Well, We’ve been back nearly a week and in typical fashion I have again failed to find time to blog! Ah well nothing surprising about that but this time at least I have an excuse….washing and bloody mountains of it. You know how it is when you return from holiday ESPECIALLY a muddy one. 7 days camping in a field dodging the sudden downpours with a couple of hundred kids running around churning up the ground I’m surprised I didn’t end come home with more dirty stuff than I did . I suppose the blonde kid regressing to a near cave man state running around bare foot and insisting on wearing his new HESFES t-shirt and jeans everyday kept it to a minimum.

this image was originally posted to moblog.co.uk by user James

Actually I can’t blame the washing for not blogging I had it all done within 2 days of getting home but I have had a busy busy week….honest! But really, HESFES……Despite the rain, which in all honesty only came for probably 20 minutes a day but was bloody heavy when it fell causing the pathways to turn into mud slides and the wind which was pretty much constant, it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!

WE arrived FRIDAY evening after an arduous journey that included traffic jams , toilet breaks, coffee breaks, food breaks, downpours AND nearly SEVEN hours on the road, just in time a for a nice respite in the clouds that lasted plenty long enough to put our tents up and set up camp “Clarke”…which is easier said than done when you have 2 cars and a trailer full of gear to distribute and assemble and 4 adults 2 teenagers and an over excited 7 year old to contend with. We had everything done by about 8:30 which gave us enough time to prepare food before it got dark and to meet the “neighbors”.

We’d arranged to camp on the same plot as James parents as they have pretty much EVERYTHING you’d ever need to camp with and we had…well we had a tent and bedding, who in turn had arranged to camp with the same families that they always camp with at these events.

On one side the Bunkers, Julie and Adrian, who arrived with an ARMY of relations ranging from the eldest son Jim who is 30(ish) to their youngest daughter Hettie who is 14 (and has an amazing singing voice) and 4 other children Abi, Anne, Heather and Rory of various ages AND grandchildren (little)Kai and Tabby who were 6 and 3 respectively.

On the other side the “Evans” Tribe who consisted of Penny and her 7 year old son (big) Kai and her friend Hayley and son Michael. So in all with the 10 “Bunkers” 7 “Clarkes” and 4 “Evans” we had a merry camp of about 21…and thats not counting the teenagers that periodically dropped by wanting to borrow towels or shampoo or feeding or just to say “Hi” or Adults that came by the discuss various matters from the L.A. to the consultation on Home Education, to which parent had upset who at the last camp to the weather and shopping.

It was a pleasant evening in which both the Kai’s (who’d met before) and the blonde kid made acquaintance and formed friendships that lasted all week. Jordan and big Kai went exploring our part of the camp site with torches until nearly midnight, little Kai who was more a little more timid than his boisterous peers stuck closer to the tents.

SATURDAY was a bit of a wash out we rose quite early ate breakfast and consulted the program to see what activities were planned for the day and Jordan decided that he’d quite like to see th Tipis, take part in the green woodwork workshop and maybe have a go on the bouncy castle and see what would be playing in the groovy movies marquee (a huge solar powered cinema screen in a tent GENIUS), so we trekked up to the field where all the marquees were set up to find that the Tipis and the movie marquee had not yet arrived as they’d been to Glastonbury the weekend before and were stuck in the mud, the bouncy castle wouldn’t be happening on that day as the field was just too wet and the man running the woodwork workshop had yet to go into Colchester and fetch supplies so was delaying the activity until the next day, Jordan was not happy, he had to settle for having his face painted and drinking hot chocolate in the worlds most expensive cafe – which was surprising considering it was a tent in the middle of a very muddy field. And then going back to paint his own face again as the rain destroyed what the lovely lady had done for him first time around.

The day wasn’t a complete wash out, we managed to get down to the beach where the tide was right the way out and had left plenty of “things” for us to “discover” including dead crabs, small rock pools live crabs and shells most of which Jordan insisted on taking back to the tent with us – luckily we convinced him the live crabs would be much happier left with their friends on the beach.

