Well its back to the daily routine after my short holiday. Its good to be back on the bike though - especially when I'm armed with my new camera! I saw this bloke struggling up the road as I waited at a set of lights so I went after him and asked if I could take his photo, he didn't seem to mind. He was carrying an old sink and a few other bits of scrap metal all in a homemade cart. It looked like hard work in this mini heat wave we've been having.Just a few more thoughts on the Greenbelt festival: As usual it's more often the smaller things you see at a festival that stick with you. My favourite stall on the site was the bubble stall, who'd of thought you could have an entire stall just dedicated to making bubbles! I hope they made some money because they kept kids entertained for hours trying out all the stuff. Next door to the bubble stall was the fairy stall - basically all they sold was fairy wings and tutu's but they seemed to be doing good business. The juggling stall always had a big crowd outside trying all the stuff. I treated my self to a set of Poi, I think it's the only juggling art that I haven't tried. When you see someone who's really good at it, it always looks really relaxing - a bit like tai chi.
Besides The Proclaimers and Emiliana Torrini, who I knew would be good anyway, Juliet Turner and Duke Special were both worth seeing. And funnily enough they're both from Northern Ireland so getting to see them again shouldn't't be a problem.
I managed to hear 2 talks in full - Leo Hickman drew a big crowd for his question and answer session on his book "A Life Stripped Bare". I was about to ask him a question when someone else asked exactly the same thing - how do you deal with the ethical dilemma of choosing between fair trade and locally sourced products. His preference was for local but he said it was down to personal choice. I reckon if you cant buy it locally then you should go fair trade - but we should be helping these countrys to live sustainably aswell, and not necessarily see global trade as the best solution. When we got back there was a leaflet for a green living fair through our door and he's speaking there aswell, so I'll have to think of a better question - something along the lines of " with the current political structure of most of the modern world being predicated on the desire to consume, do you not think our attempts at recycling and saving energy are always just going to be a drop in the ocean in terms of the damage we are doing to the planet?"
I also contributed a few comments to a discussion on blogging but I''l have to listen to the download to remember what I said. Greenbelt is a christian festival, and not being a christian myself I did have some reservations about going. But I found it a very friendly and relaxing place, and the people were very motivated in terms of pushing the ethical living thing. One of the themes of this years festival besides making poverty history was living generously. This was something I could realy identify with, and since getting back I've already decided to give blood, change my bank account to the co-op and ask people if they are buying me to presents to consider "good gifts" . There were also a few nice folding bikes at the festival, and my wife started to get a bit fed up of me taking pictures of them all but i've posted a picture of one of them - it is a bike blog after all.
greenbelt2005
1 comment:
I think i'd say that I enjoyed it more than the usual festival. Not as many people throwing up, and no one trying to sell you drugs. Not that i'm completely against drug use but the older I get the more that whole scene seems a bit naff. Most of the poeple I came with were christian, but as you say it would be enjoyed by those outside the church, the spiritual side is there if you want to pursue it, but its not in your face. I even got involved in the Sunday Communion doing a bit of fire juggling.
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