It's a rest day today. Last weekend was quite hectic but great fun. On Friday we had an early start to drive to Northampton to collect Cozy and then onwards to Portsmouth for the 1.30 ferry to the Isle of Wight. As usual the weather was very warm and the contrast between a hot venue and the cool air when loading the van had to be carefully managed. Luckily my tour jacket did the job admirably.
We had to be up early again on Saturday to catch the ferry back to the mainland and then we had the long drive up to Newark. Chris did all the driving so I was able to sit and read the paper and watch the world go by.
The Americana festival was great fun. We had a big stage and an enthusiastic audience that lifted our performance. However, it was like standing next to an open oven on stage. Once again the tour jacket came in handy when we came off stage and the evening breeze picked up.
I must have walked miles that day. The Showground is a very big place and we wandered around looking at the cars and checking out the stalls. I made full use of the hospitality area. I must have drunk four or more cups of tea, one after the other.
Eventually we had to leave to drive home, arriving at about midnight, tired out but happy.
On Sunday I woke up early and spent some time catching up with the video recordings of the Tour de France, then relaxed in front of the TV to watch the British Grand Prix. As soon as that ended Sue and I drove to Corby to watch Chris' band playing at the Corby Gathering. They were set up on the back of a lorry outside a Working Men's Club by the roundabout leading to Asda. Some wag called it the Downroad Festival. The band played really well considering the heat and confines of the stage.
After that it was back home, more tea, read the paper and then I set about sorting through the many photos of the weekend.
Some can be found on my Facebook page, although you have to be signed up to see them
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/dave.clemo
I was dozing in front of the TV when Sue persuaded me to go to bed. Today I woke up tired, with aching limbs, but that's not surprising. I have two days to rest up before we head off to the North East for a few days.
My temperature is still normal and I continue to take the pills. I'm enjoying life at the moment. I'm busy doing what I love, and not many people can say that these days.
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Dave Clemo's account of living with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Don't forget to add your comments when you drop in.
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My recommended reading
- "The Stars my Destination" by Alfred Bester was published in 1956, so it stands as the last of the pre space-age sci-fi novels. The hero is Gully Foyle and he is a man on a mission. He is out to exact retribution to the occupants of a space liner who ignored his distress signals and left him to die in deep space. It's a brilliant epic story, and is Bester's best novel by far. Neil Gaiman writes in the forward that it stakes a claim to be the first cyberpunk novel, albeit thirty years before the genre was established. I've read it at least four times in the last forty years, and I can highly recommend it. 10/10.
- "Stand on Zanzibar" by John Brunner. First published in 1968. This is a stunning book, written in the 1960s but set at the turn of the 21st century. The title refers to the fact that if every person alive was given a space 2ft by 1ft, they would all fit on the island of Zanzibar. By the time the novel ends, they have overflowed the island and are standing in the water. It deals with the pressures of conflicting world ideologies, overpopulation, how advertising and propaganda can shape our worldview, and features a character called Chad C Mulligan, a socioligist who was so appalled at mankind that he just dropped out. But not before publishing a book called "The Hipcrime Vocab" which was duly banned by the authorities. Brunner predicts legalised recreational drug use, intelligent computers, politics by assassination, and a state of war between conflicting ideologies. And spontaneous riotings and "muckers"- people who just go beserk and run amuck, killing as many people as possible. Spooky. 10/10
- "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. First published 1957. Over 10 years in writing, this is a stunning read. Set in the near future (from a 50s viewpoint), it sets out what inevitably happens when socialism is allowed full rein. Eerily prescient. 10/10.
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