A song for you dear reader

In celebration that there's only a few days left to vote for me in the best Dad blog competition in the 2011 Gurgle Awards, I thought I'd record a song to implore you to vote for me.

Before you hit the play button, I'd warn you I can't play a musical instrument or indeed sing but that sort of thing has never put me off. Big up to the Boy for lending me his ukulele, not that I gave him much of a choice mind you.

Voting buttons on the right, or you can click here. Watch and enjoy ;)

Praise for Daddacool's first musical number:
"@daddacool you are mental. HTH. (pmsl at the vid)" Nickie72, AKA Typecast
"There are singers and there are songwriters... and then there's @daddacool. He's mental. And very, very funny." Bodfortea
"I wee'd myself a bit! You nut! I thought I was a fruitcake! Check out this video of @daddacool then vote for him, I did! Too funny!" Mediocre Mum

The LEGO Alien Conquest Mothership

There's something about space and Lego that goes together very well and has done for a considerable number of years now. When I was a child in the early 80's we all had our space Lego. The little yellow, white, red and black space men were a part of my childhood.

Take me to your leader

There have been spacey type Lego models since the halcyon days of the 80's but now we've once again got proper space Lego. LEGO Alien Conquest treats you to proper alien spaceships and bright green aliens,along, obviously with the theme of conquest, of an alien nature. So when Lego offered to send me the boy a giant alien spaceship, I said yes without hesitation.

The Lego Mothership is a proper flying saucer, it has a rotating outer ring and even makes non copyrighted flying saucer type noises (I'll bet that the noises will sound very familiar when you hear them). For little hands it's a two handed toy but that's okay, because it flies down and really causes bedlam.

Although it's aged 8-14, younger kids can build it with some good dad assistance. This is of course code for "I'll play with the Lego and you can mill inefficiently around and get in the way." I have to admit our boy has a lot of Lego that isn't particularly age appropriate but as long as I help him build them, he can play for hours with the stuff. The fact it falls to bits with over vigorous play is actually a bonus because in real life things do fall to bits.

This is a big Lego model and if you're looking at something to keep your 9 year old busy on Christmas Day, this will do it. The RRP is £49.99 but you can pick it up for around £35 if you shop around. It's not cheap but you certainly get what you pay for and we've had great fun with it.

Packing, the lad way...

I am in the process of packing for my Shell V Power Network of Champions trip to the Belgium GP at Spa. (You can follow the fun on twitter here, unless you're Sam Burnett and then you can follow the fun and feel a little bit like you're missing out).

The most important part of the packing is making sure I have all the correct gadgets and gizmo's packed. I'm sure I'll remember my clothes and if not, well at least I'll be wearing some.

So far I've made the following list:

• iPhone & cable
• External battery pack for iPhone
• Netbook, charger and spare battery
• Flip Ultra HD
• Samsung camcorder
• Sony e-reader
• Sansa Clip+ MP3 player
• Archos 605 multi-media player
• Samsung point & click camera
• Canon DSLR
• Snowflake portable microphone (want to do some audio boo's)
• 3 Mifi

I would point out that with the exception of the netbook, everything else on that list is two years old or older. I don't buy stuff when it comes out, I tend to wait until it's about to be replaced and then get a bargain. Plus, the DSLR was a present from a mate for doing best man duties and the camcorders were freebies. The thing that's missing is a HP Touchpad though, thanks to all the greedy scalpers that bought half a dozen each to ebay, I wasn't able to bag myself a bargain.

I'm currently toying with whether I should charge up my PSP and take that with me.

The last time I went through customs, on my way out of Italy, they spent 15 minutes going through my hand luggage looking at all the consumer electronics. I evidently only have myself to blame...

Child transportation device, patent pending

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, sneaky advance peek!

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure sort of crept up on me. I was holding a cold beer in one hand and a moaning childs plate of sausage rolls in the other as I struggled with a small child underfoot at the VIP tent at Lollibop.

The portal of power

My eyes alighted on the Wii set up in the corner with an unfamiliar game playing on it with some seemingly random action figures sitting around. Activision are a lot cleverer than that though and Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure isn't just another 3D adventure game with cool characters, it has a real twist. Rather than coming up with likeable characters and then merchandising them like, for example, Roxio have done with Angry Birds, the action figures are integral to the game.

