After an excitable hour of getting ready, eating breakfast and watching the BBC build up, I headed off to the train to meet Jo and Ed.

We had chosen to head to Hyde Park, as they were setting up large screens to let the crowds watch the wedding.  We had assigned picnic duties to ensure that we had enough food and drink.  My assigned items were Champagne and strawberries .  Jo and Ed had prepared sandwiches and a host of other food, plus they also brought another 2 bottles of Champagne…alcohol was not going to be in shortage!

On arrival to Hyde Park, we were surprised to see that there were in fact 3 HUGE screens set up – each about the height of a 4 story house.  There was also a large collection of temporary bars, food stalls and merchandise stands.  Even if we did manage to get through the champagne (we did), there were plenty of supplies within easy reach

I guess we must had sat down on our picnic blanket by about 9:30.  We opened our first bottle of champagne by 9:35.  Popping open the first bottle at such an early time in the morning felt slightly naughty and exciting…but not in a society outcast kind of way.  Trust me – we would have been the odd ones out if we were NOT opening a bottle of champagne.

The buzz in Hyde Park was infectious. There was a strong festival like atmosphere.  The whole crowd were there for a common purpose, the crowd had chosen to sit on the grass, the crowd had chosen to be amongst other people rather than sitting at home in front of the TV.  The numbers of conversations with strangers and the willingness to hug random passers-by was way higher than usual.  The level of public camaraderie was atypically strong – what a great feeling!

The huge concert style, parabolic speaker sets ensured that everyone in Hyde Park was kept informed with each and every development of the wedding ceremony.  In fact, the speakers were even used to project ambient crowd cheering sounds across the park – noticeable by the eerie silence each time they muted the speakers at various points throughout the day.

The BBC switched their coverage to show the crowds in Hyde Park every now and again, just to remind us that the whole world was watching us! That felt pretty damn good

OK, time for another one of those emotional moments!…

Kate walked down the isle of Westminster Abbey, with a perfectly choreographed and beautiful set of clergymen, family, bridesmaids and page boys.

Hyde Park roared with laughter as Prince looked over his shoulder, caught a glimpse of Kate and then whispered something such as “She looks amazing” with a big smile to his nervous brother William.

Then it happened! The build up of emotion peaked.  The angelic sounds of choir were booming over the huge Hyde Park sounds system, the tens of thousands of people in the park were cheering and swaying in a sea of union jacks, it was impossible to escape the immense feeling of pride and excitement buzzing around the whole world at that moment in time…

THEN, the BBC switched to this stunning roof shot of the Abbey, showing the beautiful symmetry with the unmissable wedding dress as a centre point.  This served as a reminder of how big of an event this was!

This perfect shot summed up the grandeur of the day.  For whatever reason, or reasons, seeing this camera shot on the big screen, through the sea of British flags, and with the sounds of the orchestra and choir booming through the Hyde Park sound system, brought a little proud tear to my eye.  Thankfully I wasn’t the only one, it brought more than one tear to Jo’s eyes.

During the wedding vows, the eerie silence came back to Hyde Park as everyone listened carefully to each word from the priest, William and Kate.  There was a huge “ooooooh”, followed by a cheer from everyone in the park as William forced the (seemingly slightly too small) wedding ring on to Kate’s finger.  The park then erupted with cheers and celebration as they heard the words…”I pronounce you man and wife”.

As the choir (and Elton John) in Westminster Abbey started to sing “Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer” (“Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed me til I want no more, want no moooorre”), most of Hyde Park stood and listened, although a group of lads just behind us were singing at their loudest volume word for word – thanks to the lyrics which had been printed in the local London newspaper.

After the ceremony was complete, Hyde Park carried on partying thanks to the large amounts of BYO (BYO is an acronym i picked up in Australia meaning Bring Your Own) alcohol and food, the large selection of bars and a live band called ‘MIB” who entertained us with live covers of typical cheesey wedding songs from bands such as the Jackson 5 and Kool and the Gang.  We were also entertained by an on stage presenter who looked a bit like Dale Winton.  The rest of the afternoon was pretty much like being at a Hyde Park music festival (although the music wasn’t quite as good).

Yesterday, the 29th April 2011, was the date for the Royal wedding of William and Kate.  We decided to brave the crowds and head to London to part of the experience.  My story of getting up and motivated is worth capturing…

My day started off with an unwanted 7am alarm call from iPhone.  I jumped out of bed, muted the phone and switched the TV on to try and wake up my brain.  I’ll be honest – at that precise moment in time, I regretted arranging to meet friends early on a public vacation day.

