28th August - Fourth and final day of Greenbelt

I started my day with a trip to the internet cafe. Then came my final shift at the city of clay. The weather was very changeable so we were less busy than usual. After lunch, I sent a message to John to see where he was. I found out that he has already gone home as he only had a two-day ticket. I wish he'd told me that earlier! After another walk around the site I went to Centaur for the Martyn Joseph gig. It was very good. The songs were interspersed with Stuart Hendersen's poems. I was particularly touched by the song "Turn me tender again". I left early to go to the Iona reunion. There was quite a good turnout and the talk from a member of the Iona community was interesting. I also discovered that there's an Angels Day in Leeds in February which I hope to go to. After tea, I went to the Performance Cafe to see "Note for a Child" who were pretty good. I went to pick up my free seminar CD and noticed that there was no-one on the seminar recording team that I knew.
I returned to mainstage for Candi Staton and met up with John and Fiona who were both pleased to see me. The concert was great. We stayed to see Michael Franti and Spearhead too. That was surprisingly good although it is not my usual taste in music.
After the gig we went to the beer tent to claim our free drinks. We met Pip Wilson there and a girl called Katy who was once on the seminar recording team. John and Fiona have had an interesting festival working for the press office. They have been fortunate enough to meet lots of speakers and artistes.
In all this was a good festival - highlights included Courtney Pine, Sunday communion , Martyn Joseph and of course the Iona reunion.

27th August - Third day of Greenbelt

I met up with John on the way to the festival site and we went to the service together. I enjoyed the service -there was a good variety of songs from all over the world. We joined with John D's group for communion which was well organised.
After the service I went to Simon Mayo's quiz. It was hilarious especially the mimes. After lunch I went to Centaur to see Cathy Burton - she has a lovely gentle voice. I then went to see something very different - the Ukulele Orchestra - they played everything from Nirvana to Gerge Formby. After this I made my way over to the grandstand where I met up with Ann and Christine. We listened to John Bell's talk on Heaven. That certainly gave us plenty to think about. After tea of veggie chow mein I went to work. We were less busy tonight. Had the opportunity to see what the clay village looks like when it is lit up. After work I met up with John in the bar foyer as the bar was too noisy and there was a big crowd blocking the entrance. He said he wanted to go to a talk on the Narnia chronicles,but I was too tired for that so I went to see Lies Damned Lies instead. The music was mellow and the ideal way to end the day.

26th August - Second day of Greenbelt

I managed to get to the Wild Goose worship this morning. They have joined up with Christian Aid again and the theme of this morning's woship was slavery. It was a powerful and moving service. After having a wander around the stalls, I went on to work at the City of Clay. We were very busy - the city is starting to grow fast. I saw my friends Dave and Sue who are here with their children and their friends.
After lunch I went to see Courtney Pine in Centaur. He was amazing - the best thing I've seen so far. I then decided to go to the Performance Cafe where I saw Phil Campbell and Brigitte Amofah who were both very good.
I then checked the programme and saw that there was a salsa workshop on in the Grandstand in one of the lounges. I ended up helping the teacher to demonstrate some moves - it was good fun. As I made my way to mainstage I met up with John W. Apparently there's quite a few people from 25 plus here. We went to the bar where we met Camille and Ursula who are stewarding. I also met Adrian ( a good friend from Crumpsall) and we had a good chat about the day so far. I went back to mainstage with John and the girls but we weren't impressed by Daniel Bedingfield. We therefore returned to the bar where we met up with Sarah and Jo. The disco was playing 80s music tonight so we had a dance. We stayed until just after midnight and then walked back.

25th August - First day of Greenbelt

I had a good train journey down to Cheltenham today. After unpacking, I went straight to the City of Clay tent and helped to make buildings. Steve, one of the Arts team managers taught us the best way to make clay models. Apparently it's better to mould everthing out of one piece of clay and not to stick pieces together.
I checked the programme and found that Robin's concert clashes with Martyn Joseph, but decided to go anyway as MJ is singing on Monday too. I enjoyed the concert more than I expected especially the piano music. I then went straight to mainstage and managed to catch Martyn's last two songs and his now infamous swearing! After that came Maria Mc Kee who was very good. She did quite a few Lone Justice songs. I then went over to Last orders which is now in Centaur. This is a less intimate venue than usual, but at least everyone fits in. I saw Cara Dillon who has a beautiful voice and also heard Jackie Pullinger's interview. At about midnight I decided to go back to Pitville rather than risk falling asleep.

