It's great to be back home!

Yes, my hair is clean, showers are wonderful and its been great catching up with family and friends. My first day back was spent on the computer loading and naming all my 500+ photos, only to burn them to disk to find the photos had organised themselves in alphabetical order of the names instead of the date they were taken - more challenges with technology!!!



Good Friday - woke up late - 9.30am (5.30am WA) and got ready for the lunch fest at Spanish Viv's (and family) - a gathering of some of my family and the neighbours we grew up with. Keeping in theme with the day, it was fish orientated plus homemade, hot from the oven, hot cross buns. Can anything beat that once a year, (if you do it properly) look forward to, festive food! It was a great time catching up, with lots of laughs. Feeling very replete once lunch was finished, several of us then decamped for Whitianga to attend the Inaugural Bluesfest -festival based on the Byron Bay one in Sydney that was being held at the exact same time. I remembered somewhere near Tairua why I am not a repeat visitor to the area - lots of windy roads, with no passing lanes, lots of traffic etc etc. In saying that, there is movement afoot with passing lanes being constructed as I write so who knows in the future. More food, wine and conviviality then bed. Saturday dawned bright and fine and after a full cooked breakfast, the cars were packed with more food - bacon and egg pie, chicken, salad, apple pie.... off we set for Dakota fields where there were two stages set up, ample parking and a quietly festive atmosphere. Armed with tarpaulin, chairs etc we found a spot mid stage and slightly back and set ourselves up. Sound checks and then to begin on centre stage, Herbs kicked off the day. I had never seen these guys live, and enjoyed the very New Zealand reggae sound. They were followed closely by Midge Marsden - Mr NZ Blues to many. I first heard MM play live around Hamilton Lake around 20yrs ago, and he still has it. The crowd enjoyed the new songs and sang along to some old ones and I thought yay, this is going to be good. However, there were distinct gaps as the day unfolded, and as one critic in the Herald said, it was somewhat misnamed as the Bluesfest when a lot of music was not blues. Luckily I had taken along a book to read, (as did three others of the group heh, heh) so lay in the sun and read through the uninteresting acts.

The next act of note was an Australian guy called Xavier Rudd - an aboriginal guy who blew the crowd away. He played several instruments at once and sang - a very talented musician. Will look for him when I go back. The crowd increased in size as the day went on. Have never seen so many 'old' people out and some scarily bopping up the front of the stage (and then realised, I am not far off that bracket myself, LOL). I recall my head snapping around like a meercat as we approached the grounds and the smell of dope wafting about - which only increased as the day and night wore on. Water was selling at $5 bottle - rip off merchants!!!!! and tickets were being sold for booze - you had to buy $30 worth that gave you 10 cans of beer or spirit mixes - hmm, I wonder how they got round responsible host laws???? (small health and safety commercial LOL). The tickets had said no drink or food could be taken on site but every man and his dog seemed to have chilly bins etc with them. We left ours in the car and went back for a graze late afternoon.


Highlight of the afternoon was Keb Mo - have got a CD of his and again, a master of the blues. I know he has been to NZ several times and he was well received by the crowd. From my point of view many of the other acts were extremely forgettable - KT Tunstall - one or two songs were recognisable, but hardly blues and very samey. The absolute worst was a guy called Ian Brown from a band called Stone Roses (or something like it) who was truely, badly, awful. He had the personality of a plank of wood, and spat on the stage in between chewing the mike belting out unrecognisable lyrics of forgettable songs. There were youth (drunken and stoned) who were bopping away this act but I think the words drunken and stoned probably explained that.

And then the piéce de resistance of the whole fest - Buddy Guy - a man in his 70's who with his band, had the crowd up on their feet rocking his entire set. The man was a consumate performer and totally engaged with his audience. Each time the crowd wound up he would say, wait a minute, sshh, wait a minute, and then go onto something else. His band was brilliant and he did this thing whereby he would play and they would have to follow with their instruments until they ripped into their own solos. This was real Mississippi black, blues. In between, he did take offs of Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Lightning Hopkins, & Hendrix to name a few. He certainly did not disappoint and for me was the highlight of the entire do.

Left early the next day to avoid the traffic today (a wise decision) and back to Waiuku.

Today, went to Pukekohe for a quick visit to the Warehouse - I do miss that store in Oz. Had a bit of a blitz on buying DVD's to take back with me. Managed to find Outrageous Fortune series 2, so am keeping my eyes out for series 1. All very cheap as there was a sale on - my favourite price LOL. Did a peruse through Postie Plus to supplement the meagre wardrobe I bought back and got a few items to carry me through. Scarily, picked up a pair of togs (swimmers/bathers) for $20 so thats 1st stage to get my bronze medallion LOL. The next stage is to get into the pool to see if I can still swim!!!! Watch this space.

Had an interesting night tonight - was guest speaker at the Waiuku Lion's club - Mum and Clive are both members! Felt very at home as a similar format to Rotary and Jaycees and everyone was very welcoming. Had to wing my presentation in the end as I had planned on showing photos and speaking to them but no equipment available on the night but all seemed to go OK. Off to Hamilton in the morning to catch up with friends so will get some shut eye now.

Cheers

Lynn