Stoned !!!



Well, not quite ..... but you'll see what I mean if you carry on reading .......

I have just been on one of the most exciting weekends of my life, courtesy of my lovely daughter Marian Sara.

A few months ago she presented Matty, my sister in law and I a ticket each for the summer concert in Hyde Park in London - headlining which were THE ROLLING STONES !! 

Yep, I was instantly transformed into a rock chic !!! well probably more of a chunky chickadee in reality but still a rock chick in spirit.

 

The weekend started with a flight from Perpignan (where we had just arrived from Provence ! ) back to good old Standstead with good old Ryan Air. Marvellous company - made jetting about working-class-available, not like in my early days when even a short hop over to Europe cost an arm and a leg and was out of reach of joe average really.

Well maybe once a year for that hard-worked-for week in Spain, which sadly for us my husband and I never actually achieved in our younger days. Our idea of a holiday was to stay a while with his parents in Hampshire.

Quite an adventure in those days in fact what with us living in west wales.



These days a flight is almost cheaper than a train journey ?? well it certainly was that weekend or I'd have been happy to trundle across Europe on the TGV.....but it would have been twice the price ?? I've done a lot of train travelling the last few years and actually quite like it as you get a lot more leg room !!

On the flight I sat right at the back, next to the stewardesses almost, and with a spare seat between me and the young lady by the window. All hunky dory.

  Room for my little bag and her enormous bag - in comparison anyway.

 

Marian

Eventually, as you do, we got chatting. She seemed nervous so I sort of calmed even more to help her.

middle aged biddies

Her name I found out was Atys Band and the journey just flew by (!!!) as we chatted and got to know each other. She was Cypriot by birth and her parents had both died - she was only 31 so that was incredibly sad for her, my eldest daughter is 30 so I was quietly shocked in fact.


She was a most interesting young woman, passionate and a nationalist. I've never been to Cyprus or really taken much notice of the political problems there.

  I was educated by Atys on the situation at present and her saddness at the changes in her country to which she was only returning under duress to meet up with the rest of her family.



Unfortunately for her, her boyfriend is Parisian french, a vet with his own practice who now only wants to go and drop out, retire and live in Indonesia where they have often spent months at a time already. This move will definitely not help her career path.

A difficult choice ahead methinks.



rock chicks ?

She had lived in France for about 9 years and was trying to make her way as a singer - she had a sweet voice and was able to sing in 9 different languages by now. Mostly they were gipsy, hungarian, russian and songs of love - quite suited to her passionate nature.

Anyway, a fond hugging of a farewell at passport control and I have to head off to London.

So, having safely arrived at Standstead, I need an express train to Liverpool Street Station, then a tube to Victoria station and a quick phone call to Matty and guess where she is - up the road at Victoria coach station having just arrived and started to walk down to the train station !!

So, we meet up, hug and take a bus to Clapham Junction. I know my way around from there pretty well by now as both my daughters live in that area !!

Having arrived carrying nothing more than a tiny backpack (nothing like travelling lite) I actually needed to buy a nightie so we pop into TKMAXX and 10 minutes (or so) later I emerge with a small brand new soft pink handbag and a lovely white cotton nightie. 

Matty is great to go shopping with - she is decisive and patient at the same time and full of good common sense.



We walk up to the flat, (Marian had thoughtfully asked her cleaning lady to come in today so it was immaculate) and promptly made ourselves a cup of tea. Sorts everything out ! A freshen-up and a feet-up for a little while.


I later raid Marian's drink fridge and we sip a chilled rose while waiting for the girls to arrive home. They shop enroute and prepare a supper for us - angels indeed.

We try to go to bed early ? !! 

Saturday morning I am awake with the larks and decide to walk down to Isabel's flat. A few weeks previously I had started to do a sort of shuffle jog on tiptoe and so, doing this, I wended my way through the streets of London (nobody even blinks an eye at this gait so I feel quite comfortable !!) and I have a set of keys so let myself in and snuggle up on the bed next to her for a chat.

 

Poor love was very calm considering I had arrived at her flat totally unannounced and woken her from her slumbers. She is almost unflappable it seems. We have a girlie mother and daughter chat, lovely.

Half and hour later, while she showers, dresses etc I head off and shuffle back up to Marian's flat. Well and truly awake by now..

It is all go there, everyone up and wondering where I'd gone to. So then it's breakfast - smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and muffins. Luxury food.




Isabel picks us up in the car and we are all off early to Crystal Palace. Marian and Ben have made an offer on a flat there and we are going to give it the once-over. Told you it was exciting.