The rest of the week was much more of a success, we figured from first day experience that the best way to go was to plan NOTHING and completely disregard what the programme said was happening and then just show up and see what was going on for ourselves. In this way the blonde kid managed to take part in metal workshops where he made me a beautiful copper bowl and a green woodwork shop where he made a lovely tea light holder which he etched with “my mom loves me”. He had his face painted and made masks, played with various groups of children of various ages took part in or watched numerous music workshops, made a stage in the craft marquee to “dance” on. He watched a magic science show and saw various broadcasts in the groovy movie marquee once it arrived from Glastonbury. In addition we also saw many live acts in the main marquee over the course of the week including “Fishing for Eyelashes” which was Hettie, one of the Bunkers, band. And we managed to get back to the beach a couple more times in between the showers and watched the windsurfers performing all sorts of jobs and acrobatics out in the estuary.

We only actually left the camp site for one day, and much to Jordan’s disgust as he wanted to stay and see what was going on in the entertainment field, although once out he enjoyed himself. We went for a drive around the island and visited the Cudmore Country Park in East Mersea where we showed Jordan the WW2 pill boxes and sea defenses and then over to West Mersea to the port where he looked at all boats and visited the harbour fish shop where the fishermen’s wives sell their husbands daily catch – REAL FRESH FISH!!!

So now were home and I miss it, There is something about waking up in an albeit muddy field and cooking breakfast for the masses on a single gas burner knowing that there was NOTHING planned for the whole day, away from the daily grind of nine – five with nobody expecting anything anything from you except maybe feeding at some point that is a great stress reliever! All in all we had a fantastic time, Jordan relished the freedom, being able to take himself off to the activities and take part in whatever took his fancy really and other than when we dragged him back to the tent for food or bed we hardly saw him, It was great for me as I got to meet so many interesting people with so many diverse points of view on so many different things conversation never ran dry, and it was great for James in my opinion mainly because I showed him camping ain’t all that bad and we’ve convinced him to go back next year…

….Roll on HESFES 2008.

this image was originally posted to moblog.co.uk by user James

So Rob is packing the cars, James and Luke are dispersed around the house in showers, Penny is hiding in the office buying tickets for, well for I dread to think how many Rufus Wainwright gigs. Al, well I presume Al is still sleeping as he has yet to rise from his pit and I’ve taken refuge behind the laptop while the blonde kid jumps in and out of the trailer, runs in and out the house, and generally “helps” everyone with what they’re doing.

Now I’m not saying Jordan is excited but you know “We’re going to Hesfes today and if i help everyone we can get there quicker and if I stand here I wont be in Robs way but I better move because now I’m in Penny’s way Where’s James and what are you doing Mom??? can I get a car our off my case?? and and and I’ve never been to Hesfes before can I have some toast and can I play with this and what’s that for?…..”

So as you see, everything is as normal here, the stressful ones being berated by the laid back ones for being stressed, the laid back ones being berated by the more stressful ones for not taking the organisation seriously the younger ones quite excited and me, well I’m just waiting to get on the road…

…see you all when I get back.

Having just sat here and devoured a third of a Lemon Meringue Pie, which I have to admit was equally as good as Sara Lee’s Chocolate fudge cake, but nowhere close to Krispy Kreme and their perfect doughnuts. I am now feeling quite sickly and rather sleepy.

The rain has given us a short respite today and the “pond” that appeared in my back garden has now subsided, well at least until tomorrow, When, the metcheck website has reliably informed me, its going to start hooning it down around dinner time and not stop for the rest of the day!! Joy of joys, At least it’s given the kids a chance to get outside to play for a while.

I use the term play loosely as at one point it sounded like war had broken out in the street and I was about to sound all alarms until I realised it was just the the blonde kid and Craig arguing over “she’s not my girlfriend”… AND talking of “She’s not my girlfriend” it seems I may have to rename her to….

