Last summer's soundtrack

Way back in the summer you may remember me writing about our super summer road trip with our campervan, Betty. I often look back at my facebook photos from that month and reminisce....

One of the best things I did after that trip was ask my friends and family their favourite song so that i could make a soundtrack! What fun that was. Admittedly, I only finished it in December! But it has been played to death ever since!

So if you are interested then this is the result.

1. 'Dance or Die' - Janelle Monae. We saw her for the first time on the Glastonbury highlights at my parent's house. What sheer energy she has. And so cute!
2. 'Faster' - Janelle Monae
3. 'Tightrope' - Janelle Monae
4. Locked Inside - Janelle Monae. She played these last 4 songs consecutively with such energy.
5. 'I Need a Dollar' - Aloe Blacc. Also played at Glastonbury.
6. 'Down with the Trumpets' - Rizzlekicks. I was in the UK for a week with the kids and this was played constantly on Radio 1. They are also from Brighton so happy to support the local talent!
7. 'Pumped up Kicks' - Foster the People. Again, another one that was played so much but I never got fed up with it. Still love it!
8. 'Magic Bus' - The Who. Of course dedicated to Betty the Bay!
9. 'The A Team' - Ed Sheeran. Favourite song at the time of Bear's Special Friend from her old school.
10. 'Louder' - DJ Fresh and Sian Evans. My sister's choice. It reminded us of when we saw Kosheen at V-Festival 2002. They were just spectacular and highlight of the last great summer pre-kids!
11. 'The Lazy Song' - Bruno Mars. Mr. C's choice!
12. 'Give Me Everything' - Pitbull ft. Nero and Afro Jack. Choice of my old school best friend and her hubby. Apparently he would sing it around the house! Lucky girl!
13. 'When the Saints go Marching in' - Louis Armstrong. From The Other Mr. Mitchell. His Rugby team is Northampton, otherwise known as the Saints. When we made it to their home in Germany last summer it was a sheer relief that we made it to the furthest destination on our trip. It was just lovely, a special weekend. Anyway, many songs were played on the iPod that weekend and this was one of them! Another one was...
14. 'Inkanyezi Nezazi' - Ladysmith Black Mambazo from The Other Mrs. Mitchell. We both adored this song and it will always remind me of her.
15. 'The Fixer' - Pearl Jam. Just one of the best songs! All about men and women and how we solve things differently...how women want to talk about the problem and how men want to just fix the problem! Don't know what Eddie Vedder is talking about. ;-) Pearl Jam were played an awful lot in Betty this trip so they feature a few times!
16. 'Just Breathe' - Pearl Jam. Beautiful.
17. 'Amongst the Waves' - Pearl Jam. Uplifting.
18. 'Supersonic' - Pearl Jam. A great running song. Although I didn't go running. But if I went running this song would have been playing.
19. 'The End' - Pearl Jam. Tears every time.
20. 'Rollerblades' - Eliza Doolittle. Just cute and summery.
21. 'Skinny Genes' - Eliza Doolittle.
22. 'Pack Up' - Eliza Doolittle
23. 'Enter Sandman' - Metallica. This album was a big part of my Sixth Form life and for some reason this song was being played on the radio so often this summer!
24. 'Set Fire to The Rain' - Adele. Another radio favourite.
25. 'Red Red Rose' - Hope and Social. The first band we saw at the Deershed Festival. A great one to sing along to! And we did!
26. 'Marching on Through' - Hope and Social
27. 'You Can Call me Al' - Paul Simon. Although this features a) because the drummer of Hope and Social sang this and b) it's got Betty's name in it! ;-D
28. 'Monkey Man' - Any Winehouse
29. 'Valerie' - Amy Winehouse
30. 'Tears Dry on their Own' - Amy Winehouse. It was at the Deershed Festival that we found  out that Amy had died. Whilst I wasn't mourning her drug-induced death in the slightest, I was sad that such a great voice had gone for good. These were my three favourite songs if hers.
31. 'Last Friday Night' - Katy Perry. Admittedly this was a favourite before the summer but I heard it lots and it reminded me of being at The Duchess' house (new name for Champagne Charlie)
32. 'Delivered' - Admiral Fallow
33. 'Taste the Coast' - Admiral Fallow
34. 'Dead against Smokimg' - Admiral Fallow
35. 'Squealing Pigs' - Admiral Fallow. C-pops' favourite song to sing along to!
36. 'These Barren Years' - Admiral Fallow
37. 'Collision of Worlds' - Brad Paisley and Robbie Williams. Theme tune to Cars2. Just a brilliant afternoon in London.
38. 'Sigh no More' - Mumford & Sons
39. 'Harvest Moon - Neil Young. My Mum's lovely choice, her song of the summer.
40. This is a space for my Dad's selection....
41. 'Rolling in the Deep' - Adele
42. 'Real Gone Kid' - Deacon Blue. Played in the taxi on the way from the camper restorers to the airport. A very quiet taxi journey. :-(

Summer Trip Update - Days 38-40

Another missing UK post! The last one, I promise. No photos....as iPhoto is playing up. I will do a post after with just photos when it's sorted. (www.ilikewindows.com!)

