Alegria or bust

 Farmfest is the most amazing festival. It's very relaxed, I don't think there were more than about 200 people on site at any one time, but during the four days of the festival there was a constant stream of musicians and artists, mostly from London, but with influences from around the globe. What I really like is that there are quite a few younger artists testing themselves out at the festival level and this is a great place to do it because there's no "artists only" enclosure and you are quite likely to be rubbing shoulders with the singer of the headline act at the food counter. So there is a huge interplay between artists and audience, and just as important, between all the different performers. I shouldn't single out any one single performance as they were all so good, but there was a moment on Sunday afternoon that practically everyone I talked to was smitten with. A band called Black Bordello played an absolutely spine expanding cover of David Bowie...

 I surely learned that I do have an awful lot of stuff, even though I live in a single room in a shared House. Getting all the stuff I need for a six month journey into four bags wasn't nearly as difficult as getting all the belongings that I was leaving behind into some state of order. Plus I had to make sure that there was no smelly laundry or forgotten food items that would invite unwelcome microbes and organisms in my absence. But eventually I was able to close the door on it all and I have to say it was a very welcome moment, one I have been dreaming of for a long, long time, and I'm happy to say I was able to do it with a sense of gratitude for the privilege of a comfortable life. Looking around the room before I left, my eyes fell on a sweetie jar that was given to me by my most recent partner in romance, the gorgeous Arunima from Wales. She had filled the jar with little pieces of paper containing proverbs, wisdom messages and love notes. It was a most beautiful gift th...

 My sponsored ride will officially begin on 29th August at the Fundraising Festival of Music, Art and Culture held at Lynsters Farm, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth, Herts This is a public event to which all are welcome and cordially invited. Details of the festival can be found here: https://farmfest.info/

Welcome to this blog which supports my sponsored cycling adventure to North Africa in September 2022. My chosen charity is the Catholic Worker Farm which is run as a women's refuge just west of London. You can visit their website here:  http://www.thecatholicworkerfarm.org/ or watch a documentary video about their work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LScVBL3hcnI&t=135s Founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin during the great depression of the 1930's, the Catholic worker movement has a colourful history of supporting justice and hospitality for those enduring oppression.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Worker_Movement If you would like to sponsor my ride and support the Catholic Worker Farm's valuable work in providing refuge for homeless women and children, please visit:  https://www.collectionpot.com/pot/3017767/  where you will also be able to complete a gift aid declaration to increase the value of your donation by 25% (if you are a UK taxpayer)....

 I'm trying to avoid taking a lot of tech equipment, and hoping to depend entirely on my Fairphone 3 and Google account for connection to the worldwideweb, all photography and videos for the blog. So the quality will be unedited and probably pretty basic. I'll try to make up for it with my notorious eloquence, sartorial wit and humour. So my contact phone number remains the same, and I should be able to pick up emails and text messages as usual. But text messages will cost money to send and receive, so if you want to get in touch with me it's best to use an internet based messaging serice like Whatsapp, Telegram or Messenger. I've got accounts with all three.  The Fairphone is a great piece of kit because apart from being ethically and sustainably sourced in it's manufacture, it's also very serviceable. All the internal modules can allegedly be replaced by the end user (that's me), so in theory I'll never have to throw it away (like Trigger's broom)....