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Posts
Final stop on the real ale trail, a most excellent day on the trains (Taken with Instagram at Stalybridge Buffet Bar)
Stop 6 on the ale trail, snowy Marsden fun (Taken with Instagram at Marsden Train Station)
Stop 5 or 6, slaithwaite (I think) (Taken with Instagram at Slaithwaite Railway Station (SWT))
Me & the team made these today (c/o http://t.co/goHMCa4q) (Taken with Instagram at Key 103)
So after seeing Dan Berry’s Batman featured on the Forbidden Planet twitter feed I thought it would be nice to have a go myself. I haven’t drawn Batman in forever so I started a #drawbatman on twitter and invited people to join me.
The results have been amazing and it’s been so much fun…
Fisheye fun. Bowling alley in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. Finally got 16 rolls developed, not many great shots :(
Couldn’t eloquently put into words my anger at #looters in #ManchesterRiots, so did a self-indulgent self-portrait to express it
Man dressed in costume with vague resemblance to bat
On the slow road back to drawingville i did this for my nephew.
Think he’s got a bit of John Wayne about him this fella. Imagine John Wayne as Batman!Quick (for me) drawing of the amazing Spiderman in Posca on Moleskine. My first tentative steps back into drawing more regularly after an arid first half of the year, the scapegoat for which I’ve decided is work-work & how crazy 2011 has been thus far. Last night I decided enough was enough & I needed to draw. Without an immediate thought of a subject I asked Twitter, and was almost instantly rewarded with suggestions - which I used as a springboard. For my 2nd consecutive night of drawing I’ve got a practice effort in for my nephew’s birthday card, who is a mad Spiderman fan at 4 years of age. My plan is to turn him on to my fave comic-book hero, Batman. I’ll force him into being a Man Utd fan too - it’s for his own good
- Glastonbury Survival Guide
Written by @beckrowaichi, an indispensable guide I’m sure you’ll agree:
here are a few tips for those who havent camped at glasto before. new ideas welcome!!
MUSIC As you probably know, there’s dozens of ‘stages’ and literally hundreds of performers at Glastonbury. It’s impossible to see everyone you want to, unless you can split yourself into smaller pieces and scatter them around the site.
So If you’d like to get yourself an idea of who is playing when you should visit this site: http://www.clashfindergeneral.co.uk/s/g2010/
There’s instructions on how to create your own customised guide, but in basic terms do the following: - scroll down the page to each of the day’s timetables - click on all the acts you are interested in seeing (if you don’t know them there are also links to their MySpace page, Spotify etc. to find out more) - the guide will highlight where they are playing (multiple times in some cases) and make it nice and easy for you to see where you want to be each day. - print it out!
There’s also printing instructions on the page, the clashfinder is brilliant & the gent who makes it gets official information from Glastonbury now, so it’s pretty accurate.
BUDGET 1. drink - obviously depends on how much you drink. we generally take 3 packs of 18 cans with us. amir drinks all of these and then buys pints on site, whereas i never manage it all and take some home. On top of the beer we usually have a bottle of spirits (and mixers) with us too - NO GLASS - pour into plastic bottles. 2. price of a pint is between £3.80 and £4.20. You can also buy spirits and cocktails in various places, but again up to a fiver per drink. 3. there are plenty of places to buy food on site for anyones taste. there is shit food and there is good quality food. expect to pay £5 per meal or up to £8 for something really good (like pieminister pie mash, peas and gravy). However on your travels for lunch you can pick up chips, corn on the cob, pasties, loaves of bread and things like that for a couple of quid. 4. amir thinks he spent £150 to £200 last year. 5. i took £150 and came with £70 last year (but i was working a lot so that may have made a difference). i didnt buy any drink and spent around £10 a day on food. 6. there are clothing shops on site, but these are no better than other festivals…so its unlikely you’ll need to budget for this sort of thing. Maybe just the odd jumper or blanket if you’re still cold with what you have. 7. small bottles of water and soft drink cans are £1 - £1.50 8. cash withdrawl points are available on site, but the queue are huge and machines sometimes run out. just be careful with your money (and at night sleep with it near / under your head…not near the door of the tent or left in the pocket of your jeans. an old trick is to open the tent doors just enough to grab clothes and hope people have left money in their pockets. This last happened to me in 1997…so its been a while)
ACCOMODATION 1. tent, tent pegs, tent poles (you may have read about glasto handing out biodegradable tent pegs, these are made of potato and snap with little effort…so dont rely on them). 2. camping mat or a blow up bed (make sure it doesnt need electricity to blow it up). you are there for a week so carrying the extra weight of a blow up bed is worth it. if none of the above At least bring a blanket to go on the floor of the tent. it makes a real difference to have something between your sleeping bag and the cold floor. 3. sleeping bag (dont think a blanket is enough…its not). 4. torch. very useful. we’ll have camp fires going, but you will need a torch to get you round the intertwined guide ropes when walking across campsite to the toilet. 5. fire lighters and matches for the camp fire 6. a camping chair so you dont have to sit on the floor if its cold, wet, dirty, or you have a pretty skirt on. Various types available from small easy to carry stools to iains recliner with foot rest and beer holder arms. 7. a gazebo. if anyone has one or sees them going cheap in tesco etc. these are great for wet or burning hot weather.