And so it's almost the last leg of the big journey. All the major events have been attended and now we are 3 days from flying back to Oman. I could really do with another week and can't believe it'll be a year before we get to enjoy being with Betty again...we really bonded this year :-D (anyone who has classic cars will understand this....others, including some of my friends I think, consider me nutty).

We made our way south from Yorkshire round to a campsite in north Kent, near Wrotham Heath. It was one of the longer journeys and it was warm! The traffic on the M25 was it's usual...slow, and so Betty was feeling it, the kids were also roasting in the back. I had to get out at a point in the fast lane when the traffic was at a standstill and open the engine bay so she could cool down!

So the campsite was really a base so that we could get into London for the dinosaur exhibition at the 02 and to see the sites basically. C wants to go on a London bus and to see the London Eye (he thought for a while that the ferris wheel at Qurm Natural park was the London Eye when we first came to Oman...bless). It was also a chance to meet up with my baby sis (...30 this month...not so much baby sis anymore...).

We got a train to London, all part of the holiday seeing as we don't have a train system in Oman! And then it was the Tube all the way to the o2. we hadn't told the kids what we were doing, we just wanted them to see the signs. There were a few signs but they didn't really notice, I think they were just enjoying the scenery! We reminisced about the concerts we had seen here...Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam and Roger Waters (twice).

Before we went in the children had their photos taken next to a dinosaur. Woo hoo...any way, we got talking to the photographer and she was from Arizona, earning a bit of money whilst she spends her spare time songwriting. She is Ngawara Madison and I finally got around to googling her and listening to some of her work. It sounds like Country is her style, not my thing but I'll listen to it (although Islands in the Stream by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers is one of my favourite songs to sing out loud, bizarrely enough! Sssh, don't tell anyone!). So I'm going to keep checking on how she's doing. In the short time we spoke with her, she seemed a really lovely girl.

We had a great tour around the exhibition...it would have been quite disappointing without it as the animatronics weren't fabulous, I suppose it has to be quite straightforward being a temporary exhibition. The lady taking us round was great, good fun. Although she needs to check her knowledge...my 7 year old had to correct her at one point! ;-p

We had lunch at the Armadillo restaurant in the O2...the BEST burger ever. And then Baby Sis came along and got the kids all hyped up and excited, all that an Auntie should do, I guess! We thought we'd add to their ice-cream sugar rush and take them to watch Cars 2. In 3D. It was very good of course...but I fell asleep during one of the car chases. How random.

Next touristy thing to do was to take the Clipper boat along the Thames from the O2 to Waterloo (sis went her own way) and we went back to Wrotham Heath.

Next day, we were heading to Mum and Dad's and we stopped for a picnic and a flask of tea on the north downs, looking over north Kent. It's times like this that I realise we would be in the van every weekend if we were at home, but also that I do miss the UK, and we probably didn't make the most of it in the last few years. This trip has reminded me how beautiful our country is if you look beyond the news headlines.

Tonight's dinner was a takeaway with sis and her boyf. Mum and Dad joined us, it was a really relaxed and fun evening. This must be what it's like to have large family gatherings, loud and full of conversations and laughter. Although having a small family maybe makes me appreciate the times we do have, all getting together.


Oman-bound in a few days. I really will miss Britain this time.

Summer Trip Update - Days 35-37 - Deershed Festival

The next few posts have been languishing as drafts for a while! :-/ They'll be the last few updates from our summer trip to the UK and Europe. A super trip...we have been back two weeks and I'm still a little homesick.
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22nd to 24th July 2011

We usually try and get to a music festival in the UK whenever we are back. The last couple of years have been T-in the Park in Scotland and before we came to Oman we usually went to the V Festival, oh and we've done the Reading festival once - to see Pearl Jam especially. But we never really wanted to take the children to these events as it is so busy, large and basically we wouldn't relax. Personally, I don't think that they are kid-friendly events, although some families do attend, we'd rather not...until they're older at least.

We came across the Deershed Festival through following one of our favourite bands, Admiral Fallow (a nu-folk band, similar kind of ilk to Mumford and Sons). Admiral Fallow tend to play the smaller events at the moment. We first discovered them on the BBC Introducing stage at T in the Park last year and have been following them ever since. We were a bit disgruntled that living abroad now, we'd never get to see them in the cosier, more intimate venues, the time before they make it big. (They are playing their first European gig this weekend...not long now before they're in the big league).

