Category Archives: Camp Bestival

Camp Bestival Memories – Interview with Martin Fry of ABC

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We are counting down to Camp Bestival kicking off on 26 July, that’s 70 days to go. Another fab line up this year with Rizzlekicks and Stooshie but there is a legend in the line up this year, someone not to be missed, someone I am soo excited about seeing it’s silly, a hero from my childhood – it can only be ROLF HARRIS.  I was looking forward to Camp Bestival anyway but with Rolf Harris performing that’s just made my year.

I’m recording another show for BBC Oxford there and guess who is top of my list to interview, yep, Rolf Harris himself.  Last year I had the privilege of interviewing Martin Fry of ABC, one of my teenage heroes and yes I do have all their albums and I know all the words.  So when I found he was giving interviews but was only doing four of them I thought I had no chance.  It’s amazing what doors open when you’re with the BBC, even if it is local radio, I got one of the slots.

The others were ITN, Sky News and Festivents, all the interviewees were under the age of 25 and had never worshipped Martin Fry in the way an oldie like me did, they all asked the same questions….What’s it like being back together in the band again? Martin looked positively bored but charmingly answered them without getting too animated.  When it came to my turn I introduced myself and explained that I didn’t want to talk about the band or reforming but I’d like to talk about food.

For a minute I thought he was going to throw me out of the press tent, especially when he asked if I was serious, but I stuck to my guns and got the longest interview of any of the other journos from him. Martin changed totally, became animated and obviously I’d struck a chord with a favourite subject of his, food and feeding his family.  The interview is attached to click on it and see what you think.

It made my weekend and I’m really hoping I can repeat the honour with Rolf Harris, what do you think?

Martin Fry interviewed by Beverley Glock at Camp Bestival

 

 

Camp Bestival – Sunday

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Day 2 and I’m so relaxed I’m totally zonked, I spent ages chasing around trying to get an interview with Ade Edmonson but he was elusive and the PR chaps couldn’t find him anywhere so no success there, never mind.

I’d already agreed that we’d have breakfast out, big mistake, I queued for 40 minutes for 3 crepes, come on guys, this is not good enough, chocolate con churros was better but 40 minutes, next time I’m taking ready made crepes and some lemons. Eventually got into the festival only for small boy to get stung by a wasp so he went off to the welfare tent with Dad so the girls and I went off to the clay making tent, sat around, vegged out and played with clay. This was the girls, at this point I was chasing between the clay tent and the Press Tent trying to hound down Ade Edmonson.

Small boy sorted, clay gargoyles made. Today was a day at the circus for the children, we’d spent the morning donning false eyelashes, well, we’re still on holiday and it seemed a shame not to, couldn’t do the wig as it was really hot and sunny. In the Kids Field they had a section of mad bikes, penny farthings for kids, unicycles (I have one of those in the garage, yes really, well doesn’t everyone?), bikes that turn the opposite way to how you steer them, bikes that go backwards when you pedal forwards and in another section they had juggling balls and clubs, diablos and lots of other circus skills you could try out, the children spent most of the afternoon here and when they weren’t here they were in the kids circus tent.  Check out the photos of tightrope walking, it’s really hard.

Pete’s weekend was made with Pauline Black and The Selector playing at lunchtime, he’s broken his toe, kicking the ball for one of our dogs Sidney, so dancing was interesting but he managed it, took him back to his teenage days, brilliant set.

Back to the tent for a bit of packing and supper then back in time for a short bit at the comedy tent with Barry Castagnola, bless him, he was obviously thrown by the amount of children in the audience as his material is slightly risque and he felt embarassed presenting it in front of small children, that said, a comment from one 11 year old boy in the audience totally floored him and he ended up corpsing, brilliant.  When the compare came on I tapped small boy and medium sized girl on the head (they were sat right at the front) to get them out so guess who got picked on by the compare?  Yes, me.  He asks me if I’ve got all the kids?

‘no,’ I reply ‘i’m one missing’,

‘what’s their name?’

