So I'm totally new to all this blogging stuff... so I apologise if I bore you or my literacy isn't up to scratch. Lol.
Departed Australia on 19th June, had a lovely send off from the family and Maddy at the airport... thankfully mum held back the tears. After 3 joyous flights I arrived to one Miss Tashi Sophia Thornley at Manchester airport. We headed to Leeds and spent all of Monday and Tuesday buying tents, alcohol, food etc for GLASTONBURY! :)
Tuesday night, we drove overnight to Glastonbury, arriving 5:30am to join the queue for the gates to open at 8am. The trek through the muddy fields in the rain, dragging along a 25kg suitcase on a trolley, with a backpack in tow, made you question whether this was going to be such a great idea. After setting up the tents in the the pissing rain and all huddling under a tent for the torrential downpour to pass, the first ray of sunshine gave all the festival goers a reason to start the party... so the beers were cracked open.
When I say 'we', there was Tashi, her old housemate Sarah, Tashi's school mates Kirsty and Halpin, Fay - who Tashi met on holiday in Cuba and Will her BF, Fay's uni mates Sazzle, Kate, Matt, Lewie, Alexis, Paul, Mike and Sophie - later to be named pee pants, after an unfortunate 'She-wee' mishap (or should I say misalignment..)
We spent Wednesday and Thursday venturing around the Glastonbury site with the other 180 000 people, through deep puddles of mud that i didn't even realise were possible. The 'Greenfields' and 'Craftfields' were filled with dreadlocks and hairy legged hippies, all bringing their wacky crafts and folk music - almost gave the Medieval feel.
Friday was the official beginning to the festival. The sun decided to rear its head each morning to sauna everyone out of their tents and get them down to the festival - to then rain on everyone... Standard English weather - always inconvenient. To name a few, we saw Two Door Cinema Club, Biffy Clyro, U2, Example, Darwin Deez, The Wombats, Mike Posner, Cee Lo Green..
Saturday was Tashi's birthday. With our custom made "Happy 22nd Birthday Tashi" t-shirts.. we ventured around the festival, hoping to get free drinks from strangers to help us celebrate Tashi's birthday... very unsuccessful. Today's flavour was Coldplay, Tinie Tempah, Paolo Nutini, Jessie J (who performed with a broken leg - I felt a common bond), Newton Faulkner (who I sung a duet with... arm in arm... he even gave me the decision as to what key to sing it in... being the adaptable vocalist that I am... I insisted he decide - our rendition of Happy Birthday to Tashi can be found in my FB vids). We stayed up til 4am celebrating Tashi's birthday - mostly sitting on a bench outside a toasties van... but Tashi gave everyone a wake up call when stumbling home over peoples tents at 6am, falling asleep with her hat and 'wellies' (gum boots) on... A Scousers sign of an enjoyable birthday.
Sunday was the last day of the festival. The hottest day by far! Probably only mid twenties. Always amuses me watching the English roast themselves in the sun and soak up their dehydration with beer. Tashi being one of them. To draw the show to an end, Beyonce brough the house (or farm) down... So much criticism leading up to it, with it being a strange choice for her to close the festival, but she was outstanding. I chose not to go in the mosh pit, as Pendulum had played the set before it.. Tashi however was 4th row from the front, with a large orange beach umbrella on the hope to make it on TV. Later on we found out the beach umbrella did... she didn't. Much to our amusement... she faked passing out to be lifted over the barrier by security and given medical assistance, purely so she could run to the Other Stage at watch some of Queen of the Stoneage set. That day, we also saw Plan B, Laura Marling, Don McLean (the guy who sings " Bye bye Miss American Pie, drove my Chevi to the levi by the levi was dry...", James Vincent McMorrow (definitely Youtube him!) and walked around the festival seeing other weird, wacky and very Glastonbury sites.
Monday we hung around the festival til late afternoon, before going into the township of Glastonbury - a similar place to Nimbin or Byron Bay, to wait in a pub for Tashi's Dad to pick us up and drive us all home. What a legend John was! I ended the festival with a black eye... Tashi was feeling a bit violent and when she stumbled on my outstretched leg whilst walking along, she turned, swung and connected with my already 'bog' eye, knocking me flat to the ground. Thanks mate.
Back in Leeds now, recovering and catching up with people. I spent Wednesday teaching 4 lessons of Aussie Rules to PE classes at a high school in Leeds. I think I taught more Australian slang terms to the kids then Aussie Rules Football, but the kids still had enough fun for them to warrant asking for my signature. They now all want to move to Australia to be able to ride Kangaroo's to school - just like I use to!
Sorry for the lengthy read - i'll be amazed if you are still reading this now!
Margot xx
