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Published on Sat 25 May 2013

New York was good, though the only really notable event was that we saw Justin Long having a good natured altercation with a pedestrian who walked across in front of him very slowly while he was on his scooter. His face is rounder and less long in real life. There was also some successful shopping. All pretty standard really. Here are some pictures.

 

Just back from the zoo. Animals are great. I know I've said it before but they look just like people in animal suits. Look at this swimming sealion for example.

Or this meerkat

Not so much the anteater, though it did prance around like a drag queen.

Here's some other cool animals.

Colchester Zoo seems a lot bigger than when I used to go there as a child. I used to like it then too, but I don't think there was a land train. I like land trains. Was kind of hoping for a monorail though. One of my favourite bits was the ant display - there's a nest which you can see right into, then a rope that goes over the walkway to a leafy island. They carry such huge things. It reminded me of this film from my childhood, which is surprisingly absent from the internet.

We were meant to have been coming back from Frome today having played there last night, but we got stuck on the M25 for so long that there was no way we were going to make it in time so we gave up and came back. It shouldn't take 4 hours to get to Heathrow. It was the last solo gig I had booked, so I was a bit disappointed. It had aleady been ages.

Last weekend we went to play at the Shepley Spring Festival - a folk festival put on by a village in Yorkshire that Annie was playing at.

It's near Penistone. I wonder if that stops being funny if you live there.

We slightly misjudged how grim the weather was going to be, especially on the first day (I didn't even take a coat) so after our first set of the weekend (in the beer tent, with less than ideal sound and largely ignored by the world in general) we went off to the (incredibly nice) house we were being put up in for a snooze before finding the saltiest noodles in the history of takeaway food from the local takeaway. The roads are quite narrow round there which you would think would mean everyone would be good at driving, but there was a smashed up car outside the Chinese and as we were walking there an old woman drove into a car parked outside a pub. Annie had another set that evening in a church following a brass band and before the winners of last years BBC Young Folk Award. Both were really enjoyable in different ways. Do brass bands always play Dambusters?

The weather was better the next day so we braved the festival site at about lunchtime to see Gren Bartley, who I used to know to talk to from the Folk Club. I think he's left me far behind, but he's very good still. We were playing on the main stage, which was pretty big and exciting. Got to meet Martin Simpson and Flook who are all very nice, but surprisingly short, which isn't something you can say for the introductions to Martin Simpson's songs. Very good at the guitar though!

Bearing in mind there were only 3 acts left I think that they may have overestimated the amount of water required.

Some members of the public broke into the backstage area and tipped over the portaloo - they were trying to scare each other but it got out of hand. And out of toilet. There was a little blue turd on the grass for the whole afternoon. The people in question legged it fairly quickly.