The player controls one of 32 characters, each with a different element, like fire, water and so on that allow different traits to be employed, so for example a water element character would be better for a water based level where a fire character might have problems. So far so normal then but here's the twist: you change character by putting a different action figure on the "Portal of Power", a dais that plugs into your console or PC. 

This is a first in several ways; the action figures genuinely interact with the game you're playing and can be swapped whilst you're playing to bring different characters into play. The figures also very cleverly store data about what the character has done. This data is platform agnostic, so if you're son is playing the game on his Wii and takes his figures round to his Xbox 360 owning friends house, he can pop his figure on the Portal of Power and use his character on a different console!

It's brilliant for developing imagination and roleplaying with kids since the figures are an integral part of the game, rather than being licensed add ons. After a quick play with a few of the figures, I thought they were sturdy enough to withstand the vigour's of little boys, which is just as well given the data carrying capacity of the toys.

The game itself looked very pretty on the Wii, so I can imagine the more powerful consoles and PC version must look very good. The actual mechanics of the gameplay involve navigating your character round a colourful series of magical worlds where they must complete tasks and defeat monsters. It's multiplayer too, so all you have to do is plonk another figure on the Portal of Power and you can join in with your friends in battling the baddies.

A special note must be made of the music too, on further investigation I found out the scores by Hans Zimmer, the famous composer who does film soundtracks like Megamind and Kung Fu Panda. Mr Zimmers involvement, and the fact the story was written by a couple of chaps who worked on Toy Story really underlines the love and care Activision have lavished on this title; it just oozes polish.

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is due for release in mid October. The RRP is to be confirmed but for your money you'll get the game, the Portal of Power and three characters, with the other 29 action figures to be collectable. You wont need all the figures to complete the game but certain characters will unlock cool extras.

You can view the trailer for the game below!

10 things you didn't know about me

behind you!!!

I never* do memes but since I suddenly have a few more followers than I used to, when another dad tagged me in this one, my first thoughts were of solidarity and putting some facts about me out there.

1. I have a terrible memory. For names, faces, times, places and pretty much everything. I can't even remember who tagged me in this meme, and that's after trawling through my @ feed in twitter. The list of things I've forgotten about or got wrong are legion: I've turned up to book group a week early (and had a pint on my own by mistake) as well as completely forgetting about it as well. I've had emails. telephone calls and tweets asking me where I am and I've also had entire conversations for longer than you'd think possible with people who obviously know me but who I have no idea who they are.
2. I don't work in IT. To anyone who works in IT this will be abundantly obvious. I can do a few things on a command line, I've two netbooks with a linux distro on them but I'm an enthusiastic dabbler more than anything. The number of bloggers/tweeters I've met in the flesh who've expressed surprise I'm an accountant rather than something in IT is mind boggling.
3. I've had this blog for over two years now but the first website I created was called ""Swing your Pants". I was at uni up in Lancaster and we did a 2nd year project which included designing a website. I did it on a Mac using a programme called Webweaver in............1994 and yes, I did use the blink tag.
4. Like many people I've written a book. Well most of one, I wrote 70,000 words of a surreal comedy and then got stuck. You can read some extracts from it at my writing blog.
5. Several years BC (before children) I qualified as a BSAC diver. That's scuba to you. And scuba (good  pub quiz fact people) stands for self contained underwater breathing apparatus. I've mostly dived in the UK but did have a jolly pleasant holiday to one of the smaller islands off the coast of Tenerife a few years back. When you're 30m underwater with another 30m of water below you, the feeling of aloneness and quiet is awesome.
6. Until I hit university I was musically naive, my record collection consisted of some chart rubbish, a Dr Who themes CD and some Def Leppard. I got a proper musical education whilst at university and now love music. I'm a big Pink Floyd fan but also love the Who, Led Zepplin and a shed load of other stuff. Currently I'm listening to some Zero 7.
7. My car is a bright yellow W reg Seat Ibiza. I've had it since new and it was really bought as an antidote to having owned two red cars and standing in car parks attempting to unlock entirely the wrong car. People laugh at it and the wife is ashamed to be seen in it but it does the trick. I do so little mileage nowadays it's not worth selling, especially as it needs about twice it's value in work done to it to make it saleable.
8. Before wifey and I bought our first house together I'd never even wielded a screwdriver. Now I've wired up satellite dishes, built sheds, hung wallpaper, wall mounted televisions and more. I'm cacked handed and never tend to get my levels right but I'm enthusiastic :)
9. I once spent the evening eating cat biscuits in the mistaken belief they were German snacks. It was a Eurovision Song Contest party and I didn't notice everyone else was steering clear of them. They weren't too bad if you really must know.
10. I got dysentery on holiday in Morroco once. Poor old wifey had to endure it all first hand as we had a en-suite that was so small I couldn't actually shut the door to the bathroom. We were abandoned by our tour group and left to find our way back to the UK. How I managed to get on a flight without filling my pants will forever be a mystery and our doctor was suitably impressed when we returned.