‘Ellie’ I shout back

Well, big girl is sitting at the back of the tent at this point trying to blend in with the sofa, he shouts over and makes her stand up and tells her off for not being quicker. Then shouts back at me as asks why I’m dragging these children out of this den of iniquity, where are we going that’s better?

‘The bar’ – I shout back.

That floored him, he corpsed at that point, he wasn’t expecting that!  At that point big girl is making her way to the back of the tent, slowly, so he shouts across to the guy stood at the side ‘Eric, poke that girl for not moving fast enough’ so Eric Lampeart poked my big girl in the arm. She’s had a lot of interaction with comedians this weekend.

Back for more music – Benjamin Francis Leftwi

theteam

The team, Sunday night at Camp Bestival 2011

ch who I think is totally fantastic. Greg James played him on Radio 1 a week or two ago and I loved the sound, I did feel for him as he was billed at really bad time.  He should have been on in the afternoon as his music is ideal for lounging around to in the hot sunshine so for him to be on at the same time as Primal Scream was horrid for him as everyone was around the Main Stage and the Big Top where he was playing was empty.  That said, he was way way better than Primal Scream who I never really ‘got’ and were just totally boring.  I tried pogoing to them just to stay away but even that didn’t work so we just sat around pinching each other to stay awake waiting for the fireworks.  They got a huge cheer at the end because they’d finished and we could get on with the good stuff – ie the fireworks,thank goodness.  I’d say that Primal Scream were the only downside to the whole festival.  There was no atmosphere and everyone was just sat around chatting to each other ignoring them. Not good for them or us.

The fireworks were spectacular and included a cartoon projected onto the castle as the backdrop with the story of a princess being rescued from a dragon by a knight, we all decided that we like the dragon and that he was just misunderstood so the prince didn’t have to go and kill him, however the dragon’s blood was purple,  hence, ‘purple rain’ played out, sheer brilliance.

Back to the tea and toast caravan before bed.

 

 

Camp Bestival – Saturday – where Middle England goes to party

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First night sleeping in a proper tent for almost 30 years, this doesn’t include posh tents on campsites in France a la Canvas or Eurocamp and it wasn’t too bad, I had the essentials for a good night’s sleep:

1.  Very tired out children – went to bed gone midnight after spending the day running around in the fresh air.

2. A Monkey Shoulder cocktail or two, actually I think it was two, can’t remember.

3. Blackout eye shades

4. Wax ear plugs

We took along the essentials for an enjoyable breakfast – the espresso maker – no, not the huge electric one, the stove top one, coffee and frozen fresh milk that slowly defrosted over the weekend.  We brought home milk we didn’t use and it was still cold, very impressed.

Eventually got down to the festival around lunchtime as the children were having too good a time playing around the campsite with other children. Arrived just in time to see Dick and Dom – BOGIES!

I hate to admit it but they were brilliant, loved them, Small Boy and I had a great time yelling ‘Bogies’ very, very loudly.  At one point they picked on the group of adults standing by the Merchandise Tent as they were being very ‘grown up’, Dick and Dom were’nt having any of this so they yelled over at them that they were the ‘mosh pit’ and they had to act like it, not sure if they did but we really got into it and had a whale of a time.  Zingzillas came on next, bearable but good excuse to duck into the Press Tent to get out of the rain.

Today is FANCY DRESS DAY – I tried lots of costumes on in the Smiffy’s fancy dres

s costume tent but the one I really wanted, the Black Knight from Monty Python, was bloke sized and was massive, also incredibly hot, the only girly frocks were too big as I’d left it too late so put up with false eyelashes and very long blonde curly wig, medium sized girl opted for rainbow afro and matching rainbow lashes and big girl went for the longest feather lashes possible, small boy stuck with a sword.

Rain stopped so small boy went to the Balloon Workshop where they were building a huge caterpillar, he made a dog with a lead which didn’t last long unfortunately, but he had a good time.

 

Newton Faulkner – @newtonfaulkner was fabulous, unfortunately I had small boy who had a total paddy about listening to music and as I’d promised to take him back to the tent and play cards while getting supper ready I left Pete, Grant and the others in the Big Top and missed his rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody which was apparently brilliant.  Must catch him another time.

