Festival Time Again

Download 2018 with my mate Mark

Well, it's that time of year again when I get myself to Donnington Park and enjoy a weekend with 80,000 other rockers at Download.

I've been almost every year since 2010 when my friend Gregster talked me into going to a festival for the first time.  The truth is I never thought I would be able to do it.  Back then I was still very unwell and recovering from a knee replacement I'd had the year before, it took a hell of a long time to recover from that one.  Gregster told me all about the disabled access campsite and all the arrangements that the access team make at big events like this one.  I'd been to loads of gigs before, and used all access arrangements available to people with disabilities, but I'd never been to anywhere quite on the scale of a festival.

So I bought myself a ticket.  AC/DC, Aerosmith and Rage Against the Machine headlined that year.  It was one of the first times Rage had played in this country in years and it was only a week after they did their free gig at Finsbury Park as a thank you to fans for getting them to number one the Christmas before. (Yes, I went to that gig too!). Since then I have been to a festival every year.

Download - 2010

Glastonbury - 2011

Download - 2012

Download - 2013 

Glastonbury - 2013

Download - 2014

British Summer Time at Hyde Park - 2014

Download - 2015

Reading - 2015

Download - 2016

Download - 2017

Download - 2018

Pretty much every music venue has to have access for disabled people. There is always information on the venue website and it's best to check before you go. Most venues offer a free ticket for your carer so I would recommend you telephone the venue to ask before you book your tickets. I'm usually pretty cheeky when it comes to asking if they do the free PA ticket, which is quite unlike me, but if you don't ask, you don't get.  For festivals you usually buy an ordinary entry ticket and then apply for a PA ticket after that. There is a form to fill in about your access needs and you need to show proof of disability.

I have just applied for an Access Card.  http://www.accesscard.org.uk/  From what I can gather the access card is a charity and it means you only have to submit proof of disability to them, the list of appropriate evidence is on their website.  Once this is done then all you need to do is tell the ticket agency or the venue that you have the card and everything is taken care of.  This means you don't need to provide proof of disability to the venue itself, there is a list of participating venues on the website so it's best to check if there are any that are close to home.  The card cost £15 for 3 years, I haven't used it yet but I will do a proper review of the process when I do.

The first time I got to Donnington Park I discovered that there is a whole load of rock fans who happen to have disabilities.  There are people there with just about every disability you can think of, and everyone is super friendly.  The campsite is a little community tucked away from the main campsites that no one knows about.  At last years Download the campsite was moved to make things easier for people with disabilities.  As I only went for the day last year I don't know what the facilities are like and if this has made it any easier, although I did get to ride through, on the Donnington racetrack, in my wheelchair.  I'm going for the weekend this year so I will update on how it's changed in a couple of weeks. 

There is always lots of help around if anyone needs anything.  There are volunteers at Glastonbury that are purely there to help people put up their tents and get everything organised.  I just sat in my car and waited while the girls and the volunteer helped them put the tents up, it was great. 

There are rows of disabled toilets and disabled shower rooms, they're still porter loos but they do the job and they're always pretty clean.  The toilets at Download are the cleanest I've ever seen at a festival.  They're not quite so good at Glastonbury but there they have disabled toilets dotted around the site with a code so other people don't use them, you're given the code at the start of the festival with a map of where they are and where the accessible routes are, as you can imagine, Glastonbury is huge and very difficult to get around and there are routes to make things easier for people.

There are also viewing platforms at every festival where you get a great view.  All platforms have toilets next to them which cannot be used by other festival goers.  Some festivals even provide people who sign along to the music and generally have a good rock out!

You get given maps, if needed, of any access points to take you around the site, this sometimes means going in behind the stages or vip areas 👍, and there are also shuttle buses provided to help too.  I've been able to hire off road wheelchairs which were charged up for me overnight, you have to pay extra for this service but it was well worth the money.

There are lots of people around to help, day and night, in case of an emergency.  I've never had to use any of the medical services on site but I'm told they're very quick to respond.  I always carry copies of my prescription/alert cards with me and tell my friends where they are in case of an emergency so medics know what's wrong with me and what medication I'm taking.