Well there you have it, if you've lasted this long, those are ten things you've never heard about me before. If you are the person that tagged me in this, let me know and I'll back link to you- sorry I am that useless ;)

If you've now had your fill of me, you can round it off by voting for me in the Gurgles if you wouldn't mind.

*well I've done maybe three in the last two years. That's still not many.

Polar opposites

I read the interesting fallout from this post on Wonderlandblog recently. It's a shame because the underlying story of ultra skinning mannequins is a lot more interesting than the Daily Mails repeated inability to remember to get permission to use photos. As the Guardian shows with this topical piece about a diet book aimed at pre teens, the worry about encouraging eating disorders is at a high. I absolutely love Metropolitan Mums Malnourished Monday where she highlights fashion pushing unhealthy body images.

At the same time though I'm struck by some American statistics, because we follow on from the Americans in pretty much everything a year or two afterwards. The obesity epidemic in America sees the obesity rate in children currently running at between 16 and 33%, triple what they were 30 years ago and 20 years ago the most obese state ran at 19.4% of its population clinically obese, now the best state with the lowest rate of obesity is higher than this at 19.8%. It really is a mixed message, high street displays like the one I photographed in St Albans show models with legs thinner than my arm and even whilst I look at them obese people with arms fatter than my thighs walk past me. I can't reconcile the two, it's beyond me.

Every Dad has the chance to be their kids superhero

unconvincing on so many levels

I don't remember it but I can picture it in my minds eye. When I was little, probably not much old than Fifi's two and a half years, I went through a phase of only eating toast and Marmite and refusing to go to sleep unless my Dad was lying on the bed with me. I don't remember how old I was when I realised he wasn't omnipotent or indestructible, it was certainly before I found out he had cancer but it didn't make that revelation any less shocking.

I suppose it's the lot of a working dad to not be the main disciplinarian and to boot when we go out at the weekends it seems like I'm taking us somewhere cool because I like to do the driving. This means I tend to get shouted at and sent to the naughty step by the kids a lot less than Wifey does. I'm profoundly sorry for this most of the time, other times when I see Fifi trying to get cross with me, bottom lip quivering, I can't help but laugh.

Of a week day I only see the kids for about an hour in the evening (excluding the endless trips upstairs to answer the calls of "Daaaaaaaaaaad") and I usually only see Fifi in the morning as the boy tends to sleep pretty late.

It's too easy to come home either wrapped up in the day or with your mind on things that need to be done before you go to bed but I constantly have to remind myself that these are the few precious years that my kids will think I'm all powerful and feel safe and protected by me if I give them the opportunity to.

Still, it doesn't stop me getting indigestion when I've got to play Lion King or Superheroes after just eating sausage and mash...

Why has my head gone numb?

Those keen readers who actually follow me on twitter too (link to the right people) might vaguely remember that I cut my head open on holiday last month. The cottage that we stayed in at Brancaster Staithe was lovely but did have a bedroom that went into the eaves. I was so careful, I missed the exposed edge every single night until our penultimate one. Then, I bent over to pick up my PJ's, stood up and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the bed with my head in my hands.

I made my way in the dark to the bathroom just as the blood started gushing out of my head wound. Eventually, I managed to staunch the flow and my brother applied a generous dollop of germoline and bandaged me up. Now photographed evidence of a slightly concussed me is available for all and sundry:

who, what, where, when?

The Smurfs Dance Party on Wii- review

I was recently invited to a Smurftastic event but unfortunately couldn't make it. As consolation I was very kindly sent The Smurfs Dance Party on Wii to have some fun with. The Smurfs Dance Party makes a definite change from the norm when it comes to film tie ins. Normally they're woeful 3D adventure games but in this instance Ubisoft have decided to put the Smurfs into their Dance Party franchise.

What this means is a game introduced by Papa Smurf, with clips from the film interspersed throughout and lots of dancing with the Smufs (and Gargamel the wizard) leading the way. If you've ever played any of the Dance Party games you'll have the general idea. There is actually a Dance Party Juniors game that we've got too and that the kids have enjoyed but the Smurfs Dance party is on another level. Its probably the funky animated characters, coupled with the film characters featuring in Happy Meals at the moment but the game kept half a dozen kids entertained for literally hours.

