Madonna & Child

I can't quite understand this big commotion over Madonna wanting to adopt a Malawian child. I suppose it's another big stick people can try to bash her with. I don't entirely agree with adopting from a foreign country, but I don't know why a lot of people suddenly want to be so against it. There wasn't this fuss over Angelina Jolie. So, a couple of points to set straight:

• I think it's highly unlikely that she's just waltzed into the country, selected the one she wanted like a new pair of shoes and expected to waltz out again. She would have had to go through stringent assessment in the UK before even being allowed to approach the authorities in Malawi.
• "She's just doing it for publicity." Of course. That would explain why her publicist has been denying the story and trying to keep it hush hush...
• "Why doesn't she donate the money she would spend on the child here to charitable causes within Malawi." As if the $3 million she has already pledged just isn't enough.

I do think it's a bit odd that the child she has chosen does have living family (perhaps she wasn't aware of that at the time). And I wonder if Madonna - at 48 - has been turned down for adoption in this country due to her age. I may not entirely agree with foreign adoptions, but if it gives just one child a happier, healthier life with better prospects I don't see how it can be considered a bad thing. And I'm sure that she is doing it for all the right reasons.

It's Not Easy Being Green

But it's kinda addictive. I've been trying to live as ethically as possible this year. I guess it all started with the MakePovertyHistory thing last year. I never really agreed with it, but I could never quite work out why.

Then someone at work brought me a Traidcraft catalogue. FairTrade suddenly came into my consciousness and it all became clear. You can't make deals on these kinds of issues with politicians. They make empty promises that they can't keep and within 5 years those world leaders have been replaced and you have to start all over again. You have to tackle business. And from my relatively lowly position, there's only one way to make my voice heard - to vote with my purse.

So slowly but surely I've tried to buy FairTrade products whenever I can. It makes shopping a whole new experience! When you start to think about the hours that people have put in to make your clothes or farm your food it sheds a new light on things. I no longer want to wear clothes that people have slaved over for very little pay, or eat food produced by people who have little or no employment rights. I wouldn't want to have to work under those conditions, so why should I expect other people to just so that I can save a few pennies?

This kind of thinking escalates. Once you start on one small part of trying to make people's lives better, you want more. We've started getting fruit and veg delivered through an organic box scheme, and I try to buy organic wherever possible. I'm making a more concerted effort to recycle. I try to buy health and beauty products from the most ethical sources (Boots get a big green tick in The Good Shopping Guide). I try to save as much water and power as possible. I walk to work rather than driving, and try not to drive anywhere if it's possible. I try to buy FairTrade presents, and if anyone says they don't want anything I'll buy them one of Oxfam's funusual gifts.

People ask me why I care. Helping the environment is too big a thing, it won't affect us in our lifetime they say. To me "the environment" is not about the big wide world or a hole in the ozone layer. It's about the very air that everyone breathes, the landscape around you. "The environment" is much more immediate than the whole world. And it's already affecting us. I can't believe anyone can honestly look at masses of car fumes and say that makes for a nice place for people to live. I've heard people complain about having to separate their rubbish for recycling - I'm sure they'd complain a lot more when the local playing field is turned into the local rubbish dump or when an incinerator is built next to the local school. All that rubbish, it's got to go somewhere. And it's such a tiny thing to do, sorting your rubbish.

This is just a simple example of what I'm talking about. People do things without thinking. They buy things without thinking. I guess all I'm trying to do is put thinking back into my life. I'm far from perfect. I still shop at Tesco. I still use the dishwasher. I still fly from one end of the country to the other to visit my family. But I now get a twinge of guilt whenever I do these things, and everything I spend my money on now comes with the thought of whether it's the best ethical choice. It's become a second nature. And it's actually a lot more exciting than you probably expect...

Vroom Vroom!!!

When I asked Darren what he wanted last Christmas, he consisitantly said, "a Ferrari." So I got him one. Actually I got him two. Only for 3 laps each though!