I HATE the feeling of missing out on something just because I was too lazy to do it.  So a few minutes of watching the BBC news TV crews interviewing excited wedding spectators in central London, was all it took to get me excited and WANT to get out of bed.  I turned up the news loud enough to hear it in the shower, got washed and ready excitably quickly, and then thankfully had time for a quick bit of breakfast down in the kitchen whilst I continued to watch the build on the BBC.

I love how unexpected, and completely unpredictable moments often become the most memorable parts of an experience.  On the day of the wedding, one of the most memorable moments occurred for me before I had even left the house!

One of the BBC presenters was interviewing the crowd who have been camping out over night so that they could secure a spot to see the wedding procession.  The female presenter asked a question to a friendly, elderly (ish) looking man…

”So why did you come down here, rather than staying at home and getting a better view on television?”

to which the man responded…

1) ”Because you don’t get to meet great people like this by staying at home” (followed by a cheer from the crowd around him)

2) “Because being here makes it a memory you will never forget”

Seeing this, genuinely brought a little tear to my eye, whilst also getting me even more excited about getting in to London!  Before I had even arrived, that nice old guy had summed up the whole reason why we were getting out of bed early on a day off work.

We were going to be part of the crowd, we were going to make friends with the crowd, we were going to part of the event…we were going to make it a memory to never forget.

1 bus, about 50 people and an impromptu acoustic performance from Ellie Goulding was all it took to bring tears to my eyes on Saturday afternoon at Bestival 2010. 

She walked on to the stage, introduced herself as ‘Ellie’ and then sang 3 beautiful songs with passion.  We only spent about 10 minutes outside the 3 bus, but I was surrounded by my best friends, along with a small collection of others keen to see Ellie’s raw talent without all of the glamour of the main stage.

This unplanned performance was my favourite from all of the festivals I have been to this year!  Here is Ellie’s acoustic version of Starry Eyed…

Despite having lived and worked in and around Reading for the past 8 years, the last time I went to the Reading festival was about 10 years ago…when I did not have the luxury of being able to get a train/taxi home, sleep in my own bed and shower. 

Whilst I wasn’t sure about going to a festival where I only knew 10% of the bands, I thought I would give it a try.  The festival got off to a great start when some random girls started conversation with me in the queue to get wristbands.  I am pleased to say that the friendly, unthreatening and inhibition free conversations flowed throughout the entire weekend.  For me, the people made the festival and a lot of the unfamiliar music pleasantly surprised me.  My list of favourite bands tagged on Spotify has increased significantly as a result of three happy, tiring and memorable days spent in the rain and sun.

Rather than a lengthy writeup, here are my 10 favourite quotes (in no particular order) from the festival…

It was not your fault this time

…which is of course referring to one of the main lyrics to ‘Little Lion Man’ by Momford and Sons.  I include this because they were one of the highlight bands of the whole festival for me due a number of reasons…

• the great album (‘Sigh no more’) I have been listening to for the past few weeks
• the great company I had from Gemma and Liz whilst watching the band…
  
• The awesome performance which included some songs which were emotional and audience arm sway educing, and others which had thousands synchronized in an energetic, drink spilling bounce. 

Here is the emotional opening performance of ‘Sigh no more’…

Would you mind if I sit on your shoulders to get a photo of the band?

…from the random girl (‘LOL’ painted forehead girl) who asked my friend Dan to assist her…

I love how everyone at festivals will say anything, ask anything and in most cases DO anything without inhibitions (see the next quote…).

 

Mate, can I borrow on of your spare cups? I need a pee

…from the random guy in the middle of the crowd who couldn’t make it to the gents toilets on the outer edge of the arena.  He quickly filled up one of the spare paper pint glasses I had, whilst the girls that were with him paid little attention…guess it’s wasn’t THAT unusual for them!

Mate, can I have another cup?

…yep, the same guy grabs another top quote spot 5 mins later when he asks me for ANOTHER cup! He actually managed to fill up 4 before we wondered off to another section of the audience!  Still, at least he didn’t throw the cups over the crowd…

At least it’s cold

If you watch a music festival audience for just a few minutes, you are likely to see music lovers throwing cups of liquid over the audience in front of them at least 5 times.  Now, bearing in mind the story of the guy from the previous quotes, and considering that the majority of people at the event cannot afford to waste drinks bought at festival prices…do you think all of the thrown cups contain alcohol?!