“She IS my girlfriend”

The blonde kid has admitted, to me at least, that Shannon is indeed his girlfriend because “she told him she was!”. And he very solemnly announced to her when she last came around to play and I interrupted them that “It’s O.K, Mom knows about us!” At which point she pulled her best I’m going to pretend I don’t know what your talking about embarrassed face and blushed from the tips of her very cute little ears right down to I’m sure if I could have seen them the soles of her feet.

Ahhh the complexities of seven year olds relationships!

God damn it, why is it as soon as somebody mentions the words Glastonbury and or Wimbledon the heavens open and it rains and rains and rains…

It is June isn’t it, I didn’t fall into some kind of semi comatose state and completely miss summer?

I took the day off work today, I had an extra day off that need to be booked, so we made plans for the blonde kid to stay off school so we could take him to Ragley Hall on some Home Ed fun day out, and we also had passes this evening to see The Feeling play at Cannock Chase, Rain put a damper on both events.

Ragley Hall asked us to rearrange the booking as there adventure playground was saturated which was fair enough I suppose but then it has done nothing but rain ALL day which made us reconsider our plans for this evening. With the memory of a very very wet V festival last summer still fairly fresh in mind, And tonights concert being an outdoor event that for some reason known only to the organizers had banned umbrellas we thought it best to cancel.

V was ok because as 2 adults we could just put up and shut up with the rain, the mud, the rain, the wind, the rain…I’m not too sure how a tired 7 year old would manage in the middle of the forest with no shelter and no where to sit in those conditions! So now I’m home , listening to Kasabian rock Glastonbury courtesy of BBCi and scouring the internet for weather reports for Colchester in a weeks time praying the weather will have made some sort of drastic improvement by then.

Myself, James and Jordan 1 tent and a couple of hundred kids at the annual HESFES meet is sounding less and less appealing with the idea that it might be held in one very wet mud locked field!!

If life were simple I’d have the time to blog every day and I’d be able to update you all with the very mundane comings and goings of this 26 year old, but its not so I don’t so now you’ll have to make do with a quick update.

Life sometimes sucks, and sometimes it doesn’t end of.

I’m not going to bore you with the bad bits because lets face it this week when things have been bad they’ve been very bad.

However on the flip side of that when they’ve been going good they’ve gone very very good. The epitome being Monday night when…*deep breathe*..

WE WENT TO SEE PEARL JAM AT WEMBLEY…

Oh my god, just oh my g o d. they were marvelous, I am in love with Eddie Vedder, I have liked Pearl Jam since I was teenager taking my first tentative steps towards a lifetime of love and respect for music and have found a renewed respect for them since I met Mr Clarke and we discovered a mutual liking for the band, well I say liking his borders on obsession. I can not even begin to explain how good it was I am at a loss for words…yes me stuck for something to say but it’s true. To articulate it into a coherent sentence is beyond my capabilities it was THAT good!!

So in short THE highlight since I last blogged, THE gig.

Low point since last blog (well the one that I can be bothered to bring up again) being stuck at 8a.m at Wolverhampton train station trying to get a train to Stafford but all being trains heading that way being canceled because of the flooding, finally getting the only train heading north and feeling more than slightly perturbed by the lakes that I’m passing that I am quite sure the day before were fields! Only to arrive at my place of work to find the torrential rain has flooded the shop and bought the ceiling through on the first floor so we cant even open until that has been cleared.

Most embarrassing moment since last blog, being stranded at Stafford train station because of the flooding with all trains south being delayed for at least an hour. I go to get coffee from the very attractive man in the coffee shop. Unceremoniously dumping my bag to scout through it to find my purse. Out comes my phone, camera, Ipod, book, my umbrella all over the counter and a tampon right into his lap, and did I mention he was extremely good looking. I was mortified but apparently by the look on his face he was more so.

All I could do was ask for it back trying not to laugh in his face, while fishing for change in my purse to pay for my drink and rush away to a vacant table sit with my back to the counter and giggle mercilessly at his expense.

I’m sorry random train station coffee clerk but your face was a picture!!

