PP peeps reunite: The Orchard

Awwww it's the end of an uber-splendid weekend up at The Orchard, Eastbury, scene of the West Housewarming, Sue's bday and Clare's leaving bbq...

Soooo many of my fav. peeps made it to Clare's: Twila, Leo, John, Maria, Keith, Laura and Thomas(made in pp), Jenny and Neill, Sophie (hardcore lady made it down from Edinburgh!), Andy...as well as the West clan, Sue, Peter, Andrew(aka the man, the legend :Adam West made it over from Jersey too), George, Toby and superfast Alfie...

There was the pre-party party including the obligatory humpy hugs from Neill for an unsuspecting Sue, and a copious amount of alc-i-hol did floweth as we descended en masse down the local...





























Come the actual party day, we left poor Maria in bed afflicted with a near-terminal case of vino hangover, Clare had a projectile vom incident upon waking and preparation commenced. Pimms on the lawn, croquet (kudos to Tobi for valliantly attempting to teach these malcontents the actual rules), scones, bbq, trips over to see Jake the horse, some amazing (near-olympian standard)facial gymnastics from Jenny and the odd trip to the local made for a fab, and on ocassion messy weekend:)















































A few personal highlights:

Sophie almost garroting herself as she attempted to dodge the tent guy-ropes...

Jenny deciding the party wasn't over and talking swedish loudly to herself in the bathroom, followed by a thorough search of the kitchen, opening and even ocassionally closing the drawers and cabinets...meaning I put her to bed 4 times!!!

Pete marching straight up to Neill as he was about to take a croquet shot, standing directly in the way and asking "Red wine old boy?" carrying a bottle and glass...

Somerset...Piers Simon Appeal

www.pierssimonappeal.org

Okay, so Clare had been in contact on her return to englandshire with Cecilia Simon, mother to Piers Simon, who died in the tsunami, and subsequently set up a foundation in his honour. The foundation funded much of the dive camp, and house builds on the island. Anyway, asides from being an amazing person, she and her husband Harry, hosted a mini festival at their farm in Somerset, July 7th, with all moneys raised going to phi phi and other tsunami related projects... these people work from the ground, and make sure the money goes to the right places.

6 bands, a load of booze, cream teas for the older members..there was camping on the grounds...so Clare rallied the troops and pulled together a great group of us pp peeps.

Well after weeks of frankly no-show shite british summer weather we had a gorgeous clear,blue,hot,sunny day for the revelries. I met a well-prepared Clare, Glen and Aidan at Salisbury station for our road trip down Somerset way...equipped of course with a variety of pasties (Clare has been lapping up the pasty-ness during her stay), and beer. As an aside I was very relieved to hear from Aidan et al. that the London Dungeon (one of the sights visited earlier in the week) remains scarey and darned good...relieved as I remember visiting it as a wee one and being scared in a good way and wanted to check if it was just coz I was young and impressionable as opposed to the cynical aged old bird I am now..hehehe;)

Anyhoo back to it...the first hour or so was spent erecting the biggest tent I've ever seen, no mean feat for 4 people that have never seen it up. The West Manor as I have christened it is a 10mx10m shelter which can sleep 16, park a landrover in the middle of it and has 4 space-type bedroom pods coming off each corner...it rocks and is an amazing festival tent!!! So all settled and with Clare's family now arrived too, Pete and Sue West, Tobi, George and Alfie (and dogs) we started on the cider-a-thon!!! Oh yes, this be Somerset and the cider did floweth!!!



















Shortly thereafter Dan the Man and his Lovely Lady Lou arrived from Yeovil about 10 miles away(which may not sound much but is impressive since allegedly he struggles to find his house from Sainsburys). Next came lil Jenny and James in their rather splendid cowboy hats (which Dan did his dammedest to acquire) and we were a full compliment. From here on in it all turned into a camp-a-drink-a-thon, and even I who have not touched cider in about 16 years enjoyed the local wares;) To be honest at one point I may have scurried/stumbled to retrieve a spare camera battery from my wing of the West Manor Tent and fallen akip for an hour...oops!

























We all pretty much rocked-out, drank muchos and had a very, very cool time catching up and dicking around in the middle of a field in England (which is one of those odd but cool things when your connection to each other is an island the other side of the planet).

Oh kudos to the Simons obviously and to Micheal Eavis for turning up and showing his support too.