Are you a girl?... No, I'm Darth Maul

Spent the day challenging sexism. It seems that 5 year olds can't cope with a female Sith Lord!!

Up fairly early for a cold shower. Whilst the tarpaulin plan worked (creating a cubicle around the rear doors) the solar powered part didn't. Late afternoon showers would be best methinks, as then the water has had time to warm up! Still, better than nothing. And I left my undies on just in case there was another Norwich Camping style incident.

Perfect timing with breakfast.. my Banjo was ready the exact moment Ma called to say they were at the gate. First time Chalkie hasn't driven.. I guess they had to come in the Golf really! Also predictable was the request for tea on arrival. Also shouldn't be suprised that Ma thinks I am useless and brought her own tea, sugar and milk!

Wandered over to the arena to check out show n shine and find out about the fancy dress competition. Had a morning of misinformation and being sent to ask other people. The Norwich SW club knew nothing about a competition but told me to get dressed up and come join them anyway. Went to where Face Painting was the day before. No-one there. Wandered round the whole show, even bumping into the woman that had done it Saturday. Eventually found it.. right next to the SW stand. Grrr. Meanwhile Chalkie got these photos...

More ideas for Bumble, the Ruby T4 was nicely done inside (and cool Animal sign) and the paintwork on the Beetle was awesome, the black was all sparkly. If ever I save the money, then a respray, with sparkly massive autobot face on the side.

The face painting lady did an awesome job on mine. She refused to do my ears etc though so I had to do it myself. She was convinced I'd have black ears for a month! The chief SW guy came looking for me, wondering where I'd got to. Rushed back to the van for the rest of the kit. Amazed at how well Ma's rain mac works as a Sith robe. Yep, she's lost that now!

The SW guys were so, so lovely. I tentatively approached the back of their stand, and immediately got grabbed by a friendly Stormtrooper and dragged round the front to pose. He was ace, had a lovely chat with him while people took photos.

Predictably, it wasn't long before a kid asked if they could have a fight with me, and predictably it wasn't long before I was on the ground getting beaten up by a whole crowd of them.

You know you are too much of a SW fan when you get scared when some bloke just dressed as Darth Vader walks past!

Found out later he is a lovely guy. We chatted about finding duvet covers on ebay and he told me about how he bought and made his helmet. You have to be 7ft to be Vader... the helmet weighed a tonne! I thought I was hot in my costume.. but those guys must have boiled! Especially Chewie! Was really weird having parents come up and ask me if they could have a photo with their child. Had a fabulous time playing.. although my lightsaber skills got shown up by a couple of fab kids.. the force was strong with them! Amazing how many of the little kids had a real problem with me being a girl though. Depressing that even dressed as a lightsaber weilding evil Sith Lord I still get "are you a girl?"

The line up for the Fancy Dress competition..

Moment of dread when I thought I was going to lose in a Star Wars fancy dress competition... to Ali G! In the end I was second. Stupid crowd cheering for the kid. Just cause he is small. Grrrr.

Felt so embarrassed having to pose with my 20 quid prize money!

Lol!! how can I still look so stupid under all that make up??!

Pops got some pics of the festival atmosphere, and weather! Loved this Camper coffee stand. I think me and Ems should jack in our jobs and start 'T4 Teas'. 

Chalkie's friends Steve and Alison also came down for the day. Alison sneaked up behind me while I was in a queue and said "Aren't you a little old to be getting your face painted?"Oh, and Darth a little less scary in a balaclava!!!

Next the 'arty' shots I attempted...

Dub fans start young...

Off to Cromer?

Well.. we were. Got kicked off the campsite by security at 5. After he helped Pops take the valve off the gas bottle. Took longer to decide what to do next than it did to pack up camp. Decided to go to Cromer as it was closest, and I was starving. So, played with the new paddle ball bats on the beach. Pretty hopeless as it was windy. Then off to Mary Janes for chips. Lots of people stared (still had Darth Maul head) and one old lady asked! Mum played her favourite game of walking 3m behind me, watching people's faces. Worryingly she also plays this game when I am not dressed up. Back home on the A47, bit less than 3 hours. End of a fantastic weekend.