It seems that I acquired 3 extra bodies in my household, Another 7 year old, a 9 year old and a 5(ish) year old. None of which I am related to but were all quite at home with me and my own 7year old baking cakes and cookies ALL DAY!

I am exhausted but have enough biscuits and goodies to last a month.

Craig the eldest of the tribe at 9 and has ADHD and dyslexia. He loves the fact that unlike at his school we don’t care about he’s “difficulties/differences” however you want to put it and he joins with us with whatever we’re doing. But boy, I thought I could talk but I don’t have a patch on this kid, and some of the stuff that falls out of his mouth is hilarious, like the time he fell and broke his leg on an ant hill, and the other time he hit his head and it bled and bled till he was dead….obviously all untrue but said with such conviction.

Next there is Shannon, 7years and 9 months and the nine month makes a difference because that puts her nearly exactly 4 months and a WHOLE school year older than my Jordan. She is adorable but being bought up in a house with nothing but boys she also knows how to play the lads against each other really well. That girl is going to be a man eater when she gets older and fair play to her.

Then there is Jordan number 2. Jordan number 2 is Shannon’s little brother and he is 5 or there abouts, we actually cant figure out how old he is as every time I ask him I get a different answer!

Finally amongst all the new faces is “The Blonde Kid” or the newly christened Jordan number 1. Jordan is loving the fact that all these children have moved in near where we live and that he has a mom cool enough to let all the local waifs and strays spend the day in our house, and not only do they come and play we do cool stuff like make salt dough and bake cakes and paint stuff.

The blonde kid is also loving the fact that there is a “girl” coming to play. A real life girl who sings and dances and plays them all off against each other…

BUT she’s not his girlfriend..really she’s not!!

Did you know the Happy Mondays were called the Happy Mondays because all their giro’s used to arrive on a Monday. So that day was indeed, for them at least Happy. Bet you’re sitting there thinking “Gee thanks Steph I really needed to know that”. Well I knew it so I thought I’d share.

My Mondays on the other hand for the last two weeks at least have been a bit of a trial, In fact so have most the days in between, hence the lack of blogging activity from myself, It’s not that I’ve had nothing to write about, far from it, It’s just been a chore to find 5 mins to sit in front of the computer and collate my thoughts into any kind of order other than random!

Last week for instance it was one thing after another, the blonde kid managed to bang his face, fall off a wall, graze his leg, bump his arm, trap his finger under a rock and the most spectacular injury of the week happening on Thursday and resulted in me being called up at work to fetch him out off school he fell backwards on the school playground and cracked his head on a wall knocking himself sick in the process. I must have used up a months worth of Arnica and 3 days curing bruises and a years worth of tissues wiping away tears. Dealing with a clumsy 7 year old is enough on its own without the added issue an adjustment to my entire routine as James was bed ridden with the flu! And not man flu a runny nose and a few sneezes but full blown I’m too hot, no now I’m too cold, coughing, shivering, headachey Oh My God I think I’m going to die FLU, and I know it was genuine he went to bed and lost is appetite and trust me when my man don’t want to eat you KNOW something is wrong!

BUT then come the weekend things seemed to look up, Jordan went to his Dad’s and James although still not 100%, rallied enough to come to the Dickos 30th with me Friday night, which was lucky really as we were going as Meatloaf and Cher, it was a fancy dress karaoke not just because we felt like being “different”, And feeling much better on the Saturday to the Deciphers gig at the Jug of Ale in Moseley.

Then Monday came again and James was ill over again he went the funniest colour and was having the most chronic chest and back pains, He even went to the doctors and the emergency docs at that WHICH is unheard of so I suppose I have to give him the benefit of the doubt and not rib him for trying it on. So it looks like I’ll be spending the week caring for Mr Clarke again, I even missed swimming tonight to look after him, he should feel highly honoured!!

So not so Happy Mondays I think you’d agree. I hope he’s better for Thursday, Biffy Clyro is playing at the Wulfrun and we have tickets!!

WHOOP!!!