Above all I would say to anyone who attends a festival, disabled or not, is to be prepared, take enough warm clothes, blankets and obviously a poncho or two, it is Britain after all.  The most important thing is to have fun, no one cares what you look like and you won't care either when you've had a months worth of rain tipped over you in one day!

A knitting fix!

I've recently started knitted hippy type scarf.  I saw one in Ian Snow in Machynlleth when I was there a few weeks ago.  I couldn't bring myself to buy one as I knew I could make my own.

I knew there was just the right yarn in my stash, Noro Sekku.  This ball of Sekku has been floating around for years, I bought 2 balls whilst away in Devon with a knitty friend.  I knitted up the other one as a present for my mum, there's a post about it way back in my blog, but after finishing that scarf I vowed never to use Noro again.  It's so difficult to knit with as it's so twisted, I'm forever dangling it over the side of the chair to untangle it, the slightest pull on a knot and it breaks, it drives me crazy.  Someone told me once that's it overspun but I don't know if that's true or not.  Don't get me wrong, I love everything else about Noro, I love the colours, I love the texture, I even love the little bits of twig you can often find in it, I just hate the fact that it twists on itself so much.

Anyway, I decided not to buy the scarf in Ian Snow and save myself a few pennies.  I couldn't find a pattern on Ravelry so I made it up as I went along.  I know I don't need a pattern for this, I just wanted to know how many stitches to cast on.

I cast on 350sts on 3.25mm circular needles, they're the smallest I have in interchangeable but I probably would've used smaller needles if I'd had them, I joined in the round and started to knit.  I've loved knitting with it this time round, it's easy, mindless knitting for a warm summers day.  I've even managed to read a bit of Jane Eyre whilst knitting but more on that another time.

I love simple knitting, I love simple patterns, not just because they're easy to do but because I love they way they look, I absolutely love garter stitch. 

I knitted until I thought it was wide enough and cast off.  Forgetting how much the edges roll up.  I love how knitted edges roll but I don't love it quite that much.

So here I am, armed with a crochet hook, picking up all those stiches that I missed when I unpicked the cast off edge, out of 350sts there were quite a few I'd missed!

I love fixing my knitting, for some knitters it's their worst nightmare and they'd rather undo it and start again, I love working out where it's all gone wrong and challenging myself to fix it.  A couple of years back I knitted a Christmas pudding jumper and discovered I'd read the pattern wrong, the ribbing on the front and back bottom edges were totally different lengths. 😱😱😱

I worked out how to fix it with the help of YouTube, seriously everything you need to know about life is on there, I use it all the time for my knitting, computer programs, everything, yesterday I learned how to make a dreadlock out of wool!!  So I ended up picking up the cast on edge of the shortest side of the Christmas jumper and knit downwards until both sides were the same length.  I couldn't believe that it worked.  It took a couple of hours but it took far less time than it would if I'd have knitted the back of an adult jumper.

So my advice to any knitter is that if you think you've made a mistake then stop, take a step back and work out if there's a way to fix it.  Google and YouTube may have the answer.

An update on my weight loss

One of the major changes that I have to report since I was last blogging is that I did, eventually, lose the weight.  Losing weight is one of the most challenging but the most rewarding things I've ever done.  There is nothing like walking into a shop knowing that pretty much everything will fit, whether it looks good or not is a different matter altogether.

I looked back at some of the old blog posts I wrote about losing weight.  I'd forgotten some of the reasons I wanted to diet in the first place so it's nice to look back and read through what I was thinking at that time.

Here is what I wrote all those years ago.  http://wonkywatt.blogspot.com/2012/06/dieting.html

At the time I wrote that post I never thought I'd get to where I wanted to but I hoped that one day I might just do it.

I started that post by talking about my trigger points, that thing that makes someone want to lose weight and change their life for good.  Everyone has a trigger and I had many.  I was 30, fat and miserable and I didn't want to be 31, still fat and still miserable. 

I looked back at that old blog post and I've picked up on a few points.

I was 16 and a half stone, size 22-24 and I couldn't fit into my old clothes.

