Today is our Ruby Wedding Anniversary. We're not planning any wild celebrations, just a trip out to the pub tonight. We'll maybe have a fancier meal later in the year, when we're somewhere a bit better supplied with fancy restaurants than Burton (it really is a pub town still).
Meantime, all I can say is that my life divides into two parts, the first 18 years before Sheila and I were together, and the last 43, including a long engagement at Uni, when we've been inseparable. I don't know what I did in the first 18 to deserve the last 43...
;)
There are no dramas to report from yesterday, just a satisfying level of progress, so I guess I'll let the photos do the talking again:
 |
| Motorised marking |
This photo is a bit blurry, as it was taken from some distance by a phone camera; my thanks to Judy Hanchet for it. It shows Chris marking out the campsite with the aid of his wife's mobility scooter. That's not a moustache, by the way, it's a pen in his mouth.
 |
| Premier skeleton |
The marquees are again being supplied by what's now
Northern Event Structures. They are very good, and have a fast erection team. This is the skeleton of the Premier Marquee in place. By the end of the day it was covered and floored.
A lot of stuff happened in the wrg compound, getting it ready for the weekend's incursion of the main wrg camp.
 |
| Eating marquee |
The eating marquee is nearly ready, with all the trestle tables installed and covered in poly.
 |
| Adding the fridge annex |
The kitchen cabin has an annex attached to the back, to hold the fridges and freezers. It's stored in flat pack form in the Tardis; here the guys are roofing it in heavy poly canvas.
 |
| Activity outside the eating marquee |
For many years, Moose was a leading red shirt. Quite rightly, he plays down the distinction between red shirts (wrgies) and blue (Festival volunteers) but strictly speaking he's a blue shirt these days, as Site Director.
Some might say,therefore, that this is a typical picture, the red shirts in the background are working, and the blue shirt disguised as a red shirt in front is having a sit down.
 |
| Sleeping marquee |
I can't remember another camp (and this is our eighth) where the sleeping marquee has been ready in such good time. It's been floored and carpeted, and all it needs now is the blown hot air heater installed.
 |
| Veg team take a break |
They worked through to Horninglow yesterday. Here they are taking a break, well deserved in view of their efforts.
 |
| An example of the work |
The householder whose garden is behind this tree has been asking BW to trim it back for him for years. They quoted him £800 to do it; it took the veg team maybe half an hour.
This raises an interesting question. In the early spring, the heavy scrub along the embankment where the workers' boats are tied had to be cleared off before the birds started nesting. BW gave IWA £600 towards the cost, and IWA then hired contractors at a cost of £1600 to do the work.
Wrg has a skilled forestry team, for whom this would have been a couple of weekends' work. Why weren't they used? That way, IWA could have kept the £600. I'll try and find out the answer (there may well be one, I just don't know it).
 |
| Horninglow basin |
This is where the Friday night Illuminated Parade will turn round, and good luck to 'em, say I. I could just about wind
Sanity here, (she is 60'), but I wouldn't like to try the same with
Sanity Again at 70.
 |
| Granny Buttons |
This is the boat which has starred in so many
blog posts by Andrew Denny. That space alongside is technically the winding hole and access to the service block. What you can't see is the bridge hole behind the camera that makes it amazingly difficult to swing into or out of the slot.
That's it for today; more tomorrow when I sober up ;).