On Saturday we cashed in his Drivers Dream Days voucher and went to Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire. Firstly he was driven by an instructor in a Subaru to show him the track and the best way to drive it. Next up was 3 laps in a Ferrari 360 Spider (with the top down, natch!) On his last lap the instructor told him to miss out the chicane on the back straight and floor it - he reckons he hit 170mph!

We took his son Jordan to watch, and we got a pretty good view (thank goodness it was a nice sunny day). You could also get quite close to the cars - Jordan was particularly taken with an orange Lambourgini that made a massive roar every time it was started up! Next on Darren's agenda was go-karting. I got some good video of him, but unfortunately one was when he got overtaken!

We then tried to get a drink and a burger from the van on site before Darren's next drive. Fast cars, not so fast food. After waiting in an unmoving queue for 15 minutes, it was time for Darren to get in a Ferrari 355 for his next 3 laps. All was going well until the last lap where he spun it! He claims that the instructor hit the dual brake - all sounded like a bit of a misunderstanding to me...

We eventually got a drink and some nosh. Darren then decided to treat Jordan to a lap in "that" Lambourgini. 1 lap for £45 ain't cheap, but I'm sure he enjoyed telling his mates at school on Monday. Darren offered to pay for a lap for me, but I can think of better things to spend that kind of money on. Definitely a bloke thing!

Finally he had a "high-speed passenger ride" in a Subaru Impreza - this is where the instructors show you how it's done! I think Darren was suitably impressed. We were also entitled to a 4x4 passenger ride, but I think one of the 4x4s had broken down so we were looking at a 40+ minute wait and decided not to bother. Darren bought some professional photos and we headed home.

It's not cheap, but it's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The staff were fantastic (apart from the twitchy instructor!) - all really friendly, especially with the young 'un. Only problem is he now wants a drive in something else...

Come On England!

OK, it was only the Under-18s, but when England come to town you really ought to go and support them. They were playing France in a friendly. In the end we lost 2-0 - probably a fair result but we played some good football. France were much better defensively and in the end that's what made the difference. Most promising (especially for me) was Febian Brandy, the only Man Utd player in the squad. He's very quick, but he hasn't quite got the finesse to get past defenders yet. Sometimes you think, "he's only young, he'll get there," but then you think of players like Wayne Rooney who were already playing senior football at that age. Football, it's a funny ol' game innit?

Cannot Compute

Our computer is currently kaput. I couldn't cope with listening to the same few albums I had on my ROKR anymore, so we borrowed the other half's work laptop and I put on a few of my favourite albums instead. And I thought I'd write a bit of blurb about them:

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C.
I discovered this band when I was working in store for HMV and could pretty much play whatever I liked. It's a dark rock 'n' roll album - not dark as in Marilyn Manson though, much more tuneful than that. It's very soulful.

David Bowie - Black Tie White Noise
I don't use this word lightly, but the man's a genius. I know a lot of people think he's not as good as he was in the 70's, but I love his later work. I admire anyone who can diversify. I've always loved the two singles from this (the title track and Jump They Say) and recently got the album off eBay. I could listen to Jump They Say for hours...

Michael Jackson - Thriller
This was Darren's choice (I ran out of inspiration and asked him to pick a couple of surprises for me). I would have chosen Off The Wall myself, but Wanna Be Starting Something is probably my favourite MJ track and as for Billie Jean - I'll name that tune in 1!!!

Madonna - Confessions On A Dancefloor
She's not the greatest lyricist in the world, but it's great to hear dance music that's about more than love or dancing. The red string of Kabbalah threads through almost every song to make for a very philosophical and personal album. Musically it just makes you want to dance!

Marillion - marillion.com
Marillion at their most experimental. Funk, dub and blues fuse with their usual blend of progressive rock on this album. It's certainly not their most cohesive, but it's probably their most quirky, and contains two of their most beautiful songs, Go! and House.

Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Another one I wouldn't have chosen (I prefer Blue Lines). I don't know if I've actually listened to it all the way through yet - maybe that should be my album of choice for tomorrow!