My banjo exploded

Nice lie in, until the hot sun forced me out of the sleeping bag. Nowhere near as bad as hot tent though! I fear it may be time to retire the sleeping bag I bought when I was 17.. was cold during the night. That or I need to just Man Up!!

Baby wipe wash, board shorts and factor 50 on, leisurely breakfast. My exploding egg banjo exploded.. all over my shorts and leg. Spent a large amount of the day chilling in my new sofa (the daddy of camping chairs hehe, bargain from the Go Outdoors extra 15%off weekend) and reading Run Baby Run.

The most exciting event of the morning was the arrival of Ems' dream Camper...

Wandered over to the arena around midday. Wanted to catch a guy who was on last night, he was great, just him and a guitar. Did loads of indie covers, and a great effort with a loop pedal. The bluegrass band (Hayley Moyses) were excellent. So good I ended up buying the CD. Was hilarious listening to Wonderwall and Teenage Kicks and the like done with fast picking and fiddles! Back to camp for grub, more reading, more Radio 2 on my tesco bargain iPod dock, and a chat to Pops about gas bottles. Then back to the arena for more bands. Bought a retro Tilley stove, mainly for the small gas bottle with it. Should be able to carry it up all the stairs. Luckily the rest of the traders stands where not nearly as full of temptations as those at the Stopover! Think I will just be very skint all summer! Oh well. As the owner of the Rat Split behind me said "you'll never be rich owning one of these", and "its Smiles per gallon".

Highlight of the afternoon was the white works T5 leaving, meaning Bumble was now camped next to Cassie, my favourite from Stopover..

Made a small start on the bumper, to see if the cleaning stuff Pops found makes much difference..

It does. Tea, then back over for more bands. Guy beatboxing was amazing. Next band were ok. The Ska Face. Seems to be some link between Dubs and Ska. Great for crazy dancing. Good fun. Was the only person watching the fire display tonight. Back through the spooky trees.. "oooh very Harry Potter". Have asked for a replacement Maglite for my birthday! More hot choc and more P and P :-)

Dubs at the Hall

Not at school again. I really do wonder how I have time to go to work normally! Am I just gifted at filling time? I guess I have had a hell of a lot of practice at 'keeping busy'.

Ems stayed over. Chatted till midnight last night. Still up early for run. Brief stop while I said cheerio to Em, who had a conference on campus with John Evans. Two more brief stops when the fan fell onto the treadmill almost wiping me out. At some point during the run this happened to my red arms (Warning: gross alert.. look away now).

Wasted a lot of time popping blisters and peeling skin while I should have been packing. Sorry, sick I know. Went out to wash Bumble. The nice neighbour came over and asked if I knew what had been going on. It turns out that 8 police officers, with GUNS!!, had come into my block at about 7:30 that morning. How did I miss that?? I texted Em, and she nonchalantly replied "Oh yeah, there were two on the stairs when I left, they said I was a silent assassin". Seems I am the last to know anything interesting round here!

Anyway, lots of packing, tidying, checking Go Outdoors prices against online, parcel collecting, last minute costume shopping and faffing later I was ready to leave. An hour later than planned. I'm gonna have to get slick at this for fast getaways after work. This delay messed up plans to find a pub to watch the World Cup game in. Plus I realised that Andy Murray was playing his Wimbledon semi final at the same time, so it was doubtful any pub would show women's footy instead of that. Luckily I had the right idea at the right time. Cafe with free wi-fi idea, just as I was approaching the services roundabout near Kings Lynn. Thank you to the Little Chef for not throwing me out, taking 2 hours to drink one milkshake! Had to restrain myself from shouting. Especially when they went a goal down. Eventually they managed to beat New Zealand 2-1. One more hour on the road got me to Holt. Road I wanted doesn't exist on my GPS. Helpful. Forgot sunglasses.

Loving the fast set up. No tent, just get table and stove out of the van, and pasta is go!! Custard and biccies for afters.. this is the life!!

Abandoned the washing up and headed over to the main arena for the evening's entertainment. The rockabilly band were great, enjoyed watching two girls doing the rock and roll dancing to it. Danced to a few other bands until it went all rave like so went out to see Flaming Mel's fire display...

