We were caught in the heavy rain, floods and subsequent mud, working at music festival in beautiful woodlands near Reading last weekend. We were lucky that we were not at risk of our homes or lives being taken. However at times we thought we could lose all the stock from the stall, or that the lake we were next to, which was rapidly rising, could take our vehicles. Fortunately we had brought a spade with us, so could dig channels for the water to flow to the lake. This spade was in hot demand and meant that we received lots of gifts from grateful stall holders who borrowed it, in the form of hot chai & cake etc! We also managed to build a floating straw bridge to our stall (which felt just like the floating islands at Lake Titicaca to walk on) Apart from loving the comfort of our little caravan more and more, we were so uplifted by the good vibes of the 15,000 or so people at the festival, that we had loads of fun, and it felt quite heavenly! There we were sloshing about with mud almost to the tops of our wellies in places, and we couldn't have been happier. Just goes to show you can have a great time almost anywhere with friends old & new and people on a good vibe/similar wavelength.
On the flip side of this, I didn't see one of my friends at the festival, and when I spoke to her afterwards, expecting to share happy tales, I was surprised to hear that she had had a 'nightmare of a time', partly due to having no where comfortable to sleep, but mainly due to the people she had met and the events that occured (including a friend in hospital and bullies working as security) – human qi.
