I did activity 1 which was to go into Imperial’s delicious site and thought it was useful to see the various sites, tags etc. I clicked through onto the virtual world tag out of curiosity and started watching a tour of a hospital ward – but then thought I was getting ahead of myself as we’re doing virtual worlds soon. I think the Web 2.0 tags looked really useful and Learning 2.0 and will be adding some of these to my delicious page when it is properly set-up.

I’ve registered on delicious and have managed to import every bookmark I have ever flagged which looks a bit messy (I seemed to have missed the bit where they give you an option on this) – my next task is to learn how to clean these up a bit and get rid of any that are no use to me any longer. One of the things I like about this the most is the fact that I can access these bookmarks anywhere in the world… too many times I’ve bookmarked a site on my work computer only to forget the exact description or be unable to find it once I get home – this will get around all of those issues – I like!

I’ve added the Imperial Reporter and tagged it, but will give some further thought to the other sites that I would like bookmark – although I do already have all my old imported bookmarks in there already to sort through.

I’m really keen to learn more about flickr – but will have to write some more on that once I’ve had a play.

After checking out the videos in our RSS Activity 1 and also reading the article providing help on choosing between bloglines and google reader – I decided to go for google reader as I already have a gmail account and it seemed to come across as slightly easier to use in the article – which is what you want with new applications really, isn’t it?

So I am now set-up on google reader and have added some feeds related to the Ashes cricket series, Learning 2.0 blog, a wine blog, and a couple of RSS feeds from Wired magazine. I’ve also managed to integrate these into my iGoogle homepage and I have to say I am loving the simplicity of it! I think once I have a play around and find specific feeds as opposed to more general ones (I don’t particularly care what the Canadian cricket team are doing, but have somehow subscribed to a lot in a bid to learn more about the current Ashes series).  So, 2 big thumbs up and I’ll probably blog some more on this once I integrate it with my blog etc. and may even need some help doing this if I can’t find out what I need to do.

We all headed over to the Pyramid stage where Kasabian was playing first and then Bruce Springsteen. I had decided at this point that I would go back to the tent with our mate Paul, we would put the girls to bed and then I would babysit until around midnight (and sleep as well) before then heading out for the morning. This worked really well, I was able to hear most of Kasabian’s set (a good mixture of the old and the new) and also the Boss’ as well. By the time Annette came to relieve me at 11.45 pm, I got dressed up warm (temperature had dropped considerably) and headed out in time to catch Bruce singing ‘Born to run’ – which was fantastic because most of the first part of his performance he was playing new stuff that not many people knew. Headed on from there to Trash City to meet up with mates and we headed in to a crazy assortment of old junk, industrial music and from what I’m told strange clubs. From here we headed into Arcadia and finally Shangri-La which is a real experience. Lots of little clubs and rooms where it’s deemed completely normal for people to wear animal masks and sing karaoke.  We ended up in a bar called the Snake Pit where there were a number of different acts from fire jugglers to war time entertainers singing or re-enacting old classics. You were only admitted if you could show you had a tattoo and as I don’t, I had to buy one for £2 and they applied it for me. After that we generally went exploring and headed into the Club Dada where Africa Express Soundsystem were playing – this is the assortment of African and Western artists brought together by Damon Albarn originally in response to the lack of African artists at Live8 – but it seems like it’s changes and morphs quite often. They were going to play a 3&1/2 hour set and so we stayed for a couple of songs and then continued on. We went on to the Rocket Lounge where we saw the Rotting Hill Gang perform a couple of songs – particularly their catchy version of ‘Londoner’.

This was enough for me for one night and a very full day and as it was heading towards 3am and I knew I’d be up around 6.30 am I thought it best to head home. A thoroughly enjoyable day.

Sunday: I got to sleep in until 6.45 am this morning and considering the little sleep I got (finally getting to bed at 4) I felt surprisingly sprightly. Still though, Annette decided to take Else for a walk and pick up some milk and a coffee for breakfast before coming back, which gave me another half an hour of sleep. A nice breakfast of weetabix and rye bread with babybel cheese and we were ready to tackle packing up the tents. We decided it would be best if the babies weren’t around whilst we did this to get into mischief and so the Annette and Sarah took the girls whilst Paul and I packed up the tents. Doing this and then taking them to the car (even without any food/drink etc to carry) took a while. Paul had also lost their tickets which were needed to get back in and so had to fill out a form as substitute – this all added to the time pressures and so after getting to the car, packing it up and heading back in, we didn’t meet the girls until 1pm. Did I mention it was also very, very hot! We had just enough energy to have some lunch with friends, go and see a cabaret act in the circus field before finally heading off to the car park at around 4ish to avoid the crowds who were hanging around to see Blur that night. We managed to get home at around 8 pm and felt quite smug that we had officially survived our first Glastonbury!