Very impressive. Especially the lady hula hooping the ring of fire!!! Couldn't help remembering Whitley's incident with poi. Ouch. Am such a tragic geek that I was really looking forward to my hot chocolate in bed.. watching P and P on the Macbook. Perfect. Except that I had forgotten my jammies.

Could I actually be going to the Olympics??

Sadly not competing for my country.. but volunteering. I could be handing out meal tickets at the archery competition. Maybe. Bumble did scare me, by nearly not starting, but then took me to Warwick Uni for my interview. I think it went OK. However, before the actual interview there was a video featuring Eddie Izzard, giving you advice for your interview. So, naturally, I just quoted Eddie in my interview. Not sure it helped, but the interviewer laughed. At least I have a pink band and the last of the free Heroes (thanks to Cadbury, the official treat provider) to show for it!

Stayed for a bit to do some caching. Failed at the first hurdle on the intended multi cache, as I couldn't see the tag on the silver birch. Gave up and did 2 other normal ones and a webcam one. Not sure it was worth the 27 minutes required on the phone to Pops to explain how to save the image from the webcam stream.

Oops

Preparation for the Race for Life had not gone well. Forget not having run outside at all. My attempts at carbo-loading were all negated when I threw up around 11pm. Then failed to sleep. Woke feeling awful. Oh well. Breakfast and blogging and found all my kit, checked time, number pinned to shirt etc. About 10:10 I headed off to campus to join the start.

It was there I found out, due to the lack of people and the barely disguised mirth of the guy I asked at security, that the race was actually at Prestwold. At that point I had 3 minutes before the official start time. Started to bike back to the flat. Got stopped by two girls by the college asking where the race was. Arranged to come back and collect them once I'd got the van. Was nearly 11 by the time we got there, but it turns out we were not the only late/mistaken ones. So with 18 minutes on the clock already we went through the start. No 3rd place for me this time then. The route was rubbish. Just around the mown edges of fields and meadows. Except when you are overtaking hoardes of walking people, and then the route was through waist high grass. Very hot day. Knackered. Managed 22:53. Not too bad. Especially for running on lumpy grass.

Rewarded myself with a 99 flake :-) scoffed while phoning Ma. Decided against trying to rush to the car boot. Wandered around for a bit, then to avoid joining the queues to get out, and roast in the van, I got the kite out. Had a lovely hour in the sun kite flying, even though it was somewhat dwarfed by those from the kitesurfing school. What with all this and Friday's geo bike ride and golf on Saturday its been a lovely weekend.

Double oops. Home to discover that I have changed colour. Have managed to do even worse than Easter's 'wetsuit tan'. Now I have not just a watch line, but a sweat band worn under watch line. Ah crap.

God is bloody amazing!

And answers prayer beyond what we expect or imagine. Lots of prayer about the parking situation (not allowed to leave the motorbike anywhere on the grounds, and not allowed to park Bumble in my space as he is allegedly a commercial vehicle/over 1.5 tonnes)... and just got an email from the management company. They have totally backed down, and I am allowed to leave the bike where it is at the back of the bins, and Bumble can stay in his space!!! Never dreamed I'd get a result like that! Thanks God. And I'm sure the phone call from my 'representative' (ok, Mum) helped too. ;-)

GeoFrenzy!!

Just been out geocaching, and got my most ever in a day.. 12! I went on the old mountain bike and did the Somloci tribute trail out at Prestwold around the natural burial grounds. There were some clever hides..

Some cute hides..

Some dodgy drawing (letterbox cache for which you had to draw a cartoon of yourself)

And a lovely view of Prestwold Hall..

So glad they weren't all like the first one, where I was being stupid and got stung and scratched, and really needn't have done! Was really fun bumping around on my bike. I got hungry at around 9 out of 12 (TGF Lion Bar in bag) as did the iPhone. Both made it to the end. Started raining as I found the last one. Now tired and awaiting pizza :-) 

Drive your VW to Work Day

Proud to have taken part :-)

Also bought myself a new helmet, as the visor had broken beyond repair on the other one. Love my new bargain AGV (25%off). Its smaller and lighter and the same brand as Rossi's :-)