Glastinbury 2013-Some random thoughts

Glastonbury 2013 – Some random thoughts

So, as it’s getting closer and closer to Glastonbury, I thought it would be a particularly pertinent time to scribble (or rather type) a few brief words on this blog about it all.

At this stage I’m usually getting a quite twitchy about it all, but at the moment I’m surprisingly relaxed. I think that the panic will start to kick in during the next few weeks. It’s actually not really blind panic i.e. running around like a headless chicken, but more of a general air of uncertainty and unpreparedness. I do have a sort of a system- a bit like a Christmas Santa list-writing it down, checking it twice etc  but there’s always a sense of  “have I forgot  to get something essential?” or “have I enough xxx?”.  I’ve looked on lots of websites and forums and think that I’ve covered all bases, but you never know. There’s always another handy tip just around the corner. And there’s the dilemmas-do I need back up things of everything? Spare batteries seem to be a given, but how many little torches do I need? More than one of course, in case it breaks, but what if the spare one gets lost or something? It could go on for infinity I guess, and I‘d end up taking nothing but a rucksack full of torches and nothing else. So it’s really down to gut instinct and law of probabilities. The chance of more than three torches breaking and/or being lost is remote (ish) and anyway, I’ve got to lug all the stuff from the car to wherever I literally end up pitching up the tent. Less is more-or less is better. Maybe I should hire someone with a military background just before I leave and they could go through my rucksack like Willem Defoe did to Charlie Sheen in Platoon, throwing things out that I don’t need.

So at the moment, I only have a few things left to get I think-binbags, more hand gel (can’t have enough of that), painkillers, Immodium (that figures!) and a roll of gaffa tape. Once all that’s done, then it’s simply a matter of cramming it all in the rucksack and giving myself a hernia as I try to pick it up. It’ll all be packed neatly of course, but at the first service station I pass on the way down  I just know that I’ll just not be entirely sure that I’ve packed that one thing that I must have, and will end up ragging it all out, until with a sense of stupid relief, realise that it was there all along. (As an aside, I wonder if many people turn up, having forgotten to take their tent with them? You can well imagine the arguments; “No, you said you were putting in the car” and  “Well, what do you expect me to do about it now?” )

All this is before the usual and expected ticket delivery cock-ups. As of today, there’s nothing on the Seetckets website saying when my tickets are going to turn up. Maybe they should have an additional option to “your tickets will be despatched shortly” and “your tickets have been despatched” in a “we have screwed up your order and have no idea where your tickets are.”

More of that to follow no doubt.