The festival was described basically as child-friendly and the list of activities that would be on offer says it all. Kind of like a huge village fete with extras. All four of us are keen and very amateur astronomers so we were especially interested in the astronomy events (my son's space question ...'what is there after space?'... answers on a postcard please).

"We'll have after-hours star-gazing, a cosmodome, themed kids workshops and cabaret plus some really ambitious plans which are currently in the hands of the Civil Aviation Authority. We can't afford everyone's favourite TV boyfriend Prof Brian Cox but we will have other experts with less floppy hair."

Bear loves arts and crafts and there were plenty of workshops and stalls...Other stuff included comedy, a Big Top, swingball, football, space hoppers, face painting, ukele workshops, milk bottle mask making, doodle walls, cardboard knights and fairies, clay modelling, story shows and so much more. Just have a look at the website under each category.

 I was so, so pleased that we had made it with Betty to Topcliffe, North Yorkshire for the festival. Already I was having a good feeling about it as some of the carpark marshalls happily waving us in were probably some of the children's grandparents. Seen that at Reading/T?! We found a perfect spot to park Betty and we got on with setting up the awning whilst the kids tracked down potential friends. From the website;

"We have a really spacious and beautiful parkland campsite. We will have specific camping areas for those with kids, those without, those who want quiet and those who aren't bothered who their neighbours are. In the family camping areas we will have loads of stuff to keep kids occupied whilst you argue over which bit of the tent goes up first....The average distance from the car park to the family camping is only 200m and this year we'll have porters armed with wheelbarrows to help carry all that clobber. If you have a campervan or caravan we have a spot for you too"

It's worth mentioning that the porters were scouts earning a bob or two. Brilliant!

My Dad often asks me if i'm happy. For some reason, I can never make myself say a definitive 'yes'. No reason to say no...I have my health, my family, a good and fortunate life, (as they say here, ma'shallah)... I think I'm just so distracted sometimes that I forget what being happy is about. Me: "I'll think about being whather I'm happy or not in a minute when I've fed the kids/washed up/bathed the kids/replaced the toilet rolls/watered the garden/sweep up 10 minutes after the maid has been (she's good, my kids are messy)... I  know I am, I probably think about it too much. Anyway, to the point...I have had the time on this trip to actually stop, think and realise the happy moments we are having...no distractions or chores. It's a buddhist belief that we are so weighed down with our possessions, our emotions, our ego, our very full and busy lives that we are swamped and forget what it's like to be rested, peaceful and relaxed.

The reason I write the above is that at the festival I actually had a overwhelming feeling of being happy, no strings attached, no material possession needed, just...happy. We were sat outside our tent, having finished dinner and the kids were playing with their new friends. There were families all around, there was a lovely warm friendly atmosphere, you could hear chatting and laughing, the sun was shining....bliss.

So to sum up the Deershed festival:

• Laughter, colourful, fun, bustly, friendly, lively.
• You could make conversation with a stranger and it would instantly be friendly...the likelihood is that they would be parents too...an instant ice-breaker. We met one family on the Friday, watching Hope and Social, one of their favourite bands, so we told them about Admiral Fallow the following night. we didn't see them in the crowd but I hoped they enjoyed it!
• You would smile as you pass other parents, for no real reason.
• Kids were being ferried around in wheelbarrows.
• One family had a homemade barrow.

  
• 
  

  

  Children's comedians. Genius, my kind of comedy! We watched James Campbell (hilarous!), who talked about how a farmer would bring back an escapee cow, the Wii, making friends, why grown-ups groan when they sit down...you get the idea. Can't find anything on Youtube so I may have to buy the cd...for the kids of course.

"The Sunday Times says of James, "Campbell's stand-up for kids has acquired almost holy status. Don't miss." James talks about everything that is relevant to kids and anyone who has ever been a kid. His show is aimed at children aged six, their parents and anyone who enjoys top quality comedy without swearing."

• Reasonably priced tickets and a very resonable bar
• The food stalls were a bit expensive but we'd much rather pay for authentic, local and wholesome food than an overcooked burger and fries at other festivals.



• We concluded that it was a festival for children but with music and beer for the grownups. Perfect.

The only disappointment was that some parents still felt like they could let their

children wander freely out of sight and without supervision. Yes, it's a child/family festival I know...but still....

I loved every minute of it but hubby isn't too sure about coming back next year. It was because of Admiral Fallow that we made it this year....would it feel different if we didn't know any of the bands? My attitude is that we came across a couple of other unknown bands as well as seeing our favourite so why not make that the aim of next year...finding some new music. The children had a whale of a time so why not come back at least for them.

Day 34-35

On the move again after some relaxing times in Scotland. We drove onto Herding Hill Farm in Northumberland for the night before heading to North Yorkshire for one of the main events on our trip, the Deershed Festival.