Smerins Anti-Social Club – funk band from Bristol – one of my biggest regrets is that I only caught the end of their show, wished I’d got there earlier but this is the disadvantage of a family festival, the adults don’t get to do what they want to do, ie sit on a picnic rug with a constant stream of Monkey Shoulder cocktails and listen to music all afternoon and evening.  We have to cater to children too who want to spend the whole time either at East Lulworth when the Comedy is on or in the Kids Garden in the circus space. The couple of tunes I did hear were amazing and the whole of the big top was jumping.  Catch these guys soon.

Cuban Brothers - these guys are an @campbestival legend and soon saw why. Who cares if they are actually from Cuba or more likely from Essex but their show, a mixture of music, comedy, dance and pants was superb.  Not sure how old @thecubanbrothers are, they’re not spring chickens, but boy can they roller skate and breakdance, we had to dash off half way through to get over the Main Stage for Mark Ronson so missed the part when they stipped down to their pants, not sure if that was a good escape or not.

Mark Ronson and The Business International – wow, just wow, everyone was there, Dave McCabe from The Zutons started off the set with his version of  ’Valerie’, I admit Mark Ronson seems to have the personality of a plank but his music if fabulous.  My Big Girl was firmly entrenched in the Comedy Tent as she hates him but if she could have seen him play the drums I think she’d have come round. He did a tribute to Amy Winehouse which had a lot of the audience feeling very emotional and I’m sure there were quite a few tears, played Back to Black, saying that ‘she should have been here tonight’ and finished with her version of Valerie led by Dave McCabe.  Actually, it was led by the audience, they decided that as all knew the words this would be our tribute to Amy and the audience would sing it – oh boy did we do it justice. Excellent.

Groove Armada were on next but didn’t catch much of it. Rounded up children from the Comedy Tent and, oh what a surprise, headed back to Monkey Shoulder for nightcaps.  Hit a bit of a crisis point here with 5 children starving hungry and in need of hot chocolate. Lo and behold as if by magic we discover the best place to eat of the whole festival – the Tea Caravan next to the Welfare Tent which just happens to be next to Monkey Shoulder.

The Tea Caravan is run by the lovely Eileen who is in charge of the Welfare Tent, this is where you go to find lost children, get First Aid and retrieve lost property, Eileen set up the tea caravan to help people out who are waiting for their children to be brought here and everything is £1. That’s a mug of tea, hot chocolate, toasted teacake or two rounds of toast with marmite, butter or jam £1.  A mug of tea elsewhere is £3.50 at least.  This place was heaven. So 10 round of toast and marmite and 5 hot chocolates later we’re off to Monkey Shoulder for cocktails with 5 happy children, soon to have 3 happy grown ups.

Eileen didn’t believe me when I said I thought this was the best catering on site, but it’s true, tea and toast is just what you need at midnight to give the children sufficient strength to walk the 1.5km uphill back to the tent, either that or a doner, however, toast is much less dangerous.

This was about to become one of the best nights of my big girl’s life and certainly the best at the festival.  As we walked into the Monkey Shoulder Tree House there were 4 people dancing, one of them was Jack Whitehall.  Big girl didn’t realise until I pointed him out, she looked round, ran over and threw her arms around him then legged it.  Poor Jack, he looked rather bewildered.  I went over and apologised for her and explained that he was the only reason she came to Camp Bestival.  He didn’t quite believe me until I told him that I was serious and she wasn’t coming until she found out he was playing Friday night.  I asked him if he’d mind having a photo with her and he said that he’d be really happy and was touched that he’d inspired her to come just to see him.  Jack Whitehall went over hugged my big girl and she’s got a photo that she’ll treasure for a long time.  Thank you @jackwhitehall.

 

Camp Bestival – Friday – Arrival and Interview with Martin Fry of ABC

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Usual ‘going on holiday’ bedlam of dropping dogs off at pet nanny, putting bins out, remembering what I’ve forgotten, shoe-horning teenager out of bed, last call to Pete to ask what he’s forgotten so I can bring it……and we’re off.

