Reading Festival

Reading Festival this year was fantastic. Will & I, Steve & Kate, Ben Browning, & my friend Claire & her sister Laura had tickets for the whole weekend (although Will missed the Friday as he was still in Helsinki). Annabel came for the Friday, & Willem & his friend Tanya joined us for the Saturday. We were extremely lucky with the weather, the worst we got was a small amount of very very light rain on the Saturday night. It was also dry for the few days before the festival, so the fields were really good. It can be an absolute mud bath there... We were spoilt for choice for entertainment inside the arena. We had the main stage, the big NME/Radio 1 stage inside a huge tent, the lock-up stage playing heavy stuff, which turned into the dance tent on the Sunday, the small Festival Republic tent, & the even smaller BBC introducing stage. If you wanted a break from the music there was also the alternative stage which mostly had comedians playing.

The main draw on the Friday night was Rage Against the Machine who were pretty amazing. I saw the beginning & end of their set, & in between went to the NME tent to watch Babyshambles. It was a miracle that Pete Doherty 1. actually managed to turn up, & 2. was remarkably coherent! They actually put on a really good show. Other Friday highlights were Dizzee Rascal, who was extremely entertaining, The Wombats, & The Fratelli's.

Saturday night Will & I were in early to catch Collapsing Cities, who are a very very cool up & coming kiwi band, who were first on one of the small stages. They were awesome, & being so early in the day, it was really quiet & we could get right to the front, as seen in the photo below! If you fancy a listen to them, check out their myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/collapsingcities

Saturday was pretty full on, as there were loads of good bands playing. The Automatic were on the main stage pretty early & put on a great show. The Ting Tings were cool, but they were followed by Seasick Steve who, if the crowd reaction was anything to go by, was one of the hits of the festival with his brand of unique American blues. He really is worth a listen at http://www.myspace.com/seasicksteve The Killers were headlining the main stage Saturday night & they were fantastic & had the thousands singing along to their big hits. Will decided against the Killers & instead listened to Manic Street Preachers who were headlining the second stage. He thoroughly enjoyed them.

Sunday was a bit more chilled out as there were less bands that we were desperate to see. We bought a Sunday paper on the way in & had a lovely day reading it as we listened to various acts. I enjoyed the Plain White T's of 'Hey there Delilah' fame, it's a gorgeous song. Will & I both loved Cage the Elephant, which totally rocked the Festival Republic stage. I reckon they will get pretty huge in the not too distant future. The next highlight was Tenacious D, who put on a hilarious show with their 'comedy rock' For those that don't know, Tenacious D consists of Hollywood 'star' Jack Black of School of Rock fame, & a mate of his called Kyle Gass. They were very very entertaining! You can just about see Gass on the screen in the photo above performing dressed as a lizard (don't ask...). Following Tenacious D we swapped stages for The Last Shadow Puppets. This is the side project of Arctic Monkey's lead singer Alex Turner & the Rascal's Miles Kane, & they were absolutely brilliant. Finally it was down to Metallica to end the weekend in style. They put on a show worthy of one of the worlds biggest rock bands, complete with huge noise & fireworks. It was mind blowing! Will chose to end his weekend in the dance tent with Claire & Laura listening to CSS who he really enjoys. All in all it was a fantastic weekend, & I'm looking forward to next years festival already! Pre-sale tickets are released tomorrow morning...

After all the excesses of the weekend, & pretty much being on the go from midday to midnight for each of the 3 days, it was a good thing for Will that today was a Bank Holiday! We didn't end up getting out of bed until nearly midday, as we caught up on much needed sleep. I had rugby training tonight & wasn't really in any fit state for it, but due to the public holiday there were only 5 of us there. We did a bit of light fitness for an hour or so before calling it a day... This is now my last week of holidays, so I plan on making the most of them.

Home Alone

This morning I dropped Will off at Heathrow, as he is attending a conference in Helsinki, Finland for 2 nights. Something to do with robots & emotions I believe... More accurately, he drove to the airport as it was 7:30am & I was barely awake, then I returned the car home. He is presenting his paper tomorrow & I'm sure it will go well. He has been flat out at work lately & working some long nights, so this should be quite a nice little mini-break for him as he is one of the first people to present, & then he'll be able to relax a bit.

I enjoyed my rugby training tonight. We had a BBC crew filming us, as one of our players is featuring in a Horizon documentary that is currently being made. A neighbour had invited me round for dinner, but I said I would pop in after training for a glass of wine. Steve & Kate were also there so it was really nice catching up with them after their 2-week holiday in St Kitts.

This weekend is Reading festival, & Will & I, along with Steve & Kate & a few others from school have tickets. It is always a great weekend. Main headliners this year are Rage against the machine on Friday night, The Killers on Saturday night, & Metallica on the Sunday. I am also looking forward to The Fratellis, The Editors, The Plain White T's, & a kiwi band called Collapsing Cities.

