Day 9 & 10 – The first weekend

I wake up bout 10ish and get a fire on, what a cool way to start the weekend. I trek through the field to pick Abs and AK up – they’ve come round to visit and check things out. I accidentally smack my head on Abs’ car door and it really hurts. Back at the tipi Abs whips up a superb meal of fish and potatoes over the fire. My Pasta’n’Sauce needs to take a back seat – I’m clearly missing out here.














We talk rubbish and drink beer in front of the fire and there’s a continuous kettle of boiling water in the hearth for tea. I accidentally smack my head on a pole. It’s amazing how the day slips by in this black hole, time completely sucked into the flame. We emerge 8 hours later in the dark in a big effort to make closing time in town.

It’s the first time I’ve been in town for a week, and, looking at the buildings, it strikes me as weird that we all live quite literally on top of each other. We go to Moles club and I accidentally smack my head on a speaker. People all look very clean and have taken time over their hair. I’m still dressed in my tipi gear and get some odd looks from those offended by the smell and possibly the stains. I end up crashing in town, my first night away from the tipi and I really miss it.

During Sunday roast at Bee’s house I accidentally smack my head on an iron girder and I start to get really worried. What’s going on here? Sunday ends with a gig in Frome. Dreadzone do a phenomenally powerful gig (reggae breaks – could you want for anything else?) and we get a proper skank on.

AK drops me at the end of the farm drive and I stumble out clutching a Dreadzone vinyl signed by the entire crew. Good blag. As I climb through Tony and Di’s farm yard to get to the tipi, slightly out of my mind, I have a bit of an outer body experience on the current one. I’m living in a god-damn tipi in the middle of a wood! How cool is that?! Totally weird, and equally fantastic. And all I can think of is how wonderfully kind Tony and Di are being for letting me try this. They are as amazing as this experience. Before I rocked up in a pick-up and asked to try living on their land, they didn’t even know me. I am over-whelmed by the size of their open minds, they restore my faith in people.

I crawl back into the tipi. I discover when you’re pissed enough to wander around in circles a lot the tipi’s a good place to be. I finish by smacking my head on the tripod and that’s the weekend pretty much over.