New games to play while camping:

1.  Find the tent on husband’s directions……’straight ahead through the entrance then turn left at the recycling point, the tent is next to the the flag with the pegasus flag’.  Pretty good eh?  Apart from he didn’t realise there was more one entrance and we came into a different one.   Three recycling points later, two grumpy ladies arrive at tent ready for next game.

2. Who trashed the tent?  One man, two children = totally trashed tent.  It’s a huge tent, there are 4 bedrooms and heaps of room in  the middle so why can’t 3 people just put some stuff away not just chuck it all over the tent.  Empty sleeping bag bags, clothes, food, crockery and cutlery just strewn everywhere.

3. Camping arithmetic. Five people require how many sleeping bags?  This isn’t difficult now, is it?  Obviously it is for someone who has two maths ‘A’ levels. 5 people = 5 sleeping bags, if you only bring 4 sleeping bags that the means one person is damned cold, Pete was damned cold on Friday night.

Games over next one is get ready for the trek to the actual festival. Good job I’m fit, I really felt for some friends of ours who had come with a camper van.  They thought they’d get there really early on Thursday morning to blag a good spot as they have 4 girls aged between 2 and 10.  They were even further away from us, the guys that arrived late on Friday ended up right next to the festival in the overflow field.  Average of 3 pounds lost over festival weekend with all the walking and dancing.

I checked into the Press Tent only to find that Martin Fry of ABC was doing interviews that afternoon, managed to get myself on the list after ITN, Sky News and FestEvents, honoured and very excited.  The other interviewers were much younger than me and I’m not sure they were even around when I was dancing to Martin in the 1980s.  I have all the albums and I know all the words and was sure that Cristina, my producer at BBC Oxford would be thrilled with such a coup.

The others went first and asked questions about the group, reforming, etc.  Martin seemed fairly relaxed although not very animated, so when it came to me I really wasn’t sure what to expect as I wanted to talk to him about food and children not music, so it could go two ways, fingers crossed.

Martin Fry is charming, a total gentleman, when I introduced myself and explained what I wanted to talk about he asked me if I was serious?  I thought, ‘uh oh, that’s it, I’m going to get kicked out’, but no, he was really happy about it.  His twins, now aged 20, were both at the festival, camping, and he explained that they’d travelled all over the world with him when he was touring and they’d eaten the local food.  Recently they’d been to Morocco and loved the tagines there and when they were little he’d had them trekking in Snowdonia.

One of his favourite foodie places is the coast close to La Rochelle, renowned for it’s oysters and he explained that they’d spent a lot of holidays there as there was great surfing too.  This was right up my street, we’ve been going to that area for the past 7 years because of the surfing and seafood and we’re going back on Sunday for 11 days.  So, I’m sitting on a sofa in the press tent at Camp Bestival chatting and laughing with my teenage hero about the best surf places around the West Coast of France.  Amazingly, it didn’t feel surreal, it felt complete natural, like having a laugh and chat with an old mate when you realised you’ve been going to the same places each year and never bumped into each other.  Martin Fry is a thoroughly lovely, charming chap.  It made my festival, thank you Martin.  He was also brilliant on stage later that evening too, and yes, I sung along very loudly cos I know all the words.

Big girl and husband basically camped out at the Comedy.  I was rather gutted that Milton Jones was on at the same time ABC were but no way was I missing ABC.  Milton Jones was brilliant, he dealt with a heckler with aplomb and I think I’m going to have to get tickets for his show at Aylesbury in December although I can’t imagine it’s going to be as good in a theatre as it was for them sitting just in front of him in the marquee.  Big girl caught him later in the Big Top along with Jack Whitehall – I tried to get an interview as he’s her idol but he wasn’t doing interviews and his tour manager wasn’t answering his phone but it still made her weekend.