if you forget any of the above they are available on site, but at a premium. (except gazebos ans not sure firelighteres are…they seem to sell out pretty quick)
SELF CATERING 1. dont bother trying to bring enough food to cook every meal at the tent. this never happens. The glastonbury site takes an hour to walk across, so you wont be nipping back to your tent for lunch and dinner. 2. meals you are likely to eat at the tent. breakfast, cups of tea, snacks when you come back to the tent at night. and the odd evening meal if you should wish to come back to the tent for a rest (which you shouldnt because theres too much happening and plenty of chilled places you can have a kip). 3. so breakfast. bring your own, or there is always a cafe in the camp site for bacon butties and cups of tea. personally i’ve been known to cook myself noodles for breakfast. there is a lovely cheap bakery, but thats approximately 1 hour from where we’re camping. there are also places to get full fry ups, smoothies etc around site etc, but again these are a walk from the tent. 4. sharing equipment - i think a few people have gas stoves and are probably happy for you to use them. If you want to use someone elses cooker, please bring a gas cannister as your contribution. Gas canisters are allowed on site, but they are not allowed to be sold on site. So bascially once the gas runs out thats it. if everyone brings 1 cannister each that should be enough. So who has a stove??? (better check so we dont all turn up with gas but no stove). 5. Bring your own pan. nothing worse than wanting to make yourself dinner or a cup of tea, only to find that someones encrusted beans on your pan. 6. bring a small amount of washing up liquid / tea towels. 7. if you do like the idea of bringing meat for a fry up then i suggest you freeze it, then bring it in a coolbag. this way it may still be just cold enough to eat as soon as you get there and not give you ecoli (after thawing in the travel lodge and on the journey to site). in summary, don bother just buy a butty when you’re there. 8. bring a few bin liners each. We like to keep the camp site clean so sitting / lying down is a pleasant experience. so rubbish / food in one bag and recycling in the other. 9. other things, tea bags, little milk cartons nicked from hotels, knives / forks, firelighters, matches, water carrier (who has one of these)
DRINKS 1. glass is not allowed. pour spirits into plastic bottles. 2. you can bring beer / drink on to site (as much as you can carry). norm is carry a couple of cases to the tent upon arrival and have a third in the van for later in the week. 3. obviously drink is left at the tent at your own risk. i havent had mine nicked, but then i’m a cider drinker.
HYGIENE 1. showers are available, but expect a long queue. They are shit and cold, but if you want to wash i understand. 2. bring LOTS of wet wipes. a wet wipe bath in the tent is probably the closest you’ll get to a shower. 3. bring toilet roll - there is some in toilets, but as you can imagine it runs out, or gets wet in the rain (long drop toilets are open air and get rained on). 4. bring cans of dry shampoo for a couple of days in when the hair is greasey and a hat for the end of the week when even the dry shampoo cant save you. 5. there are warm showers available in the green peace fields, but you wont be arsed to walk there and again there are queues. 6. ladies bring a mirror. 7. bring the usual hygiene stuff. i wont list these for you. 8. She pees. ladies its the way forwards. festivals ar so much easier when you dont have to sit down to pee. if you master it you can also piss in a bottle in the tent rather than getting dressed in the middle of the night and going out across the camp site to sit on a cold wet toilet. http://www.shepee.co.uk/ 9. tweezers and wet wipes are the way to get muck out of your finger nails.
CLOTHING 1. theres a chance your clothes will get dirty, wet, ripped. so dont bring your favourties. same goes for shoes as even if its dry its filthy so shoes get ruined. (some areas are still wet too around water taps, near toilets etc). 2. even if its warm during the day its likely to get cold at night - be prepared. and have layers you can carry round with you to put on later when you’re still out and about. there is stuff going on all night and you wont want to walk back to the tent just to get your coat. cos once you get back to the tent its then a long walk back to the nightlife again. 3. not really clothing, but dont forget suncream 4. bring wellies to be prepared. but dont wear them if its warm. Wellies and festivals do not have to go hand in hand. 5. bring welly socks. there is a lot of walking and wellies rub. 6. bring hoodys / coats for sitting round the camp fire (old blankets can be bought on site for around a fiver which are good for night time strolls and keeping wrapped up near the tent. 7. bring a bag you are happy to carry around all day. you will need to keep valubles on you and you’ll want something to carry beer and bog roll in. (amir carrys that black shoulder type bag he always has with him. i have a small handbag and then a tote style shopping bag for beer which i can then screw up and put in my smaller hand bag). 8. unbrellas. i do take one, but no good when standing in a crowd. 9. hat. take one. good for wet and cold weather and covering greasy heads.
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