James has cycled off to Belgium with a photographer, an illustrator and a bass player. The forecast of torrential rain in Bruges didn’t put them off, it’s an adventure, a boys own weekend, albeit a wet one. They have combined tools, toiletries and teabags for minimum weight and even talked about what they were wearing in an effort to look like a breakaway team from the Tour de France … they actually looked more like The Inbetweeners, only quite a bit older … oh well, I’m sure it will be fun!

The other male member of our team is also on an adventure, camping with his wife at Latitude. Fingers crossed for dry weather, let’s hope the BBC have got it all wrong!

Evie is here doing work experience this week. She’s been busying herself  illustrating a story she has written and learning all about the workings of our little graphic design business. Joni Mitchell’s Underneath the Streetlight caught our budding illustrators eye for a great album cover and she has made us all jealous with her Wacom!  So, ladies only today, Belgium buns (in honour), 6 music and an air of lovely tranquility!

What has happened to the great british summer? Global warming seems to be on hold so I’ve packed my flip flops, muscle shirts and speedos back off to the attic. Our good friend Sally Day at T&F has been busy during the festival season having already been to Isle of Wight and Glastonbury this year. Me and glastonbury have a bit of a chequered history.  Last year I watched from the somewhat more predicatble confines of my living room and typically, It was a dry year. I was pantone 363 with envy! So how was 2011? Was it rain, shine or a bit of both? Over to Sally for the lowdown.

Festival buddies. Sally (in the dress) with mate Chiara. Muddy boots just out of shot.

Glastonbury 2011 was all kinds of typical extreme English Weather hauled into one very musical weekend. We had mud slapping on our faces as we braved past the all-embracing crowds then the next day you’ve got the dilemma of which summer dress to best get sunburnt in (no one likes dodgy tan lines!). It was a wonderful weekend of mud splashes, colourful flags, bad-for-you-but-amazing grub and dancing with your hands in the air (like you’ve forgotten all about that job you have). My personal faves were Biffly Clyro, Mumford & Sons and Coldplay. Biffy are always amazing, after seeing them at their not-so-secret gig last year I was very excited to see them on the main stage. Some may say they’ve gone more ‘McFly’ than they really should…but who cares, they sound (and look!) astounding. Who else can pull off a whole head of hair in front of their face singing ‘I am a mountain, I am the sea’. You can tell Simon Neil knows he’s hit the bigtime as he now has the guts to look at the crowd and even swears (!) gone are the days of that shy Scottish lad! Mumford put on a great jig-fest of songs to a rained out crowd, who’d have known an umbrella could be such a useful dancing prop? They sang all their classics from ‘Sigh No More’ to ’Little Lion Man’ and even put in a few new classics (although everyone knows you shouldn’t plug your new album at a festival…talk about tumbleweed!). A Glasto review couldn’t occur without a mention of U2 (or those crushed ‘U pay tax 2’ banners), their epic rock songs and try hard crowd pleasing. They did all the classics from ‘With or without you’ to the ‘Where the streets have no name’. They even controversially covered Coldplay’s classic ‘Yellow’ in their encore. A bit of a mistake the night before they headlined, plus they didn’t even have any fancy yellow streamed lights to support the song..they also kept talking about the moon and aliens which all seemed quite odd! The weekend was an excellent one with great mates, an atmosphere to match and lots of new things to see. The shower beckoned at the end of the weekend though & you do realise that nothing quite beats the shelter of your house and a good old cup of tea! Roll on Glasto 2013!!

Many thanks to Sally for sharing her Glastonbury  with us. We salute you and your muddy boots!

Amy can’t eat anything that contains eggs.
If she does, strange things happen to her.
Have you seen Carry on Screaming?

Say no more.

So on Fridays, when we have our Bigtop treats, we always have to be careful to read the ingredients.
Sometimes Amy misses out on nice things.
This can make her sad.

I’ve just discovered that Co-op doughnuts are vegan.
That should make Amy scream with delight.

But look where their doughnuts are made.
In an area that handles:
Celery, Crustaceans, Fish, Lupin and Molluscs.

Sounds like a recipe for Heston Blumenthal’s porridge.

Frying tonight!