Pappa Smurf is a funky geriatric 

Gurgles 2011

The finalists for this years Gurgle blog awards have been shortlisted and are available on the Gurgle website. I'm proud to be a finalist in the daddy blog category but I'm even more pleased to note there is a dad's category this year.

Obviously in the vast majority of cases, women are the primary carers. I know at least one of the dad's shortlisted bucks this trend but generally I suppose the relatively small number of dad blogs in comparison to mummy blogs reflects this.

I've been parent blogging for well over two years now and the opportunities it's opened for me have been astonishing really. I've been invited to write for the Guardian's Comment is Free on paternity leave, I've interviewed Jo Wiley and I've driven Ferrari's round their private test track in Maranello. But if you've read much of my blog, you'll see the vast majority of my 400+ posts are about the boy and Fifi (she's not really called Fifi you know, that's what her brother called her before he could pronounce her actual name) and they give a great history of what my family have been up to.

Voting opens today at the Gurgles website and I'm going to buck the trend and not ask for you to vote for me. If you want to, that's great but I'd rather you just check out all the dad's blogs and voted. I think it would be ace if the dad's category got as many votes as all the others!

So who else is short-listed? Well...

Garry blogs at Him Up North, I follow him on twitter and often follow musical recommendations. He's Northern (obviously) but I lived in the North of England for 4 years so I don't need a translator. He's dead honest in his writing but also has a cracking sense of humour. I doubt I really need to recommend his blog because it's one of the most popular parent blogs any way :)

The Life and Times of a House Husband is written by Jamie, a fellow Arsenal fan. He's (so far) the only other nominee I've actually met in real life and the phrase "sound as a pound" fits perfectly. He's also a really funny bugger. His latest post, Crime and Punishment, had me reading out chunks to wifey and making notes for future reference.

Daddynatal is Dean's site and is a bit different from the rest of us. Although there is a blog element to his site, the overall theme is educating Dad's about parenthood. Dean is the only fully qualified male Antenatal Educator in the UK, as well as a parent and is passionate about what he does. He's also a friendly so and so and has given me some useful pointers over twitter in the past.

Finally, there's Jonathan's blog, the Daddy Diaries. This is a fairly new blog but don't let that distract you, anyone that joked with his best mate that he was going to call his first born "Pippin Casio", and was believed for any period of time, however short, is well worth taking a gander at.

So there you go, have a shufty, find some new blogs to read and vote for a dad, I'm sure we'll all appreciate the attention :)

The gentle sound of snoring

I've just done my nightly round to make sure everyone is under the covers and asleep. Bunny is with the boy and baby is tucked up in with Fifi.

I'm sure everyone thinks their kids are good looking and I'm no different but there's something special about the innocence of little kids curled up asleep. Our two look so peaceful and sweet when they're asleep, in complete contrast to when they're awake and want to you to interact with them in everything they do (and that includes watching the boy do his wees unfortunately).

So I've left the two little ones gently snoring and returned to our bed where wifey is gently snoring. Night all :)

Getting in some practice for number 3

Some of you may have spotted via wifey's blog that we have number 3 on the way, with a due date of early January 2011. Both our existing kids have taken this on board and have seemingly decided to help acclimatise me to the arrival of a third child.

The boy is often still awake and listless until ten o'clock now, demanding frequent attention, either politely, aggressively or with a lot of sobbing thrown in. Fifi is still up at the crack of dawn but she's now varying this with a 1am wake up and scream as she moves around in bed and gets "lost".

So all in all, I'm getting an interrupted nights kip, book-ended by a late finish and early start. Marvellous practice don't you think?

London Riots

we shall not be cowed

I thank God that we've been able to keep the pictures of the scenes of devastation from our two little kids. I don't feel ready to see the scenes of devastation that are plastered all over the news and the television, so goodness only knows what it's doing to little kids, some of whom if we're to believe the news are witnessing it first hand at the age of seven or eight.

I'm struck by two tweets from a lad I went to University with:

"Too many people blame society for their own poverty of aspiration. Did society make you believe going to school is beneath you?"

followed by:

"I grew up in a poor family that believed in bettering ourselves rather than sinking to thieving and violence."
Grumpyrocker

The culture of failure that has inculcated itself with lads from deprived areas nowadays is at the root of the problems, not politics. I've read Penny Red's widely publicised attempt at politicising what's happen in London and it simply doesn't wash with me.

