A friend of mine came to stay with me for a few days last week. I met Hayley a couple of years ago at a festival. We are both volunteers with Oxfam’s festival stewarding team. Basically, we work at the festivals (for free) and Oxfam get paid by the festival organisers. One year I personally earned over a thousand pounds for Oxfam on the festival circuit. And not only does it feel good to be earning money for a deserving and hard working charity, I bloody enjoy it too. Stewarding with Oxfam is a whole heap of fun. I’ve met some utterly lovely people though it, people I now consider good friends, such as Hayley. I count myself very lucky to be part of the Oxfamily and I am looking forward to catching up with them all again when the season starts in June. This year I will be doing Download, Glastonbury and Latitude. Maybe more if I’m needed. We shall see. The only thing I know for sure is that I wont be painted blue this year. That was something special…

The great thing about festivaling for me is that I get to do it in comfort. TicToc, my pink passion wagon, provides a (reasonably) warm, dry bed with built in cooking facilities and oodles of storage. Makes it so much easier for someone like me who really struggles to pack light. Tee hee. And she looks fabulous. I am terribly proud of my camper. More so because she was a rust bucket when I bought her ten years ago and whilst the bodywork and mechanics were done professionally, the interior was restored with love and patience by me (with a huge help from my pops). She is, quite frankly, beautiful. It may take a long time to get from A to B, from Nottingham to deepest, darkest Somerset or West Sussex for example, but the journey is always fun. I get countless smiles and a fair few waves everywhere I go. As passengers have commented in the past, you really can’t pick your nose when you’re traveling in a vintage pink and white camper van because there is always somebody looking. That’s half of the fun – sharing her with the world. It’s like driving a magic happy making machine. And I love it.