Lost!

When you are in a big crowd, if you are not careful, its easy to get lost and then it can be quite scary. As I was surveying the world from the vantage point of my Cactus, I heard the sound of sobbing and, looking around, I saw a very sad looking creature. At first I though it might be a woolly mammoth, but they don't usually frequent Gloucestershire. Regardless of what he was, I decided to go over to him and see if I could help and dry his tears.


His name was Ollie and that he was part of a herd of very rare Gloucestershire Oxen (obviously with some woolly mammoth genes), who lived at the Cheltenham Racecourse, in a place called the Winged Ox. He had gone out to on to the Racecourse to graze on some nice juicy grass, but with all the people milling around the Racecourse he had got himself lost and couldn't find his way home. Ollie explained that this was not the first time he had got lost when there was a big crowd at the Racecourse. After we had wiped his tears he then went on to tell me that it wasn't only him that got lost, but that his whole family regularly had the same problem. This was the reason that he had a label attached to his neck asking passers by to help him and his family to find their way home.

Fortunately I had a festival guide with me that had a map of the festival and was able to guide him back towards the Winged Ox. We walked together towards his home, but before we got there Ollie suddenly recognised where he was and we bade each other farewell.

Just to make sure that he got safely home I followed from a distance, I then discovered that the Winged Ox contained a bar selling a fine selection of Ales and hosted some very good folk music. So later when I was feeling a thirsty I called at our tent and found Bris, Randolph and Benji who I took to the Winged Ox to have a pint and to listen to the music.

In the Winged Ox we bumped into Ollie and some of his family who bought us a fine pint of one of the local Gloucestershire ales.

Love Gio xxxx

We Didn't Get Speared!!

Our first evening went in a bit of a whirlwind, we started of listening to Brian McLaren talking about the Church unfortunately there was a problem with the electricity and so Brian had to talk using a megaphone.


After that we watched a great mime act and then went into a Yurt for some world music and then to main stage where Bris and I (Gio), danced enthusiastically to Michael Franti and Spearhead (but we didn't get speared - except by the music).




Love Gio, Bris and the Greenbelt Crew xxxx

The Programme is Vast!!!

As soon as the kettle was on, we sat down to study the Greenbelt programme. There is just so much in it that we didn't know where to start. We decided that it was definitely something that would take at least two cups to work out what we wanted to see.


For the first night we decided we wanted to sample a bit of everything, a talk, some drama, and some music. The first in a Yurt and then at the main stage. On the way Yorkie said he was hungry so we had to stop at Johnny Baghdad's to sample some of his finest felafels.

More later

Love the Greenbelt Crew xxxxx

We Have Arrived

Gio and Bris are very excited, as along with Randolph, Benji, George, Yorkie, Chelmer, Rocco, and Rosa they have safely arrived at Cheltenham for Greenbelt.  For Gio its his very first time.  We drove here in pouring rain, but our prayers have been answered and we were able to put up our tent in the dry.

 

After the tent was erected the next job was to put up the Bear flag, so our friends Travelling Moose and T5 Wilber would be able to find us (p.s. which they did!)

 

We then stopped for a well earned cuppa and a pasty for lunch.  It was a good job we had this late though, as there is so much happening this evening, we reckon it's going to be very late before we get a chance to eat again.

 

We'll tell you more soon.

 

Love from Gio, Bris and the Greenbelt Crew xxxxx

When 2 Blogs Meet (it could only happen at Greenbelt!)

We haven't quite finished our Poland adventures, but we've had such great excitement this weekend we simply can't wait to tell you about it.

We've had a fantastic long weekend at Greenbelt, a mega arts festival held at Cheltenham racecourse. We arrived on Friday morning and have only just got back, which just goes to show how much there is to see and do there! We camped under the bear flag which flew proudly for the whole weekend.


Greenbelt is always a special place and one of the highlights of our year, but this year it was even more special than the last 2 years we've been, as we met someone we've been waiting a whole year to meet. Can you guess who? Yes, it was our friend Naughty Bear whose blog we discovered at Greenbelt last year and which was the inspiration for our own blog.

Our regular readers with good memories will recall that we'd seen Bear last year having his picture taken but we'd been too shy to say hello. After reading his blog all year and exchanging emails and comments, he's become a real virtual friend, so when we found out he was coming to Greenbelt 2007 we hoped we'd get a chance to meet.

There are thousands and thousands of people at Greenbelt and we bears are too short to see very far ahead, so keeping an eye out for Bear seemed a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, some things are just meant to be, don't you think, and on Saturday evening we literally passed each other.

We were far from shy this year and rushed up to say hello and introduce ourselves.


And here we all are chatting happily and exchanging bear hugs. It was simply great to meet bear and his nutella gatherer and we had loads to talk about. Having virtual friends is great but meeting them in the fur is even better!

Bear has been doing some great postings about Greenbelt and has lots of photos which capture the spirit of this great festival so well, so have a read of his blog which you can easily reach by using the link to Where's Bear in our friends blog spots section.

We'll report on the rest of the weekend soon.

Lots of love George, Yorkie, Chelmer, Rocco and Bris xxx