 

Martin Fry

Martin Fry of ABC

 

 

Camp Bestival – What’s on and food

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So excited, just had the updated APP for #campbestival and they’ve got the timings up, gutted as tomorrow night I have to be in two places at once due to Milton Jones playing East Lulworth at the same time ABC are on the Castle Stage, then it gets worse as Blondie are playing the same time on Castle Stage as Jack Whitehall and the Comedy set are on the Big Top. Think we’re going to have to leave big girl in the big top while I leg it to see Blondie, not missing that for anything and seriously have to drool over Martin Fry – I have the albums, all of them for Blondie and ABC, omg I’m that old.

Then there’s the silent disco – I am so excited about that it’s silly.  You get headphones and select what music genre you want (I think) then you dance away to your own music, excellent.  You can play ‘spot the ones doing YMCA and Cliff Richard’, my only issue is that I tend to sing, very, very badly, and I wonder if anyone will notice.

Rob da Bank is doing the silent disco on sunday night – 1.30am-3am, I can’t remember seeing that time of night since the children were born, sad I know.

Then there’s the dancing stuff, salsa, Lindy hop, charleston – oooh I so want to do that, can you dance in walking boots? Will have to find out.

Ade Edmonson is also playing – really, really need to try and get an interview with him, wonder if he’s there with the kids, that would be fabulous to get him on air talking about food at festivals, or just controlling children at festivals.

The Gruffalo is also on stage – Oh no, it’s gruffalo! Yeay, I so want to see that, pity none of the children do they reckon they’re all way too old for it, I’m not!

Now, I’ve just had tip off that there is a chocolate and churros stand that does amazing coffee there – That’s first on my list for breakfast on Saturday, based on the concept that I’ve had some sleep, ear plugs and eye masks sorted for the children too so fingers crossed.

Camp Bestival – preparations – last minute sagas

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I knew the real reason for me going to Camp Bestival the day after my lovely  husband and small children is not just to bring extra supplies but to being all the items they’ve forgotten to put into the car….

1.  Small Boy’s dressing gown

2. Pillows – that would have been interesting

3. Regulator and tube to connect the camping stove up to the gas tank.  Am going to have a rant about this – the reg and tube doesn’t come with the camping stove or the gas tank.  I think this is really stupid as you need the bit in the middle to connect it all up.  The Camping shops (that sell the stoves) don’t sell the reg and tube because it’s July and they’re selling winter stuff now, you don’t go camping in winter so you have to buy these in December (aaaargh!).  The garden centres that sell the gas tanks don’t sell the regs and tubes as they come with the stoves and they don’t sell the stoves – they don’t come with the stoves, if they came with the stoves we wouldn’t have to buy them cos we’d  have one, (grrrr!) – end of rant. After trawling round DIY shops and camping shops we found one this morning at the local lawnmower shop – thank you Briants in Longwick.  OK that’s lateral thinking to blow your mind, who one earth would have thought of that one, my lovely husband in total desperation, that’s who.

It would be interesting writing about feeding the family at a festival without being to use the stove, if I cheated and we lived on takeaways some bright spark would clock us and tell everyone so we’d be found out.  It’s the same as when I’m in the fish and chip shop getting emergency food for the children as I have a 5 minute turn round to get them from school to Taekwondo or Judo and I always bump into someone who gleefully declares ‘ooooh, you’re in the chippy I’m going to tell, I thought you always cooked ALL your own food’.  Well, actually ‘no, I don’t’ not always, and ‘yes’ I do allow my children to eat rubbish frequently.

So at last they’re off, just had a text from medium sized girl asking if they could eat the coco pops bars and big bags of crisps that are supposed too be for breakfast and posh snacks for lunch on the way down.  Her Dad is driving so why is she texting me and not asking him?  She was told ‘no’ and to eat the packed lunch that I’d made for them.

One final piece of classic texting.  Our friend Grant is on his way with his two children, he sent a text this morning that made me laugh.  You have to remember that this is one 50 year old bloke to anther 50 year old bloke, this is so obtuse it’s brilliant…

“On the way, meet you in the skate park at 3pm, it’s totally awesome!’

Fantastic, all it needs is a tent to turn two grown blokes into little kids again – love it.