Would we do it again? It looks like we already are as we’ve registered for tickets already for the 40^th birthday celebration next year – tempted to join in? http://www.glastonburyregistration.co.uk/

A quick recap of Glastonbury:

Wednesday: arrived around 4 in the afternoon to find that the Parent field close to our exit was already full and so we had to trek across from the east side of the farm to the west. It was hot, we had two babies who needed feeding and as we were determined to only make one trip from the cars – it was slow going – if there’s a way to get around this in future Glastonbury expeditions – I think we’ll look into it. But… and this is a big but, the atmosphere was electric. It really is like entering a sity with different areas, everyone doing their own thing and this was before anything had even started. Once we arrived at our site and the babies were fed – they were very happy.  Crawling around over all the equipment and helping us unpack things in their own way. One of the reasons our load was so heavy was because I had packed an esky (cooler-box to non-Aussies) with beers and barbeque stuff and I have to say that first cold lager after we sat down was bliss! So the first night ended fairly early after a tiring day and several glasses of red wine. Slept like the dead – until 6.15am the next morning… (I lie, I was woken by a Welsh couple who arrived with their little boy at 3.30 am and had to put their tent up. It was a surprise to open our tent flap in the morning and see a mosntrous tent on our doorstep, but literally every free piece of land was used).

Thursday: Up early thanks to Else – which is actually a blessing in disguise because it means direct access to the toilets and water areas which get absolutely swamped with people by 8 in the morning.  Breakfast and coffee set us up for a morning in the green fieldz which are host by Greenpeace and have a kids area. It was great because it actually started raining quite heavily in the morning and we just played in a geo-dome for the kids – we had left the tent with no waterproofs or wellies.  Lunch at the departure lounge (a protest area against further airport expansion and the airline industry in general). The afternoon was spent exploring different areas and then getting back to the Queen’s Head Stage for Maximo Park (whom we managed to miss because we were back at the tent getting waterproofs) and We Have Band. Fantastic band who just very catchy beats and make you want to move – Else even had a dance on my shoulders with her little pink ear defenders on. As the main acts were all starting properly on Friday and we had mates arriving on Thursday night whom we had to pick up from the bus drop-off we hung around the tent.

Friday: Up early, coffee and a hot shower in the green fieldz because no-one else is up. Brilliant! Then breakfast and back to the tent to give Else her early morning nap. I escaped to catch Mr. Hudson and the Library who were playing at the Other Stage and that was a great way to kick start the day – although they played a lot from their new album which I had not heard. Then off to the Avalon field where I caught up with some mates and watched and 11 piece band called Savannah playing a mixture of African fused with Western music. Then left mates to head to the Kidz Fieldz which are quite amazing. The stewards ask you to turn around and walk through the entrance backwards and upon leaving ask you to leave your smile at the door so that they can be re-used for other visitors. Every conceivable climbing equipment, performance tents, Mamas and Papas restaurant for the parents to have a breather – but due to Else and her mate Grace’s ages – we spent most of the timeinthe storytelling tents where they were absolutely mesmerised by the story tellers (and so was I actually). I was sorry we had to go at one point as I wanted to find out what had happened to the boy who had his belly button stolen by the belly button monster because he didn’t sleep under his covers – thrilling stuff! Now that the kids had had their fun we headed of to see a few bands with them. First up was The View, whom I was really looking forward to seeing, rocky, catchy and with a great Scottish accent that make lyrics sound really cool – but I was thoroughly disappointed. The sound wasn’t great, you couldn’t really hear the lyrics and the music didn’t sound great either. Oh well, next we were moving away from the noise and people with Else up to the park to see Emiliana Torrini. Our mates went to go and see Fleet Foxes – whom I would have liked to see, but I have no regrets. The Park area is amazing and relaxed, Else was instantly more happy with less people. I have this hypothesis that she likes focussing on people’s faces and making them smile rather than dealing with a sea of humanity (much like her Dad really).  Granted we also fed her up there, but she enjoyed making faces at people and dancing to Emiliana Torrini – who was amazing. Great backing band – good music to sit on the grass and chill out to, but also a few rockier no’s that got the crowd moving – and lot’s of little stories between songs. I can’t recommend her highly enough – fabulous!

