Bluegrass

From Whiteadder to Bluegrass. Saturday saw Dunbar host its annual music festival. Basically all the pubs host a folk (traditional) music band and everyone has drink or two to make it sound ok. Actually the days celebrations started in the afternoon when somehow we managed to deliberately lose all our children to other people and free us up to swan around Dunbar. First stop the pub, with spectacular views of Fife on offer, we couldn't refuse it. However as we had planned to see some musicians and we were in the only pub that seemed to be without any, we headed up the High Street to hear the groans of the pipe band. They were very good, but I discovered from Eddie their main piper who had enjoyed the free bar at the pub, that they needed a drummer. He worked hard on getting Emma interested but failed. Then we went on to the Parish Hall where some Grammar School kids were doing propper swing your pants folk music. most interesting was that their lead singer was this petite girl who had the voice of a big bear. It was really deep and quite powerful.

Roll on the evening, we had made the foolish decision to meet the two Ian's from the running club. They do like a tipple or two and as I was booked to preach the next day and run at 7.30 am with Pete I was trying to go at a steady pace. I was optimistic as we hit the Volunteer Arms for our fisrt band, playing open air it was the Creelmen. Fairly ok Scottish folk stuff. Then it was off to The Eagle. The Eagle is something of a legend and so is any English man who survives a night there. Anyway the band was uninspiring, but we had seats so stayed there for too long. Last stop the Hillside where it livened up with my first experience of Bluegrass. it's music, not something you smoke. A bit sort of hillbilly ish, but good. We were amused by the little woman playing the oversized upright bass. We feel she may have an inferiority complex as a result of her chosen weapon of music. Emma's old boyfriend was there and is the new owner so that was a bit awkward, but hey, the beer kept coming and we were all happy. Around 1am I made the decision to go home and was not looking forward at all t my 7.30 run. At home the day was saved as pete had also had too much pop and decided to call it off via a note in my door. A good night it was.

Whiteadder?

It was a bank holiday here on Monday so we went for a trip to the local resovoir Whiteadder to muck around in the burn with the kids. Whilst there I actually found an adder, but it wasn't white...more a brown colour. It didn't like hanging around and hissed off in to the bracken before I could get my camera out. The day before I had been out for a run and saw this white thing in the woods. On closer inspection it was an albino squirrel. I've never seen one before and wondered if other people have too. Anyway both were a reminder of how fortunate I am to be living in a place where wildlife is on your doorstep in abundance.

Porthmadog F.C.

Last year we had one of those spontaneous moments at camp of deciding to go and watch the local team (Portmadog FC) play the best (on paper) team in their league (Total Network Solutions or TNS to those who can't be bothered with the brand name). It was a real hit with the punters and the fact that around 40 of us turned up and created chants about the Port boys got us in favour with the club. In fact the chair kindly presented our trophy at the camp 5 A side tournament. Well actually he was dragged out of his living room by Rory who had hit the pubs of Criccieth looking for any Port players that could be out there. The locals pointed him in the direction of the club chairs house whose evening in watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire decended into a trip to a cow field.

One year on we were back to see them play Aberystwyth. This time we had 70 of us, more or less doubling the crowd of Port fans. The woman in the coffee shop commented...'I've never had a queue before'. By the way, if you want to see a spot of class at this level of football, then Portmadog is the place to be. Your Bovril or sugary hot chocolate is served in china mugs. Clearly there is no fear of them being used as missiles, or of theft. i was tempted by the latter as it crossed my mind that their mugs were much nicer than the flakey one I had been using at camp.

The game itself was a victory for the Seasiders (Aberystwyth not Dunbar United who share the same name). 4-0 and 2 of Ports players sent off for engaging in Thai boxing during the game. The highlight had to be hal time. The chair had invited the camp to have a slot at half time. In true camp style we had our biblical characters penalty shoot out. See Woody's article in the press for a detailed report. http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/columnists/matthewwoodcock/display.var.913285.0.a_buskers_life_for_me.php

Anyway, i hope you like the picture of me and Woody sporting our Porthmadog hats at the 'Traeth'. I am supping a brew from their mug as I speak.