Part 2 of Day One Of Writing Any Old Thing
More things happened (when I was looking out for them)
Thursday 26th June. Later in the day.
I made green beans in the style whatever New York restaurant does green beans in a paper bag, except without the paper bag. It was from one of those high speed recipe videos that end up on on Instagram from TikTok. They were really nice- I cooked them for longer than the 2 minutes she recommended as they were too crunchy for me at that stage. Did the ice bath to stop them from continuing to cook themselves, but it felt like a waste of ice to me.
I’m worrying tonight my area might remain Tory, having overheard a conversation when I went to the shops. It went like this:
Woman: Do you have pumpkin seeds? My puppy is constipated
Shopkeeper: Yes, it will also help with worms
Woman: Oh really
Shopkeeper: Yes
Woman: Great. Did you see the leadership debate thingy?
Shopkeeper: I did…
Woman: Rushki got a few punches in. The other one didn’t have much to say…
Shopkeeper: Yeah, the other one is not up to the job…
Woman: Yeah
Shopkeeper: And this government have had a hard time with the pandemic, the war…Brexit wasn’t that bad though…
I felt annoyed and nearly left the shop but then I reasoned with myself that I can’t boycott anyone I disagree with and, anyway, where else sells kimchi around here?
Then I went and bought my nag champa cones to burn (an attempt to mask litter tray smell) and, as always, the server asked me, ‘you do realise these are back flow, don’t you?’ And I said, ‘yes’ and she said as usual, very seriously, ‘just as long as that’s what you want.’
(AL has actually bought me some incense back from India, but it’s in the back of their parents’ broken down electric car in Scotland, as it got left in there when it went to the garage. Luckily, my scarf, silky scrunchies and earrings made it back.)
Seeing the pics of AL’s family all out canvassing (for the SNP) I felt a pang of guilt yesterday at my lack of participation. Or rather a sense of revulsion that we might end up with Scott Mann again as our MP and I wouldn’t be able to say I at least tried to get him out (it’s been a whole year since he even bothered to ask a question in PMQs). So I emailed the North Cornwall Lib Dems (this is a Lib Dem target seat) to see if they need any help (even though I’d love to vote Green) but no one’s replied yet. Oh well, maybe I don’t mind if they don’t reply as maybe I only really contacted them to assuage my guilt and so I could say I tried. I did think surely Ben Maguire for LDs would win here this time but a walk around Bude earwigging has shaken my confidence on that front. And looking at it the Tories have increased their majority every time in the last five general elections.
Anyway, I’ve put on the Glastonbury coverage. I really like Annie Mac, especially her hair. And her clothes. Well, everything about her really.
Annie M is having lovely chats with Emily Eavis. I had no idea the backstage pyramid stage is powered by methane! And that the whole festival is powered by recycled vegetable oil!
Whilst I’m watching, an old uni friend Maddy is in touch with a photo of us there in 2009. That was the year me, her and Dom, my housemate at the time, got pagan married for a year and a day by jumping over a broom. It was a good marriage.
Emily Eavis has just said she was doing teacher training at Goldsmiths when her mum died and she came to start working with her Dad organising Glastonbury. She is amazing. She’s talking beautifully about the ethos that her parents instilled, how her mum used to take care of people in their garden, if they were overwhelmed and needed help, before they had a welfare tent.
She’s saying how they have one of the biggest recycling plants in Europe. Glastonbury Festival is a city, the same size as Bath and Oxford. Emily E says that she wants to transport what they do at Glastonbury out into the world, because if they can do it there, we can do it in full time cities.
And they talk about the delicate, teary loveliness of Sundays at Glastonbury. That’s my favourite day, the rawness of it. A great day for what was the Poetry and Words tent (now a big stage). Or singing in the Bare Necessities sauna. Or hearing unforgettable voices like those of Laura Marling or First Aid Kit.
MW’s daughter has come to stay for two nights as my house is near her work and I’ve just talked at her about Glasto memories, she was very patient and didn’t seem to mind at all. Me and El saw Kae Tempest last time I was there, 2017, mind-blowing, heart- melting stuff. The Flaming Lips. Oumou Sangare. 2016 I snuck in (we called it Operation Earthworm). 2009, Neil Young, the magic Bon Iver night. Florence when she was new. 2008, we saw elbow twice. Macartney, 2004. My first ever was 2003, my 21st birthday present, REM and Radiohead. I’ve never been quite the same since.
I want to vote for Glastonbury.