Now I'm a size 10/12 and I can't tell you how good it feels.  I had several trips to the charity shop to ditch the old me and endless shopping sprees to buy new, smaller sizes.  When you lose a lot of weight, like I did, you go through lots of different sizes and this can be expensive.  I never minded buying new clothes, even if they did only fit me for a few months.  You learn to be a bit of a fashionista, if it's too big, stick a chunky belt on and it'll be alright etc. etc.

I've given myself lots of small goals to work towards which I think is really important.

I still think this is important.  Even though I got to a healthy weight I'm still careful about what I eat.  When I've overindulged, on a holiday or at Christmas, then I use small, tiny goals to get back to where I want to be.

Another half a lb and I'll have lost 10% of my body weight on Weight Watchers.

Well I did lose that half a lb to get to my 10% and a whole lot more.  I actually lost 89lbs altogether.  I've tried to lift weights that are about a quarter of what I lost and I can't pick them up off the ground.  It's quite hard to imagine how I carried that weight around with me.  I've no idea how I did it.

It's not all about the numbers either, you can get all caught up with numbers and I don't think it's healthy.  Clothes and confidence can tell a bigger story.

I still believe this too, if you feel good about yourself then it shows in the way you hold yourself.  The more I lost the more confident I became.

The thing with losing weight is that you have to really want to do it and believe me, I really want to.

Well I did really want to do it and, and times, it was bloody hard work. 

It took me a long time, life, several operations, and a house move got in the way, but I didn't let it beat me.  I have to watch what I eat all the time and I don't think I'll ever stop thinking about it.  The hardest part now is keeping the weight off.  I'm still a fat girl inside and I don't think that will ever go away.  The important thing is that I did it and I'm never going back to that person again.

Glastonbury Festival 2011 v Download Festival 2016

It's been a long time.

Well, here I am, I'm back.  Looking back on my posts it's been 5 years since I last posted.  I think I must have got bored with the 365 day challenge or something so I gave up.

The fact is that I don't think that I have a lot to say but people keep telling me that I have so here we go again.

My brother keeps encouraging me to write a blog about my experiences with rheumatoid arthritis and how I cope with everyday life so, after a long wait, I decided that I should get back on it!

It took me ages to find my blog again.  I couldn't even remember what it was called or how I log into it.  Thanks to google, and their magic, I managed to find it and not only that, I managed to log back in again.

I've got a few ideas for a few posts so I best get cracking.

Day 25 - Toc Time Again

I have an infusion every 4 weeks.  The drug is called toculizumab and is part if the biologics family of medications.  These drugs have changed peoples lives and have certainly changed mine.  I've been on several biologics over the last 11 years, all with different degrees of success, but this drug is the one that has had the most impact and has made me feel the most human.

The infusion takes around and hour and, so far, I've had no side effects.  I have to have bloods done just before the infusion just to make sure I'm well enough to have the drugs as it's quite powerful.

I've had a bit of a rough day at the hospital today.  Whilst the nurses were dong their usual checks my blood pressure was very high.  The nurses were unable to start the infusion until my blood pressure came down and unfortunately it didn't.  The nurses called the doctor in to see me and he asked a few questions about my surgery.  He decided the blood pressure was due to the pain in my knee and also the fact that I take steroids and said it was ok to go ahead with the medication.

Unfortunately the infusion was stopped halfway through because I had a very dry throat and a bit of a cough.  The nurses were reluctant to start it again as my blood pressure was still far too high but they eventually decided that I'd be ok to have the last few mls.

At the end of it all my blood pressure was still high so I had to wait, the nurses wanted me to stay in hospital over the weekend which I didn't really want to do.  Thankfully, after a while, my blood pressure came down and I was able to leave the hospital.

So today's photo is my infusion site.  Not for the squeamish but this is my life.

Day 21 - Bye Bye Blackbird!

I took this and I just love it.  It's probably all wrong in the photography world but I think it's great.

Day 19 - Come on you Baggies!

My offering for day 19 is my Albion scarf. I spent the evening knitting it whilst listening to the match on the radio.  I'd planned to go but it was far to slippy and cold for someone with a new knee.

My scarf is nearly finished.  It's random blue and white stripes.  I will crochet the ends together so it wraps round easier and it will keep me warm when I'm at the football.