Coffee Town, Wicca Moon, new crystal and new drum

Today started off in a very social way as Toni, Sam, Emma and I went to Coffee Town for breakfast. Good food, good people and good conversation was a nice chilled way to begin the day.

After breakfast we popped in to Wicca Moon. It was so lovely to see Shirlee and Kim again, we haven't seen them since the wedding. There's only two problems with going to Wicca Moon:
1) trying not to spend a fortune
2) we never want to leave

I was on the lookout for a crystal that will be put on my staff. There were two possibilities but with a little meditation the right crystal chose me. It's really hard to describe and put into words the sort of energy that was flying about but it's absolutely amazing!

AfterWicca Moon we parted ways with Jade and then headed off to Gillingham to pick up a new drum that I had won on eBay. As soon as Toni saw the drum she fell in love with it! The plan had been for me to have the drum but there was no way that I couldn't let Toni have it as they just seemed so suited. So I guess I'll be hunting for a new one! LOL

Here's Toni's new drum!

I fired up the BBQ for dinner with some delicious pork chops and gluten free sausages on offer accompanied by some chips and a lovely greek salad that Toni made.

The day was rounded off with Men In Black, Despicable Me and then The Lone Ranger.

I'll sign off and leave you with Brian May's "Save The Badger" video

Chaos descends on Glitzville!

Our good friend Emma descended on Glitzville this evening and that was peace and quiet out the window! LOL

This was, of course, a prearranged visit and nothing to worry about like the title suggests. We started things off by going to Rishta for dinner where Toni, Emma and I ended up a little tipsy! Sam was there too but doesn't drink so he was less worse for wear. It was a great start to the evening.

As Emma is a fan of musicals we introduced her to Hedwig & The Angry Inch which she thought was mental and thoroughly enjoyed. We then followed up with the musical episode of Scrubs, 'My Musical', and then the musical Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 'Once More, With Feeling'. The funny part was the imposing of a no singing clause on Emma. She loves to sing, but really shouldn't!

In other news, I've started collecting Native American Lego figures. Here's my first two:


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The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones

Tonight we went off to Bexleyheath to see The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones. Set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray, discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother, Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures.

This was an interesting film. I've not read the best-selling books so I went in with an open mind. It's a reasonable supernatural adventure tale with some stunning sets and pretty awesome effects. I did get very grumpy though when the pentagram was misappropriated in its use by the bad guy. The film was full of wonderful runes and symbols so why they had to drag out that old cliche I have no idea. I suspect it was a thinly veiled attempt at making pagans (& witches) appear as though they are always bad/evil.

Having read the book, however, Toni was less than impressed. She summed the film up as a cross between Twilight and Harry Potter. I think that was a little harsh although I can see where she was coming from! You'll have to judge for yourselves.

Magickal focus ritual to protect Britain from fracking

Following a Facebook call from The Dolmen Grove yesterday, Toni and I prepared for a magickal ritual this evening, focusing on the plans for fracking around Britain.

"The Dolmen: The Calling an appropriate song for the on coming days.
At 9pm tomorrow night Grove members every where and anyone else who are half clued up on the issue of Fracking in the UK.
Please take some time to focus your MAGICK.
It will be a long journey but one that must be made if we wish to have an Earth worth living on.
United we shall change the future.
An awareness must be made to the general public everywhere, of the process called Fracking, let us pray the support to oppose this ridiculous process will be of all people who have a natural love and care for this earth.
Fracking will effect everyone regardless of belief or religion, it wont matter how rich or poor you are."

You can hear the song >>>here<<<

We started off with a new incense burner and then warmed up the Tibetan singing bowl and drum.

After a good period of warm up and preparation we headed out to the garden to perform our ritual which was also being performed by our pagan brothers and sisters all across the country. It's quite amazing how much energy two people can create together.

Here's the impromptu altar that we set up in the garden. Its a bit sparse but it did the trick.

A meditation and focus ritual may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things but in conjunction with all the pagan rituals being held at the same time; with all of our energies focusing on strengthening mother earth and changing these dangerous plans for fracking, we feel that we can make a difference.

Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


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Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams day 4

Sadly this was going home day :o(. We managed to wake up a bit later than we had been which was a nice change. We had some breakfast and then it was time to start packing away the tent and loading up The Beast. We had a bit of a problem with wasps hanging around so I made an impromptu incense burner using a bread crust to try and keep them away:

This is always the worst part of camps like this. You meet so many great people and have an amazing time and then the time comes to return back to the real world. We managed to catch up with a few people that we hadn't spoken to yet and exchanged contact details with various folk before we participated in the closing ritual. Once again this was a powerful, high energy affair which left us suitably charged for the days ahead.