The Mooney Suzuki - Alive & Amplified
The title track was played daily about 18 months back when I used to regularly listen to XFM and I love it. The rest of the album's pretty similar. Good, old-fashioned, rock 'n' roll that you want to sing, dance and make merry to.

Pink Floyd - Meddle
It's my favourite Floyd album, and not just for Echoes and One Of These Days. I love the bluesiness of it. Saint tropez is sooo cool you need to wear shades just to listen to it!

Suzanne Vega - Nine Objects Of Desire
Suzanne Vega is the reason I learnt to play guitar. I love the contrast of the simplicity of the music with the complexity of the lyrics. For years I only listened to the first two albums, but I eventually picked this one up and absolutely adore it, especially Caramel and Honeymoon Suite.

Find And Seek

Last weekend we went geocaching. "What is geocaching?" I here you cry! Well basically it's a worldwide treasure hunt. A cache is generally a sandwich box, ammo box or something similar, containing a logbook and a few small gifts, although they can be as small as a film case. People hide them (often in bushes, trees or rocks), taking a note of the GPS co-ordinates, then file them on www.geocaching.com where other people (like us!) log the co-ordinates and try to find them. The idea is that you take one gift and leave another, and write a message in the logbook. We thought we'd do a bit of promotion of our favourite band Marillion, and leave sampler CDs.

Darren's son Jordan came up to the North East for the long weekend, so we located a few near us to try to track down. We started with a relatively easy one (all caches are graded on Difficulty and Terrain) called Air Power, then found Hardwick Hall Park and Rodridge Lane. Hardwick Hall was particularly nice - a wooded park with lots of ponds and ducks. 3 out of 3!!! Just when it started to look really easy we seemed to hit a wall...

Next on our list was Rule Of Thumb. We knew it was a multi-cache, where the co-ordinates don't lead directly to the cache but to a clue. We could see a bird-box among the trees, and sent Jordan in to have a look but he couldn't see anything. It started to rain so we gave up. Dalden Tower seemed even more fruitless - lots of overgrown nettles and the tree cover made it hard to get a good GPS signal. Again the heavy rain drove us back to the car. Alienation was quite good fun - a VERY steep path down the cliff onto a raised beach. But we searched and searched among the rocks and could find nothing (we weren't quite brave enough to stick our hands in blind holes!

So after 3 successes and 3 failures we had two more on our list. It was getting late and we only had time for one more so we decided on another multi-cache, Dead Man's Bank. We had to find out the co-ordinates by answering some questions, and we were on our way. It was quite a long walk along the cliff, and when the heaven's opened we were really too far away to get back to the car. So we plodded on in the rain (which soon subsided) to a bunch of gorse bushes. Hmm. It was obviously in there, but they're prickly things and as they were covered in spiders there wasn't a chance I was sticking my hand in! Darren wasn't going to be beaten though, and eventually he found it. 4 out of 7, we won!!! Also in this cache were a travelbug and a Geocoin, both of which wanted to move from cache to cache.

On Saturday evening we e-mailed the owner of Rule Of Thumb (who very quickly replied with a hint) and studied the pictures of Alienation. Dalden Tower looks a bit of a lost cause as no-one's found it for a while, but we thought we'd have another go at the others. Firstly Rule Of Thumb. I decided I was going to investigate the birdbox this time. I found a small metal stick around the back of the telegraph pole, and when attached to a metal disc on the bottom of the birdbox a tape measure came out with the co-ordinates on it! Clever! Alienation we found by taking a picture with Darren's mobile phone - his arm was just about long enough! We left the Geocoin (which wants to travel around the North East) here. Finally we found Go Down In The Woods Today, the one we didn't bother with yesterday. It was a long, long walk in the Dene Forest - and a long walk uphill walk back!

We had a lot of fun Geocaching. It's a great way to explore places you wouldn't have otherwise known about, and get some exercise. We'll take the travelbug with us next time we decide to hunt some treasure...

V2006 - The Good, The Bands and The Ugly

Wow, what an amazing weekend!!! Instead of writing a diary style entry, I thought I'd break it down into the above categories. In reverse order - finish on the positives!!!

