IVFDF 2007 part 3
OK, I'm actually, finally, going to post the third instalment of IVFDF 2007. Sorry it's taken so long, but uni work and then stuff at home (now I'm home for the holidays) kinda got in the way. So here it is.
Woken up Sunday morning at 7.30am by the sports hall staff. We didn't have to leave earlier than the previous day, so quite why they couldn't wait till 8am like they had done the previous day, I don't know. Maybe because Joel took so long Saturday morning...Took a combined effort of various people to get him up (think it was 8.40/8.45 when he was eventually got up). I felt absolutely fine, despite having had only 3 1/2 hours' sleep! We hauled our stuff back to Teviot to dump in the luggage room until the coach came. I was still hobbling [for the record, ankle is still very mildly troublesome, one month on] so James W insisted on carrying some of my stuff.
Some people (Mark, Kayleigh, Naomi and possibly a couple of others) mooched across to the storytelling workshop, but by the time I'd got my breakfast, it was gone 9.30am and the workshop was in a different building, so I joined some of the Exeter lot in Teviot just chilling out (not a very Catminty thing to say, but that's how other people described it). I contemplated the Sword Play workshop, which sounded really good, but as it was a bit of a trek, ankle objected. I went to the Playford one (which was in the mezzanine part of Teviot, adjacent to where FolkSoc people were hanging out and where I'd got my breakfast) - having been to a few Playford balls courtesy of my grandparents when I was growing up, I knew that it was very gentle and the movement was mainly walking/gentle set-and-turn-single steps that my ankle could just about cope with. I enjoyed it. Apparently some ceilidhs are starting to introduce the occasional Playford dance during the ceilidh, as a calming down/respite measure. It's good for the injured, too!!! The guy who was playing the fiddle for the workshop is apparently in the new Pride & Prejudice movie!!
Afterwards, I sat and watched some of the Border workshop, which was in the same place as the Playford one, and was taken by Freaks in the Peaks. For Tinner's Rabbit, they did the sticking to the B music of LNB Polka (the Swine do it to the A music - I should know; I'm the musician!) Jenny, Laura and Andy weren't overly impressed with Freaks' version of Rabbit. I spent the rest of the time chatting with Joanna - a lot of it was about the reps' meeting and how WE GOT IVFDF 2009!!!!!! *lots of bouncing*
It was agreed that we would stay for the first dance of the Survivors' Ceilidh (provided we'd loaded all our stuff onto the coach before it started), so we did. They made the announcement that we'd got 2009 and then said that we were about to go, Sheffield should have gone (despite the fact that they had a much shorter journey than us)... so then we scarpered to the coach - at which point it was discovered that Piggie, Floyd's nephew, had disappeared!!! Not good!!! So any non-Exeter IVFDFers, if you're reading this and know of Piggie's whereabouts, please let us know!!!
So we left Edinburgh, in cloud and rain as we'd arrived, with everyone (both Exeter and Warwick) except for Piggie. There was still quite a bit of energy on the coach, and we had quite a bit of music (though it got a bit disjointed between the front and back lots), and the Warwick accordionist got rather carried away and started up a lot of the tunes; it was difficult for those in the back to start stuff (particularly if you play an instrument that doesn't carry particularly well, like a flute). After a while, though, it settled down and quietened as people fell asleep/dozed. The Firestone teenagers weren't tired, though, and were really loud and screechy and...teenag-girl-ish, I suppose wuld be an accurate way of describing them. They really really annoyed me, though - I was trying to read Dubliners (yes, I did take course reading to IVFDF, and I did get some of it done, amazingly!) - so I swapped places with Nora, who wanted to move further back.
We stopped at Frankly services, to drop Warwick off. Everyone got off and went into the service station for a leg-stretch (Exeter lot). Got back on the coach about 15 minutes later...
And the coach wouldn't move. There were some mechanical, technical discussions going on that I didn't understand (I am an English student!) but the eventual conclusion between the coach drivers and the coach HQ was that the coach HQ would send up another coach from Taunton for us. Which would take an hour and a half. We all decamped (with instruments, for those of us who had them) back into the service station to wait it out.
So, much the bemusement of the staff and few travellers at the service station, Exeter Uni FolkSoc had a ceilidh in the service station!!! We did only get to do the first dance at the Survivors' Ceilidh, so it was only fair, really!! We also did some music and singing. The non-FolkSoc people rather enjoyed it; it brightened up a dull Sunday evening for them!! I think it would be accurate to say we enjoyed ourselves!! I certainly did! We left Frankly at about midnight and arrived back in Exeter at 3am Monday morning!
I bet none of the other unis had a journey back that was this unusual or random!!
In other stuff, I mended about 5 socks while I was watching Doctor Who (which is BACK and excellent as always), and talked to James for a while afterwards (I'd told him that if he rang while Doctor Who was on, I wouldn't answer).
Mum's going over to Hemel tomorrow (to her sister's) to collect Granny W, who'll be spending the next week with us. I have visions for Easter Sunday of a repeat of last year's Easter Sunday when she was here. Bear in mind that the sign language choir, of which I am a member, wear all black with white gloves when we're performing. Last year I came down to breakfast dressed all in black. Granny was absolutely horrified (despite not being particularly religious) that I was wearing black on Easter Sunday!! I did explain why, but she was telling me off again five minutes later (she has pretty much no short-term memory; she is 91, to be fair). I'm sure I'll get the same again this year.
What else has been happening here? Not much. Clarinet practice, watching ER, reading, talking to James, spending lots of time on the computer, general mooching around, contemplating life, the universe and everything, shaking my head in resignation at yet another not-very-wonderful Burnley result as we get drawn further and further into the relegation battle...At least Blackburn lost today, and Exeter won. Orient and Accy lost, though. I'd add that Lancaster lost as well, but that's a given - they're a looooooong way adrift at the bottom of the Conference North (10-point deduction due to entering administration and also because they've lost justy about all of their senior players so they've only got really inexperienced kids).