Then back down to join the others who were now at the Pyramid stage. We got to see about 4/5 songs of Friendly Fires set at the Other Stage and I can highly recommend seeing them live too. Same stage as The View only a few hours later – but a completely different quality of performance. You can’t help but tap your feet and nod your head.

We caught the last couple of songs of Lily Allen – which were catchy and she’s a fun entertainer, but I opted to go and get dinner for the group with Annette – so that I could go to the Queen’s Head Stage and see The Virgins. In the words of my wife, Annette,  who hadn’t heard much of them before “I predict these guys are going to be big”! But get ready to commit to having their songs in your head for days! Smart, funny guys from NYC and great songs. Listen to their album on Spotify. The Specials were brilliant because they have such a long career and so many hits that everyone knew them and could sing along and dance. It was also relaxed enough for us to sit down and have some dinner (Mexican from the Flaming Cactus – hmmmm) and then get up and boogie to the music. We headed back to the tent to hang out and put the girls to sleep and then our mate Sarah (Grace’s mum) volunteered to babysit the girls whilst we went to see Bloc Party – I am so glad she did! They are one of my favourite bands and they didn’t disappoint with song after song to get the crowd jumping and singing along. The lights, the tens of thousands of people, the flags that were being waved around like the start of a battle or a scene from Braveheart – it’s really difficult to describe – you had to be there. But the next best thing is to check them out on BBC Glastonbury website. Utterly brilliant and the highlight of my weekend!

I’ve been reconciling myself to writing a blog and am still convincing myself that to get the most out the Learning 2.0 course, and Glastonbury for that matter, I need to persevere with updating this blog – but it’s difficult when you have always sat firmly on the non-blog writing side of the fence. I’ve always thought that I could be doing much more fun and interesting things in the time it takes to write a blog entry – but it also focuses your thoughts from the day, week, month and allows you to reflect, have some time with your thoughts, vent – as the case may be.

Anyway, on to the music homework… I’ve been finding it difficult to take the time to listen to new music and give it a chance to ‘grow’ on me. Some of my favourite bands and albums were growers. So, whilst sitting firmly in my comfort zone, I can list those bands/artists I’m looking forward to seeing that I already know (and I will warn you that my taste in music has mellowed considerably over the last year out of necessity).

Bloc Party – I’ve seen them live before twice and they are brilliant. I’m just now listening to their most recent album ‘Intimacy’ but my favourite is still their first album -  Silent Alarm. I’m looking forward to The View. Their album ‘Hats Off to the Buskers‘ will have you humming and singing along for days – plus their Dundee accents are brilliant! Bruce Springsteen would be great to see just because he’s The Boss and I’d like to see him live once (but then so will everyone else). The Specials, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kasabian, Mr Hudson & The Library would all be good to see. Finally, Emiliana Torrini - just because she has a great voice and her lyrics are really original – her album Me and Armini is a great to listen to cooking dinner with glass of wine in hand – although it plays well on any occasion…

I know I have missed off loads of ‘essentials’ from lots of different people’s tastes. If you have any recommendations, old or new, that you think I shouldn’t pass up, please leave a comment and give the band and a reason why I should try and see them if I can. I probably won’t get to see half the bands I want to, but I am making an effort to listen to stuff I don’t know about and that I may not listen to normally, so send it through!

New music I have listened to over the weekend that I hadn’t heard before:

Ladyhawke – really liked this album, I reckon it will make me want to dance.

F’d Up – I tried to give these guys a good listen, but I think I may just be going soft. It’s heavy for sure, and I think they might have good lyrics, but it was just too much hard work to concentrate on it over the shouting… hmmm, I’ll see if this changes over the next week and a half.

Ok, I’ll let you know about others, and will work on my adjectives as I’m aware that I’ve used ‘good’ and ‘original’ a little to generously which won’t help you identify if they’re a band you might like or not.

Ok, tomorrow, I’m planning to listen to We Have Band, Florence and The Machine, and Manu Dibango.

If I get a chance, I’ll load up the songs that I particularly like onto a Spotify playlist so that you don’t need to take my word for anything and can listen for yourselves.

Until tomorrow…

There’s been a few festival essentials purchased today, but I’ll write more on that soon, as I’ve got to go – it’s Friday night and I’ve got a glass of red wine with my name on it waiting for me.

Any comments? Are we adventurous or completely bonkers? We’ll find out in 2 weeks. More updates soon!