The UglyThe Rain - Now, maybe some festivals like to think that rain is an integral part of the experience, but I have to disagree. It's not so bad standing in the rain listening to great music, but sitting outside your tent in the dark and wet is no fun at all. It's one of the most enjoyable bits - chilling out after the bands, get a barbecue going, have some beers, but it isn't quite the same when you're dripping! The rain also creates mud of course, meaning all the nice clothes and shoes you planned to wear get replaced by wellies, combats and warm fleeces.

The Organisation - It's got to be said that I have a lot less complaints than some people have had (don't go to a festival if you can't handle queuing for a beer or the loos or to get in or out at peak times). But there are a couple of things that did annoy me. Firstly, don't tell 100,000 people that they don't need to bring too much money if you're only going to provide 3 cash machines. Don't tell people that they will be able to charge their phones up if you can't provide the electricity to power all of the chargers you have. Train stewards and security staff so that they know the rules on what you're allowed to take in and so they know the layout of the site. And when everyone's trying to leave the car park, get some stewards in to guide the cars into proper lanes instead of allowing a free-for-all bottleneck.

The Clashes - There's always going to be some at a festival, but there were loads of bands I'd have liked to have seen but missed because they clashed with someone else. Divine Comedy, Beautiful South, Sugababes, Girls Aloud, Fatboy Slim, Faithless, Cardigans - what was most annoying was the odd times when there was no-one I wanted to see!

People Who Can't Put Tents Up Properly - The mess of guy-lines was ridiculous in such a small space!

The Bands
Son Of Dave - Only caught the end, wanted to get a good spot in the Cider House for Hayseed Dixie...

Gucci Soundsystem - And then realise that we'd have to listen to 90 minutes of drum and bass! Still, it was entertaining to watch people off their faces on drugs at lunchtime!

Hayseed Dixie - In case you don't know about them, Hayseed Dixie started off doing AC/DC songs in a country style. They've since diversified into other rock bands, and also write their own songs (some funny, some serious). Really good fun in front of a packed crowd (although that could have been because the Cider House provided shelter from the pouring rain!

Richard Hawley - Next it was over to the JJB tent. Gomez was the priority here, so we got in early to make sure (when it rains the tents always fill up quicker). This also meant we got to see some acts that we wouldn't otherwise have chosen. Richard Hawley was ok, a bit 50's influenced for my taste but the last track (I think it was called Ocean) was excellent.

Imogen Heap - Man she's weird!!! She did the entire show on her own, using lots of samples and vocal effects to create a big noise. The first track was a cappella but using looped vocals recorded live - I've seen this done before but this was the best I've seen. Her use of backing tracks made it feel a bit sterile though, would have been nice to have some other live musicians on stage.

Nerina Pallot - I really liked her but the other half was less keen. She's very good at what she does (she sounded pretty nervous at the beginning) but what she does is fairly unremarkable, especially after the inventiveness of Imogen Heap.

Gomez - Apparently the JJB was so packed they were turning people away. I've been into Gomez since their debut album and have seen them countless times. We'd been at the front since Imogen Heap, and the time spent there certainly paid off. They played a pretty rip-roaring set, some tracks from the excellent new album and finished with Whippin' Piccadilly which got the crowd calling for more. 40 minutes was never going to be long enough!

Starsailor - From the JJB we nipped over to the Channel 4 stage as quickly as possible where Starsailor were playing. What an excellent set - with no brand new album to promote they gave the audience the perfect "best of" performance.

The Charlatans - Not a band I'm a fan of or would have chosen to see, but this was Darren's choice. They were pretty good, but there's only so much whiny Manc indie I can handle! The new stuff sounded excellent though. We managed to get pretty close, and there was a bit of push and shove, mostly just a bit of fun.

Razorlight - After the Charlatans we moved out of the crowd to get some food and beer. We stood at the back for a couple of Razorlight songs, but weren't particularly bothered about hanging around. A lot of people were though, for a 2nd stage band they commanded a huge audience.