21st August - Modern Jive Class

Tonight's class was a good one. My Jewish friend , Jackie (from salsa class) came down early for a change with another friend from salsa class who is also called Jackie. It was good to have some girl friends to sit with. The beginners lesson was quite complicated for a change. The moves we did were Wurlitzer, Catapult, Hatchback and Shoulder slide. The intermediate class was also quite hard -it included a Wurlitzer switch which was fun and my first seducer(!)Before anyone gets the wrong idea, a seducer is move where a guy drops you back and you lean on him. I managed to do it a couple of times without losing my balance so that's one more thing I've learnt.
Tonight was the best class I've been to so far. I got to know quite a few people's names and I learnt a lot of dance moves.

18th August - Sad news

I had a phone call from Brenda tonight to say that Ros Walker had died. She has had leukaemia for several months now. Recently she had been making good progress but she took a turn for the worse earlier this week. My heart goes out to her husband, Jeff and daughter Charlotte. Ros may have been small but she had a big impact on many lives, especially the young people that were in our Sunday club and Youth Club that she and Jeff used to run.

15th August - Salsa Class

Les and Lorraine led the salsa class tonight. They said they had a really great time in Cuba. Predictably, the class was a lot busier tonight. In the improvers class we learnt a rueda move called "Setenta" - a relatively complex move. In the intermediate class we learnt a little routine which I assume is something they put together using moves they learnt in Cuba. Sue - the instructor we had whilst Les and Lorraine were on holiday joined us - it was good to see her again.

11th August - Meal at IKAN

I met up with Debbie, Brian and Alan K at Yates tonight. It was nice to find that the place was relatively quiet. Alan said that we were going to IKAN on Sackville Street for our meal. He has recommended the place to us several times before so I was pleased that we were finally going to find out what it's really like. When we arrived the place didn't look busy. The menu was fairly short compared with some other Chinese restaurants I've been to. We all had different starters - I had sesame prawn toasts which were really good. For main course I had Chicken with Honey and Ginger. There was quite a strong ginger flavour which I quite liked. Debbie was very happy with her main course - she said it was the best Chow mein she'd had. I'm surpised the place wasn't busier as the food was of a high standard. Alan says they tend to be busier at lunchtime.
After the meal we went off to the "Lass O' Gowrie" for a drink. To my knowledge this pub offers more varities of Malt Whisky than any other in the city centre. I felt it would be wrong not to have one so I had a Talisker. It rounded off a good evening.

8th August - Salsa class

Tonight we had our second week with our stand-in instructors, Carmel and Sue.
There was no sign of some the regulars i.e. Paul, Kevin and Kay. The first lesson was a bit disappointing as we didn't learn an awful lot. The second one was better as we actually learnt a little routine and we did some rueda too. In all I think this spell without Les and Lorraine has gone better than the last one, mainly due to the fact that Sue is a good teacher. I look forward to next week when the class is busy again.

7th August - Modern Jive Class

There was no sign of Maureen again tonight, but I did see someone who recognised me as having been there on Saturday. We agreed that Prestwich is a better venue than Hyde. The moves in the beginners class tonight were Yo-Yo, Catapult, Basic and Manspin. Once again that means one new move - I learnt the proper way to do the Yo-Yo. Moves in the second class included basket flamenco which was complicated. I did notice though that going on Saturday made tonight's class a little easier.

6th August - Morning service at MCC

I arrived early at church this morning so that I had plenty of time to sort things out before the service. Unfortunately we did have a bit of a problem with the microphones. Despite this it all went well and we received lots of good feedback.
I even managed to cope with a last minute addition to the prayers from Joan during the last hymn.
Now that I've led two services I feel better about doing it again as I will probably have to do in the future.

5th August - Jive Night at Hyde

I finally managed to get hold of Sheila today and found she isn't going to Greenbelt this year so I'll be on my own for a change. I bought my train tickets this morning and found that I will have to get an early train which is good as I won't be in such a rush to get to work.
I had a call from Eddy this morning to say he was going dancing at Hyde Town Hall tonight. He seemed quite happy to let me join him. We arrived there at about 8.30pm just in time for the lesson which was good fun. There was a beach theme so most of the men were in tropical print shirts. I recognised a few people from the Prestwich class. I also saw Sue from 25 plus who said she needed to get some practice in before she goes to Turkey at the end of the month. After the lesson I had quite a few dances which was good fun. I also learnt a few new moves. I was very glad I went. I'm sure it was more fun than the pub night.

1st August - Salsa Class

Les and Lorraine (our usual teachers) are on holiday in Cuba for a fortnight so we have some other teachers for this week and next week. Their names are Carmel and Sue.
Carmel helped out last year when Les and Lorraine were on holiday but I've not met Sue before. There weren't many men in the first class so we did dancing in threes - i.e. one man with two partners. I thought it was quite fun, but Kevin (one of our regulars) wasn't too keen. I expect he'll got to Copacabana for a lesson next week.
The second class was Rueda (dancing in a wheel formation). We revised all the moves we learnt a while back and it was good fun. I look forward to learning new Rueda moves next week.