DOUBLE SPREAD

The Guardian has my piece on the BIG CHILL as a double spread in the travel section. The Guardian also has a video on line.

BIG DADDY

My four sons, wonderful wives, glorious grandchildren, delightful girlfriends and just friends have all been staying or bathing or dropping by for breakfast during the Big Chill.
What they enjoyed has given me a wider than personal take on the Big Chill. I am about to try reading my notes so this is good-bye for a while...

THAT WAS THE BIG CHILL

All over bar the writing - so here I sit back home and face the screen that dominates! 1500 words on Katrina Larkin's festival is due on the Guardian travel editor's desk by dawn on Thursday for this Saturday's Travel section. Please don't hate it. And there will be video on the Guardian's web site of Katrina and I. You can watch and listen to me philosophising - OK, being pretentious. I know, no need to tell me - the Resident Teenager (once he gets out of bed) will do that...

ZOMBIE NIGHT

It is here...THE BIG CHILL.
The family is congregating. Two youngest have gone to set up camp at Eastnor.
No. 1 son and family are staying in our cottage.
Had dinner last night with Katrina Larkin. She and I meet this evening at 5.30 for zombie make-up. My granddaughter, Emily (three months), is editioning as the youngest zombie. Will I be the oldest?

LAZYBONES

both main stages near completion

In truth, I was exhausted last night - hence not putting the pics on the BLOG. I finished working on a long piece for the Guardian at 2 in the morning and was back at my desk four hours later. Plus going to Eastnor and shopping for the BIG CHILL weekend. All four of my sons will be here plus wives, children, girlfriends. Better cook ahead and freeze. I am sneaking a microwave into the house - Bernadette believes that that they leak rays - as Thurber's Aunt believed that electricity leaked out of unused wall sockets. As with Religious Faith, this isn't something over which one can argue with a believer.
And we'd invited the Shit Sahib to dinner. I cooked packets of trout fillet layered with smoked salmon and baby spinach. So, yes, shattered. Two bottles of good Rioja Alta Reserva came to my aid...

SUN DANCE

from the aerial

Hey to all you Happy Revellers. Live up to your responsibilities. Support the Big Chill. Go outdoors right now and do a Sun Dance.

DAY FIVE - BATTLE FLAGS

Here is an statistic for Happy Campers to ponder whilst seated on the can: the Big Chill produced one hundred and four thousand gallons of sewage last year. This year the festival has 800 porta-toilets on site, 20 toilets for the disabled, 60 urinals. The sewage will be trucked to the Severn Water processing plant at Netheridge, Gloucestershire...

FOUR STAR

four star general with her executive aide

A real General would have a staff of fifty ready to salute - plus a couple of warrant officers and a couple of clerks to do the brain work...So why is Caroline so calm? Confidence in her ability gained through experience? Probably...or is she calm by nature?

VICTORY ASSURED

from the radio aerial

across the lakes

I take pics each evening from these same two points as proof of progress. This has been a great day. Green toilets stand in rows by the roadside, aluminum mat snakes out across the grass, marquees grow everywhere. Believing in the Big Chill no longer requires faith. Victory is assured. Caroline and her staff are on the march. I got out of bed this morning in a real rage. Why is on my main BLOG. Now I feel great. Katrina Larkin arrives Saturday. Next week is going to be wonderful adventure...

DAY FOUR

proof positive

I have been sitting in our garden, five miles from Eastnor. Joy of joys - sunshine and a drying breeze...

LOOKING GOOD

from up by the radio aerial

Look where you will and work is in progress. The Big Chill will be ready on time - that's a promise. You can trust me. I'm not a Politician.
Equally important, I have consulted with three of my fellow Herefordshire Oldies. Our various aches and pains are on the ebb, a sure sign that the weather will be great. Or would you rather trust those whippersnappers at the Met Office...

DAY THREE

The drizzle has finally stopped. I watch awhile. The Deer Park should be chaos. Trucks and machinery and Landrovers seem to strew a trail of workmen in yellow slickers. Yet there is order to all this. The Festival Manager, Caroline, must be some sort of genius. Were she in the Military, she would be a four star General - in the US Army. The British Military are suspicious of women...

BIG CHILL FAN

new bridge in the deer park

Few people would pick James Hervey-Bathurst as a festival fan. He rowed at Cambridge (Trinity College), wore tweed jackets, didn't smoke dope and listened to classical music. However - and it is a big however - he is a fan of the Big Chill - fortunate, given that forty-thousand fellow fans will be camping in his deer park. A brook divides the deer park and feeds the lakes. The brook is a logistical hurdle. This year two new bridges capable of carrying loaded trucks span the brook. Bridges don't come cheap.

KATRINA LARKIN

Katrina Larkin is the founder of the BIG CHILL. We first met a couple of months back. The Guardian Travel editor asked me to show Katrina my Herefordshire rather than the Herefordshire of the festival. Katrina stayed with us in our cottage in Colwall. She and I visited great gardens and pubs, vineyards and artisan perry makers, paddled a canoe down the Wye. We enjoyed each other's company, had a great time. The resulting article is on the Guardian's web site.