Right, it is far too late & my bed calls. A super-king 4-poster is an awful lot of bed for just one person! Not that I can really complain, Will had 4 weeks of being home alone, & I've only got 2 nights...

By the way, I am now officially on Skype, & enjoyed a lovely long chat with my bro in Hong Kong yesterday. My username is lydia.browne so add me to your contacts & give me a bell!

The Nichol wedding

My first week back in the UK has gone very well. I've settled into a rather pleasant routine of getting up when Will leaves for work (about 9am), feeding the Abery's cat whom we are minding while they are on holiday, watching an hour or two of Olympics over a leisurely breakfast, going to the gym, having lunch, possibly doing a bit of housework, & then thinking about what to cook my lovely husband for dinner. Yes, I know, it all sounds terribly domesticated, but I'm loving being a housewife! I've got another two weeks of it to go as well... Every now & then I break the routine, for instance I had a great afternoon of shopping in town on Thursday! Yesterday was Scottie & Sarah's wedding, which was a lovely day/evening. We drove down Portsmouth way around midday & dumped our stuff in the hotel. We then carried on to a stately home type place called Cam's Hall where the ceremony took place. Scottie was so nervous, bless him, & Sarah kept him waiting a bit as well... As some of you know, he is such an emotional guy, & at times we weren't sure if he'd be able to get the words out he was so choked up. Never the less, he managed to do the deed, & Bearwood now has Mr S. Nichol as head of maths, & Mrs S. Nichol as head of science! After the ceremony we dumped the cars back at the hotel & continued on to the reception at Pine Trees, Sarah's parents lovely home. There was a marquee set up in the extensive gardens & we enjoyed an excellent buffet meal. If we thought Scottie was bad during the ceremony, his speech was another matter all together, but he finally managed to get through it amongst the tears, & there was no doubt that every word was spoken from the heart! After the formalities another crowd of people from school arrived, & a good night was had by all.

Back in the UK

Our whole group very much enjoyed our last night in luxury at our 5 star hotel. It really was an impressive effort on the kids behalf to save that much money from the budget. Another group we spoke to ran out of money right near the end & didn't have any for food on their last day! A couple of other world challenge groups had heard on the grapevine that we were staying in the Meridian & were VERY jealous! My last day in Kota Kinabalu was spent wandering the markets picking up a few odds & ends to take home, & lounging by the hotel pool, over-looking the South China sea.

We weren't flying until 7pm on Friday, & had arranged a late check-out from the hotel. This meant another few hours swimming & lounging, & enjoying the sunshine for one last time. The kids had organised taxis to pick us up at 4:30pm, & we got to the airport without any hassle.

Our flights home went without a hitch. We flew into KL first of all where I picked up some dirt cheap Bacardi & Bombay Sapphire gin, less than half the price of what it costs in the UK. We only had an hour or so in transit before the long flight home... I didn't manage much sleep, but managed to pass the time watching some movies & chilling out. We flew Malaysian Airlines, & the service was impeccable.

Our flight touched down nearly an hour early, & due to it being 5am in the morning, we got our baggage & cleared customs quickly. Some of the parents hadn't checked that the flight was early, so Ric & I had to wait around for a bit until all the kids had been collected. The parents were very appreciative of Ric & I giving up 4 weeks of our summer holidays to make the trip happen, & they had had a collection amongst themselves & given us a generous cash gift each.

Ric & I got the Railair bus to Reading, & Will picked us up from the station. It was lovely to see him after 4 weeks away! Saturday was bit of a write-off as I was pretty shattered. Will cooked a nice dinner of steak, & fresh beans & courgettes from the garden, which has grown like mad since I've been away!

Today has also been very quiet, & I'm nearly over my jet-lag & feeling relatively normal... I'm looking forward to the next 3 weeks before I head back to school.

By the way, I have now gone through all my Borneo posts & added photos if you wish to check them out...

Sepilok & Mt Kinabalu

On Friday we had a 5 & a half bus journey to Sepilok. We stayed for 2 nights at the very nice Sepilok jungle resort, which had a lovely lake & grounds. On Saturday we visited the orang-utans at the Sepilok rehabilitation centre. We went to both the 10am & 3am feeding, & it was very very cool. They really are the most amazing creatures. The ones at the centre have been rescued from all over Sabah, either because they are orphans, or some people are keeping them as illegal pets & the centre is tipped off. After several years of rehabilitation & being taught to fend for themselves, some of them are eventually released back into the wild. On Sunday we travelled to the Mt Kinabalu park HQ, where world challenge had really pushed the boat out & booked us into some gorgeous luxury chalets. It seems to be a case of booking whatever is available at the time, because other world challenge groups we came across said that they stayed in dorms! We had an amazing buffet dinner there, I was in heaven with unlimited beef & chicken satay sticks! I'd hate to think how many I managed to get down... The whole time at Park HQ you were aware of the mountain looming over you... Monday morning we started our climb. It took us just over 5 hours to reach Laban Rata, our rest-house for the night at just over 3000m. Despite the altitude, & the 2700 steps, I actually felt good & quite enjoyed the climb. We had an early dinner at the hut, before retiring to bed at around 7pm for whatever rest we could manage. It was a lovely view out over the valley, & we had a gorgeous sunset as well. At 2:30am we were up & ready for our summit bid. Unfortunately Ric wasn't feeling at all well. He had been up most of the night & was in a lot of discomfort with suspected giardia. I was in the bunk next to him & also didn't get much sleep because I was concerned for him. He stayed down at Laban Rata, along with 2 other kids who for various reasons weren't up for the climb.