The flat is in an old Victorian house and is amazing. Spacious, light, lots of character and space and best of all for me - a large well stocked garden which is very private. We all approve and look forward to staying there !!! only joking Ben !

Crystal Palace feels quite different to Clapham, more a young married couple's area, which is totally suitable as plans are well afoot for a marriage next year. More excitement ahead....

We head back to the flat, arrange a lunch out in the garden (it is the hotest of weekends) and then Marian and Ben head off mid afternoon to the concert. (The tickets were in fact his birthday present).

Matty and I need to gird our loins for the festivities later on tonight and so we rest and put our feet up and I apparently even snooze awhile (well, I had been up since the crack of dawn ?).

So, at about 4pm we start our preparations for the evening ahead. Our clothing is sorted, the girls had decided my outfit earlier - there was very little choice really !

 I was after all a rock chic in the budding......

In the meantime Isabel has a little snooze in the hammock in the garden. I had woken her very early for a saturday morning !!


 We arrive at Hyde Park and it is immediately clear to us that this is a huge event, with hoards of people milling about outside the 'compound', picnicking and just lolling around enjoying the sunshine - like an enormous grand picnic day - in fact it reminded me a lot of the Olympics.

 People out n about just to enjoy the day and if anything exciting happens, well, all the better !! and if not, well it was a good day out anyway. win-win.

  

We wend out way into the concert arena via the security checks. Bags opened and bottles sniffed - only water allowed in, no alcohol supposedly? how they hope to check 50,000 people I can't imagine. Anyway we are in and off we go......with an innocent bottle of water each. Honest....


By this time we have wandered about a bit, been gobsmacked by the multitudes and have decided that we fit in just fine - there are so many grey/white haired crnkly people around that I don't feel so ancient at all. Matty doesn't have this problem - her hair is still the lovely dark brown it always has been - good genes of which I am totally envious !!

I learn later than Mick Jagger is actually 69 years old, well past his bus pass days (can't imagine that happening).

We need a drink - both for thirst and for the 'hwyl' - so off we trot to a bar/tent/village area. The queues are horrendous and so we wander down into the main area a little more and eventually find a slightly shorter queue !!


Two pints of larger please....not my usual drink, being more of a red/white wine woman usually - but it is hot and I am thirsty so lager hits the spot especially as our water is all gone by now.

 That first sip was like nectar, cool and refreshing.

What surprised us the most was that there wasn't as much 'music' around as we'd thought there would be. I must admit though that I've only been to two other music festivals, one being the Big Green Gathering about 15 years ago and the other was the Larmer Tree Festivals outside Tollard Royal.

These were both fun but involved a lot of different music all day long and were absolutely tiny in comparison.


What was being played seemed to us quite folksy - and a bit odd seeing that the next band was going to be the biggest rock band ever !!

Good tactics though we thought too - they wouldn't need a warm up band would they really ?

We phoned Marian and Ben, met up and queued for 3 real beef n 1 chickenburger n fries !! while Ben went and queued for more lager for us all !!

I felt so sorry for the chaps behind the counter as they were positively dripping in sweat, but the burgers were great - slightly pink and moist with lots of mayo and trimmings. They were so big and chunky that they were really hard to get your mouth around but tasted great especially when helped along by the lager.

After the meal we thought a pitstop would be good so we wended off and the loos were amazing - clean and masses of tissues and hand washing/drying stuff. Best I've ever seen. You pays your money and gets the quality.....


All of a sudden the atmosphere changed, the audience tensed and we thought wow it's all beginning to hit off... they're about to come on stage... it was electric....really exciting.

 Marian and Ben wanted to as close to the front as possible but Matty and I decided that a little further back behind the second set of huge screen might be a more comfortable area for us !! we are not hardened festival goers....

Mick Jagger did not disappoint - he was the gaudy peacock he always had been and appeared in a beautiful gold brocade jacket, and during the show he changed his costume several times in fact !! a real pro if nowt else... but I did a double take at his shoes !! of all things.


 They were so thick soled and heavy looking at the ends of his very very slender legs that I thought to begin with that they were special theraputic footwear - but decided pretty soon that they were jazz dance shoes with thick absorbent soles for cushioning his leaps about.

My Salsa teacher had worn these too but he was a much larger, heavier man and they seemed more in proportion to his body than the elfin Mick Jagger.

Where does he get his energy from ???? I learnt that he does ballet classes, pilates classes, yoga etc.....all to keep him fit supple and in tiptop performance condition. Well it certainly all worked.

