Sunday saw us descend en masse to Hatfield House for their sixth annual Folk by the Oak music festival. Wifey had been preparing for it well, we’d had Lau and Kate Rusby on Spotify for a few days to get to know some of the songs a bit. The weather was gloriously hot and the festival worked well in terms of logistics- the car park was close to the action and there were as many portaloos as you get at the V Festival with a fraction of the number of people.
Pretty much everybody turned up with camping chairs, something we’d look to do if we go again because it did obscure the view a bit if you were sitting on a picnic blanket. Inevitably some idiot came and sat in front of us and pitched a tent(!) there. We didn’t mind too much because by that point we were all getting a bit hot so decided to move to the shade for a bit.
The folk was extremely relaxing, helped no doubt by a temperature in the 30’s and the close proximity of a mobile bar run by Tring Brewery. Things only started heating up late into the day when the boy decided to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Bruce Lee’s death by attempting to kick my lower leg off. I was chatting quietly to wifey as Kate Rusby told us it had been wet and miserable up North earlier in the day. She was apparently just about to tell me she’d spotted out GP a few feet away sitting on the grass, when I felt a hot searing pain in the back of my knee. The boy had taken a considerable run up and launched a flying karate kick on the back on my leg and caught me on the back of my knee. My leg buckled and I fell over on my wallet, which was in my front pocket, immediately giving myself a dead leg. My knee felt on fire and I let out a bellow of surprise and pain.
The bellow of surprise and pain was loud enough to make all three kids burst into tears immediately. About 200 hundred people turned round from enjoying the folk stylings of Kate Rusby to see 6 St John’s Ambulance people charging towards me and a group of screaming small children from their tent that was only about 50 metres away. Ice packs were applied, oxygen offered, toes were wiggled and joints were prodded. Nothing broken and I managed to limp over to their tent about ten minutes later to fill in the paperwork. Asked if I had any allergies, I replied “small children” which got a chuckle but secretly I think they were disappointed to not get to use the stretcher.
Up to this point the day had been idyllic. We’re off to Nozstock this weekend, and the day had been a good opportunity to test the kids ear defenders out that I’d recently bought. Danger had enjoyed himself tremendously dancing, and the bigger two had loved being outdoors all afternoon.
I feel guilty for making a fuss but truth be told, my back aches like hell today and my leg is all bruised, so I’m fairly sure I didn’t overreact. And of course the boy is definitely the villain of the piece…