An hour into the climb we had another two kids go down with stomach problems, & they were so uncomfortable they were not able to carry on any further. One of our two mountain guides walked them back down to Ric at the hut, while the rest of us carried on. One by one the majority of us, including myself, started to also have tummy trouble. We had chronic diarrhea, & when the urge came, we REALLY needed to go! Myself, & one of the kids were the only ones who had bought loo roll up with us, & it ended up being a very precious commodity!!! We blame the previous nights dinner at Laban Rata. We carried on however, & it was not long before we cleared the vegetation zone.
Once above the treeline we were on an impressive rock face. From here to the summit was a series of fixed ropes to haul yourself up with. Anywhere in the western world you would have to have helmets & full climbing harnesses, but here you just pulled yourself up hand over hand in the steep bits. We got to 4000m, & 2 of the 3 girls decided that that was it for them. We stuck them in a group shelter, & carried on the short distance to the summit. Just before the final uphill slog our world challenge leader decided that she couldn't go on any further, so that just left myself, & 7 kids out of our party of 16 to make it all the way to the top. At 4095m on the highest mountain in South-East Asia it felt pretty great! We missed seeing the sunrise on the summit due to the medical problems we had along the way, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we had the summit all to ourselves, bar another party of 3. After the obligatory snaps to record the moment, we climbed down & returned to Laban Rata for breakfast. After breakfast we continued all the way down the mountain & back to park HQ for a late lunch. We then caught a bus back to Kota Kinabalu & our hostel, where absolutely shattered we showered & got an early night.

Today was a much needed day of R&R, & a group of us caught the ferry to one of the islands in the marine national park just off KK. We had a lovely day lazing on the beach & swimming in the warm tropical waters. Tomorrow is our last full day in Borneo, & because the group have been frugal & saved loads of money on their budget, they have accumulated enough money to spend our last night in the country in the Meridien, the poshest 5 star hotel in KK! Understandably they (& us staff) are very excited! We fly back to the UK on Friday evening, arriving Saturday morning local time. I am very much looking forward to being reunited with my lovely husband.

Kota Kinabalu

We flew from Miri into Kota Kinabalu in Sabah on Wednesday. It was an early morning flight, & Ric had made the mistake of having a beer (or 10!) with Sampson, the extremely hard-case in-country agent for Sarawak on the Tuesday night. He loves his drink, & likes nothing more than taking World Challenge leaders out on the town. He was brilliant, he knows everyone worth knowing in Sarawak, & was a mine of information. Anyway, I was sharing a room with Ric & he eventually made it back just before midnight! I was dull & boring & decided to stay in for the night...

KK seems an OK place, we spent yesterday afternoon wandering around. It has some great handicraft markets down on the waterfront where I'll relieve myself of any remaining ringgits before I leave. It is a lot more touristy, & hence more expensive than Sarawak.

Today we went white-water rafting, although white water was in rather short supply. The kids had booked a grade 2 river trip, because the grade 3 was a bit more expensive. It was very tame really, but still a nice day out on the water. We had a glorious day for it weather-wise, & got to do lots of swimming in the river which was lovely. The highlight was a superb BBQ lunch at the finish.

For those that don't know how World Challenge works, the kids are given a budget which covers all their living costs for the 4 weeks in the country, with only R&R activities excluded. We picked up all the money for the trip in sterling at Heathrow airport before we left, & they have been changing it as they go. They have been really frugal with the group funds, & have saved over 300 quid on their budget so far. They have done some extensive research, & have decided they have enough funds to stay in the flashest 5-star hotel in KK in their last night in the country!!! Bring it on! Ric & I bought with us just over 600 pounds which they fundraised before the trip, & that is enough to pay for all their R&R activites like the rafting today, & a boat trip out to the islands just before we go home.

Tomorrow we are off to Sepilok to visit the famous Orang-utan sanctuary. We stay their 2 nights before heading to Mt Kinabalu National park to take on the mighty mountain. We have 3 more days to chill out in KK when we get back, & then we fly home Friday week. I really can't believe how fast this trip is going!