Groove Armada - We noticed that we could get into the JJB so we wandered in for a quick boogie. They were performing completely live which surprised me for some reason. Very good, but seemed a bit samey so we went for another wander.

Morrissey - The only main act left was the one I really wanted to avoid. There was only 10 minutes left though, and the main stage was on our way back so we couldn't avoid the depressed one. It was amazing how few people were there - everyone must have been watching Razorlight! So we walked nearer to the stage, and managed to catch the encore of How Soon Is Now - the only Morrissey / Smiths track that I've ever liked. It was pretty good, Morrissey seemed like quite a showman and if you like the music I can understand why you'd be a big fan.

Saw Doctors - Sunday morning started with a trip to the C4 stage to see the Saw Doctors. Again we got to the front. Saw Doctors were excellent. I didn't really know what to expect, but I thought there might be a fiddle in there somewhere!

Biffy Clyro - we stayed where we were for Kula Shaker, and this was an interesting band in between. Just three of them, all sharing vocals and making a lot of noise! I was most impressed by the drummer's excellent vocals.

Kula Shaker - I'm so excited that they're back together. The new tracks are excellent, and they played a few classics to remind the crowd how good they are. Like Gomez, the early slot made for a short set, and I could listen to this band all day.

Captain - We'd spent most of the intervening hour trying to charge up our mobiles without much success, but I really wanted to see this new band. It was our only foray into the Virgin Mobile Union, but on the basis of one song I had a hunch they'd be really good. And they were. Trevor Horn's lush production on Glorious wasn't lost live, the vocal harmonies sounding fantastic. Looks like I might have to get their album.

Art Brut - We were just leaving the Union when I spied some more chargers which weren't otherwise advertised and were mostly empty. At last we could get some juice in them, plus we could sit down for a while and rest our aching feet! In the meantime, Art Brut were on the stage. They were certainly interesting - not sure I'd buy any of their records but they were entertaining enough.

Jamie T - We hung around for a couple of songs while we finished charging. Not my cup of tea, a bit too Arctic Monkeys.

Keane - The next aim was to get a good place for Beck. Keane were halfway through their set and the crowd looked pretty big but it was very spaced out so we walked down the middle quite a way forward. I really don't like Keane - I find Tom Chaplin's voice insipid and most of it's far too MOR for me, but it certainly got the crowd singing. During Bedshaped you could barely hear the band!

Beck - This man is a genius. If you only ever see one live act again in your life, make it Beck. Virtually all of the band end up playing percussion of some sort at sometime, including an oilcan! A new addition to the show is a puppet show on stage of the band, replicating everything they did down to the instruments. They also did a fantastic bit of table percussion which I've seen before but just gets better - as Beck plays a bit of solo acoustic, the rest of the band gather around a table for some water and fruit. Gradually they join in, banging glasses in tune and shaking maracas disguised as oranges. As they had a break before the encore, the puppets had made a video, walking around the site and trashing Radiohead's dressing room. The band then returned to finish with Where It's At and E-Pro.

Radiohead - we ended up far too near the front. When Radiohead came on, it became a bit of a crush and I couldn't breathe very well. We lasted until the fourth song My Iron Lung when Darren took the initiative to get us out. Going backwards through 50,000 people didn't look like an option, so we tried to go forwards to get over the barrier. Surprisingly we got quite a way before hitting a wall of people. The only way was up and over, so we both crowd-surfed our way out. It's quite an adrenaline rush crowd-surfing, and I could finally breathe fresh air! We grabbed a well-deserved Strongbow and enjoyed the rest of the set much further back. This meant we could properly see the excellent light show. Lucky was a definite highlight for me, and the audible sigh of joy when they started Street Spirit was quite amusing. Then they played Creep - one of the rarest songs in their back catalogue showing they truly are in "Greatest Hits" mode at the moment. An awesome end to an awesome weekend.

