce, cutbacks are rife, we are being told to work harder than ever and to be grateful that we have jobs.

I thought we would be living in a 4 or 5 bedroom house, preferably somewhere Victorian, a bit arty, a bit more expensive. In reality, house prices have crashed and the little semi we bought 5 years ago is looking like our lifetime home.

"The plan" has gone a wee bit pearshaped and it feels like it is time to take stock of my life, figure out what really matters and make some new plans for my late thirties/ forties.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in the waiting room of the Oncology department of my local hospital, waiting to hear whether my mother in law's cancer had come back. That 20 minute wait was the longest of my life. Time seemed to stretch out endlessly. We flicked through magazines but didn't read the words. I tried to make small talk with her about the weather and the Olympics, whilst inside my heart was pumping. We had been here before, as much of my maternity leave was spent at a different cancer treatment centre, breastfeeding my baby whilst she was having her radiotherapy. Neither of us could bear to get up when the consultant called us into his office.





It was good news. The lump that they had found wasn't cancerous and she was free to go. I thought that I would feel elated but I didn't. I felt a mixture of weariness and the overriding feeling that I never wanted to be back in that room again. At that moment, my goals for the next 15 years were crystal clear.

1. Spend as much time with the children as I can
2. Make some quality time to be with my husband, even just a couple of hours a month
3. Enjoy what time we have left with my mother in law, the children's beloved Granny and
4. Look after myself, because if I dont do that, I cant do 1,2 or 3.

In the 8 years since I first became pregnant, I haven't done any regular exercise. I have lived on hardly any sleep for years and staggered through the day on a mixture of tea, nervous energy, chocolate and cake. It shows. My skin is grey, my eyes have bags, there are wrinkles appearing.

I've got to do something...

So this week, I have been on the wii fit twice. It told me that it had 1325 days since my last visit. That's not great is it? Tonight, my daughter rode her bike whilst I ran around the local roads, puffing like nobody's business and going as red as a beetroot. Of course, I bumped into 2 people I know- the shame!

We ate the last of the birthday cake today and tomorrow I am starting a detox. It's called Jason Vale's 14 days to turbo charge your life and involves lots of smoothies, fresh juice and moving my bum off the sofa. Gulp. A colleague at work recently did it and her skin, hair and eyes looked so healthy and shiny.

I am also starting to do some mindulness techniques, to help me to stop worrying about the plans we had that didn't happen and just to enjoy each moment, each day as it comes.

I expect I will fall off the wagon spectacularly, with the exercise and the healthy eating, but I really want to give it a go. I don't want my kids to remember me as tired, grumpy and stressed out every evening because I'm shattered. I want to have enough energy to play with them, to dance with them, to ferry them around when they are teenagers.

Plan B starts today :) Wish me luck x