Whilst we were in northern England we made a few stops along Hadrian's Wall for the benefit of Bear who has recently been learning about the Romans at school. We had a look around the Roman museum and then Vindolanda, the roman site. It's currently a working archaeological site which I thought was brilliant!

We drove along the road parallel to the Wall and stopped in a car park for lunch. One of the best things I will remember is the little coffee cart sat in the corner. He had a proper coffee machine in the back. We enjoyed a cappacino and a white coffee in the carpark overlooking the Northumberland hills. The guy used to have a Type 2 van and then progressed to a Type 25 which he said was just like driving the type 2 but more practical and a tad more reliable!


Incidentally, this is the name of the area the carpark was in. Hubby mentioned 'Broccolli-shire' and I can't stop my childish giggles when I see this picture. I'm sorry.

Betty meets the Angel of the North (on the horizon)

Day 28 - 15th July - Happy Anniversary

C-Pops has had wicked hay fever pretty much since we have been here. He is susceptible to respiratory probs we think, having had croup twice and a cough every other month. (We have seen the doctor, don't worry. Asthma has not been diagnosed as the doctor thinks if we keep on top of it, it could clear without getting that far). Anyway, he's been wheezing and struggling with his breath after running. So he's back on the liquid Ventolin. He's also had itchy eyes which quickly turned in to allergic conjunctivitis. But he has been a brave boy throughout, barely complaining. He says he doesn't want to go to bed because he'll wake up with his eyes stuck together if he does. Joy.

We're camping near Arisaig in the Scottish Highlands with hubby's family. It's our 11th anniversary today. (It's Steel apparently. I like the modern one though, Jewellery). It's pretty cloudy and cool but hey it's dry!

We've had a lovely breakfast with posh coffee and we're off rockpooling on the nearby beach. It did end up with me 'escorting' my son from the premises as he was carrying out an almighty melt-down. Who says romance is dead?

I thought I’d listen to the radio to catch up with latest music (albeit overplayed chart music no doubt). However in the space of no less than 25 minutes, 2 songs were played. My god, it’s never-ending random chat with DJs and featured presenters (the showbiz correspondent for instance) talking over each other and just not being funny at all. So I now have the iPod on and so far, it’s been Beautiful South and Ashley MacIsaac. Love it.


Grampa's babysitting so we're off to dinner tonight in Arisaig. A table booked at Cafe Rhu.

Post-edit:16/7/11

Our evening was wonderful! We drove and left the car at the cafe. We managed to get a window seat and had a lovely view over the harbour. We had some beautiful wine and some amazing food. It was just gorgeous. The owner is also the chef, he's a South African who I think said has been here 4 years. His mother is Scottish.

So we had scallops, black pudding wonton, Cape malay Bobotie with veg pilaf and sambals, braised beef, chocolate and nutella torte (drooooooooool....) and cheese and bisuits and 2 bottles of 2010 Freedom Cross Pinotage from Franschoek.

We knew that we would walk back (about 2 miles!) and I'm glad we did. We passed the local pub with music floating from within so we had to stop by for a dram and a listen to some traditional live music. And that set us up for the walk back in the darkness.

A lovely day, happy anniversary, hon X

Summer Trip Update - Days 24 and 25

And so we are on the road again. This time heading to Amsterdam to get the ferry to Newcastle, then onto Scotland to see hubby’s family.

We had a lovely buffet meal in the restaurant. Hubby remembered a family holiday to Norway; they took the same ferryline and had a very similar meal. He remembered him and his family being shown by the ship’s chef how to eat shrimps.

So we had a big selection including plenty of gluten free food. I was pleasantly surprised to see all this; I’m not gluten-intolerant myself but I’ve become more aware of it as a close friend of mine is G.I. (is that how you refer to it?!). Then thinking about it, the European supermarkets had an aisle just for organic, sugar-, gluten-, dairy-free etc food. It was refreshing to see. In the middle east, it seems barely a fifth of one side of the aisle contains such food, whereas both sides of one aisle is all for chocolate and candy, and that doesn’t include the chocolate biscuits in the next aisle!

Ok, back to the ferry. After dinner the kids went to the kids club where they made a sunhat out of card and then went on a treasure hunt around the ship. Bizarrely going through the sports bar and ending up in the disco! But they played musical chairs and the Dutch multi-lingual clown made them balloon shapes. A bit random, but fun!

It was a 14 hour overnight ferry journey so we booked a cabin. A spacious 4 berth cabin, very comfy!

We arrived in Newcastle, 12th July, day 25.

We drove to Scotland, stopping in a layby for lunch!

Continuing on we overtook a Porsche! I got a video of the momentous event…

(blogger won't let  me post it!)

...but literally 10 seconds after that our hubcap fell off! So we had to come back the other way and I ran out to retrieve it! It was one of the two VW ones that the original restorer didn’t get his dirty thieving mitts on.

Scotland update next time.