So we went to the Music Festival on the weekend,  the QT’s, myself and QT1’s friend.  Not a camping event but one with bands (mostly local) on both days from midday.  On Saturday we went on the bus and the weather was sunny and warm.  The music was passable (outside stage,  marquee stage,  bandstand and indoor stage so plenty of choice).  On Sunday the weather was awful,  tipping rain most of the day.  So I drove in.  Luckily the onstreet parking charges are not levied on Sundays.  But the music was awesome!

Myself and QT2 were particularly impressed by the mod/Madness cover band and spent over an hour “skanking” and stomping to our hearts’ content.  Along with plenty of others.  I was also one of about 80% of the people who knew all the words to most of the songs!  It did help that this one was indoors but the tipping rain didnt stop us stomp/skanking to a ska band outside for about 45 minutes either (its a wonder we haven’t all got pneumonia).  I just love the whole hippy feel to festivals,  wear what you like,  do what you like and no-one judges you.  If you want to jump around and wave your arms about to weird and wonderful bands that’s ok!

Work is manic this week and even more so because I need to clear my desk by tomorrow evening so we can go down to Devon for our annual jaunt with partner’s friends from rugby (that’s a few years ago) and their families/kids.  The kids,  certainly when they were younger,  tend to amuse themselves in groups so at least there is some restful time on the beach.  The lads are still ok for dam digging or similar and a huge touch rugby match with the fathers (all of them old enough to know better and probably way too old for rugby) but the girls are struggling now that they are older to find things to do on a beach except sleep or be bored and I am inclined to agree with that.  But at least it gets me away from the office and this year I shall turn the phone off so that I literally cannot be contacted because sometimes it is very stressful trying to conduct matters from a distance when one is supposed to be having a rest.  Partner will still answer police station calls,  however!

Weather here is distinctly depressing at present,  about 6 degrees below what it should be and constant heavy showers.  It had better be better down in the South West!  Still the weather often does improve drastically as we drive down and it is always several degrees warmer down there.

Sorry not got anything exciting to talk about just now,  will perhaps blog from holiday.  Also I promise faithfully to get QT1 the computer whizzkid to upload pictures of my hand made greetings cards and some photographs to make this whole experience more pleasant.

PS Tonight the recipe is sausage and bean casserole.  I am cheating a little with some kind of packet sauce mix for the flavouring but usually I just fry or oven cook the sausages until part cooked and browned together with chopped up onions (maybe 1 large or 2-3 small).  I chuck them in a casserole dish with baked beans (1-2 tins), 1 tin of butter beans (or maybe canneloni beans), 1-2 tins of chopped tomatoes,  2 table spoons of tomato puree, salt and pepper to season to taste.  If this seems too thick add a little pork or chicken stock (make up a stock pot is acceptable!).  I think it takes around 30 to 40 minutes to cook on 180 degrees (fan),  all you need to check is that the sausages are thoroughly cooked through and everything else is piping hot.  Stir it half way through whatever cooking time you have in mind just so it doesn’t stick.  Sorry but I don’t usually work in exact timings for this kind of dish as different sausages take different times (skinless ones will cook a lot quicker than massive thick butchers ones) and different dishes also affect the timing.  I hope this helps.