annanotbob2's diary

annanotbob2's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prep

Doing numbers because it's late again and I have lots to do tomorrow. Also, I'll probably not post while I'm away and don't want to miss too many days.

I just saw John Cooper-Clarke reading his poem 'I wanna be yours' on telly which made me feel quite sentimental about trying to teach a cluster of poems on the theme of love and relationships to classes of slouching teenagers. Strange choices the exam board made too - To His Coy Mistress is both utterly fabulous and also some fucker trying to get her pants off when she's not interested, not to mention totally inappropriate to be teaching to kids who are below the legal age for having sex, even though some of them clearly were already at it.

But never mind all that. I want to record that I had a great birthday, full of love and food and my first sea swim of the year with lovely Daughter. There was no one else there on our secret bit of beach so we swam naked for a bit and afterwards, when I was having a ponder on being sixty-eight - such a lot of years, so definitely old rather than middle aged - and having had too much of that bollocks about getting your body 'beach ready', I stood up, tall and naked and raised my arms up and over my head and shouted and laughed, and Daughter took a photo of me and I really like it. Yes, my body is most unlike the kind of bodies we see in the world around us, in adverts, on hoardings etc etc. We never see older women's breasts, which are worn far lower down than we're used to observing, unless we see them in the mirror. I don't want to detail the ways in which my body differs from the ideal because there was something in the pose and the power of the pose that gave it a different kind of beauty which took me absolutely by surprise when she showed me the photo. If I hadn't been a teacher I'd probably share it but I can't bear the thought of the possibilities...

I went to lunch at the new restaurant on the end of the pier which was really cool. I ate masses.

After a rest I did yoga then me and SB went out for another meal where I ate even more masses.

Today I made a cake, the kind we used to keep at the allotment as they last well wrapped in foil for weeks.

I bought a golf umbrella to take to Glasto as it looks like it's going to be hot. The (quite old) bloke in the shop was very interested in having a chat about Glasto, festivals and music in general and said to the man behind me in the queue, 'I'll just get someone over to serve you, sir,' which he did before asking me to choose the best act I'd seen. Before I had time to answer he drifted into a passionate account of when he'd seen Nile Rogers and Chic at Leeds one year. We then had quite a long discussion of how good or bad McCartney might be - I'm optimistic that he'll have a shit hot band and play all his Beatles songs, Golf Shop Bloke feared his voice has gone and he'll play too much of his solo stuff, but I'm sure he's wrong. Macca has always been a gigger - he loves it and this might be his last ever gig - he's 80 today, this is the end of his tour - but I just looked up tour dates for Dylan and he's still going at 81, so what do I know.

After that I went in the sea again because honest to God, it's so delicious and warm and I love it so much.

Tomorrow I must pick up my meds from the pharmacy, buy a solar powered phone charger as I lost mine, make a big pot of lentil, veg and chorizo stew to freeze and take with us, make a list of food I need to take and buy it, pack the car. Find the pink rug. Take the dog for a walk. I'll miss my little dog.

The trouble with camping in the UK is you don't know what weather you'll get though you'll probably get it all apart from snow. So you have to take clothes for if it's hot, plenty of them as they get smelly, clothes for if it rains for days, plenty of them too as they take forever to dry once wet, wellies, macs etc, and warm things for the cold nights. Uggs and hot water bottles. I can't wait to be lying in my bed (double memory foam mattress, folded in half), with my feather duvet and pillow, plus a fleece for just in case and my hot water bottle, listening to the sounds of the festival drifting on the breeze, The main stages close at about 11pm but the wild outer fringes are only just getting started then. I'm too tired to even think of going to any of that, and too anxious - it's quite full on, those days are over, but that's OK, I'm happy dozing off listening to it.

1:12 a.m. - 18.06.22

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------