Brean there, done that…
March 25th, 2009The second biggest event on the Plus calendar - held at Brean Leisure Park, near Weston-Super-Mare. Basically a weekend of dancing, bands, parties etc - accommodation is in mobile homes, very plush too!
My official “Plus” report of Brean is on the KL Plus website (www.kingslynnplus.org.uk) so no need to do the “how great it was” etc. bit again, although it truly was great! This is the place to put a more personal perspective on the event.
Friday afternoon was good - I sort of lingered during booking in under the premise of helping out, not sure I contributed much to the booking in, but I always really enjoy the bit where I get to meet people that I haven’t seen for ages, and also in some cases put faces to names and real people to facebook profiles, and its a great time to sit and chat for a while before things get a bit more hectic.
I had offered to be head chef for the weekend for our van, so gave up on booking in to go cook chilli - the smell of the onions cooking seemed to attract people as they passed the caravan, and in the end we had a few more people join us for dinner than originally planned - there was plenty to go around and the company was great. A quick change of clothes and a smudge of make-up (that was just me as I was in a van full of blokes!) and we were ready for the evening do. Some time during the evening I realised that I had forgotten my fan (it was very hot in there and my fan has proved invaluable since I bought it for WASH!) so headed back to the van - in the process managing to lose my balance in my platform boots on an uneven pavement and land on my face on the ground again - ouch!! Result - a twisted ankle, bits of gravel in my hand, and (oh no!!) slight damage to the boots. I did try playing for the sympathy vote with the gravel and blood speckled hand - it only worked for a while though….!!
Saturday evening brought us a great band called “My Immortal” who are an Evanescence tribute band. They were a bit shaky to start with (I gather they are a reasonably new band and were very nervous) but I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the two sets they did. Before I knew they were appearing, I hadn’t previously seriously listended to Evanscence music, but think I’m now hooked! I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing them again some time in the future. Sunday’s band were “The Man from Funkle” who were probably one of the most versatile bands I have seen for a long time, and I am certain all the blokes fancied the female lead singer…
A showing of Kung Foo Panda on sunday afternoon didn’t quite go as smoothly as it could have done, with the result that we don’t actually know what happens at the end of the film! Not to worry, I don’t think it was really my thing, but passed some time quite pleasantly anyway. Before that a Tai Chi lesson - never done it before but rather enjoyed it - would love to do it again next year but don’t think I’ll be taking it up regularly.
The weekend was great - did I say that already?!! The best bits for me apart from an excellent saturday night band were the times I got to chill out - read a book, cook for friends, watch a DVD, wander around the local town centre and drink hot chocolate in the cafe taking refuge on a very windy day! The evening before Brean was very chilled out too - watching a film with a friend, drinking too much red wine, laughing lots, both falling asleep on the sofa under our respective duvets dragged from the bedrooms before the film even ended! Meeting all my friends once again was great - I like my own company, I like to be individual, but sometimes I just need to feel I’m part of something bigger, and the community feeling you get at these events is what makes them so great.
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