The GGBF and other escapades

Yes, I know there has been little communicative activity of any meaningful sort on the blog lately (the tomahtoes don't seem to have made much of an impression on the general populus).

But this does not mean that we have just been waving handpuppets around to Elvis bumping out of a hi-fi on the streets of Norwich. Oh no. We have been from Sheringham to the Cotswolds to the Great British Beer Festival (sorry, the GBBF is not a long-lost Roald Dahl book), and your correspondent has just been too blasted pooped to write anything about these activities (and it is not like an event is being planned from a distance of 3500 miles or anything).

As an additional pathetic and whiney excuse not to have been writing, I would like to point out that I am co-ordinating 5 people's work travel to North America to begin in a month; between eye-strain headaches and associated grumpiness, the last thing I want to do of an evening is look at my computer screen unless something entertaining (such as an amusing film, or those little patterns when music is playing) is beaming out of it. I am sure you do not understand. But try, just to amuse me.

(AND, i am quite proud of cycling to work almost every day!)

So, to get back to a couple of Saturdays ago (or three, even. Or maybe 4 -- counting is difficult for me because I was not allowed to watch Sesame Street as a child)... the arrival of The Dawn! (readers will recall that The Matthew arrived on the Friday and we attempted to edumacate him on a segment of Norwich history.)

Dawn finally got here no thanks to National Rail timetables (the above train would probably have better managed to get her here on time), and we had time for her to meet some of the nutters with whom we mingle on Saturdays at the church before we headed off as a small herd to mingle with some more nutters at the North Norfolk Beer Festival in Sheringham (this is the one E and I went to last year and had a smashing time watching the steam trains on the Poppy Line and whatnot). Dawn and Matthew made valiant efforts to fit in with the nutters. Let them eat cake, indeed.

The Ugly Dog Skiffle Combo was happily playing again for the Saturday afternoon; the festival has grown so much that they had to move everything onto the central platform!

Yssy attended her first beer festival, and Bear was fortunate enough to meet her.

I managed to incite a visit to the beach (as I tend to do). Spoodle was feeling co-dependent and would not go away from her parentals and new Sissy.

Sea air has the most peculiar effects on some people...


*******
The following weekend, E and I toddled off cross-country to Oxfordshire to help Helene celebrate her 21st (ahem) birthday (after consuming our first two tom-ah-toes for brekky)!

It was an absolutely lovely drive across the middle (although I now agree that Milton Keynes is quite the soulless social construct in Britain). Church Westcote was not on our atlas, but we did find it with the silly SatNav. It is just that when addresses are called things like Gower House Cottage, it takes the art of locating a bit towards the fortune-telling side ('I feel the energy that we should turn right down this little lane....'; and I might add that this was correct).

Helene was marvelously Martha Stewart to feed us all lunch (including an amazing pear tarte) and to let us sit in her garden (next to the manor house) whilst enjoying a view across Oxfordshire. Later on, we skipped (not literally) through the fields to the local pub to enjoy a few Pimm's; some really shady expensive 'art' in the ladies loo; and, later on, some dindins.

The next morning, the five of us remaining went for another ramble. We saw horses (and petted them -- the poor things were covered in flies, and there was absolutely no wind); i took many photos of flowers and butterflies using my still-fascinating macro setting; and we finally saw some Cotswold sheep! They have bangs (or fringe, as the British like to call it.)

Cotswold sheep were brought to Britain by the Romans, and their wool was known as The Golden Fleece. When I have my sheep farm and wool industry....

*******


Last week, we were just mundane and trolled charity shops and bought important things like lamps and wool (yes, I know I have a problem. But wool is lighter than books...).

*******
Finally to arrive at the main part of the title (the part that is not a Roald Dahl title) -- this Friday, we worked the Great British Beer Festival!

It was held all week at Earl's Court in London, but E and I only went down to volunteer for the Friday at the persistent request of Duncan, one of our local CAMRA characters, who is brewery manager for Wolf Brewery by day and just happens to be Chief Steward at the GBBF.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves in for, but we are now completely hooked. We were originally scheduled to work the day shift (from 11a-5p) but after we got there and realised the massiveness of it all (and were prodded by the others), we worked the second shift, too, and worked until 11p (when we got some free ale from the Staff Bar).

The GBBF is the largest festival in Britain, with over 450 ales, ciders and perrys on tap this year -- not to mention the food, the brewerania (new stuff and old stuff related to beer and brewing), the massive stage, and the entire staff area. On Friday alone, there were 17,100 people! May I say that we were tired by 12.30am when we left? Shattered tired. But it was unbelievable fun!

Have you ever seen such a pile o' pork scratchins in all your life? Boar Pie, anyone?

As stewards, we were not allowed to drink while on duty. You can have a quick beer when on break (either at a discount in the main hall, or free at the staff bar upstairs), but since you need a clear head to pay attention to all that you need to, it really is not a good idea -- as well, it would make brain cells tired, which is inadvisable if you are doing a 12-hour voluntary shift.

There are hundreds of volunteers every day -- bartenders, stewards, shop-keepers. Stewards are divided into teams (maybe 9?) with about 6-8 people on each team. For the old hands, everyone has a call signal; my team included Harry Potter, Slayer and Dr. Cameron.

Each team does a one-hour rotation in different parts of the hall which keeps you from getting bored -- from escalator maintenance (keeping people out of where they are no supposed to go) to bag searches, to picking up broken glasses to monitoring the beer parking lot for the smokers, to patrolling different areas of the hall. These are things you are supposed to pay attention to (BUS PATH is the mnemonic):

B= badges (of people going into staff areas)
U= unconscious (people)
S= smokers
P= pickpockets
A= agros (or anti-socials)
T= toilets (and also, team-members -- to make sure they are okay)
H= hazards

There are lots of fun things to see. We saw the Beatles. I saw the Seven Dwarves and two fat blokes dressed as brightly bedecked and generously endowed women. There was a guy in a Viking hat with blonde braids who asked me if I thought he was pretty. When someone drops a glass inside the hall, the 400-or-so people around them all cheer and whoop. Apparently (although this did not happen), there will occasionally be a crowd roar through an entire section of the hall and this indicates a streaker. The man who told me said in a very disappointed voice that 9 times out of 10, it is a man. Big surprise :) I am working on a list of the typical beer festival attendees that one might expect to encounter (e.g., The Hobbit, The Suit, The New Suit, Madam Mimm, and many more) -- keep an eye out for more cultural observation!

My favourite part of the rotation was working in the Tar Pit. This is the area outside the back in a fenced in paved part where the smokers could go. However, smokerswere not allowed to take any beer outside the building, so there had to be a guard on the door (dealing with basically 3-year-olds in adult form) as well as people monitoring the clever beer parking lot, which is one of the most brilliant ideas when you think about it. You find a spot, you put your beverage on the number taped to the table, taking the smaller removeable number with you so's you don't forget due to the rapid decline in those pesky slower brain cells; you go and have your ciggy; then you trade your number for your glass on the way back inside! It is QUITE funny to watch tipsy people trying to pick a number, and then afterwards to find the number matching their card.

And everyone (or 97% of everyone) is cool and polite and relatively nice. CAMRA people rate just quite a bit higher than your average courteousness level. I was on the crew monitoring the front doors from 10.00 to closing time (when 10,000 people were being herded out of the hall by E and his team), and almost everyone said, 'Byeeee', 'Thank you', and 'Have a good night' on their way out.

This is us in our fetching orange shirts after our 12 hours of stewarding. We were unable to go back for Silly Saturday, but I think we will be there for both Funny Friday and Silly Saturday 2009.