 

 

Camp Bestival – packing

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I had flashmic training today – no it doesn’t mean learning how to use a mic whilst wearing a dubious mac, the lovely Jason at Radio Oxford showed me how to turn it on, check levels, record and turn it off, bless him, he also checked that I had producer Cristina’s mobile in case I ran into difficulties with it.  I know I’m blonde, but it’s not that technical.  Hmm, probably shouldn’t have typed that, I’ll end up calling Cristina at a critical moment cos I can’t find the ‘on’ button.

Two children’s suitcases packed, halved the clothes that medium sized girl is taking and had meltdown over her iphone and conversations along the lines of :

‘you won’t have coverage’ – ‘you’re taking yours, you wouldn’t do that if there wasn’t coverage’

‘there’s  no way of charging it’ – ‘yes there is, there’s wifi and charging in the press tent’

‘you won’t need to call, text or email anyone’ – ‘my friends will want to know what I’m up to and it just CAN’T wait until Monday’.

‘well I’ll have to take my ipod instead’ – ‘you’re going to a music festival, there’s lots of live music, you won’t have time to listen to your ipod’

iphone has now been confiscated and hidden.

Small boys suitcase has been emptied of lego, DS games and pokemon cards so there is now room for more than 1 pair of pants in there plus other clothes. Had the conversation again about it being quicker just to wear the clothes he travels down in, sleep in them and just get straight up the next day, repeat until Monday – he’s taking at least 2 changes of clothing, under duress.

Haven’t tackled teenager’s bag, that’s for tomorrow after some sleep.

My packing – I’m not going down there until Friday morning so haven’t even thought about that, I’m on Radio Birmingham at 11.30 tomorrow morning on the lovely Joanne Mallin’s show, another coating of St Tropez to do tomorrow night and dogs to take to the Pet Nanny.  Bless them, they’re already unhappy as they’ve seen the suitcases so I have two stressed out labradors who will be howling at our bedroom door tonight being needy.

Had a lovely glass of wine in the garden this evening with my friend Jayne after she dropped back small boy and three lovely trout that her fab husband Alan had caught this afternoon.  It’s been very tempting to take the trout to Camp Bestival and cook them outside the tent with some fresh herbs and lemon juice but that really would be show off cooking, wouldn’t it?  So they’re going to have to go into the freezer until we get back, although Big Girl and I may have to share one tomorrow  night as it would be a shame not to.  Good excuse to use up the potatoes in the fridge, sauteed, and some fresh lettuce from the garden, lovely.

 

Beverley Glock is a food writer and broadcaster, she is the founder of Splat Cooking, her first book ’500 baby and toddler foods’ is published on 5 September by Apple Press and her APP ‘Cupcakes, Muffins and Afternoon Tea’ is released in September.

Camp Bestival – quick update on fancy dress

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Just had lunch with my friend Jayne.  We were discussing fancy dress for Camp Bestival, or rather I was raving about the Black Knight costume with the removable arm – we’re both Monty Python fans, anyway, Jayne had this brilliant idea – smear spag bol on your face and go as a plague victim.  Fabulous,  I love it, thanks Jayne.

By the way I’ve also found a Tim the Enchanter hat, the guy who warns of the white fluffy bunny with ‘big, pointy teeth’, on a website to buy. Wonder how many of those we’ll see at Camp Bestival?

 

Camp Bestival – Medieval Fancy Dress

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I’ve just had an email from the PR company for Camp Bestival notifying me that that I have to be in fancy dress and the wonderful Smiffy’s fancy dress experts to the stars will have a costume waiting for me to collect on Friday – thought I’d get away with that one, obviously not!   So I’ve been looking through medieval costumes and figuring out what I would like.

Princess – only if I can have a pointy hat, but actually being Princess Fiona would be cool, just a little worried about being green all weekend without any decent means of getting the green stuff off especially a I’ve spent ages doing St Tropez.

