I’ve noticed a fair few bloggers publish Week Notes. I like the idea but not the association the term has with work teams and what not. All the same I thought I’d have a go. I think it could be something I will find interesting to look back on as time passes by. My week goes from Monday to Sunday. Seems logical then that I review the week on a Sunday evening. Today is Monday. Always room for exceptions. I am choosing to go with week numbers for post titles. Avoids using the term Week Notes. It also makes file naming easy and along with the published date it will be pretty obvious which year it is. Here goes the first…
This was a very short work week. Just Monday and Tuesday. Got a few things done none of which come to mind now. Booked the rest off for annual leave.
Only went out a couple of times on the bike. 66k on Tuesday evening after work and just 35k Thursday morning. Had a bit of a drama on the Tuesday ride. Cycling down a narrow country lane. A 4 x 4 pick up comes along the other way. The driver looks at me, shrugs his shoulders and make no attempt to slow down or give over any room as he passes. I call him a moron as he passes and continue on my way. Next thing I know he’s reversing at speed back down the lane after me. I’ve little choice but to ride fast away from him. He keeps coming for a few dozen meters before deciding to stop and shouting out something like, ‘…got you scared then ehh!’ Yeah. Big man in your 4 x 4. Well done. Twat.
I spent a bit of time on Wednesday configuring quick menus and custom settings on my Fuji Film X-T4 camera. Dialled in what I thought would be worth trying out for a few different shooting environments, light conditions and creative ideas. Time will tell if any of these are fruitful. Learning from what does not work is perhaps as helpful as learning from what does.
We had planned to go the Wilkswood Reggae Festival this week. We got a couple of the early early bird tickets for £80 each. Booked them very shortly after getting home from the festival last year. The ticket price included on site camping from the Thursday through to Monday. The promoters went bankrupt though and the festival was cancelled. I thought I was stuffed since I did not pay with a credit card. Happy to say I got all my money refunded by making a charge back claim. It’s worth looking into if you’ve paid for something with a debt card and the goods are not delivered or as described.
Since we both had booked leave we decided to go camping at a local site we’ve stayed on a few times before, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent. The pitch was in a quiet woodland. The last couple of times we’ve gone it’s just been me and the missus. For years we’ve gone camping always with all or some of the kids. Three of them are adults now, and the youngest is 16. They are happy to stay at home and do their own thing. Mum and dad are happy to go without them.
The weather was okay. Raining when we arrived. Soon eased off and remained mostly dry for the rest of the time we were there.
We visited Bedgebury Pinetum (pronounced “py–nee–tum” (Latin for pine grove)), on Friday. Like an arboretum but mostly conifers. We walked round the Centenary Trail and the Well-being Trail. Nice way to spend a few hours on a sunny afternoon. We’ve been a few times before, the last being in the winter when they put on a Christmas light show through the trees. Well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area. You only pay for parking. Bring sandwiches and drinks though; the cafe prices are very expensive.
We had a camp fire, drank beer and ate crisps and sweets in the evening. I slept very well. No more sleeping mats on the ground for us. Enough of that when we had the kids with us. We bought a double camping bed a year or two ago. Thermarest mattress on top, a double sleeping bag and proper pillows. Temperature was just right. Nice and dark. Peace and quiet. It was great.
After a good nights sleep we had a bit of a lie in. Only mention this since I am normally up by 6 am. I think it was gone 9 am when I rolled out of bed on Saturday. We enjoyed a lazy day lounging about on site.
During the day I finished reading “I am Ozzy”, Ozzy Osbourne’s biography. I knew little about him when he was alive. Never listened to his music or watched the TV show. The first few chapters of the book that covered his family, childhood, education and early work life piqued my interest. The start of his music career was also good to read about. The tales of ‘crazy’ antics while on tour and being ’loaded’ on drugs and alcohol got a bit repetitive and boring. I think underneath all that was a man that loved and cared for his family but who felt compelled to play up and act out as a means to mask insecurities and avoid uncomfortable thoughts and emotions. He wrote about being himself and not giving a fuck what people thought. He knew what he didn’t want and worked hard to get what he did. I think he performed as a means to cope and quickly learned that doing so entertained and amused a particular audience. As I read it, it was not until the last decade of his life that he started to really feel okay with just being himself. Nothing very unusual about that but neither a forgone conclusion for any of us.
In the evening we went down to Hastings. Had dinner in a seafront chippy then went to “The Pig” a few doors along. “Humble Rumble” Sound System were playing out. A warm up before next weekends session alongside the mighty Aba Shanti I. It was a good evening. Happy, relaxed crowd of people. I had a go at taking some more pictures. Didn’t come way with any that were much good. It was a tricky venue to take pictures in. Low light, Alternating coloured spots, movement, and limited places to shoot from. Not to worry though. It’s all good practice. We were dancing about till around 1.00 am. Just a short drive of around 25 miles from Hastings back to the campsite. Tucked up in bed by about 2 am.
We had a slow start to Sunday. Another lie in. Breakfast turned into brunch. Spicy noodles with golden vegetable soup and boiled eggs. Tasty campsite food, easy to make, little washing up. We visited Bewl Water reservoir in the afternoon. Bit disappointing that the construction works which we thought were supposed to have been completed in 2024 were still ongoing. That meant we could not walk the full length of the top end which overlooks the reservoir but instead had to follow a path at the bottom of a retaining bank. Here the views are restricted and pretty much dominated on one side by a couple of large cranes and civil engineering installations. It started to rain a bit on the way back to the car. We stopped off for some munchies before getting back on site. The rain was short lived. I built another fire and we burned two big buckets of logs before going into the tent for an early night soon after 9.00 pm.