Friday 22 June 2012

Valentina vs Glastonbury

Valentina vs Glastonbury

I was all set to book a ticket at the Royal Albert Hall for Valentina Lisitsa - one of the most phenomenal pianists of recent times.  I found my seat, after searching seating online for several hours, and then went to trainline followed by an accomodation search.  Well... £35 for a good seat at the Albert Hall was fine - I'll gladly pay that for Valentina... but when it all added up to about £200 it kinda took the arse out of it, as they say.

A few days later, over a coffee, my good friend Helen mentioned going to Glastonbury and 'not really wanting to go on her own again this year'.  She asked if I'd be interested.  Actually, I had thought about this when she first said she was going a few weeks previously.  Suddenly, it seemed like a good idea; something different.

After returning home, I checked the diary and noticed that one of the days coincided with the Albert hall concert.  However, I decided to inform Helen I would drive her to Glastonbury. 

The initial plan was to go from Sunday to Friday, but when Stuart Wilde announced he was doing some free healing - and then changed his day from Sunday to Saturday, Helen asked if we could go on the way to Glastonbury.  (In the end, we did Saturday morning to Wednesday morning).

I hadn't been sure whether I was too bothered about having any healing, as I generally heal others or myself.  However, it was an opportunity to try something new and meet Stuart Wilde (whom I knew very little about).

I spent a day or two working out what provisions and equipment I would need for the trip, bearing in mind the weather forecast was torrential rain!  Anyway, I loaded up the Jeep and a couple of days later, collected Helen and her things and started the journey south.

We arrived in Simonsbath, found our campsite at the end of a long, one car-width, lane and checked to see if we could stay.  The woman looked at us and said we 'must be mad wanting to camp in this weather', but took our money and directed us to a couple of fields.  For a while, we sat in the Jeep in the battering rain.  However, it did stop for just long enough to get the tents up.  (We had two pop-up tents and I also took a large tarpauline to give additional shelter).

We drove off to Simonsbath's Church of St Luke, found it easily, and continued down to the local Xmoor Forrest Inn.  It was 5.30pm and no one was around.  I guessed the pub would open at around 6pm, so we waited outside in the Jeep.  We entered the pub at 6 and had a drink.  Snippets of overheard conversation suggested other people were waiting to see Stuart Wilde and at about 6.45pm we thought we should go to the church.  However, it transpired that Stuart had been 'kicked out' of using the church and we returned to the pub where they had kindly provided him with a room.  However, we were now waiting in a small queue and then discovered people had ticket numbers!  So now we would have a longer wait as numbers 33 and 34.  It actually turned out okay and also gave Helen an opportunity to be sat near the Inn door when Mark, a friend made on a trip to Findhorn, suddenly came through the door and recognised her.  (In all, Stuart healed about 60 people that evening).

I got on well with Mark and asked if he would take three of my books as a gift for Findhorn.  Although he said he would (and there were three opportunities to give him the books that evening) he promised to meet us in Glastonbury the next day and take them then.  Sadly, he didn't show up.

Today, I thought I'd check up on reviews for Valentina and discovered that her concert had been recorded - so I got to see it after all.

Footnote:
Sadly, Stuart Wilde died on 1 May 2013 (More...)