Most of the weekend was about rock music, but there was a refreshing dance music salvation in the NME tent on the Saturday night in the form of the computer game sound inspired Crystal Castles, Enter Shikari and crazily energetic Pendulum.

For some reason, we were in a spot which was repeatable targeted by cup throwers.  Every time we got hit, there was a lot of cringing, followed by “at least it’s cold”, which was the best method we had of determining that the liquid was at worst someone’s unwanted beer.

Here is a small clip of Crystal Castles with was accompanied by an amazing light show in the NME tent…

We’re staying over in Reading, but we haven’t got camping tickets or a hotel

…which sums up the care/consequence free attitude at the festival.  This lot didn’t seem to worried about the fact they were probably going to be sleeping on street (or not at all)…

No we didn’t offer them a place to stay! Well…at least I didn’t! I did leave Dan with them when I went home, so who knows?!….

 

You just lost the game

…which after a few glasses of wine I was very excited to see written on this guys t-shirt…

…even though none of my group knew what it meant, so looked at me strangely as I tried to explain.  For those who don’t know, here are the details…

Lose The Game – The World’s Most Infamous Mind Virus

 

Would you like a poncho?

…from the kind girl who gave me a free poncho as I walked through the Sunday afternoon rain in just a t-shirt, jeans, a flowery hat and a scarf.  Thank you strange girl – I was already soaked, but you did save me getting any wetter.

A British festival would not be the same without a bit of rain and mud…

I’m just a Teenage Dirtbag Baby

…for the awesome, audience pleasing, surprising and very memorable performance from Weezer! 

They sang a few of their hits which I didn’t know (but still enjoyed), as well as covers of ‘Kids’ by MGMT and ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ by Wheatus…

During the hour long performance the lead singer put on a blonde wig, danced on top of the speaker, high fived the entire front row of the the audience, rolled around in the mud and entertained the main stage audience will all of kinds of other stunts!  Weezer went from being a band I only knew from their ‘Buddy Holly’ song which was included as a sample ‘avi’ video file with Windows 95, to one of my favourite live performers this year!

We will meet you by the ice cream van

…which were the instructions my friend gave Mark to another friend Sam so that we could find her when entering the site.  Upon entering the arena, we discovered a little flaw in the plan – there were at LEAST 10 ice cream vans spread around the main arena.

Despite the challenges with finding people in the middle of huge crowds, with strong competition for limited space on the cell network and with numerous different acts playing on different stages at the same time, we did all manage to get together and share the experience of seeing some awesome bands playing live.  Top weekend, with top music and top friends!…

We’re in Cornwall for the weekend and today is a relatively free day.  Keith, Jen and I decided to take a trip to Looe, the lovely seaside town on the south coast…

I came here years ago with my parents during a caravanning holiday, at which time I had never been on a plane, so this seemed like the other side of the world!  Now days a 10 hour flight to Seattle seems as easy and common as a train ride in to London (more common at times in fact!), so the west coast of the UK feels just around the corner.

I must admit that it’s made me think about holidays and travelling, and made me realise that some of the sense of adventure has been lost lately.  I used to get excited to arrive at an airport, now days it’s become routine.  I used to feel uncomfortable, anxious, but excited when arriving in a new city or country, now days the places I visit do not provide enough unfamiliarity to provide a significant challenge.  Travelling in itself used to provide enough unique experiences to make feel like I was growing with every trip, that has not been the case recently.

Whilst I still love to travel and visit new places, I do recently feel a need to seek out ways to get outside my comfort zone.  Perhaps it’s physical challenges, perhaps it’s meeting new groups of people, perhaps it’s avoiding the comforts of hotels, perhaps it’s simply new locations/cultures I need…not sure yet, but definitely need to shake things up a bit! The question I can’t help but think about is ‘what then?’.  Is the pursuit of new experiences and challenges become a driving force in life and a source of constant personal growth?  Or simple a source of frustration and disappointment?  I think that former – as long as you spend more time ‘doing’ than you do ‘dreaming’.  Of perhaps the secret it to maintain a desire of change and challenges, whilst also being content from familiar and comfortable things.