We made good time on the way back and I even remembered to get my camera out to take some pics as we passed Stonehenge.

It was an amazing weekend. We met so many great people, had a laugh, channelled some energy, drank lots, sang songs, danced and came back feeling on top of the world. It's a shame that these things have to end but we know that we have made some new friends and will be meeting up again at another camp in the not too distant future!

Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams day 3

Given how late we went to bed last night, today was unsurprisingly not quite such an early start. Full English Breakfast at 8am, courtesy of Poppies. Definitely the way to do it!

Coffee and a chat with the neighbours was followed by a workshop on Spirit Houses, Fetishes & Food For The Gods. The raffle was held shortly afterwards and was followed by an auction to raise funds for the Dolmen Grove land fund, hosted by Taloch. The raffle and auction overran due to much hilarity, chatting and some bidding wars over the oddest items. The auction was meant to end at 12:15 but ran on until 3pm!

Taloch gave a talk late in the afternoon. The subject; Fracking. Something which most of us are concerned about and most of us would stop if we could. The talk included meditation, focusing of energies and banging of drums (or in our case water bottles as we forgot to bring our drum).

The evening began with a dinner of sandwiches to use up some of the food we brought as well as a lovely bowl of stir-fried rice and and Thai chicken provided by the lovely Dawn. 

Festivities began almost immediately after dinner with the opening of more wine and the finishing of the open bottles of mead from last night. A two litre bottle of Somerset scrumpy cider was donated to the cause and so began a nigh of drinking the way we learned not to as teenagers. Much passing of bottles and mixing of drinks ensued, including mead, wine, cider and vodka. It hit the spot pretty quickly until we all had to pause to go to the main tent to watch Pixie Mikey with the rest of Pixiephonics; fun folk songs with clever lyrics which just stay in your head. Particularly this one:

Once again, camp fires were lit around the field and festivities continued late into the night, with a continuation of bad drinking practices, which expanded to include gin and tonic as well as whisky and predictably resulted in terrible jokes, howls of laughter and much messing about until the early hours.

Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams day 2

We had an early start today as tends to happen when we end up camping and are subjected to loads of fresh air. Toni was up making coffee at 6am, which was followed by breakfast of bacon rolls courtesy of Poppies Catering who were accommodating enough to make them using our gluten free rolls.

The day was spent attending some really interesting workshops interspersed with browsing stalls and buying stuff! The talks were all interesting; the first was on plants and harvesting seeds, which resulted in us collecting several packets of seeds which Toni plans on growing next year. Up next was a really interesting talk on Paganism and the Third Reich. Not as sinister as it sounds; the talk was a history lesson on the rise of paganism in pre-war Germany, which was swiftly followed by the rise of the Nazi party and explored why there are alleged connections between the two, as well as exploring the myth that the Nazis were obsessed with the Occult. Last talk of the day was from Prof. Ronald Hutton and was an exploration of why there are Dragon myths throughout the world and where these might have come from. This last talk was accompanied by torrential rain, so it was nice to be in a large waterproof marquee during that.

The evening saw the arrival of new neighbours in a rather wonderful and huge bell tent. They pitched up in front of us in order to be near their friends but as a lucky result, this meant that we all got to know each other very quickly. Tent envy ensued as we got to have a look inside this magnificent beast and we have decided that as we plan on doing much more camping at these festivals, we are going to invest in one ourselves in time for next year.

Entertainment this evening was provided by The Dolmen. We've seen these guys play on several occasions and they are always a lively and energetic treat. Their performance this evening was possibly the best we've seen.

The gig went on quite late into the night and was immediately followed at around 11:30pm by the Fire Ceremony in celebration of Lughnasadh; the festival of the first harvest. After the ceremony, celebrations and loud festivities continued into the small hours, much of which we spent in the company of our new neighbours; Bill, Dawn, CJ, Alan, Mikey (Pixie) and Sophie around a brazier which refused to stay alight and accompanied by bottles of mead and wine and much hilarity.

It was a perfect end to our first full day and as it transpired, we definitely started as we meant to go on.

Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams day 1

Toni and I packed up The Beast with all our camping stuff and headed off to West Knowles in Wiltshire for The Dolmen Grove Tribal Dreams. The journey was sheer hell. It took us hours and hours to get there with most of our time spent on the M25.