He was graceful and dynamic at the same time. I loved him and his music and especially I loved seeing all the men dancing and singing along to the music.

  Jagger wannabees all of 'em but boy were they having fun...

He was amazing, parading around the stage chockablock full of energy, inciting us all to sing along (well, we did all know the words backwards) and generally a good entertainer. They don't come more professional than this bunch really do they ?

What was really surprising was how many young people were in the audience and even teenagers, couldn't decide if they were just hanging around with their parents or actually wanted to be there in their own right?


I had a few quiet tears at one stage as I thought my brother Huw would have just loved all this, which is in fact why we were there at all.

 Anyway I kept telling myself he was here with us in spirit and we had to enjoy the experience, which we did.

We did have one slight hiccup though - Matty and I being both just a couple of inches or thereabouts over 5 foot seemed to be permanently surrounded by good 6 footers so we squeezed our way through the crown trying to get to a good vantage point hoping we could actually see the band?

What was I thinking as I pushed very gently but determinedly through the throng, head down, gentle bullock like -

well, my actual thoughts were, I'm never going to have this chance again, and who is ever going to harass a white haired old lady as they were all too polite (whereas this time I was not quite so polite). I would never ordinarily be so forwards.


But, actually people were wonderful and several times took my camera and offered to take photos for me and even moved aside to let us go in front of them. A happy amicable generous crowd. Warmed the cockles of my heart.

A couple of perhaps over friendly and enthustic Irish chaps even offered to hoist us onto their shoulders so we could see better - my God, we'd have flattened them or given them a hernia or something!!

 It was funny though as they were quite earnest and took a little dissuading... all good fun.


The show carried on, we danced and sang along to the songs which sounded exactly like I remembered them to be which was great and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening.


My only gripe was that it all actually came to an end fairly early, about 10.30 pm I think it was, and I could have happily carried on rocking..... well, we were in central London and the noise level was pretty high ! so fair's fair - we all like our sleep.

On our way out Matty wanted to buy a couple of t-shirts; again, we queued and in front of us was an American living in Switzerland and an Italian - both well travelled concert goers and devoted Rolling Stones fans. what else ?!


We then happily made our way out of the arena and began walking totally the wrong way - we were to meet Marian and Ben outside Primark on Oxford Street.

  Funnily enough, everyone we asked for directions were foreigners, even the marshals, and hadn't a clue!!

 We eventually found them and caught the bus home, weary but elated.

All in all, quite fantastic.

Sunday morning was an early start too as we had another special day lined up - I have mentioned that Marian is getting married next year and she had booked a couple of appointments at bridal shops in Wimbledon to do a try-on of gowns !!! wowee - Isabel picks us up and off we head.

The first shop has an amazing range of beautiful gowns, and the lady takes her through the different designers and styles etc and then suggests that she look through the ranges herself and decides on 6 gowns to try on.

This proves harder than you'd think it would be as they were all so beautiful, so a tactic is decided upon - choose a selection of quite different styles and see which is preferred at the fitting stage. This is fun.

I actually thought I'd be very emotional at seeing my daughter in a wedding gown, but in fact I was calm and collected and the only time both Isabel and I did burst into tears was when in the second shop, in fact, I suggested that a veil be tried on as well.

This was the transforming moment - a young woman becomes a bride-to-be and the veil worked its magic on us. It was quite overwhelming, and we pondered the significance of the tulle veil on our emotions and expectations.

Marian looked absolutely fantastic in every bridal gown, there wasn't one style that we could have honestly said didn't suit her. She is going to have a heckofa job trying to decide which style to eventually go for but that is all part of the excitement of a wedding and I certainly am not going to give the game away at this stage ! You'll have to wait and see.


As Ben had gone for a round of golf with friends, we lunched at a little Italian place - the four girlies together and all the chat was about weddings, houses, flowers, colours, bridesmaids......you can imagine.

We had had an exciting, very eventful weekend. Matty went home on monday and I flew back to Perpignan on tuesday morning, leaving the flat with Marian as she went off to work.



Matty rockin !!

 On the flight I happened to sit next to a Scottish lady who now lived in France. Our chat was mostly about village life in France. I was entranced.

We landed, and within 10 minutes Philip arrived to pick me up, caravan in tow, I jumped in and we headed off to our next campsite !! Villerouge la cremande - not far from Cascassone.

I needed a rest and recovery day and this was the perfect place. Calm and with a fabulous swimming pool. What could be a better end to a weekend.



So you see 'Stoned' was not quite strictly true, but 'Stones' just seemed far too tame a word for all that magicality !! I think I'm right there ?