If your peer group penalises/ostracises you for succeeding academically, the only way you are going to be able to have the uniform that whatever subculture you belong to demands you wear is through hard low paid work or theft.

If it's easier to steal that work honestly, it's not difficult to guess what a lot of people will chose is it?

No, this isn't about politics, it's about envy. Kids are smashing up things because they know can't have them and if they can't have it nobody should. They're stealing things because they can't afford them. Looting a Sony distribution centre or a PC World is never going to be a political statement.

Persil 2in1 with Comfort pass on the love picnics

DJ and mum-of-four Jo Whiley hosts the first ‘Persil Pass on the Love Picnic’ at Camp Bestival this weekend. Mums and kids were encouraged to hold a picnic and bring newly washed soft toys for another child to love - for fun family picnic ideas and more visit Netmums

You might have read my write up of this cracking idea on wifey's blog. Picnic's are a great way of getting soaked in the British summer getting together with your friends and your kids friends for a cheap bit of larking about in the park. The kids can go all feral in a Lord of the Flies manner, and you get to sit down, pull out the plastic wine glasses and have a peaceful drink and a slice of quiche*. Persil 2in1 with Comfort's unique take on this is the soft toy swap- take one of the many soft toys that your child was undoubtedly given at birth/birthdays and has shown no interest whatsoever in and swap it with a teddy from another small child. Because the new soft toy belonged to someone else, it will immediately be the best thing ever, much like the toy snake that the boy gained at Camp Bestival hasn't left his side since then.

If you end up with a surfeit of soft toys, pop them along to your local Oxfam and they will ensure that they are put to good use. Remember to wash them first though, and don't forget, even vomit comes out at 40 degrees :)

*it's well known nobody under 10 will go near quiche. The reason for this is not so well known..

Adopt a rescued animal with the RSPCA

Before we had children I had to prove I was a responsible adult. We did this via the medium of hamsters. I had 6 in total. They all died. Fortunately they all (bar one) died of old age, so I passed the test.

Obi was my first and he was lovely but it was Vader that was my favourite. He was a middle aged rescue hamster, already a little grey around the chops, when he came to us from RSPCA Southridge. Wifey had found and rescued a lovely fluffy flop-eared rabbit that someone had stupidly thought they'd release into our park to run free with it's wild brethen. In reality it was starving and had probably been the victim of rabbit gang rape- pet rabbits are really not equipped for a life in the wild. 


Wifey did a sort of pet swap at the RSPCA rescue centre and returned with Vader. The RSPCA centre dealt with small pets as well as the usual cats and dogs and larger domestic animals, which was great for a hamster lover like me. Of course they checked that we were suitable hamster wranglers before Vader was allowed to leave, like they do for all pets, big or small, but we already had one well loved rodent so they deemed us responsible.

The RSPCA has been caring for sick, abandoned and injured animals since 1824. Today the RSPCA receives an emergency call every 30 seconds – which is more than 1.25 million phone calls a year. Every day the RSPCA responds to around 1,000 incidents a day, rescuing, caring for and re-homing animals that have been trapped, abandoned or hurt whether it’s 2pm or 2am. What’s more, the RSPCA is funded entirely by voluntary donations, so engaging the public in the work that is undertaken and gaining their support is key.

Although we didn't need to do it in the instance of Vader, you can search online for animals to adopt on the RSPCA website. When we dallied with the idea of getting a cat, they were very helpful, telling us the age of cat suitable for a family with kids, and pointing us at specific cats that came from a family environment, even if in the end we decided against it (wifey said looking after me, two children AND a cat might be a step too far).

Once Vader escaped from his ball and instead of going to ground, he waddled into the sitting room and sat in the middle of the floor until I picked him up. All he wanted was to be loved, he didn't understand why he was in a rescue centre, and most of the animals there don't either.

Ubisoft's Summer Beach Spectacular

A couple of weeks I was lucky enough to attend a Ubisoft event during which I got to spend some quality hands-on time with Ubisofts forthcoming titles. Unfortunately, a weeks holiday and then Camp Bestival got in the way of me sharing my thoughts. Fortunately I'm doing it now- hurrah for me!

Gaming has been a passion of mine that got put on the backburner when we had kids- too much to do all the time and so on but as the boy creeps towards an age where he'll be able to be soundly thrashed at all manner of games, my interest is slowly returning.

