One Way Or Another

This weekend I had been waiting for months, the simple reason is got to see my female idol singing live again.

Once more I have those tickets in my hand and I wanna get there soon as I can. The venue is Thetford Forest in Suffolk. car park opens at 5pm and the and the gates open at 6pm. Pre flight checks were completed at noon, how to get there, what I can and can’t take in with me, weather wasn’t looking good though, thunder and lightning at home and we are going to an open air venue, epic – not. So I got my wax jacket out and my old long wax jacket for the wife to ware. There was no way the rain was gonna dampen my spirits. I estimated forty minutes drive to get there for opening of car parks and the  venue address added to my TomTom. In my head I had accepted that I will be the last out of the joint as I would be parked in the corner of some field but hey, bovvered? Nope, as I would be sitting with tinnitus to the sounds of Atomic ringing in my ears. T minus one  hour before the departure I’m pacing up and down ready to go. Then it started, the words everyman dreads “I’m just going to wash my hair”. Now two things here – first “just going” does not mean the same thing to a mans ears as it does in a woman’s mind. To a man “Just going” is measured by the time it takes a man to go to the gents and back again to finish the bear he has left on the bar. Second – “Wash my hair” usually means an approximate fifteen stage process, starting with washing the bath out, getting two towels out, arranging of the shampoo bottles, pre wash, main wash, repeat wash what ever next wash, conditioner, leave on, wash off, repeat and God knows what else goes on in the mean time. The fact is that it’s due to persistently rain, so even if Vidal Sassoon was make the hair look stunning, the impending downpour of a few gallons of water throughout the evening is going to ruin any hairdo. The self-imposed departure time has come and gone, we are at stage three maybe seven of the hair process, who knows? The power shower is strangely quiet for a few minutes. Progress. I have got the rubber boots in the car the TomTom is plugged in. Tickets check (again) – yep! The hair dryer fires up, not any normal hair dryer, oh no, this one that is capable of causing a tornado with its own name when on full power. Then the hair straighteners, curling tongs, soft brush, hard brush curling brush what ever brush. Now we are goin’ be “late”, bearing in mind they were due on stage at 9pm. Re-calculations mean I now have to drive just a bit faster, and a then a little bit faster for every agonising moment that ticks by. Eventually the wife emerges – yep she looks great and then I ask her to try the coat on. Then I got the look, you know the one that women save just for their men. I tried hard not to laugh, but it was what we needed to stay dry I explained, as you were not allowed to take umbrellas. We jump in the car and off we go. Driving through Thetford Forest is a lovely drive and the deer are always running about so you can’t drive fast I am careful to look out for these graceful creatures. Eventually we are directed into the entrance where we are told to follow the car in front. Great except the young lady in front now had a convoy of around twenty cars following her. I think she must have been on some sort of “medication” as we were going in one field and out the other, a metallic conga of cars through the fields. Yeah like I need this. We eventually park up and walk in to the queue of people waiting to get in. We charged, (OK I charged and pulled my not to impressed wife along with me), to the front. Now we only had to wait three and half hours for the start and we were standing up. The sun was out no need for the coats at the moment. Time dragged until the Lightening Seeds played their acoustic set for forty odd minutes. Then the words “Please Stand By” flashed up on the video wall. Here we go! Blondie walked on stage and Debbie Harry got a massive cheer. It was a brilliant gig and Debbie was on top form and still looks as good as she did all those years ago. I took loads of photos and a few were blurred due to the dancing (by me), the video I took of Atomic I will upload to YouTube on my channel as soon as I can get round to it. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed the gig. Not car related I know but this is a special occasion! In case you’re wondering:

Was I last out of the car park? As good as!

Did it rain – Nope!

Was the wife right saying she needed to wash her hair if she was going out? Yeah!

Blondie’s opening song? One Way Or Another 🙂

The car:

Today was all about rubbing down the front valance again and more filler so nothing much to get excited about. I could take pictures of the work but it will look like it did after the first and second fillers. the only difference is that it is evening out the high and low spots which you can’t really see on a camera. The valance is getting to a point where I can put a primer on to protect it. I will post pictures once I get to that point. I have removed the air-con mounting bracket and sprayed that satin black. Again I will post the pictures once it has had its second coat.