As we approached Stonehenge we practically reached a standstill as everyone wanted to catch a look. Can't fault them for that though as it is truly a sight to behold. Sadly my camera was at the back of The Beast but I did manage to grab a few pics on my phone. These aren't great but they are all I have!

We arrived much later than planned and once we had paid our membership and bought tickets we managed to get the tent up just before it got dark. It was nice though as we were right by the music tent so we constructed the tent accompanied by the acoustic sounds of Cliff Carr.

We then wandered off to the food tent for a quick bite to eat. Gluten free bratwurst, chips, mayo and genuine Senf mustard was our dinner! Washed down with some awesome coffee we dined like royalty! We then took in the magickal sounds of Spriggan Mist before retiring to our tent to enjoy a nice glass of wine and chill out.

Elysium

Toni and I continued to make good use of our Cineworld Unlimited cards as we headed to Bexleyheath to catch Elysium. In the year 2154 two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, a government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium. That doesn't stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that if successful will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.


Elysium is a good sci-fi yarn. The plot is good and there are some great visual effects. There are lots of passing nods to various other sci-fi films as it wears a lot of inflences on its sleeve but this doesn't detract from the film at all. It was very nice to see a film that has the bravery to not go with a typical Hollywood ending which gave it major plus points for me. Definitely worth a watch!

Off sick, Judge Dredd and Girl, Interrupted

Was off sick today which wasn't exactly a great deal of fun! We did have a little bit I excitement when Toni wanted to go out and some builders had blocked off our drive with their trucks. Apparently the neighbours had said it was OK as they'd checked with us! LOL Ten minutes she could at least get out.

Thanks to Sam we had to suffer the indignity of watching the dire version of Judge Dredd with Sylvester Stallone. The Year is 2139. The Planet Earth has changed into a virtually uninhabitable place called the "Cursed Earth". All of the Earth's population have crowded into the cities across the planet, now known as "Mega Cities". The crimes in these "Mega cities" became so violent and so powerful, that the regular justice system was powerless to contain, then it collapsed completely. But, a new Justice System came from the ashes, They were 3 justice systems in 1 (Police, Jury and executioner), they were called "Judges". In Mega City 1 (formarly, New York), There was a Judge, named Joseph Dredd, who was the toughest and most stringent Judge in history. One day, he was charged with murder. He was tried and sentenced to life in prison because of it. Then, Dredd found out that it was in fact a person who shares his DNA. Former Judge Rico. Now, Dredd has to find out what Rico is planning to do, and to discover about his past.


There is do much wrong with that film that I don't even know where to start complaining! I'd forgotten just how bad it was! Stallone, helmet off, ABC Warrior, Hershey kissing Dredd... and that's for just for starters with the wrongness of this film.

To wash away the badness of Judge Dredd we finished the night off with Girl, Interrupted. Susanna is rushed to the hospital. Afterwards she discusses this with a psychiatrist. She had been having some delusions. She had also been having an affair with the husband of her parents' friend. The doctor suggests that combining a bottle of aspirin and a bottle of vodka was a suicide attempt. This she denies. He recommends a short period of rest at Claymoore. Claymoore is a private mental hospital full of noisy, crazy people. Georgina is a pathological liar. Polly has been badly scarred by fire. Daisy won't eat in the presence of other people. Lisa is a sociopath, the biggest exasperation for the staff - like Nurse Valerie - and the biggest influence on the other girls in the hospital. Lisa has a history of escapes, so gaining access to personal medical files is not a problem... Susanna's boyfriend Toby is concerned that she seems too comfortable living with her institutionalized friends...


I really like this film. It's quite disturbing in places and was based on the memoirs of the real Susanna Kaysen who spent 18 months in a psychiatric hospital.It challenges our perception of mental illness that's for sure!




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Last.FM listening post

Here's last week's top picks music lovers!

Top weekly tracks:


Top weekly artists:


Overall top tracks:


Overall top artists:

Some time in the glory of a Full Moon

We had planned on attending a Full Moon Ritual in North London tonight but unfortunately Toni wasn't well at all today so that plan was cancelled. We did manage to take some time for quiet reflection under the glorious Full Moon in the back garden though! I managed to snap these wonderful images

Despite my excitement yesterday at managing to get Mountain Lion installed on my laptop I have now had to shoot it and it is no more. Seems that getting the necessary LAN and wi-fi drivers is nigh on impossible so I have now moved back to Windows 7 Ultimate once again. It was a nice thought but it seems Apple are just too specific when it comes to hardware compatibility.