Mud, mud, mud
http://blog.rjbudden.com/2011/07/mud-mud-mud.html
It came as a bit of a shock, stepping out of Heathrow terminal 4 into the relentless pouring rain. That combined with the vastly reduced temperature (less than half of that in Dubai), it really drove home the fact that I've started to take the constant sunshine in the Middle East a little bit for granted. I didn't even have a jumper or coat to put on, as I don't actually possess such items in Dubai. Back down to earth with a bump, I picked up a hire car and headed down the M4 to Wiltshire for the start of a two week trip back in the UK.
First up on the itinerary were the final preparations for TJ and Helen's wedding on the Friday, and then the big day itself the following afternoon. Despite feeling considerably more stressed than the groom himself most of the time, I managed to carry out my best man duties to the best of my ability and got him and myself to the end of Saturday afternoon fully intact. After what seemed like months of preparation, my hours of writing and practicing finally culminated in, depending on which table you asked, 7 minutes 30 seconds or 8 minutes 8 seconds of best man's speech. It went down better than I could have hoped really - laughs where there were gags and laughs also where I wasn't expecting - I think that's a good sign?! The whole thing passed in a bit of a blur but I felt a real sense of achievement (and relief) when I finally toasted the couple and sat down. It also meant I could finally relax and enjoy the rest of the evening - I'm proud to say my mate Charlie and I were the last two standing in the hotel bar, long after everyone else had left or headed off for bed. No idea what time it was. The whole wedding was amazing though - congrats again to the happy couple.
Two days of work followed, one of which in London (great to be back there even for just a few hours), followed by the main event: Glastonbury Festival 2011. After much debate we just about managed to squeeze all our gear into Annie's Mini and set off for Somerset at 5:30am, arriving on site in the sun 3 hours later. The minute we stepped out of the cars to start unloading our stuff, the rain started to fall - and didn't stop for hours. Slowly each waterproof item I own was put on until I was fully kitted out in wellies, fleece, cagoule and waterproof trousers - and this is before we'd even started walking from the car park. By the time we reached the campsite and set the tents up, we were pretty soaked through and covered in mud up to the knee. Not a great start.
The weather went from wet to wetter to dry to scorching sunshine by the Sunday, so much so that by Monday people were walking around with sunburn as the wind whipped dust up off the ground. Despite the changing conditions though, the weekend was fantastic. U2 and Coldplay played absolute blinders, with other highlights including Noah and the Whale, Paul Simon and all the goings-on in Shangri La/Trash City. Pretty crazy stuff there and for the second year running I've come away with the sense that it was amazing but can't really remember much about it... So much to see which is the challenge, especially when it takes so long to get around the place trudging through all the mud. Everyone had an awesome time though it seems, and it was great to spend time with my friends from home again, some of which I hadn't seen for quite a while.
Getting home on Monday evening for the first shower in nearly 6 days was great; however the prospect of having to get on a plane exactly 24 hours later and fly overnight back to Dubai really was not. To then have to go straight into the office for a days work was almost too much to take. However the news that Thursday that week was a public holiday in the UAE (the ascension of Prophet Mohammed - that's two days off we've had now thanks to him) was possibly the best thing I'd ever heard. It was just as well too as I spent most of Wednesday struggling to stay awake in front of my computer. The three day weekend was spent mainly sleeping, lounging by the pool and watching Glasto footage back on iPlayer, with a couple cheeky drinks thrown in. Fantastic.
So that's the second of five trips back to the UK done - the next is in only two months time. Hopefully I can take some sunshine with me for that one. In a couple of weeks I will have been living in Dubai for 6 months - where has that time gone?!...
First up on the itinerary were the final preparations for TJ and Helen's wedding on the Friday, and then the big day itself the following afternoon. Despite feeling considerably more stressed than the groom himself most of the time, I managed to carry out my best man duties to the best of my ability and got him and myself to the end of Saturday afternoon fully intact. After what seemed like months of preparation, my hours of writing and practicing finally culminated in, depending on which table you asked, 7 minutes 30 seconds or 8 minutes 8 seconds of best man's speech. It went down better than I could have hoped really - laughs where there were gags and laughs also where I wasn't expecting - I think that's a good sign?! The whole thing passed in a bit of a blur but I felt a real sense of achievement (and relief) when I finally toasted the couple and sat down. It also meant I could finally relax and enjoy the rest of the evening - I'm proud to say my mate Charlie and I were the last two standing in the hotel bar, long after everyone else had left or headed off for bed. No idea what time it was. The whole wedding was amazing though - congrats again to the happy couple.
Two days of work followed, one of which in London (great to be back there even for just a few hours), followed by the main event: Glastonbury Festival 2011. After much debate we just about managed to squeeze all our gear into Annie's Mini and set off for Somerset at 5:30am, arriving on site in the sun 3 hours later. The minute we stepped out of the cars to start unloading our stuff, the rain started to fall - and didn't stop for hours. Slowly each waterproof item I own was put on until I was fully kitted out in wellies, fleece, cagoule and waterproof trousers - and this is before we'd even started walking from the car park. By the time we reached the campsite and set the tents up, we were pretty soaked through and covered in mud up to the knee. Not a great start.
The weather went from wet to wetter to dry to scorching sunshine by the Sunday, so much so that by Monday people were walking around with sunburn as the wind whipped dust up off the ground. Despite the changing conditions though, the weekend was fantastic. U2 and Coldplay played absolute blinders, with other highlights including Noah and the Whale, Paul Simon and all the goings-on in Shangri La/Trash City. Pretty crazy stuff there and for the second year running I've come away with the sense that it was amazing but can't really remember much about it... So much to see which is the challenge, especially when it takes so long to get around the place trudging through all the mud. Everyone had an awesome time though it seems, and it was great to spend time with my friends from home again, some of which I hadn't seen for quite a while.
Getting home on Monday evening for the first shower in nearly 6 days was great; however the prospect of having to get on a plane exactly 24 hours later and fly overnight back to Dubai really was not. To then have to go straight into the office for a days work was almost too much to take. However the news that Thursday that week was a public holiday in the UAE (the ascension of Prophet Mohammed - that's two days off we've had now thanks to him) was possibly the best thing I'd ever heard. It was just as well too as I spent most of Wednesday struggling to stay awake in front of my computer. The three day weekend was spent mainly sleeping, lounging by the pool and watching Glasto footage back on iPlayer, with a couple cheeky drinks thrown in. Fantastic.
So that's the second of five trips back to the UK done - the next is in only two months time. Hopefully I can take some sunshine with me for that one. In a couple of weeks I will have been living in Dubai for 6 months - where has that time gone?!...