Ubisoft have a veritable smorgasbord of titles due out over the next few months. I got to play a lot of them, some were not really my cup of tea but some were right up my street and I absolutely loved them. I'll give you a quick run down of some of the more enjoyable ones.

Rayman Origins - PS3

At an event that also showcased the new Assassin's Creed game, Tintin in 3D and Driver, it’s odd that the most spectacular game from a visual perspective was Rayman Origins. The gorgeous graphics are seamlessly animated and backed up by proper platforming action too. Fortunately it’s no stroll in the park either, although some clever multiplayer mechanics ensure that if there is more than one player, dying is something that can be avoided for a fair proportion of the time. When your character is pranged, he inflates and drifts around the screen, eventually popping and dying. If the other player can land a well placed punch before you pop, you’re resurrected.

The levels on display encompassed lush jungles and pesky bat-filled pyramids, the former showcasing the jumping and swinging mechanics, whilst the latter really showed off the lighting and some of the more strategic play. Whether it was too many cocktails or a lack of recent platform gaming, the pyramid level seemed jolly hard. Basically the player has to hit a series of gongs in order to get a torch that gradually diminishes, allowing the killer bats to get closer and closer, making it a madcap dash across the levels, with limited visibility to boot. Great fun all in all and probably the highlight of the Ubisoft show.




From Dust - Xbox 360

If the chap from Ubisoft was tired of hearing people tell him that From Dust is very reminiscent of Populous, the Promised Lands, then he didn’t show it. Apart from maybe that tick in the corner of his left eye. Graphically the game is incredibly lush - you can see for yourself below. Meanwhile, playing the game itself quickly dispels any concerns over whether there is enough to do and whether a game controller is up to the job that everyone got so proficient doing with a mouse. The left trigger picks up matter, the right one sets it down. The right bumper zooms in and out, the right stick rotates and the left stick moves you about. And that is about that, wonderfully simple really.

I spent a good ten minutes trying to break the in-game logic by completely ignoring my tribe and trying to extinguish a volcano by diverting a waterfall into the Caldera. I’m convinced I could have made it work too if it hadn’t been for the queue forming behind me. It’s a game that really encourages dicking about too, it looks nice enough that you sort of want to drop a huge ball of water onto your tribe's long established village, just to see the huts sink back into the ground.

Priced at 800 MS points, this is going to be the must have downloadable game of the year and it is really completely baffling that nobody has done this sort of game already. And you know what? It's out now which should hopefully have you scuttling off to your Xboxes right this minute.



The four big games that will probably garner the most attention are Farcry 3, Assassins Creed 3, the latest instalment in the Driver series and the brand spanking new Ghost Recon game. I think these are gearing up to be great fun but look mostly evolutionary not revolutionary, even if Farcry 3 looks quite frankly astonishing. As a Dad though, I don't think I'll have the spare time to sink into them to get the most out of them, even if the weapon design part of Ghost Recon (that uses the Kinect motion controller brilliantly) looks ace.

No, for me its good old fashioned platformers and "God" games, and that's the sort of stuff the 4 year old will definitely begin his induction into gaming with (if I can ever prise the Mario Kart steering wheel out of his hands at any rate).

Besting it up at Camp Bestival

Are you this man? You are a berk if you are

Last weekend saw my first proper camping trip with the boy. It also saw us at Camp Bestival where we hooked up with Kat & Dan and Claire.

We had great fun pitching our tent (less fun getting to the camp site from the car park but I made it in the end) and having what the lad referred to as mid-time feasts during the night. In between all this we had time to see a few bands play. Admittedly the boy did think that Deborah Harry was a man but that was more to do with her suit than her manly build. Honest.

The lad spent most of the weekend on my shoulders, wee'ing into plastic bottles when caught short and stuffing his chops at the River Cottage Canteen. (Lamb burger if you must know).

The festival is quite kid friendly, although it didn't stop the berk to the right sitting 2 inches in front of the boy when the punch & judy show began. I asked him to move and he must have shuffled over by at least two inches. Still, other than that everyone was pretty great.

main stage action at night

When pressed on his return for his very favourite moment, it didn't involve Groove Armada, Newton Faulkner, The Wonderstuff, Blondie, Eliza Doolittle or any other band. Oh no, it involved putting up a tent, taking down a tent, having midnight feasts and yes, wee'ing into a bottle.