Fever Princess – would this help me get an interview with Martin Fry of ABC?  Not really appropriate for a family festival though, although it does have a pointy hat.

monk - just imagine if ALL the blokes at the festival wore monk costumes, that could be cool,

tavern wench – actually that looks interesting,

Maid Marian – a litte boring methinks, although with a green wig it could be good

pirate – oooh, yes, going as a pirate, well that counts, they were around in medieval times weren’t they? History isn’t my strong point, maybe they were a little later?  Actually all the pirate costumes look cool, they’d go with my walking boots too. OK maybe that’s pushing a bit.

Maid – actually I quite like this one, a little ‘safe’ though.

Braveheart – this one appeals, alternatively you could hire a smurf outfit, put on a scottish accent and pretend that they sent you the wrong item – please, please any Scots out there don’t take offence, I just had a ‘moment’ and my son was watching the preview for the new Smurf movie and it appealed to my very sad sense of humour.

Sheriff of Nottingham – ooh, now this one appeals, not for wearing but for having Richard Armitage wear it – I so miss Robin Hood, it was a real treat on a Saturday evening.That would be so embarrassing if Richard Armitage is going Camp Bestival and he reads this

This is the costume I want to wear, it’s so cool, the black knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you know, the one where his arm gets chopped off  ’tis but a flesh wound’ one.  It’s fantastic – Smiffys if you have this one at Camp Bestival please can you keep one for me?

However, this one is the coolest of the cool, you can rent a proper suit of armour, the full thing, in metal it’s fab but not sure I’d want to walk from the tent to the site in it.

You could be totally obtuse and just go with a stuffed snake draped around your neck  as a python – ‘monty’ python and the Holy Grail or dressed a dragon, this time the dragon won and ate Saint George!

What are you going as?

Beverley Glock is a food writer and broadcaster, she’s the founder of Splat Cooking and her first book ’500 Baby and Toddler Foods’ is published on 5 September 2011 by Apple Press,  her APP ‘Cupcakes, Muffins and Afternoon Tea’ launches in September from the Apple Store.

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Monty Python Black Knight costume

Camp Bestival – How to take a tent down

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If you’ve read the previous blog that was all about putting the tent up, Pete is now attempting to take it down.  This is proving difficult due to two large fluffy labradors.  When taking a tent down you need to:

1.  Take down all the airbeds, pack up the sleeping bags and take everything out of it first – otherwise you will never get it back into the bag.

In order to do this you need to be on your hands and knees.  In dog language being down on your hands and knees means that you’re down there to play with them as you are their height.  It is difficult to take a tent down when one dog is licking your ears and the other one is constantly dropping a toy on your toes or fingers as he wants you to throw it for him.  This is not helped by your wife doubled over laughing (let’s face it, it is really funny), not calling the dogs off at all and even worse, taking photos to blog about it.

2.  Once everything is out start to take down the actual tent while preventing children using the cross braces as lightsabres – this is not your father’s definition of ‘helping’ and stopping Sidney running off with them as they are just posh sticks.

I’ve legged it inside and am keeping out of the way typing this instead.  Taking tents down is up there with understanding the offside rule – blokes domain (apart from I do actually understand the offside rule, I just don’t let on that I do).

3.  Make sure you put everything together as it all has to go into the car and that you put the tent in last – this last comment didn’t go down well, one of the reasons I ducked and decided it was safer being inside the house.  Neither did ‘haven’t you got it down yet?’ ‘what’s taking you so long?’- run!

Oh, the thought of an Airstream…………….so much more civilised.

Just for the record, this is not the first time I’ve been proper camping (Canvas and Eurocamp does not count), when I was 18 years old I went to a Rotaract Camp in Hertford over August Bank holiday.  My mate Ashleigh brought her 6 or 8 man tent and we took double air beds and duvets.  I have no recollection of putting the tent up, I think we managed to sweet talk some blokes into doing that for us.  It rained ALL weekend and we ended up having about 8 other people crashing in our tent as they all had two man tents that looked like a mudslide had torn through them, the rest of the memories are lost in a sea of bacardi or something.  I’m sure Camp Bestival will be a lot different – I only drink bacardi on holiday in hot places and Ivor Biggun and the Red Nosed Burglars won’t be playing – yes lead singer Doc Cox from That’s Life, wonder what happened to them?