HW: home and away (Fit the first)

[J Strobridge]

Subtitle: Sublime and ridiculous

It all started when....  well I guess it didn't start, it's always been
going but the announcement read 30,000 see Hawkwind at Festival in
Germany.    Jeez, and I missed it 8-(  - so what can the Great British
Festival scene do I wondered.    Read on gentle reader.

Taxi, taxi - I cried.   How much from here to Langtree?   He looked at
me, looked at the bag, quoted a price more or less in line with what I'd
expected but in the tone of someone who hopes it's going to be refused out
of hand.   I agreed it and his face took on a faintly doomed expression
as I heaved the bag into the back and sat down.  "Langtree?" he asked
faintly.   "Yep - well Stibbs Cross I suppose - it's about a mile south
of Langtree".   "Ah Stibbs Cross" he said with the air of One Who Knows.
I was sortof impressed he'd heard of the place it being a smallish dot
in the midst of not very much else in the acreage that comprises Devon
and sat back.

The countryside rolled past.  Village signs appeared and vanished with
dramatic leaps as the car swerved round impossible bends Fairy Cross,
Priory Cross, Parson's Cross, Another Cross, but no Stibbs Cross and by
now I Was Getting Cross.   Fairy Cross appeared again "this is the one
you want?" muttered the driver - I noticed a sheen of sweat appearing on
his brow.   "No, Stibbs Cross".  I worried a bit and dragged out my
trusty OS with a grid down to the last 1000th of a meter and stared hard
at it around the Langtree area.   Not one single village we had just
passed through could I find - I searched further afield.  Nothing.   I
panicked - where in heck were we???  Timewarp, other universe, the world
outside looked real but who could tell???  "I can't find them" I
admitted finally.   The driver peered at me as if this was no surprise.
"Ah, but I have a map" he announced.   A huge, vast expanse of "The
Whole of the British Isles on One Page" presented itself before me.

I despaired.   I surrendered.  I admitted defeat.  "And where are we?" I
asked plaintively.   He stuck a finger out and pointed at a place
somewhere deep down the western side of Devon.  "There" he said
triumphantly.   I looked for Langtree - surprisingly it showed it - not
surprisingly it was not where his finger was.   "But I need to go there"
I said.   There was a long silence.   "Ah well" he said "then all we
have to do is go this way" tracing a long diagonal through several
improbably small roads "and we'll get straight there".

Devon is one long tunnel of tall hedgerows punctuated by farm gates at
the top of impressively steep hills.   The scenery, when you see it, is
stunning but I still have no idea how we arrived.  Stibbs Cross appeared
and took us both by surprise - not least because there was nothing
there.  "Now where?" he asked (to his eternal credit he had turned off
the meter about an hour ago or the price would have been in hundreds of
pounds by now).  Hell, how did I know?  "Right" I hazarded but even as
we turned I caught a flicker of colour.   "Stop, Stop" I cried.   He
screeched to a halt - with the expression of someone who wished he
hadn't bothered start today at all.   "I saw something" insisting he
turn the car round and go back.   A small fluorescent poster gleamed
from a signpost.   "Summer Daze" it announced.   The grey skies which
had threatened rain throughout the whole journey loomed darker and
lower.  "This is what you're looking for?" he twitched his hands
nervously on the wheel and stared towards the safety of the road home.
I was horribly afraid he was going to take it any minute now.   "Yes,
yes, down here".   I was in charge, we *would* get to the festival....
would we?

To be contd....

jill

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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at tattoo.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk

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