In the mean time, here are a few pics of the lovely town of Looe, a beautiful spot for to enjoy one of the rare British days of sun, with fish and chips, Mr Whippy ice creams and crab fishing

Sailing boats by the harbour (no one was sailing today)…

A great spot for crab fishing…

Ye Old Lifeboat Station…

Yesterday we went for a random day in London and decided to check out Inamo, a restaurant which has an ordering process with a difference.  Rather than having paper based menus, and a waitress to take your oral order, the restaurant users interactive tables which project a digital menu of food, drinks and some other options directly on to the table service in front of you!

There is a large selection of Asian food to choose from, and an image of each menu choice is projected on to the plate in front of you as you navigate the options.

Despite appearing to be very similar to Microsoft Surface, the tables are way less sophisticated and in fact are merely a projector above each table, which displays a clever menu system to be navigated using a cursor controlled by a touch pad in the corner of the table.  It’s still VERY cool though!

As well as selecting food and drink, you can also use the menus to change the background, find out about local attractions and play games!  We started to play 2 player battle ships, however it’s a little silly because each player is shown a small display with their configuration on it – which is very easy for the person opposite to see and cheat.  Again – still very cool though

The food was amazing! There were four of us, so we ended up ordering a combination of things including fish, beef salad, cinnamon chicken (one of my favourites), duck pancakes and more.  We also all ordered dessert, and ended up coincidentally ordering exactly the same thing – Macaroon and white chocolate moose – mmmm

We also managed to get through 2 bottles of champagne, although I must admit that 2 glasses were knocked over – one by Ilona, and I forget who did it the second time The staff were very insistent on cleaning up the spill thoroughly – but were not too worried that we smashed a glass.

Our ‘lunch’ ended up lasting over 2 hours, and we were all STUFFED after the three courses of food which arrived in a random order (whenever it was ordered/cooked), but at a steady pace.

Will definitely be going back there again! Great experience and lovely food – would like to try it at night next time.

I am in Bournemouth for a friend’s birthday weekend and decided to have a lazy Saturday afternoon, catching up on RSS feeds and writing some blog posts (e.g. this beauty on X-factor and Twitter).  I’ve also been reading through some posts on Seth Godin’s blog and trying to relate them to my current work.  People watching in a bar is the best place to ponder things like that in my opinion – not exactly sure why though!

It is my first time in Bournemouth, so I completely relied on my iphone to guide me from my hotel to an area with bars and restaurants.  I managed to find a funky little place called ‘Orange’.  When I arrived  (about 2.5 hours ago) it was fairly empty, however it’s slowly got busier and there is now a steady volume of chatter and louder music.  I am sitting next to the window, watching the world go by and enjoying unexpected waiter service whilst I type away in to my netbook.

They have a good selection of food available, with a typical bar menu covering various types of cuisines.  I went for a spicey chicken burito which came covered in melted cheese and tomato.  It was not too spicy, but certain did fill up a gap (the gap being breakfast which I missed). 

The bar staff told me that there is a DJ playing here tonight, so I may ask the group if they fancy coming for a drink before we go to the club. 

In all honesty, I could happily sit here, order some wine and wait for the others to come out, however I’m going to need to get changed out of my scruffy clothes before we head to the club.  Time to shut down the netbook and head back to the hotel for a jacuzzi I think.  Nice afternoon

If you are ever in Bournemouth and you fancy giving this place a try (I recommend it), here is a map (click to view on Bing maps)…

For the first time in months, last night I went along to Mango in Reading (Berkshire) last night for the re-launch of Lunar.  The night promised to to provide some ‘exciting new developments’ for the main room and the garden.  I have lost track of the number of club nights which have promised to provide something ‘different’, ‘new’, ‘fresh’, ‘surprising’, etc…, however Lunar really did deliver on it’s promise by providing the audience with a huge surprise half way in to the evening!

In a club known for a stomach rumbling sound system, stunning lighting displays and a packed dance floor full of dance music fans shouting ‘TUNE!’, the last thing everyone expected was a Spanish (as a tribute to Ibiza) dancer to inject a little bit of culture in to a House/Techno night, but that’s exactly what Carrie and Sam arranged for their Lunar Cosmonauts. . .

Click the image below if you would like to see the flyer the night. . .

The Reading Beer Festival is held every year in Kings Meadow, Reading.  This year it took us a LONG time to get in due to the fact that the toilets became blocked and they would not let any new people in to the event before they were cleared.  Once we were allowed in, we did a good job of sampling the beer (or wine in my case).  Here is a quick summary video of the day. . .