The Good
Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference...
Getting A Good Pitch - We left at 5.30am to try to beat as much of the traffic as possible and get a good pitch. We ended up in Orange Campsite, right near the Arena, near a fence (so not too many people were walking past), not too far from the loos and stalls for tea and coffee in the morning. Excellent!
Avoiding the rain - It seemed that every time we wanted to be outside it stopped hammering it down. Just as we finished putting the tent up and got inside, the heaven's opened. Whenever a band we wanted to see was on in a tent, it poured. All in all we were very lucky!
Disposable Barbecues - You can't beat a freshly cooked bacon butty in the morning. Much better than buying them off the stalls, and of course much cheaper too. We ended up taking far too much food though!

Glyn & Hannah - Our pitchmates, and excellent company all weekend.

Being Front Row - For Hayseed Dixie, Imogen Heap, Nerina Pallot, Gomez, Saw Doctors, Biffy Clyro and Kula Shaker.

Bob - From the group of young festie goers near us. You provided us with entertainment and beer, we provided you with food. Fair exchange!

Good Buys - £10 each on wellies that we spent all weekend in, bargain! £10 on a fold up wheelbarrow to cart stuff from and to the car, bargain! £3 on a waterproof rug to stop things falling off said wheelbarrow into the mud, bargain!

The Loos - They actually weren't disgusting at all, and if you looked in the right place at the right time, there were hardly any queues.

Strongbow - Nice and refreshing, much better than beer!

Virgin Mobile Sims - Even though I didn't manage to get backstage with one like they said, the two free ciders during Radiohead were worth the £3 I paid on eBay!

Going Ape

With V Festival coming up and us in possession of a new tent, my boyfriend decided that we had to test it out. Now, I'm not that girlie a girl, but camping has never been my idea of fun. My protests were to no avail - we were booked to stay near Ullswater in the Lake District.

We met up on Friday night with Darren's parents who have a nice comfy trailer tent, along with his son Jordan and his mate Marcus. So much for summer - looks like it's all over. It was really quite cold overnight - my boyfriend mocked me for wearing jogging bottoms and a fleece but when I woke on Saturday morning he was wrapped up in his fleece! We made our way over to the trailer tent where his mum was cooking up a fine breakfast - we would need a lot of energy today...

We were about to Go Ape. Basically, Go Ape takes you up over rope bridges, tramlines, cargo nets, up rope ladders and down zip lines in the forest. This one was in Grizedale Forest, and there are 6 other locations around the UK. You are fitted with a harness and taken through a pretty rigorous training session before you are let loose on your own. At all times you keep yourself attached to the trees, so you're never in any danger, even on a tiny platform 60ft up a tree! I was amazed at how confident I was with it all. Until one of the last obstacles that is - a "Tarzan swing" into a cargo net. Unlike the zip lines which you could almost sit into, with this you had to jump off the platform a free fall about 10ft before the rope tightened. I still did it (even if I did scream a bit!)

It was a real sense of accomplishment to complete the whole course. I'd highly recommend going - it takes about 3-4 hours to go round and if it's quiet you can even go round again. You don't have to be particularly fit or young even - the oldest person to complete the course was 86 years old!!! Have a look at Darren's blog for some pics.

On the Sunday we said goodbye to our fellow campers and made our way back across the country. On our way down we'd taken a wrong turning off the A66 into some strange place called Rhegad, and as we were passing again we thought we'd check it out. Turns out it's a strange shopping centre / cinema / exhibition hall / conference centre hybrid. It's been built into a hill so you can bearly see it from the nearby roads. We had a good nosy around the shops. My favourites were Taste, a proper foodies food shop with lots of local produce, Saunders the chocolate shop where you could watch them making the chocolates through the window, and Talent, an art and furnishings shop with lots of fabulous individual pieces (I would love to be rich enough to fill my home full of these things!)

There is a giant cinema screen which shows movies on things like Everest, the Grand Canyon and the Serengeti, and the National Mountaineering Exhibition, but we decided not to pay for these. The temporary Buddhist Himalaya market was a bit disappointing. All in all it was a slightly odd place, but it's worth a look around if you're in the area and fancy something unusual.

And so to V!!! Please pray for me that it doesn't rain!!!