Why is it, that whenever I return from a holiday people ask me whether I have recreated now and am all full of fresh energy and feeling good etc etc? Why do I have the feeling that I am meant to reply "Of course I am, yes of course I do" and mean it? The people who asked me this questions are all friends of mine and their question of course was genuine and friendly and they mean well with me... but this is exactly the type of pressure I tried to avoid during being away. I tried to feel good and enjoy things while being there and not having it in back of my mind that I would have to go back and feel recovered at the end of the 2 weeks. I did not always manage --- to feel good .... and to avoid these thoughts. But I tried. Why are we meant to do so many things with the future in mind? I still have dresses I bought because I liked them and thought I would probably get to wear them one day. Some I still haven't. They have been hanging in my cupboard for over 3 years. I won't give them away because they are beautiful .. and I might wear them one day. Maybe next year. This is not what this mail was going to be about. I meant to tell you all about Benicassim (at least the Belle and Sebastian related stuff) and leave out everything else ..... So here it goes ... I arrived in Barcelona on Wednesday 1st of August... rather tired and hungover already after having spent all night at Munich airport because the last train left my hometown at 8 pm and my flight was due at 7 am. I wasn't even on the passenger list as they had managed to book me as Mr Vanessa Roseline. (Roseline is my middle name and in the passport so it wasn't a big problem) So I got to barcelona and found out I had made a mistake and not properly booked my train ticket which meant an hour-long wait at the station there. I hated it because there were men reading porno magazines wherever I decided to sit down and I had to drag my bloody bag around everywhere I went. Then I spotted Rachel and Dimitra (I recognized Rachel and Dimitras shoes from the picnic photos on Gordons website) but was too shy to talk to them at first and only did so when they were walking past me the second time. Got on the (very much noble) train finally and landed in Benicassim about 2 hours later. Met up with Jordiet at the station (we were sharing a room with two more friends of his for the week of the festival) Olivier arrived the following day .... I think it is nice to meet people in person because it adds to the picture a lot if you hear people's accent and especially the way they laugh. :-) Belle and Sebastian were fab. This was the first time I'd get to see them and I made my way to the venue very early to ensure I'd get a place at the front (which I did very much to the left but still very much front. I took lots of pictures but sadly lost my camera much later that night) I liked most of the Spanish bands that were playing before B&S... except for the fact that the last hour I was very much in agony and had to go to "wash my hands" very urgently as I'd had a bit too much water. That did not stop me from enjoying the show, though....:-) The new songs that got played are excellent I think ... I knew some of them from the Peel session but Wandering Alone and another one (the title has slipped my mind) were new to me and very beautiful I think - I look forward to hearing them again ---- Some people stormed the stage to dance during Legal Man .. I thought of joining them but was too afraid my bladder would not make it. And I am too old for that sort of behaviour anyway ;). So this is it... a lot has been said already and there is not much new I can add and I think I will leave it at that ... v/xxxx -- honestly, normally I am not like that ... but.... http://www.clodia.f2s.com/ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+