Coastwalk

Hythe, Kent → Folkestone

Distance: 5.9 miles
Ascent: 73 metres
Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes

Aerial accompaniment
« Lydd | Dover »

I'd intended to spend most of this week walking. Once finished with Greenbelt I should have had four or five clear days. Continuing from Amroth seemed to make sense, since in Cheltenham I was already half-way there; trying to close the West Bay to Sandbanks gap another option. Instead though, I headed to Bolney. Spend some time with Mum, and make good progress on Kent - perhaps getting as far as Margate - was the most attractive plan.

Greenbelt

"You've Been Selected To Be a Featured Artist"

One of the downsides of having a Greenbelt email address is that I receive more than my fair share of spam. But today's email brought a real surprise.

[We] recently visited your website. It is obvious that you have a very dynamic ministry and we feel that your particular ministry would add diversity to our radio broadcasts.

Cool! Someone likes us!

[The station] offers a unique style of programming that combines commercial free music with sermons\bible studies and comedy

Er, OK. I guess that's not a million miles from Greenbelt. The email goes on:

We would like to extend an invitation to you to be one of our featured comedian artists on our network ... We also would feature you in our newsletter that gets distributed weekly to Pastors Worldwide.

Now I'm confused. They think Greenbelt's a comedian? Just how closely did they look at the website? I think I'll pass on the offer.

Still, it raised a chuckle this morning; maybe that was the point.

(This entry was originally posted on the Greenbelt Blog.)

Greenbelt

Final Things

Heading back home, after lending a hand in the GB office, the last day all the staff are there before the festival. Sending out invitations and last-minute passes, compiling a list of phone numbers (how was the festival run before mobiles?), sorting out equipment to take to site, finding old seminars for rebroadcast for GB FM... it was a busy day for me, but I imagine not too out of the ordinary for the staff.

Tomorrow I'll relax -- if the weather holds I'll be reading on the beach -- then on Wednesday I head down to site.

This pattern's familiar to me now; Greenbelt seems so far away, but also frighteningly near. My TODO list is shrinking, I've cleared my email backlog and my lounge floor is peppered with piles of cables, clothes and cameras. It's time.

Only one thing left to do: the compilation tape to accompany the drive down. See you in Cheltenham.

(This entry was originally posted on the Greenbelt Blog.)

Greenbelt

Prelude to a Festival

It seemed like such a good idea six months ago, a great prelude to Greenbelt: help out with the technical bits and pieces on Pip's shows at the EAY 2003 festival in Prague. Indeed it was a great idea: mixing with, working with and learning from people from across Europe. But it was also an overwhelming, exhausting time.

Having flown back on Saturday morning, going out on Sunday night suddenly seemed like a bad idea but I'm so glad I did. Regents Park, at the Open Air Theatre was a much better place to wind down before the full-on Greenbelt experience. Quiet music played loud, the rustling of the trees mingling with Kathryn Williams' acoustic arrangements and whispered vocals. The crowd was so laid-back the support wondered if we were even there. Pure bliss. This is what Sunday evenings were made for. A mug of tea and I'd have been in heaven.

(This entry was originally posted on the Greenbelt Blog.)

Personal

Beautiful

This week I'm staying in Prague at the Masarykova hostel. I think it was named after T.G.Masaryk, who was the President of Czechoslovakia in the 1920s. For a while I've been working through a biography of Masaryk... one sentence in the introduction stands out:

The greatest praise [Masaryk] can give is to call someone "a beautiful person". There is an ancient, classical quality to those words.

And all the time I'm in Prague working with the fella that coined the term BHP.